I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.
3 Where are these decision makers going to make buying decisions?
4 How do these people make buying decisions?
I covered the first two questions in a previous post. Let’s focus on questions three and four. To find out where the decision makers go to make buying decisions you need to do following:
Ask them, how did you decide on buying product XYZ? This will be easier to with your existing customers but prospects will respect you for asking questions that other people don’t. Another place to see where decision makers go to buy your products is trade shows. You could attend as either an exhibitor or an attendee. Try to get a booth at the show. Exhibitors are provided with demographics of who attends the show and have a chance to interact with buyers directly. Does your customer base have a specific incentive to make purchases at a certain time period? For example, when I was a sales rep in the Dental industry, the IRS allowed dentists to write off capital equipment purchases they made up to a certain amount. If you cannot afford to go as an exhibitor then go as an attendee. This way you can see what goes on first hand.
Now on how these people make buying decisions. This information could be obtained by asking them or it could be obtained by looking for published research. If none exists, conduct a survey and offer a free gift to fill it out. You could even include questions on how they came to a decision to make a purchase. SurveyMonkey is a good way to do this.
Social Media Marketing
Marketing your business using social media is a great way to build your business and reach potential buyers. Before I discuss more about this, I want to ask you some questions?
Do you have a website? If not, why not? Websites are easy to put together. I put mine together rather quickly. Having a site helps your business come up in searches. When I Google you and your business what comes up? Go ahead and try it now. If nothing comes up, that’s not good!
Now you’re asking what do I put on my website? I would put basic information that sells who you are and what you do. I would also upload information on your products and services. You should include a resume, testimonials and a blog. A website is like fashion, it is never finished. You can look at my site as an example. I also write a blog and publish online newspapers. I use my blog to give my followers a value massage. This blog is published on WordPress and Tumblr. I share the content throughout my social networks. I will cover how to build a website and a blog in future posts.
The Social Networks that I would have a presence on are the following: LinkedIn,Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. I also have social sharing buttons on my site and blog. Pinterest is also a good network; however I have focused on the first four.
I would try to build a following on each these networks. Your best bet on how to do this is to share good content with people. When I started, I shared other people’s articles, and then I wrote my own. However, I still share others content that I find interesting. You can market your business with these updates. Search for people who are have an interest to what you have to offer. I have provided links to articles I have written on how to do this on these networks.
These are the basics on how to market a start up to prospects and customers.
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 17,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 13,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. He is willing to be a CMO to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
When Brand awareness and Sales are low for brands, it is tempting to start using social media and blogging to solve the issue. At first this sounds like a great idea, but without a well thought out plan, Brands will fail and damage the credibility they have built.
Everything from digital assets, Sales/Marketing collateral effectiveness, product messaging and the logo needs to be examined. It is important to have a clear consensus and consistency on your brand voice. Brands need to ask their customers what the brand means to them as well. Once this analysis is completed, the brand vision needs to be compared to the way customers see it. Brands should make changes to align the customer vision to the Brand vision.
Use analytics data from, website and social networks and email campaign to measure engagement, examine traffic sources and make decisions on strategy going forward
Use Social Media to organize and promote events to the get product in front of industry
Attend industry tradeshows
After all organic Marketing is maximized
Paid Options
LinkedIn
Use content we create and advertise using the sponsored story feature targeting prospects and customers
KPI: For Brand Awareness choose the Impressions option
KPI: For Conversions choose the PPC option
Create a display ad driving people to the site
2. SlideShare
Create a lead generation form to capture the email addresses of people viewing content
3. Twitter
Create display ad that drives people to the site
KPI: For Brand Awareness choose the Impressions option
KPI: For Conversions choose the PPC option
4. Google/YouTube
Create visual display ads to drive traffic to website
ie Google Display network, Adwords, Bing Ads
Sponsor webinar and YouTube video content
How have you increase Brand Awareness and Sales Enablement? Comment and share below.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 17,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 13,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. He is willing to be a CMO to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
Brands use Marketing to increase Sales, Revenue, and to beat the competition. While this is a great strategy, a brand is only as good as its talent. Yes brands are in competition to get and keep customers; but they are also competing to get and keep great talent. In order for Brands to grow, they need great talent in every function of the business.
For Brands to be able to attract top talent, they need to be a desired place to work. To be a desired place to work, they need to understand what motivates their employees. While this will vary by industry and company size there are similar things that many employees seek. These include:
Feeling valued for their contributions
Freedom to do interesting work and solve intriguing problems
Fair and competitive compensation including incentive and performance pay
A fun place to work with activities to bond with co-workers.
5. Training and advancement opportunities
If these things listed above are in place, Brands are on the right track to building a great talent brand provided their product offerings are solid.
Getting employees excited about coming to work each day will increase the talent pool by generating word of mouth. When people have something good they tell their friends.
