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.
Many people ask, what is the best day and time to execute an email campaign?
Instead of trying to get the best day and time to execute an email marketing campaign, I would instead focus on developing compelling content that includes visuals.
Before starting you should be able to answer the following questions when creating the content for your email campaign:
1) What message do I want to send?
2) What action do I want my customers and prospects to take?
3) Is the content of my message relevant to my customers?
4) Will customers see the email campaign as a value message or just another solicitation?
For example, I write a blog on the topics of sales, marketing and social media. My readers can choose to follow me through my RSS feed, through email, Wordpress,Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I use my blog to do my email marketing. As you can see my blog is seen by those whore receive it through email and the other ways I mentioned as a value message. In fact, when you enter your email address to subscribe to my blog, you will receive a confirmation email. This is known as an opt-in.
It is important to note that when building an email list that you get the recipients consent through an opt-in. If you are building a list from your website you can use services such as Constant Contact. When executing an email campaign, make sure to protect the privacy your customers by blind copying them. When the customer receives the email, it should say sent to undisclosed recipients.
To answer the original question, I would say that any day and time is a great day to engage consumers through email marketing; especially in today’s digital world. Consumers are on different schedules and have different needs so it is hard to predict which day would be best to send out emails. If you wanted to obtain concrete data on which day would be best to email consumers. You would need to develop and implement a survey that asks consumers what day they opened and received your messages.
Services such as SurveyMonkey can be used to create the surveys. I use a widget on my site to obtain feedback on what content people want to see from me. This information could then be compared with the customer’s date of purchase to see how long it took them act on your message. (The sales cycle)
If at first you get a low response rate to your survey, you may need to offer an incentive like a gift card for each completed survey or a chance to win a gift card in a drawing; this would be dependent on your budget.
In Non-Profit Organizations, funds to help people and causes are largely generated from donations and grants. Donations and grants are what pays employees and other operational expenses. While many Non-Profit organizations get donors to donate money, they struggle to get repeat donations from these donors. According to Seth Godin, the average donor retention rate is 29.3%. This leaves a lot of missing Revenue.
Much like their for Profit Counterparts, Non-Profits need to find ways to keep and retain customers. It is cheaper to retain current customers than to acquire new ones. Yes, Customer Acquisition is important but it is not effective to forget about current customers as they can help with customer acquisition using work of mouth.
Non-Profits can Generate Revenue beyond Donations and Grants in the following ways:
Charging for Conferences and events
Creating a Subscription Based Blog or Newsletter either charging for this or offering a freeminum model with paid features
Offering Free Trials of Products and Services then charging for them
Charge for Memberships to the Non-Profit or Professional Association offering discounted pricing to stakeholders at various institutions
Partner with Colleges and Universities to Offer Free Memberships to Students with elevated pricing as they go into the profession
Partner with the Private Sector, offer Sponsorships.
I am conducting a job search for a full-time Marketing role. ( CMO to Marketing Specialist, Marketing Associate etc…)
I’m willing to build Marketing from scratch if no marketing function exists.
My combination of Outside Sales, Marketing, Social Media and Classroom Teaching experience makes me an excellent Marketing candidate for your organization.
Hiring?
Contact me via LinkedIn or E-Mail to set up interviews. If you are not hiring, share this with people that are looking to hire.
See how I can improve your Sales and Revenue using Marketing.
Many people who are new to Sales think that if a Customer does not ask questions or raise Objections during a Sales call; the Sale is moving forward. They find themselves surprised when the customer does not want to buy when they ask for the order. This assumes the Sales person has the courage to ask for the order.
Why Customer Objections are Sales Tools
When the Customer does not ask questions about a product or service it demonstrates a lack of interest. Sales objections are sales tools because the customer shows interest by asking questions. These questions allow the Sales person to build rapport and trust with potential customers. They get to demonstrate their product knowledge and expertise. Without any customer objections or questions, reps have no way to measure their progress during the sales call; making it impossible to pivot. This makes it hard to make sales and build a relationship with the customer.
Why Customer Objections are Marketing Tools
There are certain things that come up when customer raise objections. Over time, Sales people will be able to see patterns of these objection. Objections are raised about pricing, bad past experiences, budgeting, being happy with a competitor and product inferiority. While Reps need to be able to handle objections; if they keep losing the sales for the same reason, they need to share this information with the marketing and product development teams.
How Marketing can Help Sales
Based on the feedback from Sales, Marketing Teams can Create and improve Sales/Marketing Collateral to address potential objections.
Most businesses will not necessarily be creating new product categories. As a result, they will be entering into a market place that already exists. This is true if you are a re-seller or distributor of products and services. Once you decide that there is a market for your products and services; you need to study your competitors.
Image via Smartdraw.com
You will need to perform a SWOT analysis by assessing your strengths and weaknesses compared to your competitors on the products you offer, the price, quality, the service, reliability, stability, expertise, company reputation, location and appearance of your business along with how important it is to the customer.
Traditional Uses of Market Research
Most companies use Market Research for internal purposes IE education of Marketing and Sales teams on features, position in the marketplace and product descriptions.
Examples of Market Research as an Online Sales & Marketing Tool
What if companies could use Market research as an online sales and marketing tool, putting the analysis on their website? Justworks is doing just that. Justworks offers seamless payroll, tax filings, HR support, and access to affordable benefits in an all-in-one solution.
Visitors to the Justworks site are able to access the information quickly without providing their information. Also, the company presents the Market Research in a quick and visually appealing format.
Justworks invites users to compare them to the competition; showing that they believe in their product and service.
The company allows visitors to compare fees and pricing along with each of the services they offer. When visitors click, they get to see a drop down menu of how Justworks compares to the competition.
At the bottom of each menu, Justworks supports its claims with customer testimonials in the form of user case studies. Users are invited to Read more in a call to action.
This is an innovate way to use Market Research as an Online Sales and Marketing tool because it helps build trust with prospects. Sharing Market Research as seen above helps position a company as an industry resource. Prospects have access to more choices and information than ever before; making it essential for companies to provide information in a quick and easy to understand format.
