2011 August | The Heinrich Report Blog

Archive for August, 2011

Increase Sales by Giving Your Sales Staff the Tools They Need to Sell

August 30th, 2011 by Jay Rael

According to an oft-quoted statistic by the American Marketing Association, B2B salespeople spend 30 hours a month searching for and creating their own selling materials. Even more astounding, 90% of marketing deliverables aren’t used by sales.

In a newsletter by the ITMSA, a researched-based organization that helps B2B companies market and sell more effectively, a member told the following story:

His company had developed a one-page PDF sales sheet but few salespeople used it. Why? The document contained an 800 number that didn’t allow sales reps to get quota credit. As soon as the company figured this out, they created dynamic PDFs that let salespeople customize the sheets with their own phone numbers and local information. Adoption went through the roof.

To increase sales, it pays to help salespeople do their jobs better — with collateral that helps them sell.

Ask Salespeople What They Need

According to IDC data, 30% of sales people say that the collateral they get from marketing requires customization. Likewise, Nigel Edelshain, in a guest post on The Pipeline blog, states that he created his own PowerPoint presentation customized for the industry he was targeting (banks) because his marketing department “produced some nice looking stuff [that had] mostly nothing to do with what [he] needed to close deals.”

You can solve this problem very easily by soliciting feedback from sales on how you, the marketer, can better serve them — simply send out an email asking:

What objections do you hear during sales calls?

What types of problems do you encounter during the sales process?

What messages do you need to communicate to prospects about our products?

What types of collateral would help make your job easier?

Simple Is Better

Developing marketing campaigns and producing beautifully designed collateral and online content is all good and necessary. When creating tools for salespeople, however, think simple. Salespeople love tools that get the point across fast. Consider the following:

Comparison sheets — Research how your products/services match up with the competition, and then give sales this information all on one page (it doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective). When a prospect says the competition is offering the same product at less cost, your sales rep can show that the products are actually quite different and why.

Objection-handling sheets — Often the same question or problem arises across many sales calls, e.g., the price is too high, installation is difficult, etc. You can help sales by crafting messages that overcome objections and that answer people’s questions.

Testimonials and case studies — Salespeople need these to show prospects that your company is solving challenges for other companies. Get in the habit of asking customers for testimonials as soon as a project or installation is complete. Case studies can be a little tricky because sometimes a company doesn’t want their name used. You can get around this by creating “mini” case studies in a problem — solution — result format without using any names.

To make things even easier, create an online portal just for sales where they can find this marketing collateral and quickly download it before sales calls.

Tell Sales How to Use Collateral

In the IDC article mentioned above, 41% of salespeople said they don’t know which collateral to use, how to use it or when. One way to overcome this objection is to tell salespeople how to use new and existing collateral. In her post for the Content Marketing Institute, Jennifer Watson recommends providing a user’s guide for each piece, which identifies:

The intended audience/buyer persona
The stage of the sales cycle it’s designed to influence
Key messages based on varying buyer personas and sales stages
The call to action to be reinforced by the rep

You can also send out “newsy” emails each month that alert sales to any new collateral and content created and where to find it on the website. Be sure to let sales know about any new campaigns you’re developing, industry research you’ve uncovered and messages you’ll be using.

Do all of the above and sales will love you!

What have you done to make your sales reps’ jobs easier? Post your stories below.

Not Using Facebook Yet for Your Business? That’s OK. (Really!)

August 17th, 2011 by Erin Iwata

As Greg Sterling said in his Search Engine Land article, “There’s been a boatload of survey data released in the past six months documenting the adoption of social media by small businesses (SMBs).” (See the rest of Sterling’s article, Report: 58% of SMBs on Social Media Sites, Most Have Only Limited Engagement.)

Unfortunately, this data doesn’t give a clear picture of how and how many SMBs are using social media — and in particular, Facebook.

Hiscox, a company that provides insurance to small businesses, surveyed small businesses and found that nearly 50% weren’t using social media at all and that of those who do use some form of social media, only 19% use Facebook.

Data from Palore’s research, however, paints a different picture: 54.2% of SMBs have a Facebook page, with 22.3% of SMBs having both a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

Jason Falls, social media expert and author of the forthcoming book, No Bullshit Social Media, on the other hand, states that only 27% of small businesses are using Facebook.

Although Facebook usage data may be unclear, these social media experts quoted agree on one thing: SMBs need to use social media to market their products and services.

But is this really the case? Maybe, maybe not. From Heinrich’s perspective and in working with small and mid-sized businesses, there is no universal answer; it really depends on your audience, budget, and business objectives.

Why you may not need a Facebook page

When our clients ask whether they should be on Facebook, we say, “It depends.” This is because social media is just one marketing channel, and Facebook is just one platform within that channel. Facebook should make sense within the context of the overall mix.

Although the Facebook “Like” button is ubiquitous, it doesn’t necessarily follow that a Facebook page is right for your business. When deciding whether to begin a Facebook campaign, it pays to look at a number of factors:

1. Your audience — The question to ask yourself is, “Will my customers engage with me on Facebook?” For many big-name consumer brands, a Facebook presence can be a must.

This isn’t always the case for local businesses, something Francine Hardaway points out in her article, “Most Small Business Facebook Page Fans Not Local” for the Business Insider blog.

According to the research data she cites, only 15% of “Likes” on the average small business page are local — the rest come from “fans” outside of the area. “From that,” states Hardaway, “you can extrapolate that the Facebook pages of most small businesses do them little or no good for targeted marketing efforts.”

Just because you can create a Facebook page doesn’t mean you have to or should, especially if your local customers would rather engage with you during the course of face-to-face transactions in your store.

2. Your budget — Common advice states that social media is “free” and therefore a cost-effective tactic for SMBs. Yes, opening a Facebook page or Twitter account is free. But maintaining these accounts requires a huge investment of time and resources to create fresh content on a regular basis, respond to people’s comments, and provide damage control to manage negative commentary about your business.

If you don’t have internal resources, you may have to hire an outside agency or consultant to maintain your presence for you.

3. Your business objectives — If your objective is to generate leads — for example, you’re a fencing company that needs to keep its installers busy — Facebook may help you build brand awareness but it won’t necessarily provide you with the leads that you need. In this case, your business objectives and marketing tactics don’t match, and while you may see some business lift from the additional awareness, it’s certainly a much more passive sales path to take.

Instead of using social media, you’ll want to consider an integrated lead generation campaign that rewards people for word-of-mouth and online referrals (reviews on your Google Places page), takes advantage of targeted direct mail, and includes pay-per-click and SEO.

Has your business developed a Facebook presence? Why or why not? Leave your comments below.