Beyond the offline word of mouth, Brands need to own their identity online by in-sourcing their online and offline assets. This starts with their own websites, digital properties and collateral used to sell their offerings. With talent branding, Brands are selling prospective employees on the idea of applying and wanting to work for their company in a particular role. This is similar to marketing their commercial offerings to potential customers.
Brands will need to conduct Market Research to understand who their competitors are and where they stack up in the talent market. Compensation, Company Culture, intelligence from applicants.
Information from this research can be used to develop a positioning strategy that can be applied to the talent brand.
Every Brand should have a career page on their website as this will drastically reduce recruiting costs. This page should include the following:
Pictures of employees from each function with a short bio and why they chose to work at the brand
Perks offered with story on company culture
An application that is easy to fill out. i.e greenhouse.io or a form with a file for a cover letter and resume. Greenhouse can be linked with LinkedIn.
Social Sharing buttons for job postings
Creating Engaging Job Descriptions
The function head, marketing and HR need to collaborate to write job descriptions that convince applicants to apply, similar to copy-writing for commercial offerings.
Providing candidates with a great recruiting experience is key to making as with out this your talent brand will suffer.
Empowering and providing incentives to employees
Encourage employees to share company content and jobs on LinkedIn. Also encourage employees to make referrals with incentives for referrals that are hired.
If you are not happy with the amounts of applications post the jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed to widen the applicant pools. Niche site may work as well.
This is how to use Marketing to build a great Talent Brand.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 17,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 13,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. He is willing to be a CMO to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
To have success in the CMO role, you need to: get executive buy in on authority and the ability to make changes, otherwise you are doomed to fail.
Brand Message and Content Marketing
From a brand stand point, the brand messaging need to be in alignment. It should not take a genius to understand what your product does and how it will help the customer. To achieve this goal, you need to do the following: Audit, understand and improve Brand message, voice, sales, marketing collateral, print and digital properties.
Do the above before starting a content marketing program if the organization sells products because you will need to build and create a content tilt to be found by customers in search.
Developing Sales Processes and Shortening the Sales Cycle
Sales Managers hired; should train sales staff properly and hold Reps accountable to hit Revenue Goals. If you are tasked with creating/building out the marketing function of the organization, make sure that support staff are trained by the Sales Manager to handle inbound leads. Sales staff should be trained on objection handling, prospecting, product knowledge, making Sales, post Sales follow up and obtaining repeat business.
SMarketing
Have marketing partner with Sales. Go on Sales calls to understand customer objections /pain points to improve messaging and product. The goal of any Sales and Marketing program is to shorten sales cycles and increase Revenue.
Defining Your Target Market and Sales Channels
Audit, understand, and improve the sales structure of the organization, sales operations and sales processes. Define Sales Rep territories, compensations and commission structure using analysis that includes data from customer acquisition costs and ROI.
Decide if you will sell your product directly to customers or through re-sellers. Some companies do both.
Sales Management/Sales Reps
Hopefully if there is Sales Leadership at the company when you arrive, this will be handled. If no Sales people are present, start this process yourself and hire a seasoned rep or Manager from a larger competitor. If Sales leadership is there but has not done the above, give them a Sales Leadership improvement plan, look for a seasoned replacement and fire them. This applies to Sales Reps as well.
Market Research
Understand customers and buyer behaviors.
Share buyer personas and research with the sales staff.
image via smartdraw.com
Have sales staff complete a competitive analysis on how your company stacks up against your competition in the marketplace.
Product Development
Use Market Research to collaborate with product to come up with ideas for new products, features, promotions and pricing strategy.
Identify new markets to sell into. If Sales are stagnant, find a way to get in front of your customers before they become customers by using pricing in a crossing the chasm style analysis.
Proving you’re a CMO
Position marketing a source of revenue rather than a cost by putting marketing at the center of the organization. Showing how marketing can make an impact on the income statement beyond increasing sales. Show how marketing makes the organization run better.
Talent Branding
Improve the talent brand by creating a job site with employee stories. This job site will increase the amount of applicants and reduce recruitment advertising costs. Write more appealing job descriptions.
Attempt to make the organization the company of tomorrow by making it cross functional.
Above all, CMO’s need to use Data from Financials, Sales, Revenue and Analytics to make marketing decisions. The Data needs to be used continuously to justify marketing decisions and to pivot when marketing programs are not working.
The duties of the CMO will vary by industry and company size but these are the basics that a CMO must do to be successful.
What do you think makes a successful CMO? Comment and Share.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 16,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 11,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. He is willing to be a CMO to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
EdTech & E-Learning companies are doing great work. However, I have identified a gap in their marketing strategy that could leave them vulnerable to competitors. None and in some cases very few of the people in the Marketing function of the organization were former Teachers. You can do a search on LinkedIn to verify this.
