What’s the Price of Free?

June 23, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

A common content creation practice involves going to industry influencers to ask them to contribute their thoughts on specific topics that are prettied up and pulled together into an e-book, a Slideshare presentation or maybe a video. The intent of said content vehicles is to amplify the companies message, increase interest and demand, as well as generate leads. The strategy does work. I’ve contributed many times to various campaigns through the years, and I hear from the project organizers about the positive lift that the company gained in new lead opportunities to pursue.

But, what do the expert contributors receive in return? For the most part, exposure.

I contribute my expertise, which evidently these companies see as valuable or they wouldn’t ask me and others to contribute our knowledge, but what they offer us in exchange for our contributions is exposure. Oh, it sounds good when the company says they will get your name in front of thousands of people on their list, but the problem with exposure is this… exposure doesn’t pay the bills. There’s also no way of predicting if anyone consuming the content will even try to connect with you to learn more.

That doesn’t mean that exposure isn’t valuable, especially if you are in the early stages of making a name for yourself. At a certain point, though, the exchange should have a lot more value for both sides. I will still make a choice now and again to contribute something without being paid, but only if I’m receiving something else of value that I know makes the investment of my time worth it.

The content is ready, please market to your networks. For free.

As part of the content strategy I’ve described, once the publication is finished, the second ask is for everyone who contributed to the project to market the piece for FREE to their networks. Now the value exchange has become more lopsided. I’ve contributed my advice for free, and now I’m marketing the content for free.

Time has a dollar value.

And that lopsided equation becomes bigger when you factor in the time it takes to write something each time a company asks you to contribute your expertise. Answering your topic questions, writing a blog post, giving you a quote – these things take time. Once the publication is ready, it takes time to cue up and share with my networks or through my newsletter. You might be asking, why to bother sharing the content. Good question. It must have something to do with our human psychology. I suppose because we are “featured” in the content, we naturally want people to know about it.

In only one recent circumstance, has anyone asking for my free advice, free time and free marketing, offered to give me something of higher value than exposure. This one company offered, in exchange for my support, to give me the list of names they collect when running the content campaign. Now, that’s something that makes the exchange much more palatable. More than receiving exposure, I want to be able to actively engage with the people who downloaded the eBook, blog post or white paper I contributed my time to help create.

In the past year, I’ve been saying no more than yes to these requests. More and more of my colleagues are also pushing back. They either say no, present their fee schedule or ask for the list. In other words, we need to earn something for our investment of time.

Pushing back has generated some interesting but not altogether surprising results.

Recently, I had an exchange with the CEO of a technology start-up who approached me – a stranger I might add – and asked me to write a blog post about his company’s technology and then link it back to their website. My audience is his target market and he believed they would be interested in his product. After briefly reviewing his website to learn more, I said I would help him and presented my fee. I told him that I receive too many requests for free, and there must be something in it for me too. A fair request, as far as I’m concerned. His answer was that just like I didn’t believe in doing the work for free, which he said he understood, he also didn’t believe in paying to advertise his product. Wait. What?

Another request came from a marketer who wanted me to contribute to their eBook. I asked if they paid for the contribution or were they providing the contributors a copy of the list of people who registered to download the gated content. No. They don’t pay fees. And, they can’t give the list to contributors because of their email policy that they don’t share emails.

Here’s the problem with all these FREE requests.

It isn’t an equal exchange of value and that’s not cool. When I contribute my expertise to your lead generation projects, I’m helping you put leads in your sales funnel but what are you doing for me beyond giving me exposure? I know this is a common marketing practice, and I think it needs to stop. If you want experts to lend credibility to your projects, projects that you are using to generate leads for your company’s products, you should be willing to give something in return that has tangible value beyond exposure. Free doesn’t cut it!

Why Partner Leads Are My Favorite with Jen Spencer, Allbound

May 24, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

In this Women in Sales Leadership segment, I talked with Jen Spencer, VP of Sales and Marketing at Allbound about building partner relationships that drive revenue.

