If you read posts 1 and 2 on the topic of busting your brand, you know that I didn’t take kindly to the dimwit who decided it was okay to send me spam, because we were members of the same LinkedIn group. You also know that he didn’t care for me making the suggestion that spamming people wasn’t the way to go about driving successful sales. His response said it all.

But, that wasn’t the end of it, because as you know I felt compelled to let him know for the second time that he’d now taken rude to another level. I figured that would be the end of it. Ah, but not for this guy. Here is his final response. There are soooo many things that I wanted to say in return, but what would be the point? He considers me “sanctimonious”, perhaps because I was the first one to tell him his approach might be losing him sales. As for the rest of his logic…one can only wonder.

“You were never going to buy from me to begin with. Just because you wrote just another book on sales doesn’t mean your way is the only way to get new business. (Hey I have a book published too. 5 stars on Amazon.com – which is really great, but I don’t consider my book to be the definitive answer to anything). There is still plenty of room for cold calling in the market today – and you are wrong if you think otherwise. There is rude, and there is sanctimonious. Besides, those in your network, who like you, believe that there is no room for Cold Calling were never going to buy from me anyway, so be sure to let them know. Actually, I am sure that some sales professionals will be interested to speak with me just because you tell them not too.”

By the way, some of my colleagues suggested that I was only wasting my precious time responding to this guy and then blogging about the situation. My feeling is that every now and then you’ve got to take a stand. I’m getting far to many of these cheezy sales pitches thrown at me via LinkedIn, as are many others, and I felt that I needed to speak up. Whether he hears the message or not is really not the point. Oh, and if you are one of the sales professionals who want to talk to this guy just because I suggest you look elsewhere, please let me know. I’ll happily pass along his contact information:)

Enjoy a little Dilbert humor about the pitfalls of trying to tightly control employees and their social media activities.

Photo Credit: R. Mark Moore

What do you think? 

Would you hand over money and trust the person who hung this sign to help you increase revenue using social media? Advertising on a highway road sign in the greater Atlanta area seems an odd way to get your social sales message out there.

In addition to the obvious disconnect between the type of service they are selling and the medium they are using to advertise said service, here are few other things that I noticed.

They advertise their social media services, but where’s the Twitter or Facebook handle? What about a website to learn more? I guess they figure you can’t surf the web while driving, but you can make a phone call, right?

Who is their client anyway? Anyone who can drive a car? As my readers know, I’m a strong advocate for narrowing your sales focus by targeting your ideal client, which is one of the benefits of using social media I might add. These folks are using the “spray and pray” method of advertising. Doubtful they’ll get much traction. Oh, and do you think they realize that they are breaking the law by posting a sign like this one? It would seem not.

What about you? What do you see? What do you think about this approach? Should we give the number a call and find out if their ad campaign is working?

It’s pretty common knowledge that in many companies the sales and marketing organizations bump heads. One of the most common areas of contention is around the entire lead generation process. The rub is that marketing program success is too often judged by the quantity, rather than the quality, of sales leads produced.  Yet, if you ask the sales force what they need to convert leads to revenue, they will tell you that more of the same isn’t better – better quality leads is better.

Granted, it is a tough balance and every company has to find the right mix as a part of their lead generation efforts.  Without the right process and preparation, too many leads, even of high quality, may overwhelm a sales team and opportunities will fall through the cracks. Not enough leads or leads of low quality diminish sales force productivity pretty quickly.

Here is a chart from MarketingSherpa’s 2009-2010 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report to illustrate. When asked, here is what salespeople want from marketing.

So, you tell me. Which do you prefer? A list of 200 names with a slim chance of closing business, or a short list of the top 25 best opportunities to focus your attention on?

I recently became a Get Clients Now! facilitator and look forward to having you join me in upcoming webinars and public programs! Looking to jumpstart sales? Consider our August 17th webinar. REGISTER HERE  OK, that’s our brief self promotion. Now, let’s hear from C.J. Hayden, the author of the Get Clients Now! methodology.

From guest contributor, C.J. Hayden, MCC…

What’s stopping you from getting all the clients you want? Do you know? The answer to this one question may be the key to making your marketing more successful.