Have you used Market Research as an Online Sales and Marketing tool. Comment and share below.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including: Start Ups, a Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to serving as a Classroom teacher, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to over 18,000 followers on LinkedIn and over 17,000 on WordPress.
Dan’s articles and insights on Sales, Marketing and Social Media have been featured, mentioned and referenced in major Business Publications such as:
Dan has been honored for his Social Profiles & Content
•Recognized by Klout for having a Score putting him in the Top 10 % of Social Media Users
•LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score in the Top 1%
•Honored by SlideShare for being in the top 5% of profiles viewed in 2014
•Honored by LinkedIn in 2012 for being in the top 1% of profiles viewed out of 200 million members
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content ans 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. Contact him to set up interviews. dan@dangalante.com
The Teaching profession has changed a great deal over the years. The job of a Teacher was to do the following: plan lessons, teach the lessons, grade/evaluate student work, manage the classroom behavior, communicate with parents about student progress and collaborate to reflect on their teaching practices with colleagues/supervisors.
Today, Teachers need to educate and engage Students with various learning needs including General Education, Special Education and English Language learners. Common Core and State Standards mandate that Lessons plans and Student assessment need to be able differentiated to meet the needs of every student. Student needs are more than just academic as their Social and Emotional needs need to be met as well. Teaching is a lot more challenging than is used to be but with challenges come opportunity to make an impact in the lives of our students.
Nationally, there are changes going on in Education between U.S states and the federal government on the implementation of common core and state standards. Year round schooling is being implemented in certain parts of the country. Vocational and CTE Schools and training is also on the rise.
Let’s look at how education has changed in New York State, specifically in New York City.
Shifts in Acceptable Teaching practices from the Teacher Centered Method to The Student Centered Method
The Teacher Centered Method
Teachers could create a library of lessons that could be used repeatedly. Teachers were the center of the lesson. This was an acceptable practice as learning requirements and standards changed at a slow rate.
The Student Centered Method
Under the student centered method Teachers are required to create and deliver lessons that are: differentiated based on student learning style, having students work in groups, and insisting that students take ownership for their learning. Administrators are required to rate teachers poorly in instructional areas where they are not meeting standards.
The Changing Teacher Evaluation
With the increases in Teacher and Administrator pay, a new evaluation system was developed. This required Teacher understanding and execution of instructional practices such as: data driven instruction, implementation of the Co-Teaching model and demands for increased collaboration between General Education and Special Education.
The Teacher Evaluation: From Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Rating to the Danielson Framework
For example, in New York City, the evaluations of teachers consisted of Principals and Assistant Principals doing 10 minute pop in observations. The forms consisted of check off questions such as: how the teacher dressed, was the room organized, did the teacher arrive on time and how was the Teacher’s attendance.
Under the Danielson Framework
Teachers ability to Teacher is Evaluated more in depth based on new guidelines and standards.
The Changing School Evaluation
School evaluations of Administrators have also become more rigorous as a school is seen as one big classroom of the Principal. You can see it in the Quality Review rubric
Teachers and Administrators need tools to help them do their jobs better. These tools can come in the form of learning technologies, customized professional development delivered by current and former Teachers/Administrators and Implementation support and training on all education products sold into K-20 schools.
How EdTech can Gain MarketShare in K-12 and Higher Education
The purpose of the Sales & Marketing functions is to drive revenue for the organization.
Below you will find Sales & Marketing Strategies for driving revenue that can be Applied in EdTech
1.Market Research & Competitor Analysis
Before businesses can sell anything, they need to determine if there is a market for their products and services.
Most businesses will not necessarily be creating new product categories. As a result, they will be entering into a market place that already exists. This is true if you are a re-seller or distributor of products and services. Once you decide that there is a market for your products and services; you need to study your competitors.
Surveys can be a great way to get information about prospects and customers. You can ask specific questions that can provide information on what the prospect is looking for. Also you can ask questions about when the prospect is looking to make a purchase. This information can be stored in CRM software. Surveys can be done through direct mail, email or online through internet polls.
3. Using Inbound Marketing & Creating Buyer Personas
I want to define Inbound Marketing. Inbound Marketing is Marketing based on getting found by customers. It’s customer-centric. With Inbound Marketing, businesses create customer-centric content based on customers needs. Content could take the form of blogs, videos and SEO.
Inbound Marketing is very different from Outbound or Traditional Marketing. In Outbound or Traditional Marketing, businesses would: buy advertising such as TV or Display ads to interrupt prospects, cold call or cold email to get their message out.
There are plenty of ways for marketers to measure the reach of their content and track customer behavior with marketing analytics. Many of these resources can prove to be quite expensive but in some cases make sense to purchase. However, there are plenty of free sources for marketing analytics.
5. Referrals/Testimonials from Customers
Referrals and testimonials from your customers is one of the best ways to get leads because they remove doubt from the prospects mind about your capabilities to perform. Referrals could take the form of a video, a recommendation on LinkedIn or a SlideShare presentation. I have the last two that I listed. Referrals and Testimonials should speak to the quality of your work.
6. In person testimonials at trade shows
Providing customers with great products and experiences is a great way to get customers to help market your products and services.
Customers are usually delighted to provide referrals and testimonials for companies and products that work. That being said, you need to show your appreciation to customers who put their name and reputation on the line for you.
8. Business Networking
Attending networking events at your local chamber of commerce or at a professional association can be a great way to meet potential prospects and to generate leads. At these events you can talk informally and exchange business cards. You can briefly discuss who you are and what you do then move on; remember you want to network with as many people as possible.
9. Email Marketing
Email lists can be purchased from a list broker or self-generated from your address book. You can also use services like Constant Contact & Mailchip that allows people to enter their email addresses if they want email from your business. This is known as allowing them to opt in. Before proceeding with an Email campaign make sure to get permission from people through an opt-in email. If you do not get peoples’ permission to send them email it can be considered spam.
Email is a cheaper item than mail. You can have a wider reach to your customers. I would suggest creating a message that is compelling. Make sure to use pictures and colors that look appealing.