As a kicking off point, we talked about how Jen got started in sales and what she loves about the profession. Then we discussed:

Jen’s recommendations for engaging channel partner sales reps to drive qualified sales leads.

Some of the most common challenges sales teams face when the company sells both directly and indirectly.

The revenue benefits of building out a partner program and strategies for making that happen.

Finally, Jen shared her advice for women in sales who would like to move up in the leadership ranks, but aren’t exactly sure how to get started.

This episode is sponsored by Hubspot.

Don’t miss out HubSpot’s annual sales event – Inbound Sales Day – on June 6th! 30 leading sales experts will be sharing their knowledge and expertise. Register now for FREE at hubspot.com/inbound-sales-day

About Jen:

Jen is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Phoenix-based Allbound, an easy-to-use SaaS platform that helps companies accelerate recurring revenue with channel partners. Jen subscribes to the notion that “we’re all in this together,” and great communication leads to great partnership. She loves animals, technology, the arts, and really good Scotch.

Connect with Jen on LinkedIn and Twitter

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Value Propositions that Sell with Lisa Dennis

March 29, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Being able to clearly communicate value to potential buyers is a real art and a key opportunity for you to differentiate yourself from your competitors. In this episode, I talk to Lisa Dennis of Knowledgence Associates about:

How value propositions are important to both marketing and sales people – and why this topic led Lisa to write her book.

Lisa’s primary research on value propositions and what she found.

The differences between the value props salespeople use versus what marketing uses.

The top 3 ways to make a value proposition really “speak” to a buyer.

The most important thing to consider as a marketer or salesperson when developing or upgrading a value proposition.

Enjoy the interview!

About Lisa:

Lisa Dennis who is President of Knowledgence Associates, brings to the table over thirty years of marketing and sales experience as both a practitioner and a consultant. The core focus of her business is to help clients to “see the world through their customers’ eyes.” She has consulted to companies like Citrix, CSC, Dell, FedEx, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Verizon, Wipro and many others.

She is co-author of the book 360 Degrees of the Customer: Strategies & Tactics for Marketing, Sales and Service. Her new book: Value Propositions that Sell: Turning Your Message into a Magnet that Attracts Buyers is due out in the Spring 2017.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/knowledgence
Twitter: www.twitter.com/knowledgence
www.knowledgence.com

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Executing with Excellence with Steven Rosen

January 18, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

I talked with Steven Rosen at STAR Results about executing with excellence. Steven shares his perspective on what it will take to be successful in 2017. We also discussed the biggest challenge companies face in terms of Strategy and execution, what the research says about business execution, why companies struggle and what companies can do to improve execution against their goals.

About Steven Rosen:

Steven Rosen, MBA and the founder of STAR Results, a leading sales management training and leadership coaching Company. He is the author of 52 Sales Management Tips – The Sales Manager’s Success Guide. Steven has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Sales Influencers.

LinkedIn Twitter https://www.starresults.com/

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The Disconnect Between Social Media Spend and Business Impact

August 30, 2016 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment

With spend on social media channels expected to increase to a 20.9 percent share of marketing budgets in the next five years, according to a recent CMO Survey, the big question is if that spend investment is translating into an increase in overall business performance? The answer appears to be not so much. In a C-Suite Study conducted by IBM, they reported that almost half of Chief Marketing Officers feel that they – and their teams – still aren’t fully prepared to meet the challenges of operating in social media channels.

If CMO’s aren’t feeling that their teams are fully prepared to deliver on corporate objectives, what could be getting in the way?

There is no clearly defined social media strategy that aligns with core business objectives. With no formalized social media strategy in place, you leave your social media teams flying solo without a clear connection back to overall corporate business goals. In the Harvard Business Review article, Fix Your Social Media Strategy by Taking It Back to Basics, they mention that a Google search provides 140 million results for “social media marketing tips,” but no matter how many headlines promise it, there is no one-size-fits-all social media strategy. Tips, instead of a clearly defined strategy, won’t cut it if you want to see real results.Though the marketing team may be taking the lead on the creation of the social media strategy, the company’s social media efforts need to impact sales opportunities and revenue also. Don’t leave this important business strategy to marketing alone.