It would seem from the questions people ask me about marketing that everyone is trying to fix just one type of problem — how to fill their marketing pipeline with more new prospects. 

“What else should I be doing to attract potential clients?” they ask. “Where else can I go to find people who might hire me?” or “How can I be more visible online so people will contact me?” or “Should I be finding prospects by cold calling, using Twitter, running ads, giving talks, writing articles…?” 

All their questions — and it seems all their efforts — are aimed at finding ways to make contact with new people who might become clients. And every time they identify another activity that might help their pipeline get fuller, they want to add it to their ever-growing to-do list. 

But is this really what’s stopping them from getting more clients?

Is this what’s stopping you? If you are already marketing yourself in four or five different ways, will increasing that to seven or eight different ways produce better results? Or alternatively, if you drop everything you’re doing now, and start using four or five brand new marketing approaches, will that do the trick?

In my experience, it probably won’t. Continuing to try new and different approaches to fill your marketing pipeline will more often result in overwhelm, wasted effort, and failure than it will in new clients.

Instead of trying to fix your marketing by just seeking out more ways to meet people or collect names, email addresses and phone numbers, stop for a moment. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? In other words, what’s really getting in the way of your marketing success? 

Listed below are the five most common marketing problems, and questions to ask yourself to see which ones might be yours. They’re presented in order of priority — problem #1 needs to be fixed before tackling problem #2, and so on. Consider whether making changes in one of these areas might be exactly the fix your marketing needs.

1. HANDS-ON TIME: Are you spending enough time proactively marketing? Not just getting ready to market, or thinking about how to market, or feeling resistant to marketing, but actually taking steps that will lead directly to landing clients? 

If you’re not spending enough time marketing your business, fixing other problem areas won’t help much. Start keeping track of how much time you spend actively marketing each week. Most independent professionals find they need to spend from 4-16 hours weekly — less when you’re busy with paying work; more when you’re not.

2. TARGET MARKET: Do you have a clearly defined target market which you can describe in five words or less? Does this market already know they need your services? And are you spending most of your time marketing to exactly that group?

Once you feel confident you are dedicating enough time to marketing, the next hurdle is making sure you’re marketing to the right people.

Focusing your efforts on a specific target group with a defined need for your services will make everything you do more effective. 

3. MARKETING MESSAGE: Do your descriptions of your services name the benefits you offer and results you produce for your target market?

And are these benefits and results that this market is looking for?

Do you deliver your message every time you make contact?

Letting prospective clients know exactly how you can help them will make the most of the time you spend marketing to a defined audience.

Your message needs to be clear, focused on the client’s needs, and typically delivered multiple times to the same prospects.

 4. FOLLOW-THROUGH: Do you have a system for following up with every prospect until they say either yes or no? Are you able to complete all the steps for each marketing approach you are using to make it pay off?

 Without follow-through, much of your marketing effort is wasted. The typical prospect will need to hear from you (or about you) 5-7 times before deciding to work with you. And most marketing approaches need a follow-through element to succeed. For example, attending networking events requires post-event follow-up with the people you meet. Online networking requires regular participation, not just posting when you have something to promote.

 5. MARKETING APPROACH: Are the strategies and tactics you are using to reach your market the most effective approaches available to you?

Are they appropriate for your target market, and a good match for your skills and personality? 

Only after addressing the first four problem areas above should you think about changing HOW you market. Because in truth, your tactics may not need to change. Whether you’ve been marketing yourself with cold calling, public speaking, or social networking, once you are spending enough time, marketing to the right people, delivering a targeted message, and following through on all your efforts, your results will improve dramatically.

So finding new or different marketing approaches — the place where most people START to fix their marketing — is actually the last area to consider. The most effective approaches are those that include personal contact with your prospects, increase your credibility, and lend themselves to building relationships over time. And, approaches that match your skills and personality are more likely to succeed because you will actually use them instead of resisting them.

Once you know what might be stopping your marketing from being successful, make a commitment to fix what’s really wrong. Resist the temptation (and hype) to keep trying new “silver bullet” marketing tactics or overloading yourself with endless possibilities. Finding the best marketing solutions will be much easier when you’re trying to solve the right problem.

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com. Copyright (c) 2009, C. J. Hayden