Marketing Articles About Prospecting Search Results

1. Industry Buzz & News: 03/08/10. Ad Targeting: Caller ID for your website: new technologies let you target prospects - but beware of privacy laws. Email Marketing: What is 'good list hygiene' and why should you do... (03/08/10 09:00 PM)

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3. 7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars.

   7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars
   
   This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

   Share7 Steps to Powerful Online SeminarsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing For many businesses, particularly service oriented businesses, getting up in front of a group of prospects with the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise is one of the best lead conversion opportunities going. Holding workshops and seminars live and in person has long been [...] (02/22/10 09:00 AM)

4. 5 Ways to Share Content to Create Referrals.

   5 Ways to Share Content to Create Referrals
   
   This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

   Share5 Ways to Share Content to Create ReferralsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Creating valuable, education based content is half the ticket to selling these days. The other half, of course, is getting that content read and in the hands of prospects. Writing a blog, hosting content on your website and spreading the word on you [...] (01/27/10 09:00 AM)

5. 10 Tips for Using LinkedIn to Generate Leads. You need to rethink the way you use LinkedIn. Without some of us even noticing, it has developed into a useful lead-generation tool for marketers and salespeople who are looking to build relationships with prospects. (12/29/09 09:00 PM)

6. How to Capture Your Company's Essence in 15 Words. As a B2B company, you may never air a 15-second message on NPR. But distilling your company description to its essence is a powerful goal. It will force you to jettison the jargon and superlatives. And your message will resonate all the more with prospects. (12/22/09 09:00 PM)

7. Problem Solved: How Much B2B Branding Is Too Much?. How much B2B branding is too much? You want to incorporate your B2B brand message into every encounter with prospects and clients. But how do you do that without overdoing it? (12/08/09 09:05 PM)

8. How to improve lead generation with prospecting 2.0 . Cold calling. Feel a shiver move up your spine? Too bad. It’s a shame that you, like many others, choose to dismiss cold calling as a lead generation tool (there’s that shiver again). I’m not saying that its reputation hasn’t... (12/04/09 09:00 PM)

9. Lead Generation Tactics Based on Prospect ?Temperature?. When you?re in the trenches of post-click marketing, it?s easy to forget the relationship of what you?re doing to the wider context. This is especially true in lead generation because of the significant number of variables that impact success. (11/19/09 09:01 AM)

10. Offer Alternatives to Identify Your Best Prospects. The art of aligning your strategic objectives with the needs within your clickstream is critical to targeting your message and converting those people who are the best fits for your offering. (11/19/09 09:01 AM)

11. Steps for creating a true lead nurturing program. Sometimes in an attempt to vamp up lead nurturing efforts, misguided and well-meaning organizations simply start sending out more emails. When email is misused in this manner, companies are really just training prospects to ignore or delete their messages. See... (11/06/09 09:00 PM)

12. 7 prospecting rules that produce leads webinar. The phone is a powerful and effective lead generation tool and is an important "social media" platform. It is inarguably the human touch of a lead nurturing program. That’s why every opportunity - including cold calling - should be treated... (10/29/09 09:00 AM)

13. 7 prospecting rules that produce leads. Need to improve your teleprospecting efforts? Check out my guest post for ZoomInfo, a blog that offers advice on all aspects of sales and marketing. The site features industry news, analysis, and surveys. And, from time to time they let... (09/10/09 09:00 PM)

14. Psychological Secrets to Maximum Sales. Imagine what it would be like if you could make more money online. Now imagine what it would be like if you could make that money just by writing words which motivate prospects to take your desired ac... (08/27/09 09:00 AM)

15. Should lead generation ignore current customers?. ”We know more about our prospects (leads) than we know about our current customers” was a shocking statement I heard from a client and it stuck with me. In fact, it's the impetus for this post. When you have a... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

16. Learn how to create content that improves your lead gen conversions. B2B marketing efforts heavily rely on content as a lead generation incentive. To be effective in the lead gen cycle, this content has to be something your prospects yearn to read or view. You’ll want to create content that will... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

17. Social media: It's all about risk, resources and rewards..

    In countless discussions about social media, digital marketing tools and "what's next," I've determined that it's critical for all marketers to put a framework around their decisions on what tools to use, when to use them and how to get started. I put these decisions into a general "3-R" framework.

