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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Thank You Terry Kew



         

                  Terry Kew - inspiring at the BBG Enterprise Forum 

The Power of Grateful 

Show people you care - and so much will be forgiven!

My friend and colleague, Terry Kew, reminded me at our BBG Enterprise forum yesterday of something so important and fundamental that we so often forget....


In December, I received a hand written card in an envelope from him, thanking me for being a part of his team, and what an important and valuable part I have played in his journey at BSI.


This created an enormous amount of goodwill, support and flow with his team.


He bought a fountain pen and 50 thank you cards and when someone helps him or has done something exceptional or awesome, he hand writes a note thanking them for what they had done and being part of the  team and what a valuable contribution that is making to the team.


The note that Terry wrote to me is framed on the mantelpiece - and has been commented on by so many people - 

Not because I did such a good job, but because Terry wrote such a brilliant letter! 


The tool

  • a fountain pen
  • Envelopes 
  • A packet of high quality cards 
  • A few minutes 





Monday, April 23, 2018

Sell the sizzle not the sausage


How do you get people to come to your Event, forum or mastermind as your guest? 

If you can't give them a wiifm , they really have no reason or interest to spend their precious time with you!

Whatever you want to invite them to , you want to talk about what they want, by using their words.

 They don’t want to know what is going to be discussed at the event and the food that will be there .... they want the  know the outcome that will be achieved. How will those 3 hours add value to their business. What will they get out of it? 

  • Will they get a referral? 
  • Will they be able to implement something in their business to help it grow? 
  • Will the have learnt something relevant?
  • Will they have met potential alliance partners, customers, suppliers?
  • Will this time spent potentially solve a pain ? 

What can they achieve at the event that will get them a quick win? 

The audience is not interested in you or the programme itself, they are interested in how it will effect their business.

  • Focus on the why - engage their emotions 
  • Focus on the how - share with them  how they will solve their pain 
  • Prescribe the .pill - tell them the what at the event . 

 So.... focus on the outcome 

  • Be clear on the pain you are going to solve. 
  • How are you going to help them?
  • Have you got the creds to do what you say you are going to do? If it’s a linked in expert , share how your presenter has grown your linked in contacts from 500 to 5000, and do they want to do the same? 

Don’t focus on the various tools that you will share to do that! ..... focus on the OUTCOME...... that’s all they care about!!! Be sure to be clear on what you will be doing for them! 

What is the outcome that they will get from that event? 

  • What is the “kernel” that is going to get them to say 
  • “I want that! I need that? “
  • What is their pain that you are going to solve? 
  • Has that event got scarcity? 
  • Who else do they know that they can invite?
So sell the sizzle not the sausage


Monday, April 16, 2018

Adam Riemer - analysing websites , giving gem after gem of SEO and affliiate marketing tips

Adam Riemer - analysing websites , giving gem after gem of SEO and affliiate marketing tips and of course sharing his knowledge on fine wine and tiarras 

Hi Ivan,

I wanted to let you know I thought today was an amazing lunch presentation for so many reasons. Adam is the first presenter I have seen consume a bottle of red whilst presenting to an audience of 100 people and I have been around a long time. More amazingly though was the insights he gave on what is really happening with data analytics on the major social platforms. I would be surprised the level of information the Westpac Board realises is on the web about their senior staff (or maybe not) as they are probably able to profile most of their customers the same way. I regard you and I as more than mug punters but today was a revelation. Well worth the BBG membership with these type of lunch time presenters. Now what to make of all this and how to make it work in an SME business environment.

Talk soon.

Cheers,
john 
John Scutt | Managing Director | The Lindfield Partners Pty Ltd T/A Essential Management Services


Thanks for the invite to attend the BBG Mastermind Lunch! We were enthralled and enlightened with 's insight into boosting ROI using SEO and social media marketing! Thoroughly recommended!
Jennifer Steinhour - Synapse Medical

Adam on Australian Wine... "I've still not tasted an Australian WIne that says "wow..... this is the bomb!!!" - but I'm not going to stop testing them until I find one"

Monday, April 9, 2018

Innovation in Australia: The Future Of Work - Skills for the 21st Century

Innovation in Australia: The Future Of Work - Skills for the 21st Century: The right Skills will be needed in the new economy - and globalisation and technological change (the so-called “New Machine Age/4th Industri...

Innovation in Australia: The Future Of Work - Skills for the 21st Century

Innovation in Australia: The Future Of Work - Skills for the 21st Century: The right Skills will be needed in the new economy - and globalisation and technological change (the so-called “New Machine Age/4th Industri...