10. Social Media/Customer Service issues on Social Networks
Today, many people and organizations are using Social Media to get their message out. If you are not using Social Media you are missing an opportunity. The major Social networks are LinkedIn, Twitter ,Facebook tumblr, & Wordpress. These networks have similarities in the sense they are designed for people to communicate. Here is how to get started on these platforms.
Customer Service issues on Social Networks
In my post Building the Brands of Tomorrow, I stated that one of the things that companies needed to do to build the brand of the future is to listen to their customers. This means handling customer complaints promptly. We are in the digital age. In this age, social networks are the wave of the future. Today’s consumer is an empowered consumer. Today’s social consumer can quickly share their thoughts about a product or an experience on Facebook, Twitter, Google and many other networks. Brands need to be present on social networks to interact and engage with the empowered consumer. More and more consumers are consulting their social networks for product recommendations.
11. Blogging- Wordpress, Tumblr, Medium & LinkedIn
Blogging is a great way to build your brand and market your products to the masses using Inbound Marketing. Writing a blog allows you to demonstrate your expertise through writing. Blogging helps to provide prospects and customers with valuable information. Providing valuable information helps to position you as an expert and a resource. (Content Creation)
Writing a blog is great way to share your ideas and market your expertise in an area. I began blogging back in November 2011. Blogging had connected me with so many great people around the globe. I began publishing on the Wordpress platform. In this post, I am going to discuss how to set up your blog on Wordpress and Tumblr.
image via zanderchance.com
Wordpress & Tumblr are great publishing platforms where users can create customized & branded content which includes domain names. For tips on setting up a blog click here.
Writing on LinkedIn’s long form post is similar to writing blog posts. Your goal is to engage your readers & build an audience. Let’s explore the features of the LinkedIn publishing platform.
High quality content created on a blog has amazing potential to be shared, increasing blog 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 continue to be bombarded with content. As a result, too much quality content will be overlooked. Now if you are reading this confused 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.
Content creation is one of the best ways to engage an audience, making it essential to content marketing. However, we simply cannot cover every single topic in our industry. This is where content curation comes in handy, content curation is where you share the work of others in your industry. Content curation can enhance your content marketing efforts in the following ways:
13. Obtaining Content from Customer Service & Sales Teams
Once brands convert prospects into customers, they still need to focus on and support customers post sale. Here is where Content Marketing can help. Brands can use Content Marketing for customer retention, cross-selling and up-selling. To take advantage of this, brands need to involve both their Sales and Customer service team in their Content Marketing strategy.
14. Trade Show Marketing
It is important to attend industry trade shows either as an exhibitor or an attendee. Trade shows are a great way to keep up to date with trends in your industry. This will allow you to hone your expertise which your customers pay for. Trade shows are a great place for you to get leads because customers go to them looking to make purchases either at the show or soon after. If you are an exhibitor, require attendees to give you their contact information to see a demonstration of your product. This can be the start of an informal conversation which you can follow-up on later.
15. Advertising
Businesses can advertise their products and services. The advertising can be a spot on the radio, television, Social Media, print and billboards. Television ads can be short commercials that appear on TV shows or they can take the form Infomercials which are at least a half hour in length.
Television has been a preferred method of advertising for years because television has a massive audience. The internet is also a great way to advertise. You can use pay-per-click advertising on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google. (LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads,Google AdWords) This is an effective method because you can specify who you want to see your ad by different demographics such as Geography, Age, and Profession. You can also use keywords to trigger your ads.
16. Print
Placing ads in newspapers can also help your business because newspapers have many readers. Newspapers are usually in print and online. Your advertising on this platform could take the form of a classified ad or article marketing. Industry trade magazines also fall into this category. Billboards can also help your businesses visibility.
17. Direct Mail
Direct mail can be a great way to find prospects. You can create a message with pictures and compelling copy. The idea is to piqué the interest of your prospect and to include a card with paid postage that they can send back requesting more information. You can use CRM software to track your results and fine tune who to target.
18. Creating a Sales Plan supported by CRM software
In my last post, I spoke about how to identify your target market and how to build a prospecting list. In this post, I will cover how to develop and implement a sales plan. Also I will cover how the sales funnel works and how it relates to sales success. The Marketing function of an organization can use marketing automation for related their activities as ACT! and Salesforce offer marketing automation software.
19. Handling Customer Objections
In sales, everyone has to be able to overcome objections in order 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 it is imperative that you address any questions the prospect has immediately. However, objections will come up from time to time.
20. Becoming your own Sales Manager
Anyone who is in inside or outside sales has to meet sales quotas/sales goals of a certain type. The role of a Sales Manager is to hire, mentor, train and motivate the Sales Team. A Sales Manager is also accountable for setting the sales goals of their team and making sure that these goals are meet and exceeded. Sales Managers are provided with salary and an override of the teams total sales. Each Sales Reps goals make up a piece of this total sales goal. A Sales Manager’s duties will vary by the size of the organization and its structure.
Math and Sales Data are essential to improve the sales efforts of Sales Reps. The use of Math and Sales Data can provide a wealth of insights in terms of how effective a businesses sales campaigns are doing.
22. Receivables, and Collections
When we deal with customers, it is important to get them to pay their invoices in a timely manner. What a timely manner means is dependent on your company’s payment policy. Are these customers C.O.D or are they net 30, net 60, net 90 or longer? This payment structure is based on the length of the sales cycle.
In sales, we all have to deal with difficult customers. Today, I am going discuss how to deal with difficult customers. In a previous post, I discussed how to get customers to pay on time. Each situation needs to be put in context. In other words, why were the customers being difficult? Were they being difficult because you screwed up their order or service call?
24. Creating Sales & Marketing Content to engage Customers
In my last post, I covered how to make a cold call where I described about how to make an on the spot sales & marketing presentation. Now I will cover how to develop and deliver a customer centered sales & marketing presentation to a decision maker when you are on an appointed call.
There are three learning styles, Visual, Auditory & kinesthetic.