There is a gap between social media activity and business performance. It is important to link your sales and marketing goals to social media KPIs. Buzz, clicks, likes and followers are good initial gauges of social media marketing success, but long-term success requires that you go much deeper. Ultimately, social media activity needs to demonstrate how the effort led to improvement in revenue outcomes, either in qualified leads to nurture, new customer acquisition or retention.

The team doesn’t have the right balance of expertise. Don’t assume that young 20 something is the right person to drive your social media strategy. They may understand the inner workings of Twitter or Snapchat, but that doesn’t mean they understand how to apply social activity to core business objectives. Make sure your team includes people who understand the technology and have solid business experience. You need both!

All data sources are not being integrated. Be sure that you’ve built a plan that includes the seamless integration of social media data with other types of customer information, such as the data that comes from sales, purchasing, social media, and other communication channels. Though you might be able to source potential sales leads via Twitter, how is that information then integrated back into marketing’s lead nurture process or the sales CRM system for follow-up and tracking?

Lack of cross-functional skill and leadership stymies success. Today’s marketing leaders must be adept at traditional marketing strategies, and they also need to be proficient in the use and understanding of how new technologies impact their efforts. I believe this applies to sales leaders as well. Reaching buyers through the traditional avenues of phone calls (rarely answered) and emails (often ignored) mean that everyone in sales is using the appropriate social media channels to engage buyers in advance of clearly defined sales opportunities.

Investing in social media marketing and social selling strategies is important and must continue. Buyer behavior is the key factor driving the importance of engaging prospects and customers on multiple channels. To justify that investment, though, also means that your social media/social selling strategy goes beyond the surface indicators of success and aligns to key business drivers like new customer acquisition, revenue growth, and customer retention.

Sales Messaging and the Sales Experience

July 7, 2016 By Barbara Giamanco 2 Comments

“The greatest inhibitor to sales effectiveness is the inability to communicate a value message.” – SiriusDecisions

Sales organizations make huge investments in hiring salespeople, getting them upskilled and productive quickly, implementing sales enablement and technology solutions, but when it comes to focusing on the quality of activities that create the sales experience from the very first touchpoint onward, there is a gap. A pretty big one. I’m talking about the sales message that is delivered either through email or phone calls.

Automation has made it easy to crank out large numbers of emails each day, and often this is where salespeople start when they are pursuing their target list of buyers. Probably for a very obvious reason. Someone ignoring your email feels less like personal rejection than when making the phone calls. Still, most sales leaders tend to have a KPI (key performance indicator) that measures the number of phone calls made, in addition to the number of emails sent. And, I’ll just say right now that I think the focus on these two measurements as sales performance indicators is off base. Here’s why.

What does it matter if I call 100 people each day if this activity doesn’t result in a higher percentage of booked sales meetings? The answer is pretty simple. It doesn’t make sense.

If you are a salesperson who knows your sales performance is largely measured on calls made and emails sent, you’ll likely do whatever you have to do to hit those numbers. You may have checked the KPI boxes, but what you end up with is a lot of activity that wasn’t very effective.

On Dave Kurlan’s Blog, Understanding the Sales Force, I read a recent post of his that makes it clear that salespeople are having a difficult time bypassing gatekeepers and getting to the decision makers. His research indicates that when salespeople do not begin with procurement, they can only get through the gatekeepers to decision makers 13% of the time. But Dave filtered his research data even further to focus on salespeople brand new to sales and that percentage drops to 1%. Though it isn’t the subject of today’s post, ponder for a moment that many of the salespeople hired for Sales Development or Business Development Roles are brand new to selling. They are expected to reach decision makers and set up the appointment for the account executive, but they get through to the targeted person 1% of the time.

