Sales Experiments Archives - Page 20 of 21

September 4, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Getting Inside My Client’s Brain

Photo Credit: illuminaut via Compfight cc

One of the biggest mistakes typical salespeople make (myself included) is that we have tunnel vision. We try so hard to apply our solution to the specific problem it solves that we fail to see that our solution is merely a slice of what our clients have to worry about.

Insurance is both a small part and an annoying part of many of my direct contacts’ duties.

Today’s action item addresses this trap that sales and marketing professionals fall into.

Develop an Emotional Connection to My Ideal Client

Today’s challenge came from Amy Porterfield‘s interview of Pam Hendrickson in her Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast (Episode 36 – 3 Keys to Understanding Your Audience).

Pam Hendrickson suggested that, in order to best understand our target or ideal client, we need to do address three areas:

The Tactical: We need to do our research. We need to dig up information on our audiences.
The Relational: We need to get to know people, preferably in person, but virtually also. We need to get in front of people and have real conversations.
The Emotional: We need to do our best to figure out what our clients are experiencing, what goes on in their hearts and minds.

It’s the third area, the emotional area, where I grabbed my action item for the day.

Today’s Action Item: Take 20 minutes and write the thoughts, hopes, dreams, stressors of my key client

After ordering wings at the local wing and beer sports joint, I took out my iPhone and started free writing as if I were the CEO of a mid-size local nonprofit organization.

My main goal was to not write about a CEO’s opinion and experience with insurance. My sense is that this exercise is less about connecting my product to the insured’s needs and more about simply understanding my customer’s needs.

What I realized is that the insurance guy is nearly never on the radar. If I’m the CEO of a small to mid-sized local nonprofit, then I have a ridiculous number of hats I wear. I’m dealing with donor development. I’m dealing with volunteers and employees and board members and clients. I might have a spouse. I might have kids.

It was a powerful exercise that all the sudden made me realize that I’m a mere sliver of a nonprofit’s executive’s world.

Who knows what I’ll do with the information. But no doubt it will help me to be a more patient sales guy. And hopefully it’ll help me better couch my solutions in light of the many responsibilities and hopes and dreams of my ideal client.

Now I have a pretty great document in my Evernote: a powerful few paragraphs that I should revisit on occasion and perhaps even edit after having real heart-to-hearts with my client contacts.

Content I Consumed Today

I’m starting to notice that my content consumption leans toward podcasts. Work and other things take up a lot of energy. Early mornings are about a little Bible study and journaling and some social media updates for a few different projects. During the day when I have a few minutes, I suffer from Candy Crush addiction #Level86. I should delete it from my phone.

What I listened to today (and read) besides the Porterfield podcast above:

A Purpose and a Promise: In the Meantime – Part 2, North Point Community Church, Andy Stanley: This one was actually what I wanted to apply. I did during the day. The gist of the message is that we have a choice. If you
“Zombie Cop” Marketing Plan – The Antipreneur Podcast with Ben Settle: Ben Settle is kind of a brilliant idiot. He is a believer in everyday emailing to whatever list you happen to have. And he wrote a zombie novel. I should probably read it given that my wife is into The Walking Dead (I kind of like it too, but I don’t have the Normal Reedus infatuation that she has). Settle’s podcast is rougher around the edges, but for raw marketing and even sales content that challenges the status quo, you need to listen.

Until tomorrow…

September 1, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Using LinkedIn Publishing Platform to Serve My Clients

I’m so happy I made this commitment to 6 months of taking action on positive, skill-sharpening, mindset shifting content.

If I hadn’t, I would have listened to this great podcast on using LinkedIn’s new Publishing Platform, taken some notes, but not taken action.

As I type this, my first LinkedIn Publishing Platform post went live. And it was super easy.

Today’s Content and Action Item

Content Consumed: LinkedIn Publishing Platform: What Marketers Need to Know, Social Media Marketing Podcast with Michael Stelzner

Action Item: Select one post from my blog and publish it on LinkedIn Publishing Platform

How the Action Helps: Hopefully, it will contribute to greater thought leadership and grab some feedback to help me better understand how to serve my clients and prospective clients.

Here is how I plan on acting on what I learned today (including publishing the post I just published.