    Risk: What's your tolerance?
    Whether you're catapulting your brand into the social media sphere by simultaneously starting a blog, moderating a customer community and twittering, or if you're simply monitoring social media to get a glimpse of how the world sees you, there's a certain modicum of risk involved. You need to determine how much risk you're willing to take.

    Social-media risk can manifest in the following ways:
    > Exposure to issues that you'd rather not confront in a Web-based public forum.
    > Suppliers and competitors watching your every move and your every flaw.
    > Legal ramifications of customers commenting on bugs, defects, recalls, etc.
    > Sharing control of your finely crafted brand message with passionate, yet misguided, fans.

    Organizations that are ethical, honest, have strong brands and a strong sense of self will prevail and enjoy a low-risk environment in their social media endeavors. However, if your organization is secretive, insecure and does things you wouldn't tell your mother about, then you'll likely find there's simply too much risk for you in social media.

    Resources: Do you have them?
    This is probably the number one question I hear: "What does it take to do this stuff (blogging, social media, podcasts, etc.)?" For most companies, the cost of technical resources is the least of their worries. In fact, a majority of marketers who deploy social-media campaigns find it's the least expensive part of their budget. It's much more important to have the right people in place to help with your social media efforts. Whether that's a knowledgeable person in-house or a paid consultant, human resources are the most important aspect of putting social media to work in your organization.

    Rewards: What do you expect?
    Let's be serious. The only reason we're in marketing is to pursue capitalistic rewards. If we really want to pursue social media as part of our marketing - with low risk and few resources - we can certainly have at it. In the final analysis, however, we need to show substantial rewards in order to make it worth our while.

    The ROI of social media depends on your overall goals. Most marketers define social-media rewards in the following ways:
    > An increase in Website page views from social media sources.
    > A larger network of customers and fans on social networking sites.
    > Growth in your prospect email database.
    > Increased conversation about your company on the Internet.

    When considering social media as a component of your marketing mix, remember the three R's: risks, resources and rewards. By vetting your plans against these criteria and asking the right questions, you'll be on the path to social-media success.
    

    
    (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

18. Social Media Marketing Best Practice Tip.

    I'm fond of saying that social media doesn't have 'best practices' per se, we just have 'current practices'. Those things that we know are working right now with very, very limited play in a real market. That said, I see that Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation, has started a blog meme on pulling together the best practices and has challenged bloggers to write one post. I also see that Toby has already contributed some outstanding insights. Here's my take

    Social Media Best Practice Tip:
    
    Alignment: Yes, that's it. Alignment. If your organization is considering (or is well on their way) pursuing social media in your tactical marketing plans. It (social media) MUST be in complete alignment with your strategy and differentiator as an organization and in complete alignment with what you're already doing in your marketing plan.

    Strategic & Differentiation Alignment:
    If you've not yet read Seth Godin's book, Meatball Sundae, I highly recommend you check it out. In a nutshell, it gets after this very issue. If you're in charge of marketing for any organization that does not (and is not likely to in the future) embody openness, sharing, trust and all of those things that are required in a customer-owns-your-brand world that is social media, this might not be a strategic fit for you. Should you change, perhaps, but that's not the issue here. Just as I would rarely advise a B2B startup client to advertise on network television, there are some companies that aren't going to align on social media. One last thing - even though your company has some aligning characteristics...if your legal department doesn't, your social media marketing plan may have a hard time getting off the ground. I'm just sayin'...

    Marketing Plan Alignment:
    This one's a bit easier, but still a challenge, and we're still talking about alignment. If you decide to setup a Twitter account because it's cool, but you're not blogging and you're expecting things to just explode for you, that's unrealistic (but, you already knew that...) You need to align social media vehicles with that you're already doing and plan appropriately for their launch. If you have a customer database but you've never sent an email, maybe do that first...then put up the videos, then email your customers again, then get the blog going, then seed you customers with that and get the real conversation going... I'm still bullish on data and collecting it on prospects and customers (RSS subscribers and video viewers are not success metrics in the end) and employing that data in your marketing and social media efforts.

    [UPDATE] One more thing... This 'social media thing' is new, and it's not...you know what I mean...right? Well, here's what I mean. Companies that do well in social media are those same types of organizations with the criteria identified by Jim Collins in Good to Great. They would meet the test of social media readiness. Examples of that criteria include: humility, acting as a servant leader, being able to accept brutal honesty, availability, a willingness to share credit (ideally, give full credit to others) and take sole responsibility and blame for failures.