When salespeople are making all those dials and sending all those emails, why aren’t sales leaders evaluating more carefully when the activity isn’t converting to actual sales conversations. Though I don’t have hard research data to back it up, my observations suggest that what happens is that sales reps are just asked to do more. Doing more of the same, however, isn’t going to lead to a better outcome. In Cracking the Sales Management Code, authors Jason Jordon and Michelle Vazzana tell us that “success is no longer found in making enough sales calls to reach your quota. That is a trial and error marathon that you may or may not win. Success is now found in making the right sales calls to achieve the right Sales Objectives to reach your quota – a quicker and more predictable path to the winner’s circle.”

The big problem isn’t the activity itself. Instead, it is the quality of the activity. Poorly conceived subject lines. Messages that do not contain an ounce of value for the target buyer. Messages that include gimmicks to get attention. Sales emails and phone calls more often than not are sender oriented, and usually include a mix of look how great we are and a laundry list of features. Survey after survey confirms that buyers say these messages do not engage them. Rather than standing out, the salesperson’s message goes in the delete pile with everyone else’s. But, the cycle of poorly constructed sales messaging rages on.

Throughout the course of the sales experience lifecycle, many things can go wrong but if you can’t even get on first base, where do you go? What salespeople say in the first interaction with a potential buyer is critical to moving from touch to sales conversation. Maybe it’s time to stop wasting the opportunity!

Does Your Sales Message Scream Value?

November 30, 2015 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

According to an eBook on Expert Prospecting Tips from Witty Parrot, one in every two B2B salespeople are left to their own devices to generate leads, which creates a bit of a problem since buyers easily block their prospecting efforts. It is time for salespeople to look in the mirror and accept that there is a reason why this is happening.

“According to sales management, the salesperson’s ability or inability to communicate value messages is the biggest inhibitor keeping salespeople from achieving quota.”–SiriusDecisions

Can you really blame buyer’s resistance to dealing with salespeople? Their experience is, more often than not, a waste of their precious time. The inability to create a value message is at the heart of this problem. Feature dumps don’t cut it, and simply making more phone calls, sending more spam emails, or broadcasting your pitch to more people on social channels aren’t helping you. Your sales messaging has to change.

Today’s traditional sales approach is to broadcast communication that is nothing more than vendor centric sales pitches. That broadcast could be via the phone, email, social networks or during the sales call. Rather than breaking through the competitive noise and generating a return on effort, poorly crafted sales messages earn salespeople a place in the delete pile. Worse, they are doing harm to their professional brand and that of their company. You have one shot at making a good first impression throughout every stage of the sales process. Why wouldn’t you want to make it count?

Don’t do this!

Here is an example of an email I received recently that illustrates my point. It completely misses the mark, and frankly, I can’t imagine any decision maker agreeing to a sales meeting after reading it. Let’s see what you think.

“Good Day!

XYZ Services is a technology services company which provides “CEO’s, CFO’s, Operations, Sales, and Training Managers” the ability to share content by educating, energizing, mobilizing, motivating, and training their consumers, prospects, and employees. Our new product called Whatever and Whatever are tools that will transform your business into focused energy! The link above is a “Manager” who conducted a Webinar Training on XYZ’s Educational Services. It was extremely successful for her and her business/company. I would greatly appreciate 15 minutes of your time to learn more about your company and how you currently communicate within your organization and if you’re experiencing the “White Water Mentality.” My goal is to help you get more Psyched up and in Sync! Do you need increased productivity, a wider audience, and more business sales? Let’s invest some time and see where WE can GROW together. Change is inevitable. Vision means rallying the troops! I look forward to collaborating with you soon!”

There are so many problems with this email.

For starters, I have no idea what this company actually does. Do you? Something about a content sharing platform that lets you educate, energize, mobilize, motivate and train people. Their service is supposedly for five different types of company leaders, but the message is not customized for any one of them. This email should really be five different emails with a message that is focused on what each leader would actually care about.

