Marketing Articles About Prospecting Search Results

1. Local Startup Hops On Video Resume Bandwagon. HartfordBusiness.com: Putting their best face forward, an increasing number of job candidates are applying for jobs by e-mailing prospective employers a video resume. It’s a trend that is gaining in popularity. A year ago, YouTube counted about 1,700 resumes; it now counts nearly 29,000. A Rocky Hill startup wants to jump on the video resume bandwagon and help [...]
   (09/04/08 09:00 AM)

2. Has Your Telephone Become Your Sales Prevention System?. Is your company guilty of throwing dollars at campaigns to increase Web traffic, only to turn around and squander sales opportunities due to poor telephone and email handling? Make sure that your telephone system isn't preventing prospects from reaching out and touching someone at your company. As soon as you finish reading this article, pick up the phone and call your company's sales lines and test the process for yourself. (09/02/08 09:01 AM)

3. Direct-to-Consumer PR Reflects Power of Do-It-Yourself. With the rise of search engines, Wi-Fi, and a Do-It-Yourself mindset, today's consumers are more empowered than ever before. They not only believe that they're entitled to information but also have unprecedented access to information on a global scale. An increasing number of consumers turn first to the Internet when they want to make a purchase?even if the product will be bought offline. That's why any PR strategy focused solely on media gatekeepers is missing a large piece of the market. While there's still value in sending your message via traditional media, more and more prospective customers are doing their own research online, bypassing newspaper, magazines, radio, and TV complet (09/02/08 09:01 AM)

4. How To Use Top Sales Training for Your Mortgage Sales Breakthrough!. Believe it or not, there are Mortgage Sales Training programs out there that allow new agents to learn how to use the phone to connect with prospects the "right way." You see up until recentl... (09/01/08 09:01 PM)

5. How to write a winning sales letter That forces Your Prospect To Buy From You Guaranteed.. Have you ever thought of the magic words seasoned copywriters use that makes absolutely no one able to resist their offer no matter the price? Writing a sales letter is tough and writing a winnin... (08/27/08 09:00 PM)

6. How To Get People To Understand Your Offer. Here's this article's copywriting tip: To actually relate with your prospects, you want to be appreciated.
7. 8 Ways To Find Your Prospect's Key Benefit. If there's anything you can count on, it's that things are always changing. Meaning you don't ever want to get left behind. With that in mind, here are 8 secrets you can use - right now -to discover ... (08/19/08 09:01 AM)

8. Email Hygiene: Six Ways to Polish Your List. You already know the importance of a permission-based email list. You even practice list segmentation to improve the relevance of the emails you send to your customers and prospects. But how much time do you devote to cleaning your email list? If your email hygiene is lax, you're greatly limiting the success of your campaigns. (08/12/08 09:00 AM)

9. Networkers Who Purchase Leads R broke!. Purchasing Leads to grow a networking business does not work. Most of these leads (prospects) have no interest in a networking business. I speak from experience and thousand of dollars blown... (07/30/08 09:01 AM)

10. Incentives: 5 Cardinal Rules, 10 Great Ideas. When the economy gets tight, customers can take forever to reach a buying decision. So, managers think up incentives that will encourage the customer to buy. Whatever lure you use should inspire the prospective customer to edge a little closer to a purchase, which is sometimes easier said than done. (07/29/08 09:01 AM)

11. Copywriting - 5 Steps To Prepare . What sells your product? Too many people build a website with graphics, thinking they will get the attention of prospects that will turn into buyers. Now graphics may get attention, but it's the w... (07/28/08 09:01 AM)

12. The Tools To Start Marketing. As an online marketer you really need to know what you're doing, where you're going, what to expect, how to handle and how to find prospects. Wow, sounds like a huge task right? It's not if you ha... (07/27/08 09:01 AM)

13. How To Become An Expert, On Any Subject. Let's get right into our topic, shall we? To be successful, a good salesperson needs to build rapport with their customers and prospects. If you're selling to business people, and you want to ga... (07/18/08 09:01 PM)