    
    (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

19. Social media: It's all about risk, resources and rewards..

    In countless discussions about social media, digital marketing tools and "what's next," I've determined that it's critical for all marketers to put a framework around their decisions on what tools to use, when to use them and how to get started. I put these decisions into a general "3-R" framework.

    Risk: What's your tolerance?
    Whether you're catapulting your brand into the social media sphere by simultaneously starting a blog, moderating a customer community and twittering, or if you're simply monitoring social media to get a glimpse of how the world sees you, there's a certain modicum of risk involved. You need to determine how much risk you're willing to take.

    Social-media risk can manifest in the following ways:
    > Exposure to issues that you'd rather not confront in a Web-based public forum.
    > Suppliers and competitors watching your every move and your every flaw.
    > Legal ramifications of customers commenting on bugs, defects, recalls, etc.
    > Sharing control of your finely crafted brand message with passionate, yet misguided, fans.

    Organizations that are ethical, honest, have strong brands and a strong sense of self will prevail and enjoy a low-risk environment in their social media endeavors. However, if your organization is secretive, insecure and does things you wouldn't tell your mother about, then you'll likely find there's simply too much risk for you in social media.

    Resources: Do you have them?
    This is probably the number one question I hear: "What does it take to do this stuff (blogging, social media, podcasts, etc.)?" For most companies, the cost of technical resources is the least of their worries. In fact, a majority of marketers who deploy social-media campaigns find it's the least expensive part of their budget. It's much more important to have the right people in place to help with your social media efforts. Whether that's a knowledgeable person in-house or a paid consultant, human resources are the most important aspect of putting social media to work in your organization.

    Rewards: What do you expect?
    Let's be serious. The only reason we're in marketing is to pursue capitalistic rewards. If we really want to pursue social media as part of our marketing - with low risk and few resources - we can certainly have at it. In the final analysis, however, we need to show substantial rewards in order to make it worth our while.

    The ROI of social media depends on your overall goals. Most marketers define social-media rewards in the following ways:
    > An increase in Website page views from social media sources.
    > A larger network of customers and fans on social networking sites.
    > Growth in your prospect email database.
    > Increased conversation about your company on the Internet.

    When considering social media as a component of your marketing mix, remember the three R's: risks, resources and rewards. By vetting your plans against these criteria and asking the right questions, you'll be on the path to social-media success.
    

    
    (10/01/08 09:00 PM)

20. Social Media Marketing Best Practice Tip.

    I'm fond of saying that social media doesn't have 'best practices' per se, we just have 'current practices'. Those things that we know are working right now with very, very limited play in a real market. That said, I see that Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation, has started a blog meme on pulling together the best practices and has challenged bloggers to write one post. I also see that Toby has already contributed some outstanding insights. Here's my take

    Social Media Best Practice Tip:
    
    Alignment: Yes, that's it. Alignment. If your organization is considering (or is well on their way) pursuing social media in your tactical marketing plans. It (social media) MUST be in complete alignment with your strategy and differentiator as an organization and in complete alignment with what you're already doing in your marketing plan.

    Strategic & Differentiation Alignment:
    If you've not yet read Seth Godin's book, Meatball Sundae, I highly recommend you check it out. In a nutshell, it gets after this very issue. If you're in charge of marketing for any organization that does not (and is not likely to in the future) embody openness, sharing, trust and all of those things that are required in a customer-owns-your-brand world that is social media, this might not be a strategic fit for you. Should you change, perhaps, but that's not the issue here. Just as I would rarely advise a B2B startup client to advertise on network television, there are some companies that aren't going to align on social media. One last thing - even though your company has some aligning characteristics...if your legal department doesn't, your social media marketing plan may have a hard time getting off the ground. I'm just sayin'...

    Marketing Plan Alignment:
    This one's a bit easier, but still a challenge, and we're still talking about alignment. If you decide to setup a Twitter account because it's cool, but you're not blogging and you're expecting things to just explode for you, that's unrealistic (but, you already knew that...) You need to align social media vehicles with that you're already doing and plan appropriately for their launch. If you have a customer database but you've never sent an email, maybe do that first...then put up the videos, then email your customers again, then get the blog going, then seed you customers with that and get the real conversation going... I'm still bullish on data and collecting it on prospects and customers (RSS subscribers and video viewers are not success metrics in the end) and employing that data in your marketing and social media efforts.