I acknowledge that EdTech & E-Learning has former Teachers in the Sales and PD functions.
Why it is not Good enough to just place Teachers in Sales
Sales teams have to use consistent company messaging when presenting products to prospects and customers. Also, PD teams are not skilled at Sales and objection handling.
Market Research /SWOT
One Company, a major competitor of all of the others in the space, has Teachers working in every Marketing function which is an edge they can use against the company in a “we were Teachers once” Marketing campaign.
Teachers need to be in the Marketing function of the organization because they are the practitioners who can make the product messaging more credible and compelling. This new improved messaging will help build connection with the buyer because the buyer sees a Teacher-to-Teacher connection.
Our Teacher’s, Students & School administrators deserve better resources that are constructed by former Teachers at every level.
Why Hire Teacher practice experts in Marketing?
They are the customers and understand the pain points better than any market research -should be in leadership roles
Healthcare does this with Doctors, Dentists
Tech does this with programmers and engineers.
Why not EdTech!
Additional Teacher Skill sets that will be useful in Marketing
Can increase Sales because they are the customer and understand the pain points because they have experienced them in the job
understands how people learn
skilled at tailoring content for understanding based on learning needs
Today’s marketing is about educating customer and earning the right to market to them as teachers can educate customers
This is the best market research/ buyer persona there is!
My Qualifications
I would be an excellent fit for a Marketing role due to the following:
Teacher Practice expert with 6+ years of experience (SPED & GEN ED, part time, Adult ED and full-time experience)
Former Outside Sales Rep which allows me to create messaging to preemptively stop most sales objections
Can help with Sales Enablement/coaching/go on selected sales calls to improve the sales process
Experienced EdTech Marketer
Can build a better talent brand by building out your career site with employee stories
Create and establish new markets along with helping to create new product offerings that complement existing ones
Experienced online audience builder
I have built up a large audience with 11, 000+ followers on WordPress
Over 16,000+ followers on LinkedIn along with a following of 1,900+ on an EdTech Twitter handle @NYEDTechTeacher
Understand the customer behavior and pain points of Teachers and Principals
Support I need from EdTech & E-Learning Companies
I am asking EdTech and E-Learning companies for the opportunity to come on-site to speak about my qualifications. This will help me demonstrate how I can help them improve the learning experience of our students.
Support I need from Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents
Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents, comment below about the improvements you would like to see from EdTech & E-Learning companies. Please share this article and ask for change. I can’t do it alone. If I can join the Marketing function, I will help to improve EdTech and E-Learning to help the learner of tomorrow.
Sales reps can only be as good as the product and message they represent. Before companies can hire Sales reps, they need a great product with messaging that conveys the benefits to customers. Sales Reps need support from marketing in the cross functional organization of tomorrow. The messaging should be able to prevent customer objections. Unfortunately, this is where many Marketing departments fall short.
image via Salesforce.com
Many people that get hired in marketing, lack a sales background and have no idea on how to handle customer objections.
In addition, many people in Marketing lack the background and understanding of how people learn. Teachers and psychologists have this training. Understanding how people learn can make product messaging more effective because it can be presented in multiple formats. Many people in marketing lack practitioner experience and as a result marketing is not as effective as it could be. Practitioners are especially underrepresented in the Marketing function of many EdTech companies and this needs to change. Now I will make a case for hiring Sales Reps, Teachers and Industry practitioners in the marketing.
Case for hiring ex Sales Reps
Knows how to handle objections which can be applied to message
Experience dealing with customers, knows customer pain points
Sees how end-user uses the product
Can increase sales using Sales expertise to make messaging customer centric
Can assist with Sales and Marketing Alignment as companies need to work cross functionally
Understands the issues Sales Reps face and has the credibility of being a Rep when collaborating with Sales Teams
Experienced obtaining , qualifying and converting leads to Sales ie Lead Gen/Demand Gen
Hiring Industry practice experts
They are the customers and understand the pain points better than any market research should be in leadership roles
Healthcare does this with Doctors, Dentists
Tech does this with programmers and engineers.
Why not EdTech!
Can increase Sales because they are the customer and understand the pain points because they have experienced them in the job
This is the best market research/ buyer persona there is!
Case For hiring ex Teachers
understands how people learned
skilled at tailoring content for understanding based on learning needs
Today’s marketing is about educating customer and earning the right to market to them they educate their customers
Why it is not Good enough to just place them in Sales
People in Sales are not involved in the creative process and cannot change their cards and company messaging.
They cannot address weaknesses in messaging and product.
The Marketer of Tomorrow
Has all of the above in their background or at least a Sales background at a minimum.
My background
I have Marketing experience along with all of the above in my background.