65 percent of learners are Visual but this is not everyone. In the presentation below, I provide you with ideas and strategies to
1. Collect information on your buyers learning style
2.Create presentations and content that will engage buyers with content that is optimized to their learning style making it more engaging
3. Create differentiated presentations and content for all learners when buyer learning styles are unknown.
Getting people to pay attention to your message and brand is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s attention economy. This is especially true when making a Sales and Marketing presentation. When making a presentation using PowerPoint/Slide-decks, are you inundating your prospects and audience with slide after slide of visuals? While visuals are important, too many of them can overwhelm your prospects and audience. Remember the goal of your presentation is to inform, persuade and engage your audience to take action based on your message. You do not want overwhelm and/or bore your audience.
What sales & marketing strategies have you used to drive revenue? Comment and share below?
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including: Start Ups, a Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to serving as a Classroom teacher, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught & trained Dentists on the company’s products and 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 15,000 on WordPress.
Dan’s articles & insights on Sales, Marketing & Social Media have been featured, mentioned & referenced in major Business Publications such as:
Dan has been honored for his Social Profiles & Content
•Recognized by Klout for having a Score putting him in the Top 10 % of Social Media Users
•LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score in the Top 1%
•Honored by SlideShare for being in the top 5% of profiles viewed in 2014
•Honored by LinkedIn in 2012 for being in the top 1% of profiles viewed out of 200 million members
Dan is seeking an EdTech full-time marketing role in Direct, Inbound, Digital, Content and 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. Contact him to set up interviews. dan@dangalante.com
We are in the digital age. In this age, social networks are the wave of the future. Today’s consumer is empowered. Social consumers quickly share their thoughts about a product or an experience on Facebook, Twitter, Google and many other networks. Brands need to be present on social networks to interact and engage with the empowered consumer. More consumers are consulting their social networks for product recommendations. It is important for brands to listen to their customers on social networks.
image via Shopify.com
Scenario
An article goes out on Twitter about how a customer credits a particular tool with helping her improve business results. A group of disgruntled Influencers and Industry insiders reply negatively claiming the story was paid for or sponsored by the company.
I would do the following to address the issue:
Handle the situation right away stating that the story was not paid for and that the customer was a satisfied user of the product
Edit the content to state that no one was paid for their opinion
To address Tweet that said, (“Company X just takes money from people to put up this crap- that tool sucks.”)
I would:
Ask them to explain why they felt that way and if they had an issue with the product
Share this with the company so they could address any issues these customers may have had with the product
I would take immediate action to make sure the situation was contained. My priority would be to protect the company brand.
How have you handled challenges on Social Media? Comment and share below.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including: Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to serving as a Classroom teacher, 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 15,000 on WordPress.
Dan’s articles & insights on Sales, Marketing & Social Media have been featured, mentioned & referenced in major Business Publications such as:
Dan has been honored for his Social Profiles & Content
•Recognized by Klout for having a Score putting him in the Top 10 % of Social Media Users
•LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score in the Top 1%
•Honored by SlideShare for being in the top 5% of profiles viewed in 2014
•Honored by LinkedIn in 2012 for being in the top 1% of profiles viewed out of 200 million members
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. Contact him to set up interviews. dan@dangalante.com
High quality content created on a blog that is shared on social media can potentially double traffic to a website. However, just creating content; sharing it in its original form on many channels multiple times yields diminishing results. Results are diminishing because social networks and the blog-sphere continue to be bombarded with content. As a result, quality content will be overlooked. Content Repurposing helps make content stand out.
Content can be repurposed in the following ways:
1: The Type of Content i.e. Blog post, Podcast, Video, Audio, SlideShare Presentations
2. Content can be repurposed by learning styles i.e. Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic
3. Creating a posting schedule for social networks with using different aspects of an article
There are many ways to create content from blogs, podcasts, videos and audio. To know what your audience really wants, it is important to ask them. This could be done in the form of a survey asking: how they learn best, how they prefer to take in information and their learning style. Collecting this information helps brands to create compelling content users engage with resulting in higher sharing and increased traffic to the website.
It is important to have a posting schedule as each social network has its own best practices.
In addition to posting on a schedule, each link should have different copy from when it was first published; highlighting a different aspect of the post. This could take the form of a quote or fact from the post.
Content repurposing is my favorite option for doubling social media traffic to a website site because in the end it is all about engagement. If people are engaged with the content they will share it resulting in increased traffic.
How have you doubled site traffic from social networks? Comment and share below.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including: Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to serving as a Classroom teacher, 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 15,000 on WordPress.
Dan’s articles & insights on Sales, Marketing & Social Media have been featured, mentioned & referenced in major Business Publications such as:
Dan has been honored for his Social Profiles & Content
•Recognized by Klout for having a Score putting him in the Top 10 % of Social Media Users
•LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score in the Top 1%
•Honored by SlideShare for being in the top 5% of profiles viewed in 2014
•Honored by LinkedIn in 2012 for being in the top 1% of profiles viewed out of 200 million members
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. Contact him to set up interviews. dan@dangalante.com
There are countless exhibits at the New York Auto Show that showcased many innovations and technological advances in the automotive industry. An example of the industry innovation is Hyundai’s Blue Link a collaboration with Google to integrate Google Assistant into its 2018 vehicles.
After two days of coverage on the press preview days, I am going to share my favorite product unveils and displays.
Mercedes unveil
North America Premiere Porsche 911 GT3 Premiere and Panamera Sport Turismo at 2017 NYIAS
Honda Clarity unveil 2017 NYIAS
Hyundai Sonata Design Experience at 2017 NYIAS
Toyota FT-4X Unveil at 2017
To see more pictures and videos, go to my Facebook/Twitter pages @DanGalante.
If you are in the New York area, checkout the New York Auto Show. The New York International Auto Show is open to the public from Friday, April 14th to Sunday, April 23rd, 2017. Tickets cost $17 for Adults, $7 for Children, pricing for groups and tours can be found on the website. For more information go to http://www.autoshowny.com.
What cars and trucks do you want to see at the show? If you have attended the show, what was your favorite exhibit?
