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Follow Companies on LinkedIn – New!

May 5, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment
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LinkedIn has made the Company section more robust. It is now even easier to research companies and keep up with the people changes happening with those companies.

The Improvement

You can now “follow” companies. Okay, STOP right there! Before you close your mind to it, because images of nonsensical conversation on Twitter just popped into your head, please hear me when I say that “the concept” is similar, but definitely different. This is the kind of follow that you want to engage in, because…

Sales Benefit

You will hear about key developments such as who’s joined, left or been promoted at the companies you follow, business opportunities and job openings. This moves your ability to research target companies you want to work with to another level.

Once you elect to follow a company… when you log into the Company Home Page on LinkedIn, you will see a list of updates for the companies that you follow. You will also see a “company updates” section now showing up on your LinkedIn Home Page.

This is so much easier than tracking the individual movements of people within in a company. LinkedIn aggregates the list of changes for you. You can easily scan the list to keep up with what’s changed. Here’s a quick screen shot of the company I set up to follow today to check out how this works.

How To

Find Companies under the “More” menu. Click on Companies. Search companies you want to track. Once you’ve pulled up their company page…look to the upper right and click on “follow company”. Scan the updates once a day or once a week.

Definitely check it out! Share your success stories.

Filed Under: Lead Generation, Marketing, Networking, Popular, Sales, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

There is Always Time for the Important

April 7, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment
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A common complaint from social media resistors is that they “don’t have time” for all of this technology stuff. Reading my post right now, you might be saying to yourself…exactly. No time – that’s why I’m not there. In the only way that I know how to say it – you are already being left behind! Make time for the important.

Making Time

I know, I know. You are absolutely positive that 100% of your business time is used to upmost effectiveness each and every day. But on the off chance that you are like pretty much every other human being I’ve ever met, everyone has time wasters on their calendar. Everyone! Evaluate your time usage for the next week, and I promise you the results will be surprising.

What do you need to do to get started?

Clock what you do each business day in 15 min increments. It may be tough at first, because you won’t be used to tracking what you are doing. Once you get going, it becomes a habit.  Don’t overcomplicate the process though. It can be as simple as keeping a legal pad of paper with you to note it all down. If you’d like to have technology lend a helping hand, I recommend TDF Tracker for the i-Phone. TDF Tracker is an easy to use, powerful tool designed to keep track of time/expenses/mileage. I’m a new user and getting the hang of it. I love that I can track my time and email a weekly report to my client, as I receive a copy at the same time. No clumsy spreadsheets to handle. For purposes of this exercise, you would use TDF Tracker to note what you are spending time on and when. Your personalized report will tell all!

Once You Know

Clear the obvious “junk” from the calendar and block that time – RIGHT NOW! – to work on your social media/social networking knowledge and experience. Business communication has changed. Sales and marketing must adapt. New worker capabilities are required. If you want to get hired, do what Laura Gainor did to gain the attention of her next employer, Comet Branding. The story is quite something and a brilliant example of using social media to further your next career move.

Filed Under: Featured, Marketing, Networking, Sales Tagged With: , , , , ,

Questions Sales Needs to Ask

March 4, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment
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I wrote in my last post about ways to gain executive buy-in for the integration of social media into a sound sales strategy. Rather than replace the tried and true, social tools can augment great sales efforts today. Used effectively they can also help your sales folks reduce sales cycle time by building relationships early and quickly through social communities. Yes, you can still attend in-person networking functions and you should – provided you are attending the right ones. Easy enough to burn hours of time that get you nowhere for the right events, much less attending the wrong ones. Instead invest some of your sales time each day to participate in online spaces, like LikedIn to connect, source business opportunities and prepare for your sales calls. Welcome to the world of social selling.

As I’ve observed companies considering how social media applies to them, I’ve also seen a tendency to want to short-cut the process. This is a big change and you need to prepare yourself up front for success. Asking and answering these types of questions should be the first step.

  1. Are your sales leaders prepared to adopt new sales communication approaches and tools?
  2. Will your current processes support a smooth integration to using new technologies?
  3. Have you established sales communication guidelines and social usage policies?
  4. What kind of training will your sales people need to make the shift?
  5. How will you hold people accountable to using new media as part of their sales day?
  6. Is your IT organization prepared to assist you in integrating the right social tools with your sales goals?
  7. Do you use customer data, survey’s and focus group feedback to update services, policies and processes on the fly?
  8. How well is your team “listening” to online conversations happening on the various social sites?
  9. How ready is your sales team to respond to negative commentary?
  10. What does your competition’s social media presence look like?