In the EdTech Industry, I hit all of the above and I am qualified for a job in marketing especially being the industry practice expert. In healthcare I have two out of three. For all other verticals, I have two out of three because I was in Sales, I taught and understand how people learn.
Are you ready to increase Sales by improving Marketing? Your sales teams deserve better!
Change today!
How have you increased Sales by improving messaging? Comment and share below.
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 16,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 11,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. He is willing to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
The United States is an established country with a built up infrastructure. Depending on the product and industry, brands may see product sales hit a plateau based on a high market saturation rate.
Go to Market Strategy
One go to market strategy that brands may use to increase product sales is to sell into new markets. Chances are that brands have exhausted all markets and customers based in the United States. Upon reaching this conclusion, brands need to decide if they want to sell and market their products abroad based on the principle of cultural diffusion.
Cultural Diffusion
Cultural diffusion is the spread of one civilizations ideas, customs and beliefs from:
1. one nation to another
2. from another area or region to another.
To see if international marketing makes sense for brands, they must list the positives and negatives of this go to market strategy. Positive benefits include the chance to increase sales and gain revenue from a new source. A negative of this go to market strategy is that it will require a large outlay of operating cash to implement and execute. This may drain resources from other programs in the organization.
Contacting Local Authorities
Before brands can start selling products abroad, they need to check with the commerce division of the Foreign country’s government. The Commerce division of the government can guide brands on the proper procedures needed to sell and market products abroad.
Market Research
image via smartdraw.com
New Market research needs to be conducted for the international markets brands intend to sell into. This research includes, new buyer personas, competitive analysis, cost of customer acquisition, pricing, promotions, understanding local laws and customs.
Product Development
Product specifications need to be aligned with the customs and laws of the country. These products may need to be re-branded with a different name. Outside of the US, product measurements need to be converted to the metric system; triggering a change in the product packaging.
Examples of International Brands
A few examples of Global brands are Starbucks, McDonalds, Auto makers and Oil companies.
McDonald’s uses local ingredients to make its food. For example, in Greece they fry french fries with olive oil. McDonald offers alternative sandwiches in countries where citizens are not allowed to eat beef and pork.
Exxon Mobil, operates under the brand name ESSO in Europe and uses the metric system to measure gasoline.
Auto Makers
Image via Dan Galante
Global Automakers , use the metric system when making cars and trucks. Also, these cars and trucks are made to the specification of local laws. Vehicle models made for foreign markets have different brand names. In England and other UK countries, the steering wheel is on the opposite side of vehicles made for the US market.
Deciding What an International Go to Market Strategy will look like
Once brands have an understanding of customer needs and competitive analysis, they need to decide what channels to use to sell their products. Brands can set up stores and offices that sell direct to the end-user. They may decide to partner with distributors who sell to the end-user directly or through licensing and/or use an e-commerce model. Brands may decide to use a combination of the above channels. They also need to decide how many people will need to be hired to execute the go to market strategy.
Using Data to Make a decision about whether or not to Implement an International Marketing Strategy
All the numbers and projections need to be calculated to see if International marketing is right for Brands. Each brand need to examine its financial health, and come up with an investment amount needed to execute an international go to market strategy. This amount needs to be measured against: financial health , potential sales, revenue, profits, cost per customer acquisition, market research, procedure to enter the market and opportunity costs. Based on these numbers, brands may decide to enter the market or use their operating cash for other programs.
CMO’s are you selling your products abroad? Why or Why not?
Comment and share below.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference. Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 16,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 10,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. He is willing to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
Create content to keep current customers engaged; share new features and ways they can get the most out of your product or service. Use the content to stay in the mind of customers.
Use your blog and product check out to ask customers to opt in to your marketing messages. Once you obtain permission, you can create email marketing campaigns targeted to subscriber needs and interests.
Strength comes in numbers. It helps to have other noncompeting businesses with complementary products promoting your product and services. These businesses can have a similar customer base and audience that can help your business.
Cross promote partner content/offerings on Social Media and at events to facilitate a reciprocal relationship.
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. Hubspot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including a Start Up, Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 15,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 10,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
In order for Sales Reps to be successful in sales, they need to think like a Sales Manager. To be able to do this they need to be able to track their own numbers and activities in the Sales pipeline. Using a system such as Activity-Based Selling, it is now possible to see your numbers in real-time along with pending deals and actions needed for the next step. This kind of Sales analysis will help you be successful.
There are five tasks in the Activity-Based Selling system that you need to master to become your own Sales Manager which includes: 1.Meeting and Exceeding your Monthly quota, 2. Creating and implementing a daily sales plan 3. Prospecting for new leads and customers, 4.Turning in timely reports, 5.Using Sales CRM to aid in accomplishing the above.
Below, we will see each of these steps in more detail.