During my time in field sales, I wanted to obtain the business of Dental Schools and Hospitals. After obtaining meetings and making presentations to prominent Dentists, I was informed that they could not buy from me. After handling objections, showing how my offerings were better than the competition; I got to the heart of the matter. The decision makers explained to me that they were under contract with large manufacturers and distributors.
In fact, these competitors were offering deep discounts to Dental Schools so their students would get comfortable using their products. When these students would become licensed Dentists, they would use the products they trained on instead of the competitors. These competitors build life-long customer loyalty.
When I called on certain Dentists in their offices, they said they liked a particular company’s product. I asked them why they liked the product and would they consider switching for something comparable with faster service. The Dentists said no saying that they learned on particular equipment in Dental School and it was the only thing they felt comfortable using.
Geoffrey Moore discusses the Technology life cycle in Crossing the Chasm.
Dental manufactures and large distributors used pricing to target the Innovators/Early adopters/which in this case was the dental students and hospitals. To increase market share, they offered discounted pricing in exchange for purchase and long service contracts. These manufacturers and distributors succeeded in targeting dental students right before they would become customers; earning them years of customer loyalty.
How this applies to EdTech & E-Learning
This strategy can be applied to the EdTech/E-Learning market because there are many companies that serve this space but only a few companies that dominate the market. The opportunity to target Innovators/Early adopters like I described above presents itself as the United States Department of Education is asking for Education Technology to be embedded into K-12 teacher preparation programs.
EdTech/E-Learning companies have the chance to improve the Teaching profession and generate life-long customer loyalty. This opportunity can be seized by offering discounted pricing and free trials to Innovators/Early Adopters which in this case are the teacher preparation programs.
Here is how this marketing program could be executed on the Technology Life cycle curve.
Innovators Teacher Preparation programs
Offer Teacher Preparation programs discounted pricing and free trials to try the product.
Have pre-service Teachers/Admins get comfortable using the product
Early Adopters Rookie Teachers/Admins
Offer them free trials and a lower discount.
Early/Late Majority Seasoned Teachers/Admins
Offer Trials and discounts to targeted staff and Administrators, Lead Teachers and Instructional Coaches.
Laggards Senior Staff Members
Continue to innovate the product and messaging to show how the product is being used.
Obtain Testimonials from satisfied Teachers and Administrators
Show how the product exceeds competitors.
This is how EdTech/E-Learning companies can improve the Teaching profession and generate life-long customer loyalty.
What EdTech/E-Learning product do you want to try?
Comment and share below.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including: Start Ups, a Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to serving as a Classroom teacher, 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’s articles & insights on Sales, Marketing & Social Media have been featured, mentioned & referenced in major Business Publications such as:
Dan has been honored for his Social Profiles & Content
•Recognized by Klout for having a Score putting him in the Top 10 % of Social Media Users
•LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score in the Top 1%
•Honored by SlideShare for being in the top 5% of profiles viewed in 2014
•Honored by LinkedIn in 2012 for being in the top 1% of profiles viewed out of 200 million members
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. Contact him to set up interviews. dan@dangalante.com
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.
During my time in field sales, I wanted to obtain the business of Dental Schools and Hospitals. After obtaining meetings and making presentations to prominent Dentists, I was informed that they could not buy from me. After handling objections, showing how my offerings were better than the competition, I found out why. The decision-makers explained that they were under contract with large manufacturers and distributors.
These competitors offered deep discounts to Dental Schools so their students would get comfortable using their products. When students would become licensed Dentists, they would use the products they trained on instead of the competitors. These competitors built lifelong customer loyalty.
When I called on certain Dentists, they said they liked a particular company’s product. I asked them why they liked the product and would they consider switching for something comparable with faster service. The Dentists said no saying that they learned on particular equipment in Dental School and it was the only thing they felt comfortable using.
Geoffrey Moore discusses the Technology life cycle in Crossing the Chasm.
Dental manufactures and large distributors used pricing to target the Innovators/Early adopters/which in this case was the dental students and hospitals. To increase market share, they offered discounted pricing in exchange for purchase and long service contracts. These manufacturers and distributors succeeded in targeting dental students right before they would become customers; earning them years of customer loyalty.
Here is how this SAAS marketing program could be executed on the Technology Life cycle curve.
Innovators Preparation programs
Offer Preparation programs discounted pricing and free trials to try the product.
Have Pre-service Professionals get comfortable using the product.
Early Adopters Early Career Professionals
Offer them free trials and a lower discount.
Early/Late Majority Seasoned Professionals
Offer Trials and discounts to targeted staff and managers
Laggards Senior Staff Members
Continue to innovate the product and messaging to show how the product is being used.
Obtain Testimonials from satisfied staff and managers.
Show how the product exceeds competitors.
When appropriate, offer free and discounted trials to all appropriate prospects.
This is how Tech companies can improve their market share and generate life-long customer loyalty.
Tech Companies have the chance to improve business and generate life-long customer loyalty. This opportunity can be seized by offering discounted pricing and free trials to Innovators/Early Adopters which in this case are the preparation programs.
What Tech product do you want to try?
Comment and share below.
Additional Market Research Why & How People Buy Tech
When marketing and selling a tech product or service, it is important to ask two questions to understand your buyers.
1. What motivates people to buy a tech product or service?
2. How do people find a tech product or service to buy?
I surveyed my LinkedIn audience for answers.
1. What motivates people to buy a tech product or service?
People buy a technology product or service for many reasons.
2. How do people find a tech product or service to buy?
People find and buy technology products or services in different ways.
These findings suggest businesses need to create customer-centric offerings to survive in a competitive marketplace. Answering these questions will help businesses develop, create and, position offerings people want to purchase. I
Why & How People Buy
When marketing and selling a product or service, it is important to ask two questions to understand your buyers.
1. What motivates people to buy a product or service?
2. How do people find a product or service to buy?
I surveyed my LinkedIn audience for answers.
1. What motivates people to buy a product or service?
People buy a product or service for many reasons.
2. How do people find a product or service to buy?
People find and buy products or services in different ways.
These findings suggest businesses need to create customer-centric offerings to survive in a competitive marketplace.