Thursday, April 5, 2018

The Sales and Marketing Machine That Feeds You Leads on Autopilot

Inspired by Tony Hughes from a Jeff Bullas http://www.jeffbullas.com/sales-and-marketing/?inf_contact_key=30836eb35967aec2590695bad6c9bc1051f80c000e85ca2dc25d696f362772e6

The nirvana is referrals - and referrals comes from strong relationships from people that know like and trust you. 

 You can move to value with elevated relationships and a strong narrative and agenda.

Be sure to engineer value and own the relationship rather than merely winning a sale.

As my friend Getzi says ..... it’s all about relationships! It’s about being able to sit on the edge of your clients desk and having a conversation about “anything” ....  his/her family,  children, favourite hobby, 

But is referrals enough? 

  • How do we achieve the numbers required to meet budget?
  •  Are there even enough hours in the day to do that many deals?

Below are 6 key elements of the sales and marketing machine

  1. Marketing generated leads from content publishing, websites, events, and alliances
  2. Sales development reps (SDRs) who are doing outbound like you but typically at a lower level in the target accounts and smaller-size prospects; they are sometimes called market development reps (MDRs) or inside sales reps (ISRs) and may seek to move leads from marketing qualified (MQL) to sales qualified (SQL)
  3. A formalized referral program with rewards for staff and customers
  4. Outsourced lead-generation and appointment-setting companies
  5. Your senior company executives or board members who have quality relationships and who can introduce you
  6. Partners and alliances who can provide you with referrals

Build a plan to leverage the machine

via GIPHY

Create a business plan for your own success. Analyze your territory, the suitability and market fit for what you sell, the competition, the resources available to you, and then create a plan in partnership with your sales manager and marketing team

Know your numbers . Work backwards and Chunk it....

  1.  Divide the sales target by the current average deal size, then divide that by 11 months (allow 1 month for annual vacation and public holidays)... to get the monthly numbers - and then divide by 20 to get the daily target...... This tells you how many deals you need to do in a week or month to achieve target.
  2. Then calculate the number of qualified pipeline opportunities required based on your proven conversation rate. You will need somewhere between two and five times the sales target in qualified opportunities.
  3. Then calculate how much prospecting activity is required per available day to achieve this in terms of emails sent, phone calls made and live conversations had with real decision-makers. Now you know how much prospecting activity you must do every day. If the number does not scare you, you botched the calculations.

Make sure the SDRs or outsourced lead-generation company can actually carry the conversation for proactive outbound by sitting with them and making calls together. Help them with their own sales strategy for blends that elevate the conversation and improve response rates so they can provide better quality leads for you and others.

Know what sales success looks like - know your numbers 

For example 

  • Twenty-one meetings per month
  • Sixty-two percent conversion rate from meeting-to-opportunity
  • Thirteen opportunities per month
How many social and email outreaches plus phone calls are needed to achieve these results

Again, do the math for your own business based on your own stats, and then discuss with your SDR team to agree on what’s needed and what’s acceptable to drive the necessary results. (SDR is a sales development rep focussing on outbound prospecting) 

If they can’t hit these numbers, consider outsourcing

 There are many others in your part of the world who will deploy software and sellers on your behalf to land qualified meetings. They are so worth it and they also bring powerful databases!

Tony Hughes recommends ConnectAndSell, which operates at 1,000 dials a day and provides on-demand outbound with transparency. Every dial, conversation, and outcome is available online for inspection and listening.

Bring marketing to the party and get better results

via GIPHY

Don’t leave any MQL unturned 

Let marketing know what resources and support you need to be successful, what events you need to attend, and what content will best attract early-stage leads. 

Use MQLs (A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead judged more likely to become a customer compared to other leads based on lead intelligence, often informed by closed-loop analytics.). 

Obsessively use the CRM and marketing automation platform.

Sirius Decisions published research stating that salespeople speak with less than 9 percent of MQLs. 

This means that 91 percent of the marketing budget literally goes to waste. 

Not because the MQLs are bad but because they don’t answer the phone or email in the limited number of attempts made by salespeople. 

I can’t imagine giving up on trying to reach a legitimate MQL. Be the one to ferociously follow up and close the loop with marketing in the CRM.

Create relevant Content Articles interesting to your targeted leads 

The most fundamental marketing automation play for pipeline creation is web-to-lead programs. Identify the topics that will attract the right kind of leads.

You should be researching your potential buyers and customers to identify the hot issues, so create a list of content topics for marketing to work with.

Design an unforgettable customer experience CX CX CX

Truly appreciate those who can create high-value articles, papers, videos, and other content with which marketing teams can attract and nurture leads to keep your prospects swimming around the boat. Every business needs a platform that brings marketing, sales, service, support, and stakeholder engagement together. 

This is because customer experience (CX) is the single biggest point of differentiation, and it should be targeted as early in the buyer’s journey as possible.