1.Meeting and Exceeding your Monthly quota
To be successful as a Sales Rep, it is imperative that you meet your monthly sales quota. In order to meet this quota or goal it is important to know what it is. To achieve this goal it’s important to have a conversation with your manager about how you will be evaluated and what numbers you will need to hit. The monthly sales quota that you receive may seem overwhelming at first.
Therefore, you should break it down into smaller parts. For example, a $100,000 per month quota divided by 20 working calendar days means that your sales must be a minimum of $5000 per day on average. To exceed the monthly goal, double the daily goal.
Now before you can dive head first into calling on customers and prospects you’ll need to have belief in yourself and the products you offer, product knowledge, competitive analysis of how your product measures up to competitors and at least a basic understanding of how to handle objections; if you are new to sales.
Common objections voiced by prospects include: pricing, loyalty to a competitor, bad prior experience, not being the decision maker and wanting to think it over.
Once you are assigned a Sales territory, it is important to understand its demographics. As a Sales Rep in a new territory, you want to know: the number of prospects, the geography of the territory and the locations of prospects on a map. Using this information, the next step would be to divide the number of prospects by the 20 calendar working days in a month to come up with the amount of daily calls needed to visit everyone in the territory. Use a map to determine the order of people you will call on. As a Sales rep, you will want to call on people near one another to manage your time effectively. Write this plan out and go over it with your manager and most importantly make sure to use it every day.
Now that you are executing your sales plan, it’s important to get in front of the people who could say yes to your offering. To be able to do this effectively, it is essential to be able to handle objections during sales calls. To have success, handling objections are the key to obtaining more sales from appointments. As you hone your selling skills, you will find it easier to make presentations and ask for the order. Once Sales are made it is important to make sure customers are satisfied with their purchase. You have earned the right to ask for more business, testimonials and referrals only after the sale and successful implementation of the product
As a Sales Rep, it is easy to get lost in the details when you are running a sales territory as there are many things to manage at once. However, you are still responsible to turn in your reports and update your records for customers and management; incomplete records can hurt your sales and your performance evaluation.
5.Using Sales CRM to aid in accomplishing all of the above
Sales CRM software allows you and your Manager to track all Sales pipeline activity which allows you to make informed decisions on all actions for all required interactions on pending deals.
Sales CRM enables Sales Reps to become their own Sales Manager, tracking their numbers and comparing them to other time periods gaining valuable insights on what is going well and what they can do to improve. This kind of Sales analysis and reflection enabled by Sales CRM is essential for sales success.
You can sign up for free trials and/or product demos by clicking the links above.
What Sales CRM are you using? Comment and share your experience below.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including a Start Up, Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes & publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 15,000 followers on LinkedIn & over 10,000 on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
2.Directly appealing to his people using positioning which is one of the 7 principles of Marketing
News broke of the attempted coup just after the closing bell of the NYSE.
The President of Turkey was able to use FaceTime to reach CNN International. Using FaceTime, the President of Turkey made a public appeal to the people of Turkey.
Drawing on his popularity, he used positioning to appeal and persuade Turkish citizens to go into the streets confront the military and put their lives at risk in the name of Democracy. Citizens are confronting a military that is using tanks and military jets.
The President’s ability to get people to fight for their country like this is a clear display of how powerful the tools of marketing and technology can be.
Currently, the military are shooting protesters attempting to the cross the bridge in Istanbul.
This is an ongoing story.
Do you think the President’s use of Marketing and Technology will be enough to stop the coup? Comment below.
I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.
COVID-19 forced US schools to Teach remotely for the first time in history back in March 2020. Many Teachers were not prepared to deliver remote instruction. Parents complained that the quality of their child’s education has declined since remote instruction began. Schools used this remote learning model until the end of the school year. As Summer vacation ends, parents grapple with the issue of whether they want to send their children back to school.
Many school districts across the US such as those in California have opted to keep remote learning for the fall because COVID-19 has resurged. In areas where COVID-19 cases are down, school districts such as New York City have opted for blended learning models where students report to school on some days and learn from home for the rest. According to Common Sense Media, over 50 million public school students in kindergarten through 12th grade will be learning remotely from home this year.
While safety is a top priority, the job of a school is to educate students. Parents are not satisfied with the public education offerings that have been presented for the Fall 2020 school year. This dissatisfaction with public education has made many parents seek out educational alternatives beyond blended and remote learning. These alternatives include learning pods, and supplemental education services such as tutoring.
Learning Pods Versus Tutoring
Learning pods are small learning communities where students meet every day to get instruction from a Teacher. This is different than tutoring because tutors review and reteach material as opposed to presenting new concepts. Tutoring functions as an educational supplement.
Why Parents are opting for In-Person Learning Pods
Parents that opt to use learning pods are looking to gain an educational advantage for their children by recreating traditional schools in a small group setting. The benefits of learning pods are that student instructional and social-emotional needs are met.