Answering these questions will help businesses develop, create and, position offerings people want to purchase.
About Me
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.
Open on title, industry, company, location, and level. Reach out on LinkedIn or at dan@dangalante.com to start a conversation.
Posted 142 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.
Connecting & Innovating at TechDay 2024
I covered TechDay in New York this past Friday. This year was special because it was the 10th anniversary of TechDay.
Over the past ten years, TechDay events have connected over 10,000 startups with over 250,000 investors, accelerators, engineers, suppliers, and other members of the tech startup ecosystem. This is according to TechDay.
Attendees had the opportunity to network with venture capitalists, and accelerators, learn about the latest technology, and attend tech talks.
These tech talks consisted of thought leaders from the NYC startup ecosystem, including investors with over $5 billion in combined assets under management. Thought leaders spoke on a series of panels focused on the history of the NYC startup ecosystem, its present opportunities, and possible futures
Entrepreneurs had the opportunity to audition to pitch their start-ups on Shark Tank.
There were many exhibitors at TechDay as well. Companies were from a wide array of industries.
In this video, I walked the event floor to give you a sense of the things happening from networking, connecting, pitching, and learning.
Thank you to the organizers of TechDay for having me.
TechDay was a great event.
TechDay events are held both in person and online. Visit techdayhq.com for a schedule of upcoming events and a recap of the recently completed TechDay Expo.
Did you attend?
What are your thoughts on TechDay?
Comment and share below.
Posted 6 weeks ago
Survey of 2023 Holiday Spending
I surveyed my audience on LinkedIn on how their spending was impacted by inflation.
This is an updated extension of my last report where I surveyed my audience on LinkedIn about their holiday spending intent, method of purchase, types of purchase, and sentiment in the U.S. Consumer spending is always top of mind for marketers, sellers, and retailers.
This year, I focused only on inflation and holiday spending.
How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?
How did inflation impact your spending during the holiday season? Share your thoughts.
As you can see, 71% percent said they spent less during this holiday season. Consumers must see value in what they are buying. Brands need to create memorable experiences for consumers with their offerings
Based on my research, my finding suggests:
Inflation has dampened consumer spending during the holiday season.
Customers are taking a closer look at their finances this year.
Brands need to provide value offerings that create memorable experiences for customers.
How did inflation impact your holiday spending?
Please share your thoughts and join the conversation.
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, and 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.
Open on title, industry, company, location, and level. Reach out on LinkedIn or at dan@dangalante.com to start a conversation.
Posted 22 weeks ago
Trends in AI & Generative AI: Insights from The 2023 AI Summit New York
Last week, I covered the AI Summit in New York. I was excited to learn about the trends in AI and generative AI and to see some commercial applications of these new technological advancements.
Patrick Murphy of UAB led the AI Exhibitor hub. Patrick shared insights from his research on Entrepreneurship. He shared how start-ups use AI, and Generative AI to scale up and bring products to market.
Generative AI is being used in the following eight ways:
Content and Asset Generative
Automated Processes
Ideation
Financial Management
Project Design
Optimized Structures
Acceleration and incubation
Ethics and Risk Management.
There was a pitching completion where start-ups did pitches in multiple rounds. At the beginning of the competition, they received advice from judges on best practices.
One of the start-ups that was of interest was Botwise. Jan Nowak shared how his team shared a use case on how they leveraged Language Learning models (LLM)using statistics and GPT solutions for rapid automation in customer service for Mylead.global is a platform that allows influencers to earn money. As a result, MyLead.global was able to screen influencers faster and better for their big brand clients.
AI-Powered Use Cases from across the board panel discussion
Leaders Saira Kazmi Ph. D. (CVS Health), Matthew Blakemore (Creative Industries Council) Taha Mokfi (HelloFresh), Kriti Kohli (Shopify), and Kris Perez (Data Force) share how they use chatbots, improving both the buyer and seller experience using AI. How AI can be used in video games to identify levels of violence and how AI can improve in healthcare and Radiology reducing the amount of time images are read while improving accuracy and detail.
Another interesting Panel was by Tim Delesio CTO of techolution
Tim asked What’s driving the explosive rise of AI all of a Sudden?
The answer is the economics of the labor market.
On the demand side, he cited labor shortages and persistent high inflation.
On the supply side, he cites the rise of ChatGPT and, major scientific and Technological breakthroughs in the past five to seven years.
He shared trends in AI for 2024 that include:
Physical Labor with AI to help deliver small batch sizes with high-precision quality control
Improved customer engagement by providing a new generation of customer service agents using Generative AI
Tim demonstrated some of these trends when he ordered a soda using an AI-powered robotic arm.
The booth had another machine showing how AI can enhance inventory management when items are ordered.
I was amazed to see some AI Tech that techolution brought to the marketplace.
On that note, I saw an AI-powered Kiosk by Graphen where a man ordered his food and paid. This company is using AI to revolutionize all industries.
Man orders food AI Kiosk
Man pays for food at AI Kiosk
There were so many great talks and exhibits.
Additional pictures can be found on Instagram.
I want to thank the AI Summit for having me as their guest. If you want to use AI and Generative to improve business outcomes, sign up for the AI summit in your city.
What do you think is next for AI and Generative AI?
I asked my LinkedIn audience If the Sales and Marketing functions were merged and run by Sales, What would be your main focus? Why?
As you can see, 68% of those surveyed said that increased lead generation and demand generation was a top priority. What this means is that people see Marketing as a vehicle to increase Sales and Revenue.
Free Trials
Previously, I have discussed the marketing strategy of free trials, discounted trials, and loss leaders.
Free Samples
Another great marketing strategy for brands to get prospects and current customers to try a new product or retry an existing one is to offer a free sample. This can be done by handing out the product sample during online, field, and tradeshow marketing.
Field & Trade Show Marketing
Samples can be in the form of a physical product, a link to an online offering, offering a discount to make a purchase. Recently, I attended the 9th Avenue International Food Festival in New York. I received sample food products. One of the vendors offered a food sample and a coupon to make a purchase.