    [UPDATE] One more thing... This 'social media thing' is new, and it's not...you know what I mean...right? Well, here's what I mean. Companies that do well in social media are those same types of organizations with the criteria identified by Jim Collins in Good to Great. They would meet the test of social media readiness. Examples of that criteria include: humility, acting as a servant leader, being able to accept brutal honesty, availability, a willingness to share credit (ideally, give full credit to others) and take sole responsibility and blame for failures.

    
    (09/11/08 09:00 PM)

21. Geoffrey Moore "Provocative Selling" Presentation. Geoffrey Moore presented at Austin Texchange a couple weeks ago. It was a great event. A lot of buzz from 300 entrepreneurs and executives in attendance. His topic was "Provocative Selling: How to Break and Enter Markets...Even in a Downturn". The biggest takeaway for me was that 'leads' don't work when selling something new in a downturn. You have to have the warm introduction and participation from executives, and create a sense that something is missing in the prospect's business without your solution. Geoff gave me permission to link to his slides from our Austin Texchange site here. Also see pictures from the event. Incoming President Charley Dean (Silverton Ventures), Geoffrey Moore, and Sam Decker (outgoing Texchange President) (06/30/08 09:00 AM)

22. Off to the ALI Social Media Summit in Chicago.

    If you're in Chicago between Monday and Wednesday, drop me a line!

    I'll be presenting at the ALI Social Media Summit in a pre-conference workshop. Check it out:

    How To Use Social Media To Enhance And Improve Your Internal Communications Efforts - And 7 Steps To Take Your Internal Social Media Program To An External Marketing Program

    Some people may think that social and emerging media tools are just for customers. However, they can greatly improve your internal communication, peer networking and knowledge sharing and management initiatives if used properly. This workshop will show you how to leverage the most prominent social media tools to strengthen your internal communications processes and improve the effectiveness of any customer-focused organization. If you're considering social media for customer/external communications, this workshop will also give you specific insights and help you to 'eat your own dogfood' before going headlong into social and emerging media & marketing with your customers and prospects.

    Each attendee will take away:

    • A comprehensive understanding of each and every internal social media tool available to their organization
    • Concrete examples of organizations that are employing these tools
    • A roadmap of where to start and how to progress in your internal social media endeavor
    • Develop the business case to sell internal social media based communication tools to management
    • The seven steps to taking social media from an internal endeavor to an external marketing program
    • A comprehensive workbook which explains how to learn more about each of the tools discussed

    
    

    
    (06/09/08 09:00 AM)

23. Submitting Questions (Cont'd).

    Yesterday I wrote about the importance of submitting questions as part of the proposal development process. One of the things that I mentioned was the need for the Proposal Manager to review the list of compiled questions before they are submitted to the government. This review is critical because you want to make sure that the questions you submit don't hint at or give away any information about the approach you are planning to take in your technical or cost proposal. So, for example, you would not want to say something like: "in our technical approach, we would like to propose an additional task that focuses on blah blah blah. Will this be acceptable to the government?" A question like this will only serve to give other bidders some good ideas that they may not have thought of before they saw your question.

    Here are some additional points to be aware of when you submit questions on a government RFP or RFA:

    • When responding to the questions, the government does not identify the person or organization that submitted each question.
    • All questions and answers will be seen by all bidders, which is why the point I made in the first paragraph is important. The government usually issues an amendment to the RFP/RFA which contains all of the questions and answers. Anyone can read it.
    • Some prospective bidders may submit a long list of questions -- many of them unnecessary -- in the hopes that it will take the government a long time to answer them and then extend the due date for the proposal. This strategy can sometimes work, but it can also backfire, meaning that no extension will be granted. Don't count on it.
    • Don't put off working on your proposal while you are waiting for your questions to be answered. You can always make changes to your proposal based on the questions and answers, but you can't always catch up because you sat around and waited. Just keep going.
    (03/05/08 09:01 AM)