The Downside and Risk of In-Person Learning Pods
While this might sound like the perfect fix to remote learning and blended learning it comes with risks. The risks are that students and teachers are still at risk to contract COVID-19.
Another drawback of in-person learning pods is finding space. To address the issues of space, parents are buying apartments and houses; transforming them into schoolhouses. Marie spent $2000 to transform her guest house into a classroom she ordered desks, a whiteboard, a 50-inch television to live stream zoom tutorials, and built a library complete with personalized pencil boxes and workbooks.
Another mother is spending $720 per week to have her preschool son tutored in french with two of his friends.
Amanda Uhry, the NYC-based founder of Manhattan Private School Advisors, states Pandemic in-person pods can cost parents up to $100,000.
Some NYC parents are spending up to $70,000 on elite pod teachers, plus $2,500-a-month on studio apartments to serve as makeshift classrooms, plus an additional $50,000 to keep their kids enrolled at their private schools.
Why Virtual Learning Pods are the best option
How can parents get the benefits of a learning pod at an affordable price? Parents can look to tutoring services that offer virtual learning pods. Virtual learning pods eliminate the need for physical space making them more affordable than in-person learning pods. Groups of parents can sign their children up together in a virtual learning pod to lower the cost even more.
Virtual learning pods take the benefits of traditional school and put it online. Students get the benefits of individualized attention and social interaction all of which are lacking in traditional remote learning. Parents can have peace of mind that knowing that their child will not contract COVID-19; something that pricey in-person learning pods can not guarantee.
How Education Companies Can Corner the Learning Pod Market
Companies that offer Teacher staffing, tutoring, and instructional materials to schools can seize the opportunity in the learning pod market because they are well established in their industry.
K-12 Education and learning companies that hire seasoned certified teachers as tutors and learning pod instructors will be able to do better than companies who hire non-certified or inexperienced Teachers. Why? The reason is that Teacher certification and experience will help companies overcome the credibility hurdle. For Education companies that offer virtual learning pods, the teachers and tutors would need to be skilled in distance learning and remote teaching.
Would you choose a learning pod over traditional instruction for your child?
Why or why not?
Join the conversation.
Posted 202 weeks ago
Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today
I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.
High-quality content created on a blog or newsletters has amazing potential to be shared, increasing readership. However, just creating content; sharing it in its original form on many channels multiple times will continue to yield diminishing results. Results are diminishing because Social Networks and the blog-sphere are bombarded with content. As a result, quality content will be overlooked. Now if you are reading this confused about what to do next, relax you are not alone. When I started blogging I thought the very same thing. Here is where content repurposing can help.
Creating Channels for Content
However, before content can be repurposed, channels to share the content must be established in addition to a blog and LinkedIn. These additional channels that you create will ensure that your content reaches a broader audience which increases opportunities for social sharing. I would start by creating accounts on other social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Slideshare.
The first I would do is to change the wording of the title or put the title in the form of a question. Putting the title in the form of a question invites the audience to weigh in.
Your title should reflect the topic that you are writing about while being engaging to readers. Most people skim the headlines as they are overloaded with content.
Additional popular titles and content ideas include:
How to’s,
1.lists ex 7 ways to _______
2.Ask Me Anything/ Questions and Answers
3.What I learned
4.Trends in
5.Newsjacking a story with your analysis
6 Coverage of industry events sharing trends and insights
7.Interviews with Industry leaders
Calls to Action
A great call to action would be: feel free to comment, or ask a question of the reader at the end of the post. Other calls to action could be a link to a website, landing page, content, etc… using words like learn more, read more, see a demo, contact us to name a few.
By having a call to action to comment, readers are more likely to start a discussion and share the content. It is important to talk with your audience and not at them.
SEO tags Keywords
Make sure to pick keywords that reflect your topic. LinkedIn, WordPress, and Tumblr allow users to include as many as they would like while Medium’s platform allows only five.
Images
Make sure when you upload an image that it reflects what your post is about.
About the Author section
I would add an about the author section at the bottom of each article. This is another great way to showcase the author’s expertise; incorporating a call to action such as: see how we can help or click here to sign up for a free demo.
Repurposing Formats beyond a blog
The contents of the article can be put into different formats such as a PowerPoint, YouTube video, ebook, whitepaper, newsletter, publication, and Podcast. All of these formats can be uploaded to SlideShare. The article can be published to LinkedIn’s publishing platform as well. Your article can also be written having presentations and videos embedded in the article itself. Content can be cross-promoted across content and social channels, in calls to action; embedded, and in links. There are endless ways to repurpose content.
The overall content strategy should be based on how your customers learn and the types and format of content based on their wants and needs.