This dandy new tool will transform your business into focused energy, which sounds ridiculous and means nothing. The seller does attempt to include a success story, but there are no specifics about the actual success the manager supposedly had. Did she bring in new leads? How many? Did she secure meetings with 15 decision makers on her target list? What percentage of new business did she close? Specific metrics grab attention. By the way, most people will not click on links when the email comes from a stranger. Communicate value in the message assuming people won’t go and visit your website.

This salesperson wants a phone call to learn more about my company, which he could easily do by reading my LinkedIn profile. If you are going to get 15 minutes with your target buyer, you want to make that time count. Don’t waste it asking the buyer to educate you about their business. Do your homework and figure it out. Use your meeting time to progress the opportunity not halt you in your tracks.

This seller also wants to know how I communicate within my company and if I’m experiencing “white water mentality”. What does that mean? Finally, he ends his email with “change is inevitable” and “vision means rallying the troops”. Hum. Should I be insulted that he thinks I’m stuck in my ways and have no vision?

Stop with the nonsense.

This nonsensical email is filled with jargon, buzz words and lacks any clarity as to the value this seller can bring to my business. I have a picture in my mind of what a sales meeting with him would look like and it’s not pretty.

When crafting sales messaging, keep these tips in mind:

Know your audience.
Make the message personalized, focused and relevant.
Skip the jargon and buzz words.
Include metrics to support success stories.
Get another perspective before sending the email or presenting your story.

If your aim is to source new sales opportunities, change your message. Focus on quality not quantity. It takes work to get the message right, and I believe this is one area where sellers can create true competitive advantage for themselves. So, will you?

Hey, while you are here, don’t forget to download your FREE copy of my Message Matters e-book from the home page. Learn tips for transforming those messages into something that works.

What’s in a List?

April 9, 2015 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

As it turns out, for a lot of people, lists – with their name on them – or not – are a pretty big deal. I get it. Everyone likes to see their name up in lights, so to speak. I’ll be the first to admit that I feel a little puffed up with pride if I make the “top expert” of whatever list. It doesn’t really matter if someone created it as a vanity or marketing list…it’s still kind of fun.

Let’s talk about those “lists” for a moment in a bit more detail. What’s the point of them? Do they really tell the real story about who has the cred in any particular field and who doesn’t? Where do they come from? Who decided one person made the cut when someone else did not? Was there any research or methodology behind the list creation?

There are 3 types of lists that I’ve seen:

1. A list created by an individual that includes people they happen to follow and like.

2. A list that is actually backed by independent research with specific criteria decided upon in advance and clearly disclosed when the list is revealed.

3. A list “paid for” and created as a marketing campaign to gain exposure for a company and their product.

List #1:

It is quite popular for content creators to pull together lists of their favorites, be it sales, marketing or social media folks they may follow or know. I’m sure there are plenty of other lists, but social selling/social media marketing are the worlds I live in. Often, there isn’t a ton of rationale developed around the choices.

My name has landed on numerous Top 25 Salespeople on Twitter lists, but is that because I have the largest network? Nope, that can’t be it. Others have much larger networks than me. Is it my Klout score? Maybe – 70 isn’t bad. Is it that I influence and inspire people to take action? Perhaps. Is it that the people just like what I share, my quirkiness or the fierceness of my passion when talking about topics near and dear to my heart? Hard to say. Maybe they just happen to like me, what I stand for and how I always strive to help and support others.

List #2:

Organizations like Top Sales World, pay a team of researchers each year to surface the best of the best in sales and marketing. Not only does Top Sales World use specific criteria, they are extremely transparent and forthcoming about how their list is derived. And, most importantly, their list isn’t focused solely on people participating on social media platforms. The criteria is a balanced mix of offline and online and looks beyond just social media presence, as it should. There are people on the 2014 list that have been instrumental in changing the course of sales history, but they just don’t happen to be Twitterholics. If organizations need a true picture of the thought leaders in sales and marketing, it makes sense to turn to credible, research based, vetted lists.