A lead called within five minutes of requesting information is over 10 times more likely to answer and 4 times more likely to qualify. 

I once downloaded a state of sales report from the Salesforce website as part of my research for being a keynote speaker at one of their events. I was called within the hour, and they did it well – no hard sell. They simply asked what my interest was in the report and if there was anything else they could help me with. I am now in their sales and marketing database and being profiled for future contact as appropriate. 

Salesforce drinks their own champagne when it comes to sales and marketing automation.

It all needs to work together 

  • Sales and marketing, 
  • insight and value, 
  • old-school content and 
  • new-school channels, 
  • humans and machines, and 
  • social and the phone.

Create a “blue ocean” by asking the right questions

Sales and marketing Blue Ocean

Source

The most important questions that marketers must ask when seeking to create high-quality sales pipeline are:

  • What trigger events occur in the customer’s world to start them on their buying journey?
  • What do my buyers look for online before they know to look for me?
  • Where do they go online to be educated about their problems and the opportunities?

These questions are important because they can create “blue ocean” leads, where buyers are motivated by their problems or opportunities but they are early in their journeys and you have little competition. “Red ocean” is where the competition is abundant like a dozen piranhas in a goldfish bowl. 

“Blue ocean” strategy requires you to identify topics for articles, papers, videos, and other content that your marketing team can create to attract leads. 

Reflect all of this in your own publishing within your LinkedIn profile, and be an industry thought leader. 

Have someone in marketing be your editor to make sure your content shines.

Guest Author: Tony Hughes is a bestselling author, award-winning blogger and the most read LinkedIn Author globally on the topic of B2B sales leadership. Tony’s first book is a business bestseller with his second book, COMBO Prospecting, is available on Amazon here. He can be found on LinkedIn and at TonyHughes.com.au andRSVPselling.com

Sunday, April 1, 2018

The key to effective networking

Networking is vital for most salespeople, but often it isn’t nearly as productive as we need or would like it to be. We invest our time in events such as chamber meetings, meetups, business card exchanges, trade shows and beyond, yet rarely do these meetings convert to sales.

Why?

Because people go to networking events to sell - rarely to buy, and when you have a whole bunch of people trying to sell with no one trying to buy - no wonder there aren’t any sales hapenning! 

Here is the key 

The key here is NOT to attend the event looking for your next prospect, but to go with the mindset that you’re there to meet people with whom you can reciprocally refer business.

 The goal is to schedule a follow-up meeting (a BAMFAM- book a meeting from a meeting) , often over coffee (or a bbg meeting - www.bbg.business) , to get to know, like and trust  each other better and explore ways you may be able to help one another. 

But this 2- to-3-hour time investment often isn’t nearly as productive as it could be. You both describe the value you bring to your respective clients and ask, “Who do you know that could use my services?” And… you both go blank.

The goal of bbg is to generate and share warm introductions from people you know like and trust 

Brynne Tillman has come up with an excellent strategy using linked in and referron 

Step 1 - update your profile on referron and send them your business card

Step 2 send them an email or message connecting with them on linked in 

Step 3 customise and send them this note 

XXX, I‘m looking forward to our coffee meeting next week. In the meantime, please feel free to look through my LinkedIn connections and make a list of people that you might want to meet. I’ll do the same and we can review our lists when we’re together.

Once you’re connected, here is how to proceed (and by the way, you can copy and send them these steps – they will be so grateful!)

From their profile, look at the top right corner and click on See connections.

  1. Click on All Filters and in the Titlebox, paste your search string of the people you would like to meet, i.e. “CIO” OR “CTO” OR “IT Director” and click Apply.
  2. Choose other relevant filters on the top bar such as Locations or click All Filters to include additional criteria.
  3. Make a list of names your networking partner knows, that you would like to meet.

When you are together for your networking meeting, here’s how to proceed:

  1. Review the list of names you’ve each created, and whittle them down to a select few that are the best fit.
  2. Send a referron - under notes merely mention the reason for the referral - referron does the rest. Referron will copy each networking partner and each person you’re introducing, in an sms message and 
  3. Write an email  or call the lead  - be sure to follow up 

NEW PERSON, I am looking forward to speaking with you and sharing LinkedIn insights that can help you grow your business. To make scheduling a call easier, here’s a link to my calendar: http://15withBrynne.co, Please pick a time that works best for you.

4. When the introduction is made, update the referron call to action that will let the networking partner know what the follow up has been.

LinkedIn and BBG  may be the most effective way to fill your pipeline week after week, month after month. @Bsivc # networking #referrals #socialselling #bbg #referron 
It’s amazing what a little LinkedIn can do for your pipeline and #bbg can do for your sales and referral partners!