Another key element to creating both customer-centered presentations and digital content is knowledge of buyer learning styles.
Customer-Centered Sales & Marketing Presentations
Developing Your Presentation
When you start to develop your presentation, it is important to know your prospects’ business. It is imperative to know your products and services; specifically how the prospect can benefit from them. As a salesperson, it is your responsibility to uncover what the prospects’ needs are. The next thing that has to be done is to know how your company and your products compare to the competition.
How do buyers learn best?
There are three learning styles, Visual, Auditory, and kinesthetic. 65 percent of learners are Visual but this is not everyone.
Product knowledge is a must. (You should also know what motivates the prospect to buy.) Based on whom your prospect is currently using as a supplier, you can use this information to show how you are better than whom they are currently using. Only after you have done this research are you ready to move forward.
Preventing Objections
Make sure the sales and marketing content in your presentation is thorough and can answer as many questions as possible. Your goal is to prevent objections and questions by prospects by covering them in your presentation.
Testimonials
Make sure to have testimonials from loyal customers with you. (Many times prospects will ask who else you have worked with before considering you.) Make sure to include product specifications and an ROI analysis if the product you are selling is a big-ticket item.
Practice
You should also practice your presentation to make sure it sounds polished. Get your manager and colleagues to watch your presentation and critique it. Filming yourself and watching your presentation will help you improve.
Remember to not be nervous and to convey your enthusiasm through your tone of voice and body language. Do not cross your arms and make sure to make eye contact with your prospect. Make sure to speak slowly, clearly, and in a loud voice.
Delivering Your Presentation
Your presentation should include a demonstration of your product whenever possible. You should coordinate with your prospect to make sure there is a projector available if you are going to use visual aids. Also if you are going to use PowerPoint or any visual aids, make sure to use them only when necessary to supplement your presentation. Remember you are conducting the presentation, not the visual aids.
Customer/Prospect Engagement: Making the Presentation Customer Centered
Make it a point to get prospects involved in your presentation. It is about engaging your prospect. Have them plug things in, play with the buttons, etc… You want the prospect to develop an attachment with your product. Presenting in a way that prospects feel comfortable learning and processing information.
How do buyers learn best?
There are three learning styles, Visual, Auditory, and kinesthetic. 65 percent of learners are Visual but this is not everyone.
Handling Objections & Stalls from Prospects
In sales, everyone has to be able to overcome objections to be successful. The best way to overcome objections is to prevent them. This can be done by providing a thorough sales presentation that covers all the information about your products and services. Also, you must address any questions the prospect has immediately. However, objections will come up from time to time. Some of these objections are real buying signals and others are just stalls to put you off. As a Salesperson, you need to be able to tell the difference.
1.I am happy with my current supplier.
When you call on a prospect they say we are happy with our current supplier, this can mean one of two things. The first is that they are truly happy and the second is that they want you to get lost. (A stall) You need to be able to tell the difference. You should be able to tell by a prospect’s body language and level of attention.
If it is the first scenario, you should find out what supplier they currently use. When the prospect tells you it is your job to demonstrate how you are better. Once you feel that you have demonstrated how you are better, ask for a commitment or small order. By asking for small order, you provide the prospect an opportunity to take a chance on you with minimal risk. I have had a lot of success with this approach.
If the scenario is the second one, the prospect will not provide you with any information or say that they deal with a company or person for 20 years and they do not want to change. In this case, I would still ask for the order. Should the prospect say he is not interested again, I would thank them for their time and leave. You should call on this prospect a few more times and then only call on them every two months. You need to focus your time on prospects that are receptive to you and your offering.
2.I want to think it over.
When you hear this, what the prospect is saying is I am interested but I am not convinced. You should ask the prospect what specifically about this offer do you want to think over? Your goal here is to uncover the real objection. If the prospect gives you a specific answer, you are in business. Address the objection and ask a closing question. Say if I can handle XYZ, is there any reason why you would not purchase this product. Should the prospect say, no you covered everything, this means that they are either stalling, not interested in your offering, or will not tell you the real issue they have with your product. If this is the case, ask when they plan on making a decision and follow up with them in that time frame.
3. I need to consult another party.
This can be a stall to put you off. You will need to determine this by the prospect’s body language and the level of attention you receive. When the prospect tells you this, you should ask for a meeting with the prospect and the person they need to consult. Should the prospect agree to this, you have a chance. If they will not agree to a meeting, it is a stall and they are not interested in your offering. However, I would still call on them a few more times. If you have no success, call on them every two months.
4. I am not the Decision-Maker. — The Columbo Technique
During some cold calls to dental offices, I was not able to obtain the information that I needed to overcome prospect objections. This occurred because the person I was speaking to was not the decision-maker. As a result, they were reluctant to talk for fear that they would say the wrong things or give away too much information on their bosses’ business. Despite their reluctance, I would continue to talk with them, build rapport and bond. I would ask to speak to the decision-maker but many times they were not in the office, or the person I was speaking with would not want to disturb them for fear of getting reamed out when I left the office.