Why the LinkedIn Publishing Platform is a Godsend for Current Business Bloggers

If you’ve been creating content for a while already, you have a backlog of content at your fingertips. As far as I can tell, you don’t have to publish brand new original content. You can simply repurpose. It’s an easy ramp-up. If you have 30-40 posts already, you could easily fill a year if you publish every other week or even every week.

How I Approached the Platform.

Step 1: Decide which of my current posts to publish

I went to the blog that is tied to my day job and reviewed the most popular posts. The post rankings shake out as follows:

Top posts on the not-so-highly-trafficked nonprofitinsuranceblog.com

I chose the top post: Workers Compensation Insurance for Nonprofits. Everyday, my blog gets a few visits to that post. Apparently, workers compensation is a conundrum and a thorn in the side of nonprofits (especially small ones).

Step 2: Figure out how to access the LinkedIn Publishing Platform

I looked all over LinkedIn, trying to find where to use the ‘Publishing Platform’. In the end, it’s so easy that it’s easy to miss.

Go to the top of the main LinkedIn newsfeed when you login to LinkedIn.

Find where you post an update. Instead of typing an update, you simply hit the little ‘pencil’ icon in the right side of the update field. Click it and a whole new world of LinkedIn scribing opens up to you.

Step 3: Cut and paste the post I selected

I simply cut and paste my whole article into the Publishing Platform editor. It was simple. The editor is a bit easier than WordPress, but most everything pulled over. I didn’t have to reformat any of the text and all of the links transferred unscathed.

The only thing I had to do was to replace the image. The image didn’t pull, so I popped into Dropbox and pulled the same image and inserted it in the appropriate place.

Step 4: Edit, edit, edit for the LinkedIn audience

I reviewed the post and found a few word choice and other issues. It’s important to note that LinkedIn is focused on professionals, so I tried to make sure I dotted i’s and crossed t’s.

Step 5: Sharpen the headline.

Headlines are so important on all the platforms. Honestly, I don’t often assume folks will need my headlines to sing because people who find me are searching specifically for my content. They’re desperate for info and as long as I deliver, I’m golden.

But to stand out in LinkedIn, I sense I need to work on my headlines. I made a very simple change. Who knows if it’ll be more effective: From “Workers Compensation Insurance for Nonprofits” to “Why Workers Compensation is Essential for Nonprofits.”

Step 6: Post and share

The next obvious step is to publish. LinkedIn will give you a ‘are you sure?’, but then you’re good to go. The post can go live.

Apparently, the posts don’t automatically show up in your newsfeed. I scheduled the post to be shared across all social platforms, including LinkedIn, via Buffer.

A great thing about the LinkedIn Publishing Platform is that it includes all the social share options. And you also get real-time analytics. You can go to the post and find out how many people have seen and shared it.

Step 7: Create an editorial calendar

Since it’s pretty easy to pop a post up, I’ve decided to dole out my posts once a week on Mondays. I’ll just go through the posts in order of popularity.

Another thing that might be fun is to test long-form content in LinkedIn before publishing on my blog. If a 300-400 word post connects with a LinkedIn audience, maybe I should flesh it out on my blog.

We’ll See How It Works

I have no clue if this will be a helpful discipline, but what I’m happy about is that it’s an action I took when before, my notes from the podcast might have languished. Thank you Mr. Miller!

Another bit of content I listened to

Word Up – How our words are powerful – College Wesleyan Church, sermon by Lenny Luchetti

The application from this sermon (a powerful message for believers or those are who are not quite sure): Learn to speak words of life and encouragement to those we know and love and come across in daily life. If an idea to speak something that is encouraging pops into our brains, it’s probably a good idea to follow through. Who doesn’t need a word or three of encouragement? We all have our issues.

I’ll be on the lookout to call out the good I see. But this will just be a happy bonus. 🙂

Some Other Notes Regarding the Dan Miller Challenge…

I don’t plan on going so in-depth every day. I got carried away. My main purpose is not to build another blog, but to create revenue (and grow as a person in other ways as not all the content I consume will focus on sales, marketing, and other aspects of building a business) by applying insights and action items.

Until tomorrow….

September 1, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

I’m Accepting Dan Miller’s 6 Month Content Consumption Challenge

In Dan Miller’s 48 Days On-Demand Radio Show (or podcast), he issued a challenge that if someone would listen to or read 30 minutes of positive, skill-sharpening, mindset shifting content a day, that that someone would double income in 6 months.