At Tradeshows, brands can offer physical and digital products in exchange for customer information. This is an excellent tactic for lead generation. Most times brands scan the badge of customers to collect this information.
Online Marketing
Brands can also reach customers online to get them to request a free sample. The sample can come in the form of a download or a physical offering depending on the product type.
Brands can also offer branded merchandise as a way to be remembered by prospects and customers.
How have you used free samples to attract new customers, renew, upsell, and cross-sell existing customers?
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, and 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 that covers industry events and trends.
The 2023 New York Auto Show is happening at New York’s Jacob Javits Center.
I had the privilege of covering the New York Auto Show on press and industry days. The show opened with the World Car Awards Breakfast.
I want to congratulate Hyundai for winning multiple awards with its all-new Ioniq 6 EV including the World Best EV Award, World’s Best Design, and 2023 World Car of the Year!
Congratulations to all of the other finalists as well.
I rode along in the Hyundai Ioniq 6 EV on one of the multiple test tracks at the show. It was an exhilarating experience!
The show consists mainly of EVs and hybrid vehicles. There are two levels including using EV test tracks where you can a do ride-along. There are fun exhibits that I recommend that you experience. I rode along on all of the test tracks experiencing various EVs.
The Jeep track simulates a mountain and off-road driving experience.
If you are interested in learning about EVs, Charging Stations, and electric power there are displays and resources to explore at the show.
You can find additional pictures posted on Instagram.
There were also some new vehicle roll-outs and major press announcements from Kia, Hyundai, Chrysler, Ram, VW, and many others. You can see some of them below.
Kia Press Conference The all new EV9.
Hyundai Press Conference and Reveal Kona N Line, The All New 2024 KONA Electric
I enjoyed the Subaru Loves Pets campaign at the show. Subaru is partnering with animal nonprofits to get pets adopted, especially pets that are disabled and traumatized.
The show is open to the public as of yesterday at the Jacob Javits Center located at 429 11th Avenue New York, New York 10001. How to get to the Auto Show. The Auto Show runs from Friday, April 7th, through Sunday, April 16th, 2022. The hours are as follows Monday — Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm and Sundays from 10 am to 7 pm. General admission tickets are $21 for adults and $ 7 for children. If you want early access for this Friday or Saturday tickets are $45 for adults and $7 for children. Tickets can be purchased here.
What are you hoping to see at the auto show?
If you have attended the auto show, what was the most exciting thing you experienced?
Building relationships with customers and closing deals is critical for sales success. In business, customer acquisition and customer retention are crucial to generating revenue. It is cheaper to keep existing customers than to acquire new ones.
Once a sale is made, it is tempting for sales reps to move on to the next customer.
However, the sale is not complete when the customer signs the contract. Customers should pay their invoices on time to ensure the business has enough cash to operate and potentially turn a profit.
What on time means is dependent on a company payment policy. Customers can have payment terms raining from C.O.D, net 30, net 60, net 90, net 120, or longer. Some cycles can run for a year or longer. Certain companies offer financing options. Payment structures are structured based on the length of the sales cycle.
How can we make sure customers pay their invoices on time?
Here are six ways to keep customers and get them to pay their invoices on time.
Build and nurture customer relationships.
When the sale is complete, put all details in writing.
Follow through with the implementation product or service post-sale.
Check-in with your customer to make sure they are happy with their purchase. This can present an opportunity for upselling, cross-selling, repeat business, referrals, and testimonials.
If the customer voices concerns or has an issue with a product or service, address it immediately.
Make sure to honor any promises and warranties extended during the sales cycle.
If you follow these steps, you will get most customers to pay their invoices on time.
What do I do if a customer will not pay their invoice?
In large organizations, the accounts receivable manager will handle the customer by sending past-due notices and charging penalties. However, if Sales Reps work for a small company as I did, this will be the Sales Rep’s responsibility. Ideally, the Sales Rep should be able to handle customer issues because they have a relationship with the customer.
Sales Reps should call and visit the customer. During the visit, Sales Reps need to try to solve the issue. Be polite. Never raise your voice or swear at a customer. The goal is to get paid while keeping the customer whenever.
As a result of implementing the strategies above, my receivables (open invoices) were the lowest in the company! This allowed me to earn more commissions, make more sales and develop great relationships with my customers.
It is important to note that Sales and Service across acquisition and retention are subdivided in larger organizations.
How have you improved customer retention and gotten your customers to pay on time?
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, and 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 that covers industry events and trends.
I surveyed my audience on LinkedIn about their holiday spending intent, method of purchase, types of purchase, and sentiment in the U.S. Consumer spending is always top of mind for marketers, sellers, and retailers. With inflation on the rise, consumers spend differently than when inflation is low.
I asked my audience four questions.
How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?
Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?
How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?
Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?
Below you can find the results of each survey question.
1.How has inflation impacted your holiday spending?
As you can see, 60% percent said they spent less during this holiday season. Consumers must see value in what they are buying. Brands need to create memorable experiences for consumers with their offerings.
2. Which types of holiday gifts are you buying?
This survey was split across different categories. Gift cards were top at 33 % percent of those surveyed saying they were buying gift cards and giving cash as a gift. Experiences and electronics were tied at 25 %. Media was in the lowest category at 17%. Across all of these categories, there are opportunities for brands to sell to consumers.
3. How did you buy your holiday gifts this season?
Based on the survey, 56% percent of consumers said they started their customer journey online; including purchases on a mobile device. Brands need to make an e-commerce experience seamless for customers. Most big box stores are creating an omnichannel buying experience; 31% percent of those surveyed stated that they made purchases online and in-store. Small businesses only received 11 %, followed by only in-store buying at 2%.
These findings suggest that small businesses need to create an e-commerce store to create an omnichannel experience for consumers, catering not just to what they want to buy but how they purchase. Small businesses need to show up where consumers make purchases.
4. Did you use shoppable ads to make a purchase?
75% of those surveyed said that they did not use a shoppable ad to make a purchase. Since late 2019, shoppable increased. Consumers can buy products directly from ads on search engines and many social media sites. This will shorten the customer journey.