From the Top Sales World website…

“This was our criteria:

* Social media presence – Twitter/ Facebook/ Klout score/LinkedIn authority.
* Quality, regularity and popularity of written work – books, blog posts, articles, EBooks etc.
* Active engagement with recognized resource sites.
* And not least, a commitment to continually advancing selling and marketing practices.”

Onalytica recently released a list of the top influencers and brands in social selling. They were very clear about how their ranked list was generated. In this case, the focus was on the people and the brands most engaged on Twitter around the topic of social selling. You can definitely see that many sales thought leaders might not be on that list if they aren’t very active on Twitter. The point is that it is all about context when thinking about these lists and what they mean.

List #3:

Then there is the list that one company pays another company to create for them. The specific intent is to use this list as a marketing vehicle to gain exposure for a company, their product or even the CEO who has very little klout in the marketplace themselves. This is the list that I detest the most.

Paying for the list isn’t the problem. It is the underlying intention behind the list. It is a marketing stunt that is selfishly motivated. Perhaps you could argue that list type #1 is selfishly motivated too. After all, if my name shows up on a list, I am highly likely to brag about it. That’s good for whoever put the list together. For me though, what’s lies behind List #3 is more problematic. It is manipulative.

Such a list was released early in 2014. This list of supposed top social sellers received a lot of publicity when a Forbes contributor picked up the list and blogged about it. Once that happened, it did not take long before named experts started promoting that they were a Forbes top seller. Simply. Not. True. It was not a list created by Forbes at all. This was a list created and paid for by a company who was very little known at the time. The CEO had no history or credibility in the social selling space, which he wanted to change. The fact that a Forbes writer blogged about the list doesn’t make it a Forbes vetted or sanctioned list. Of course, Forbes sounds better than being named by a company no one has ever heard of before.

The other problems I had with this list – and full disclosure, I didn’t make the cut on this one, but that’s okay, my experience speaks for itself – are:

1. The so-called criteria was really sketchy. We used a collection of tools like blah, blah, blah to help us inform our choices, they said. I did a little checking. Using the criteria they said was used, I found it difficult to understand how some of the people even made the list. In fact, one social selling expert on that list doesn’t even list social media presence on his website nor does he even conduct training on social selling. Okay, you have a Twitter following. There is a little more to the strategy behind social selling than that.

2. It was a SALES list but more than half the people were marketers. I know I’m a stickler for such details, but folks marketers are NOT salespeople.

3. The list included people who either owned the company that created the campaign OR they were investors and company founders of some of the tools used to determine the influencer list. Am I the only one who thinks this is a conflict of interest?

I’ve thought about this list for more than a year. The psychology behind it is fascinating. How is it that smart people couldn’t see the ruse for what it was? Are they so giddy at the sight of their name on a list that they lost all common sense? Is it lack of integrity or pure ignorance that those noted on the list began claiming Forbes deemed them experts when that is absolutely not true?

Clearly this list drove the intended result. The company and CEO that paid for it were relatively unknown at the time. The CEO has now shown up on panels and on webinars, as yet another social selling expert, but I take comfort in knowing that after all the noise of that list died down, he’s still not that well known. Using cheap stunts to try and boost your credibility might work in the short-term, but pretty soon people figure out if you know what you are talking about or not. If all you do is repeat what everybody else says, how does that make you an expert?

In the final analysis, if you are a buyer, I urge you to use caution when considering any “list” that proclaims that “these are the experts”. That includes the lists I’m on too! Do a lot more digging to be sure that the people you think are experts truly have the background and experience to back up the claim. You’d be surprised at how many social selling experts are out there these days. Most have little to no experience in sales or social media, so whatever you do, do your due diligence.

Monday Musings

March 2, 2015 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment

The ruckus over #thedress.