Don’t be seduced by the promise of number of followers = sales. Twitter isn’t for everyone and neither is Facebook for that matter. Think carefully about your strategy. It will make the difference between floundering around and achieving sales results.

Filed Under: Featured, Sales, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Securing Management Buy-In

March 3, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment
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Like any other major change initiative, you must present a strong argument for the value and benefits to the organization. Social media is a new way of thinking and it is still being met with resistance. So, there is still evangelism and education to be done.

To secure management buy-in, I think it is very important to forget all the techno speak…present the business case for WHY developing/executing a social strategy is a critical business imperative. It’s important to focus on the number’s, the sales potential, how social selling shrinks the sales cycle and can be used to increase customer loyalty. Talk about how your sales people can use new media to differentiate the products and services they are selling. And, of course,  point out that you can use these tools to gain competitive advantage. In other words, don’t lead with the technology. Before you jump on Twitter, you need to know why you are there.

Start with a clear vision, purpose and plan…then align the technology to your strategic objectives. Focus on measuring your results and build on them. Keep in mind that engaging everyone on your sales team will take time and needs to begin with active involvement from senior leadership. If management is asking their sales reps to use LinkedIn – they need to be acting participating themselves. Leaders model the way for their people!

This is another fundamental shift in how we approach the sales process. Don’t be fooled by the “quick fix” promises of thousands of followers over night. Numbers matter little if the followers aren’t your target customers. Integrating the right social tools will require much more than a few LinkedIn classes. Well…only if you want your financial investment to make a real difference.

Filed Under: Sales, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Resurrecting 3 Words

February 10, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco 8 Comments
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At the first of this year, I blogged about my respect for the approach that Chris Brogan takes with setting new goals. Tried his approach myself in 2009…I was pretty pleased with the results. Naturally, I wanted to challenge myself with Chris’ process again in 2010, which I did (and have), but I also said that I would be back in a few days to share with you my three words for the new year with you on my blog. I missed my deadline. I’m back now, and I’ll share my “key 3″ in just a minute.

Before I do…

As I climbed the sales ranks while still working in corporate America, I was conditioned to keep business and personal separate. Don’t discuss things like politics or religion or any other controversial subject for that matter. Don’t want to risk offending your buyer.  It’s that same conditioning that leads companies to fear social networking, blogs and the like. Understandable. You don’t want your employees to “blurt” anything and everything out there on the world wide web. It stays there. Forever. That’s why guidelines must be established, training given and appropriate management oversight put in place to ensure that employees don’t go to far off the corporate reservation.

And…

If 2009 taught us anything, it’s that we must bring transparency, openness and trust back into our working relationships. In short, we need to be more human with each other. It’s OK to share what motivates you or knocks you down in life. That’s all part of being human. And that leads me to the reason why I disappeared for just a bit.

You see, nine months after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis, my mother died on January 12, 2010. Though I knew it was coming, I was still knocked down. I had no clue what Alzheimer’s was really about before this happened. Perhaps, you don’t either. What I know now (and really wish that I didn’t!) is that the disease afflicts everyone involved. Frustrating, confusing and agonizing for the patient. About the same for the family members involved. The health and quality of life of many Alzheimer’s patients deteriorates over a period of years – not months. In that way, Mom was lucky. She isn’t suffering any longer.

The Alzheimer’s Association, which envisions a world without the disease shares a few statistics on their website, which might give you some sense of the disease’s magnitude:

  • As many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s.
  • Alzheimer’s and dementia triple healthcare costs for Americans age 65 and older.
  • Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s.
  • Alzheimer’s is the seventh-leading cause of death.
  • The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias to Medicare, Medicaid and businesses amount to more than $148 billion each year.

I pondered whether I would share this personal side of my life with you. In the end, I decided that it was OK. Tough things happen in our lives, which can sometimes knock the wind right out of our sails. People around us cannot help us or support us if they don’t know we need the help!

Finally, about those 3 words. My key 3 in 2010 are: Charioteer, Marksman and Physical.

  • Charioteer- like the Charioteer at Delphi, I holds the reins of success in my own 2 hands.
  • Marksman - this is about precision, practice, patience and teamwork.
  • Physical - reminds me to get outside to connect with mother earth and exercise daily. Good health is a gift!
Filed Under: Marketing, Sales Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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