When this was the case, I would use the Columbo technique to get the information that I needed. I would turn to leave the office, put my hand on the doorknob and ask who their supplier was or when I could catch the boss. Usually, the person I was speaking with would provide me with a lot of information about the prospect. Even more, than I expected! This is because the person that I was speaking with put their guard down. After all, they thought I was leaving the office so one last question didn’t seem so bad.
During other cold calls, I was able to speak to the decision-maker. I would build rapport with them and try to obtain as much information as I could to overcome their objections. Many times the prospect would be reluctant to give me information; stating that they were happy with their supplier or they were too busy to speak to me. When they used the supplier objection, I would employ the Columbo technique; turn to leave and ask who their supplier was. Many times they would tell me and I would ask them for a few moments of their time to show how my products were better. I would get the time and close the prospect on giving me a trial order. I developed some of my best customers this way. Other times, I was able to obtain a follow-up appointment with the prospect.
The key to the Columbo technique is to get prospects talking. Even if it’s about things not related to their business at first. You want to make them comfortable talking with you. Next, you want to save the question you want to know for the end of the conversation because the prospect will most likely answer it thinking you are going to leave their office. In other words, their guard is down.
The Columbo technique is a great way to close sales and obtain information.
Your price is too high.
Emphasize the quality of your product along with the level of service you will provide. Next, you should demonstrate to the prospect how your offering’s total cost is less than the competitors over the life of the product. This is when you can bring up the competition showing how your products are superior in terms of product features and benefits using market research. Testimonials or social proof from loyal customers can also help. By taking these steps you demonstrate that your product is valuable and increase your chances of making the sale. (Provided this is the real objection.)
5. We spent our budget.
If they say the money is not the budget, ask If I can offer delayed billing or a payment plan would you be able to take delivery? If the person needs approval from another person, ask to present your product to that individual with your prospect’s endorsement. Should the company want and need your product, they will find a way to pay for it.
6. I had a bad experience with your company.
I would apologize to the prospect about the experience. Tell them you are the new rep and that you will not let anything bad happen on your watch. Ask them to give you a chance. This will not work all of the time.
7. Call me After the Holidays.
During the holiday season, many people are in holiday and party shopping mode. from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and many other things. Also, everyone is thinking about going to parties. So the last thing on your customer’s and prospects’ minds is to make a year-end purchase; unless they receive a year-end tax advantage. As a sales rep, you are under pressure to close deals so you can earn that bonus. Unless your customer is in a buying mood, you are going to hear the objection “call me after the holidays”. If you have done business with this customer, you will have an easier time than if you are making a cold call.
To combat this objection. You have to attempt to get around this objection. If your offer is time-sensitive or if you can provide a break on pricing or payment through a special promotion for example no payments for 3 months; make your customer aware of them. However, at this time of the year, you will get customers and prospects who just don’t want to deal with you and your offering. As a sales rep, it is your job to be able to tell if the customer and prospect are telling you the truth. In other words, you need to qualify their objections. This means following up with every customer and prospect even when things look bleak.
Should your customers and prospects insist that call you after the holidays, I would find out which holiday they mean. Next, I would pin them down to a specific day and time to call back. I recommend sending your customers and prospects a holiday card with a little note reminding them about the appointment; stating how you look forward to speaking with them on the specific date and time. Once this time comes, I would hold them to their promise. Deliver your presentation and ask for the business.
Post Presentation Follow up
After you leave, be sure to follow up with a hand-written thank you note. Even if you did not make the sale, it is important to be grateful to the prospect for their time. You want to stay in front of the prospect because things always change. There is always a next time!
How do you create sales and marketing content and presentations?
I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skill-sets using Marketing to drive Sales/Growth.
As a Marketer, I’ve worked with Start-Ups, a Political Campaign, and a Digital Marketing Conference. I’m certified in Inbound Marketing with classes in Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, SEO, SEM.
Before teaching, I was an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep. selling and marketing dental products to Dentists using consultative selling, trade show marketing, field marketing, and market research.
I publish Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today a blog covering industry events and trends.
Articles and insights have been featured, mentioned, and, referenced in:
•SlideShare for being in the top 5% of profiles viewed in 2014
•LinkedIn Profile was in the top 1% of profiles viewed out of 200 million members in 2012
I’m seeking a full-time role in:
Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Product Marketing, Demand Generation, Social Media Marketing, Sales Enablement Enablement, Sales Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Employer Branding, Recruitment Marketing. Reach out to start a conversation on LinkedIn or email me at dan@dangalante.com