Marketing teams invest thousands in an effort to try and make their campaigns go viral. Though I’ve read that some of the best in the agency business follow formulas that can potentially get you there, no one really is able to predict with certainty what will go viral. Who would have thought that a dress would spark a worldwide debate over the color and practically take down the internet? But that is exactly what happened. Buzzfeed reported that their post about the dress broke the site’s traffic records, with more than 670,000 people viewing the post simultaneously and garnering 16 million hits in six hours. Millions of tweets. Multiple arguments that had people lining up like the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s about to embark on an epic battle to prove who was right and who was wrong.

Was the dress blue and black (it is) or white and gold? That was the big question on Thursday, and I have no doubt that not much work was being done that day. When I first saw the picture in my Facebook feed (and I would see it more times than I cared to after that), I immediately saw blue and black. What was shocking to me is how many hundreds of thousands of people could actually see it as white and gold. Then, of course, articles popped everywhere explaining the Phenom. Color blindness, rods and cones, lighting of the picture and lightness constancy and color constancy. Regardless of these explanations, it is hard for me to understand how anyone could blame the lighting. I posted the original Tumblr picture in the post. Blue and black. Although I have no doubt someone reading this now will be as firm in their position that the darn dress is white and gold. Get over it. It isn’t! The dress maker has confirmed the color, but good for them that the sale of that dress jumped 347%.

What I didn’t get is why anyone would care. Oh, but care they did. Not only did this go viral but mainstream news sources were writing and reporting about it. Boston Globe, Wired, New York Times, Jezebel, Huffington Post and Forbes all had something to say about it. Even CNN and CNBC jumped on board.

Soooo… with all the books, videos and content marketers spouting off their strategies to help people and companies ensure virility of sharing their content, in the end, I think nobody actually knows. I mean, a dress? Really.

Search bar on your website.

This falls into the category of things that bug me. In. A. Big. Way. When I visit any content rich website and especially blog sites, I want to be able to quickly search for the content I want to read. I found myself annoyed by a company who put out a press release about a list of twitter influencers that all salespeople should follow, but failed to put a link to the actual list. Huh? I go to the website to find the article and you guessed it… no search bar. I wasn’t about to waste my time trying to scroll through all the posts to find it.

I suppose it is the little things. If you are going to report on a particular list, ebook, whatever… link to that specific piece of content not just to your website. While you are at it, make sure you have a search bar on your site. Make it easy for people to find the content they want. Isn’t that the point of bringing them to your site in the first place, so that they can consume and engage with your content?

Keeping it real.

I’m hearing the phrase more often these days. It begs the question, what does “keeping it real” actually mean? I suppose an apt definition is that keeping it real means to be who you are without censoring yourself to be more appealing to other people. There is a dark side to the phrase, I think. I’ve observed people use the term as license to hide behind bad behavior. They insult you, or try to bully you but they’re just keeping it real, ya know. Be yourself. Absolutely. But there is a very fine line between being who you are and just being a jerk to other people.

Unplugging from digital.

I chuckled this morning when I saw a couple of my Facebook friends talking about how they were suffering from WIFI withdrawal, which evidently wasn’t on the flights they were taking. OMG, how can anyone live 9 or 10 hours without being plugged in? I’m happy to report that they both survived the experience and are doing fine. As for me, does it mean I’m old if I remember when we didn’t have all this digital, cloud and mobile technology?

Frankly, I think it is okay, and in fact, quite necessary to unplug now and again. Constant ON leads to missing key happenings in life, stress and perhaps a little attention deficit disorder. There is something to be said for being present in the moment, which is why I shake my head when I see people walking their dogs while texting or yakking away on their cell phone. My colleague Joanne Black wrote a book called Pick Up the Damn Phone (good read by the way), and I say sometimes you need to put the damn thing down!

Monday Musings

February 16, 2015 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Today is my first Monday Musings post. Sometimes I just have things rattling around in my head that I need to talk about. I decided to use this as an opportunity to rant about whatever is on my mind. Some will be positive, some will be rants on things that I feel strongly about and just need to say. All of it is just based on my own personal observation about business, life and the world.