Well, I’ve been listening to and reading such content for some time (nearly 5 years now). In some ways, I’m an addict.

What I’ve learned, though, is that merely listening isn’t enough.

Don’t get me wrong. Consuming content is huge and it has been ridiculously helpful to me in so many ways. I know I’m more positive, hopeful, and even more effective in work and many relationships.

I Accept Mr. Miller’s Challenge – With a Twist

But I’m going to accept this challenge from the revenue and income perspective. Just listening to content that will help one be more productive in sales or marketing or building a business doesn’t make one great in building a business or marketing or sales.

This fact hit home to me today when my sweet daughter announced she wanted a horse. I went through a couple subtle financial reasons why we can’t go grab a horse at the present time. And then I said that perhaps we should start with riding lessons.

Her response: “I know how to ride a horse.”

My response: “When did you ride a horse?”

Her response: “I haven’t ridden a horse, but I learned how to do it on Fetch with Ruff Ruffman.”

The moral of the story: Just consuming content (in her case a very positive, educational kids’ show) doesn’t make one an expert (an equestrian, again, in my daughter’s case).

It takes much more than head knowledge and even repeated reminders of what to do. While I accept the challenge (although I’ve been listening for nearly 10X the time that Dan encourages), I feel compelled that I add some additional requirements.

My Counter Proposal – How I Will Take on This Challenge

Here is how I plan to approach this challenge:

Listen to or read 30 minutes of content a day starting September 1, 2014
Select one action item a day from the reading or audio content (or video)
Implement that one action
Write about what I consumed, the action I selected, how I implemented it, and the results – whatever the results might look like.
My goal is to keep this up until March 1, 2015
I’m giving myself the option to take a break on Sundays from the whole action selection, implementation, and writing thing. But I’ll still give it a shot – consumption, I’m sure, will still take place.

What Content Will I Consider Worthy?

Quite honestly, I don’t have a reading list picked out, and I’m not going to be uptight about what I select.

The first two books I’m conquering (due to the fact that I’m actually reading them right now and need to finish before I move on):

I will continue to listen to the podcasts that I’ve been listening to. I assume that my podcast listening will take up at least 30 minutes a day due to Atlanta area drive time.

If you happen upon this blog post and have suggestions for books that don’t just contain good ideas, but that are highly actionable, please feel free to drop a few suggestions in the comments. I’ll consider them.

Mr. Dan Miller… if you have a top 3-5 books you’d suggest, please drop them in the comments. I’d be honored!

Why ‘Sales Experiment’?

I am in sales and have a side marketing project or two, so most of my efforts will be in sales and learning how to create value for folks. Hopefully, the old Zig Ziglar mantra ‘You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want’ will hold true.

In addition, selling is big with Mr. Miller. And I agree. We are all, constantly, selling. In other words, we are all trying to help create value for someone else or for a group of someone elses. (Or we’re smarmy and trying to convince someone to do something whether it’s in their best interest or not).

As a matter of fact, I was telling a friend that now that I’m older, I think every person would be better served to serve two years in the military and then sell for 5 years prior to going to college. Something tells me our country would be much more awesomer (grammar misstep intended) if we were to enforce such requirements.

Also, I already owned ‘salesexperiment.com’ and felt it was a really good URL to tackle this… experiment.

I do intend on having clear monthly experiments or projects that will fall well within the purpose of Dan Miller’s challenge. The URL is as good as any.

How to Judge My Results

I’m a family man who holds things like income close to the vest and work in a relatively conservative environment. I’m no Pat Flynn or John Lee Dumas. I can’t be overly transparent at this point in my career around my current income situation. Let’s pretend, though, that I’m at 25 Challenge Points. I need to get to 50 Challenge Points. We’ll let you know how things go.

It won’t kill you one way or the other if I make it. Mr. Miller has been informed of my goal. You don’t need to know. Pick your own goal and work your tail off. That’s the only number that matters. Go for it. Let’s kick each others’ butts until we accomplish what we want to….no NEED… to accomplish.

Thanks for Reading!

Feel free to subscribe to the blog to keep up with any progress (or lack thereof).