14. Improve Lead Capture, Conversion: Replace Landing Pages with Personalized Microsites. You can improve lead-capture and sales-conversion rates by directing your prospective customers to special Web site landing pages. But you can enjoy even greater success by expanding your landing pages?turning them into microsites?and customizing the home pages and navigation menus of those microsites. (07/01/08 09:00 AM)

15. 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)

16. Eight Ways to Integrate Webinars Into a B2B Marketing Plan. B2B sales happen over a period of several months as trust builds between the prospect and the seller. Webinars may be used not just to bring new leads in the door but also to move existing leads through the pipeline to a final contract. Rather than a one-hit approach, you need to determine where webinars fit into the overall sales cycle. (06/24/08 09:00 AM)

17. Marathons, Coffee, and Other Good Stuff.

    Getting up at 3:45am to travel ruins my morning routine that includes jamming through email, web, and blogs.  I've had some time to catch up this afternoon (while Amy naps to recover from the early morning silliness) and I've got some good stuff for you.

    I'm Training To Ruin A Marathon: A gem from The Onion.  On Saturday I'm going to run a marathon; this dude has a plan to ruin a marathon.

    How to be a TechStar Part 2: A guide to Boulder's Coffee Shops: Another gem - this time from Rob Johnson of EventVue (one of the TechStars companies).  Coffee is a very important part of Boulder.  Rob breaks it down for us all.

    An evolution of definition: Eric Norlin talks about how "definitions" like "enterprise 2.0" evolve by comparing remembering how "digital identiy" works.  He has some constructive suggestions and explains what "Defrag" means - sort of.

    Email Productivity: Andrew Wenger at Union Square Ventures explains how he processes his inbox.

    Validate Your Own Market: Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital explores common pickup lines.  He explains why the answer to a VC asking an entrepreneur "What happens if [INSERT LARGE ESTABLISHED PROSPECTIVE COMPETITOR HERE] decides to get into the market" is not "their entry will validate the market."

    Have fun.  Drink your coffee and eat your wheaties.

    

    
    (06/19/08 09:00 PM)

18. The Press Release Triple Threat. PR is great, it’s not free, it’s earned, but when it is, it packs some very nice ROI. One strategy that small business owners should employ is to take their PR message online and directly to the prospect by consistent use of the age old tool, the press release. Creating and distributing press releases was primarily a [...]
    (06/13/08 09:00 PM)

19. 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)

20. Should lead generation ignore current customers?. ”We know more about our prospects (leads) than we know about our current customers” was 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 complex... (05/12/08 09:00 PM)

21. Lead-Generation Blueprints in 30 Minutes: How a Company Quadrupled Marketing ROI. Marketers must continually fight the temptation of executing random, disconnected lead-generation activities to prospects. Success today requires marketers to apply the discipline of campaign development in order to establish a relevant, timely dialog with the target audience. This is the key to higher conversion rates and even higher customer loyalty. (04/22/08 09:01 AM)

22. 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)

23. #1 Lesson from 2007: Using a Sense of Urgency in Marketing. If there's one theme that keeps coming back to me from the past year, it's got the be the proper use (and the ease of misuse, if you're not careful) of a sense of urgency about doing business with you and your company. I'm not talking about the cheezy 'limited time offers' that you see over and over on TV (limited my ass...you mean, limited by your budget for spewing out shitty ads...) but genuine urgency created by inflection points in your business which moves the needle on buyer behavior.

    Keep in mind here that I'm talking mostly about B2B, which, from my perspective, makes this even more exciting. B2C gets all the urgency in the mass media, and sometimes it's a rare day for most B2B organizations to be able to substantiate a genuine sense of urgency within the base of prospects.

    That said, urgency is not for everyone. It's a powerful weapon that's not to be used without forethought and and crisp and clear understanding of not only the immediate implications, but also future consequences of the slippery slope that it can create, as discussed in a concise little bit about urgency in the Marketing Experiments blog.

    So, what's this urgency thing all about and how do you create it?

    I guess that this will be different for everyone, but frankly, the most successful levers that I've found are timing around pricing and production and availability, quotas and caps. I'm keen to hear more about what you think. Again, I'm talking sustainable things here - not just a 50% off sale or something....