Read something everyday.

In my case, I’m a bit of a junkie, because I believe that learning doesn’t end when we graduate college. Perhaps it is a sign that I have A.D.D., but it is not uncommon for me to read three or four books at a time. I just read – Youtility by Jay Baer, which I have to admit captivated my attention to the point where I finished it in about 4 hours on Saturday. Next is Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins. Mr. Robbins turns financial thinking on it’s head and reminds readers that the deck is stacked against us. Sort of like in Vegas, the odds are in favor of the house. Those financial institutions you trust…might want to think again. Then there is Your Best Just Got Better by Jason Womack. Excellent book on productivity. I am diligently working through all of the homework; hence the reason I haven’t finished yet. Finally, a book about the millennial generation and the kind of culture they want from the corporate workplace. It’s called The XYZ Factor: The DoSomething.org Guide to Creating a Culture of Impact by Nancy Lublin and Alyssa Ruderman. I’m learning a lot about what millennial workers care about. You should too!

Experience matters.

An online publication I love reading is Forbes. Always great contributors who share their perspectives on a variety of topics. The content is always excellent. My big gripe – not specific to just Forbes by the way – don’t force a darn pop up advertisement on me when I’m in the middle of reading an article. That just sucks! I’m not only annoyed when it happens, I’m not happy with the advertiser who paid to let them do it. I get it. Ads fund your site, but can’t you just be a little bit classy about it? I’m not fond of the big pop up – sign me up for our newsletter – boxes either. What I want is to be able to read the content on any given webiste without being slammed in the face with what YOU want. How much would you like to bet that I’m not alone in my thinking here? Trust and positive experiences are big factors in buyers decisions. You need to think about that when designing every touchpoint and interaction with potential and current customers.

Stop whining.

Like a slow rolling thunder there is a feud brewing in the social selling space. It seems that a few “experts” are getting their – you know what – all bunched up in a wad. Why? Well, a couple of reasons.

One, they can’t stand not being the center of the universe because the shine on their rockstar status is fading. They want to argue and bash anyone who dares to challenge them with new thinking about sales. Heck, they even whine that the “research” is a lie. Um, I take Gartner, Sirius Decisions, Forrester, Aberdeen, CEB and other research orgs pretty seriously. They pump a lot of money into evaluating trends in sales. Where’s your statistically validated research proving otherwise?

Two, there are people like me expressing concern that many experts don’t know what they are talking about. They have zero practical experience, and they parrot and regurgitate the words of others. Not an original thought to be found. I know I’ll be thought of as a heretic for saying that if you haven’t sold anything. Ever. In your life. You are not qualified to tell anyone how to sell more. You might understand social media strategy, although that’s certainly not a given, but don’t presume that you can coach or train people whose jobs may be on the line if they don’t close out their quota goals each month, quarter and year. You should give a darn that the Koolaid you are asking people to drink actually nets them sales results.

Worse yet, we have experts out there preaching the social selling gospel but their words and actions are not congruent. Real experts don’t need to brag about how awesome they are. It shows in their actions. If you have a large following of people who look up to you, you have a responsibility to walk your talk!

There are some seriously A+ people out there.

There are people who talk, and there are people who walk the talk. They tend to be genuine, humble people who don’t need to be in your face every minute telling you how amazing they are. These are the people who represent the best of the best and who think nothing of stopping to help you. One such person is Richard Young of PipelinerCRM. A few days ago via Twitter, I asked my peeps to tell me about some of the technology tools they like and use in their selling activities. I’m now writing a weekly tech post and love broadening my horizons. Heck, I can’t possibly know of every tool. Richard not only shared a few of the tools he uses, but he made PERSONAL introductions to his contacts suggesting I interview them about their product before writing my post. Boom! Now you can talk until the cows come home about how important it is to “help others”, and as the old saying goes… action speaks louder than words. Thank you, Richard. You are a rockstar!

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