Based on my research, my finding suggests:
1. Inflation has dampened consumer spending during the holiday season.
2. Brands need to provide value to consumers creating memorable experiences.
3. Businesses should serve consumers on the channels where they make purchases.
4. How consumers buy will continue to evolve.
5. With Shoppable Ads on the rise, the customer journey will be shorter. More purchases will occur during the time consumers search for products.
It will be interesting to see the consumer sentiment and the price of goods with the release of the CPI and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey due to be released this week.
How did inflation impact your spending during the holiday season? Share your thoughts.
If you want to share your opinion but didn’t get the chance to vote, answer these questions in the comments.
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, and 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.
I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skillsets 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, and 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.
A LinkedIn profile is a great opportunity to showcase who you are and what you can do for others. To effectively showcase yourself with your LinkedIn profile, you need to be able to tell a story that is credible and engaging. How do you tell a story on LinkedIn with your profile? There are 8 steps you need to take to optimize your profile for storytelling.
1. Creating a Great Headline
A headline is equivalent to the title of a book, essay, or story. The headline should be engaging. Like a story, the reader decides if they want to read more or move on. Using the automatic headline that lists your job title is a mistake. It is boring and makes you just like everyone else. It demonstrates that you lack creativity.
Your headline should be a short introduction showing how you help others in your current role. This is key if you are happily employed or if you are looking to advance in your current field. If you are looking to change careers, the title should demonstrate how you can take the skills and insights that you have developed and apply them to the career that you aspire to obtain. In other words, the headline should be able to answer the question “What are you looking to do or what do you want in your next role?”
2 Uploading a Photo
LinkedIn profiles include large amounts of text. Similar to a story, text alone is not visually appealing. This is where a photo can help. When you upload a photo to your LinkedIn profile, your profile comes to life; similar to cover art on the front cover of an autobiography. Remember your profile is your story and brief career autobiography.
When you chose a picture, make sure that it is clear and makes you look professional.
3. Recording an introduction
LinkedIn also lets you record a 30-second introduction to your audience.
4. Crafting and Creating a Summary/Presentation
Your summary should reflect and expand on the headline. This is the place where you provide a brief overview that supports the headline, thesis, and title of your story. Your summary is a place to introduce yourself to your audience. It is important to keep your audience in mind. Put yourself in the place of the reader. Would you want to read your profile if the roles were reversed?
Once you introduce yourself, tell your story. Explain your background, where you are today, and where you want to be in the future. Make sure to include how your current skill set and experience have helped others and how these skills can be applied to a new role. When you list your work experience, make sure to back up your headline and summary. Think of this as your body paragraphs.
You can also share links to a digital portfolio, website, or whatever boosts your profile appearance.
5. Describing your work experience
As I mentioned above, the work experience section of your profile is the body paragraphs of your essay and story. It should be listed in chronological order. Each position that you describe should have specific examples of how you helped others in the role. LinkedIn also allows users to upload presentations and videos of their work. This can serve as a digital portfolio of your work that people can view. The next thing that I would do is obtain recommendations. You can also share your presentations from Slideshare on LinkedIn as well.
6. Obtaining Recommendations and Endorsements
A LinkedIn recommendation serves as proof that you have done excellent work in your position. These recommendations should be from coworkers, supervisors, and customers that you have served. They should serve as the conclusion to your story and essay where your claims are verified and validated. Recommendations should not be given away freely; doing that will undermine your credibility.
Endorsements are a quick way for someone to say that you are good at a particular skill without needing to write a recommendation. LinkedIn allows users to list up to 50 skills that connections can endorse.
7. Open to Work/Open to Hire
LinkedIn allows users to share if they are open to working or looking to hire. This is a nice addition to their job seeker and job posting experience. I am currently looking for work.
As you can see, LinkedIn allows you to list 5 job titles along with your desired work type location, etc. While I chose to make my job search public, LinkedIn allows users to make their open-to-work status visible to only recruiters to protect the anonymity of job seekers.
Recruiters and hiring managers can also share that they are hiring for roles by using the Open to Hire frame.
8. Creator Mode
LinkedIn allows you to display 5 topics on your LinkedIn profile to show potential followers when you turn on creator mode. Creator mode also allows you to reach your audience in new ways with tools such as LinkedIn Live, Audio Event, Newsletters, and follow on LinkedIn.
Putting it all Together
Using these 8 steps will allow you to create a LinkedIn profile that can help you tell a credible and engaging story to potential customers and employers.
How have you used your LinkedIn profile to tell your story?
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.
Things are changing in the automotive industry. These changes are from the way vehicles are bought and sold. Vehicle offerings are also different. Vehicles went from gas combustion engines to hybrid vehicles which means a split between gas and electric. Now there is going to be a shift to all-electric vehicles or EVs. The adoption of EVs will accelerate as more charging stations become available.
Source: Derived registration counts by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Experian Information Solutions https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10861
“This figure illustrates the population breakdown of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) registered in the United States as of Dec. 31, 2020. Most of the vehicles are flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), but those generally operate primarily on conventional gasoline. FFVs were produced and sold as a way for vehicle manufacturers to meet their fuel economy requirements. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the second-largest population by fuel type, accounting for 70% of the AFV population when excluding FFVs. Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) include all-electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and account for about 30% of the AFV population when excluding FFVs.”
I covered The New York Auto Show which was back after a two-year pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s auto show had different types of cars, trucks, and SUVs. The show was made up mostly of electronic vehicles and hybrid vehicles. This change is because of changes in the industry and US government policy to improve the environment. Starting in 2026, all gas vehicles will need to get 50 miles to the gallon to be sold in the US. Gas engines are being phased out. The industry pledges to sell only electric vehicles or EVs by 2035. This is a global trend.
This is information that came out of the World Traffic Symposium, at the New York Auto Show.
I did a survey on LinkedIn on how people find and buy vehicles. The results are here.
People are buying and selling cars online but many sales are still happening at dealerships.
According to the New York International Auto Show, here are the demographics of people who attended and bought cars at the auto show over the last 10 years.
How do you feel about electric vehicles? How do you find and buy vehicles?