    Timing and production to create urgency:

    This is the fun one. A great example is an impending price increase. If you've been doing a great deal of lead nurturing with your base of prospects, this is especially useful because the already know and trust you. On the other hand, if you don't have a base of prospects that you're nurturing, then you're just another average dude with a deal. Seriously, there's a lot of you out there...this type of urgency play almost has to come from a position of trust to be truly effective. Sure, you can impose urgency on a facelist list of prospects, but your conversion will suffer.

    Proper planning improves urgency results:

    Again, you can take this for what it's worth, but like everything I preach about when I talk about thought leadership marketing or 'altruism before capitalism', you can't just wake up one day and say "I need to create a sense of urgency and get more sales." Crap, what's first. Wrong way Charlie. Not going to work. You need to plan this. You need to understand what the next inflection point in your business will be (obsolescence of an old product, price increase across the board, new product design coming out, office move/clearing inventory...something that's almost 'external' to you yet internal at the same time) and work in a sense of urgency into your marketing to coincide with (or, preferably leading up to) the genuine, non "manufactured" inflection point.

    Quotas, caps and limited availability:

    Take a page from event marketers (if any of you are attending sold out football games as we near playoff time, you understand the acute sense of urgency that surrounds ticket prices and the limited availability in stadium seating) and keep an eye on your quota for items, or your geographical territories that are quickly filling up or the number of 'limited edition' items that you can produce in one quarter. From a services perspective, such as social media speaking or marketing consulting (things which I have some familiarity with) the best creator of urgency is the calendar and the limited number of dates you have available.

    This is not the end of the story. There's so much more to this urgency thing (like neuromarketing and buyer behavior) but for now, that's enough.
    
    Action Items:

    What ideas do you have for creating urgency? Please share in comments!

    
    (12/31/07 09:00 PM)

24. Choosing an on-demand lead generation solution. Link: Choosing an on-demand lead generation solution. Choosing an on-demand lead generation solution this article By Frank Vaculin, Spoke Software October 4th, 2007 An on-demand data prospect database can boost the success rates of lead generation campaigns and help marketers... (10/08/07 09:00 PM)

25. 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)

26. Using the Physics of Trigger Events to Generate More Sales Ready Leads . Most buyers aren't ready to buy when we're ready to sell. This trite but true observation has significant implications when it comes to lead generation. It means that we must continue to nurture viable prospects until they are ready to... (06/13/07 09:00 AM)

27. 10 Lead Generation (Prospecting) Tips for Sales People . Sales people often lack the support of a dedicated marketing team that is able to execute lead generation programs on their behalf. This is particularity true in small companies. Still, those sales people succeed in spite of it all. They... (05/21/07 09:00 PM)

28. 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)

29. 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)

30. 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)

31. 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)

32. 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)

33. 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)

34. 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)

35. Marketing Bullseye 4: Scalable Programs. A couple posts ago I talked about the PL aspects of marketing cost scaling. A key factor to marketing costs scaling is for marketing programs to scale. In effect, any marketing initiative or process created should be sustained and optimized for less resources over time. The best marketing programs are those that get set up, perform, and don't require my attention. This is and was my philosophy as a marketer and online retailer, and I've heard this from many of our online retailing clients now. Some may require attention, but for the same effort, grow in impact over time. Examples of Scaling marketing programs: Online affiliates programs, where others sell your products for commission Automated RSS Feeds Blogging -- for same weekly effort, as time goes on more people link to you increasing your search impact Search engine marketing (except for the costs going up) you can set it up once and it can run and optimize with limited bandwidth. Web site functionality -- features that live on the site with one time cost which drive conversion or attract new customers (could drive word of mouth). Email newsletters -- same effort each email can drive more results as email list grows and we test/measure as part of the process to make them more effective. Marketing programs that don't scale include: Custom marcom, letters, or mockups for every prospect that calls. Advertising campaign that requires new creative often, rather than using creative templates or getting more out of one creative. Custom... (07/30/06 09:02 AM)

36. 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)

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