24. Bubble Watch: Glam Media Shops Around a $200 Million Private Placement. How much froth is there in the online ad industry? One market signal comes from a leaked private-placement document for Glam Media, which is trying to raise an eye-popping $200 million (which is very large for a private deal). Allen Company and Bank of America are raising the round on behalf of Glam. According to the leaked document (thank you, TechCrunch):Glam Media is the fastest-growing web property in the United States based on the year over year increase in unique visitors from 782,000 to more than 19.1 million monthly unique visitors in June 2007.Except that it's not. Glam Media owns a collection of women oriented sites, including its flagship Glam.com. But the bulk of those 19 million visitors comes from the ad network that it runs for other sites like MyYearbook.com, QualityHealth.com, and Kaboodle (which was recently acquired). In other words, Glam Media is trying to tell prospective investors that because it serves up ads on a site, the visitors to those affiliated sites should count towards its own total as a web property. Yet, according to comScore, all of Glam Media's sites accounted for only 1.6 million of those 19 million visitors in June. And Glam.com itself only accounted for 654,000 visitors. Some of its lesser sites include Celebrity-Hairstyles.org. The fact is that the bulk of Glam Media's traffic and revenues comes from its ad network, not its web properties. Trying to sell itself as the No. 1 destination on the Web for women is misleading at best. Hyperbole... (08/13/07 09:01 PM)

25. Online Checkout Fun...as close as you can get. What’s the most painful point of a prospects purchase process for an online retailer? Checkout. Most cart/checkouts get over 60-70% abandonment. If you're a retailer it's painful because you were so close to closing the customer….you almost had them! What happened?! What happens is that introspective questions nibble away at the toggle in a customers’ mind that makes them click “Checkout” or “Submit Order”… Do I really need this? Can I find it cheaper elsewhere? Will I get it in time? Does it do this or that? Will it work with this or that? Will they like it? Is this site secure and safe to order? Do I know the reputation of this retailer? If I buy this what can’t I buy in the future? Will my wife kill me? Of course there are things you can do in checkout to alleviate some of these objections. But the most fundamental strategy is to make checkout so easy that there’s nothing to trip up their cognitive process of completing checkout. There’s nothing you’ve done to give the customer pause to think. Perhaps you can even take their mind off those nibbling questions…can you make checkout fun? Most can’t…but I found a checkout that is pretty close. But I’m an online geek. Checkout (no pun intended) Griffin Technologies. First note the attractive and clear Buy now call to action... When you click that you get a pop-in window, without leaving the page you can change quantity and check shipping. Checkout itself looks... (04/05/07 09:01 AM)

26. Embracing the naive prospect. Many businesses cater to individuals and corporations that are making a once in a lifetime purchase. Whether it's a DJ for your kids sweet 16 or a company that pours tar on the roof of your factory, it's unlikely you're... (12/17/06 09:01 PM)

27. Three Parts to a Sales Presentation. You’ve prepared, and done your homework. Finally you are about to sit down with your prospective client – or perhaps do a group presentation. Think of three parts to the presentation, and it will make things much easier and smoother.... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

28. How to Qualify Sales Prospects. When you're striving to grow your business, it's easy to get caught up chasing every lead that comes your way. But all prospects are not created equal; some are more likely than others to turn into sa ...
    
    (08/28/06 09:02 PM)

29. Five Good Reasons to Do a Mass Mailing. In-house mailings are a great way to stay in touch with your customers -- and to contact prospective customers. Mass mailing, in small-business terms, ranges from sending out a dozen invitations to bu ...
    
    (08/28/06 09:02 PM)

30. 10 Steps to Running a Successful Home-Based Business. No one wants their business to fail, but that prospect is something that every business owner thinks about. Luckily there are steps you can take to help ensure your success. These steps are easy to fo ...
    
    (08/26/06 09:02 PM)

31. Seven Warning Signs When Buying a Franchise. The decision to invest in a franchise is a life-changing event. It is incumbent upon every prospective franchisee to thoroughly investigate a franchise opportunity before signing the agreement. Mu ...
    
    (08/21/06 09:00 PM)

32. How to Establish Credibility. How to Establish Credibility
    
    by Michel Neray
    
    "Look up 'credible' in Webster's Dictionary, and you'll find 'Capable of being credited or believed; worthy of belief; entitled to confidence; trustworthy.'
    
    OK, so no surprise there.
    
    Credibility gives you permission to speak, and gives the person you're speaking to permission to listen.
    
    Regardless of whether you are in the service business or sell a tangible product, everyone needs to establish credibility, especially with prospective clients. But if you're a consultant, adviser or coach, then it's harder for your clients to evaluate the value of your advice and recommendations."
    
    - Credibility is what Donald Trump has. It is his most valuable asset. Who else can say, "Lend me $320 million dollars so I can buy a casino with no risk to me." and get away with it. Donald gets people to do this for him because he has credibility. Donald never has to inform people of his credibility, they know. He just brings them solutions. This is what you should be doing and this is what Michael Neray points out so clearly in this article. -ed. (07/29/06 02:29 PM)