That’s why it’s imperative that you continuously evaluate and look to improve your sales processes. And if you suspect your sales team is unproductive or could stand to improve, keep reading. Today, we’re diving into all the proven techniques, latest insights, and strategies to boost sales productivity and your company’s bottom line.

Evaluate Your Sales Productivity First

Be smart and calculated about tackling your sales productivity. That means first conducting a pulse check on your current sales processes and results. Sit down with your analytics to identify challenges, areas of improvement, and those efforts that prove to be doing well. Then, sit down with your sales teams and ask them individually about their sentiments of the overall sales process. Together, your metrics and direct sales team feedback can guide you to prioritize what changes need to be made. And you might be surprised by what your sales pros tell you.

Why and How to Measure Sales Productivity

The average salesperson only actually spends one-third of their time selling. The rest of their workdays are spent with emails, researching clients, managing data and funnels, and in meetings. And their productivity is going to directly impact your company’s bottom line – making it a top priority metric to prioritize. If sales productivity is low, they’re not covering their own expenses, and your business is losing money.

You can tackle sales productivity challenges in two ways:

1. Introducing methods and resources that increase how much time your reps are actually selling.
2. Introducing methods and resources that ensure teams are maximizing their sales efficiencies.

Sales efficiency is measured by identifying how many opportunities a salesperson has to convert a sale. You can also measure the length of time it takes to close a sale. Additionally, collect data that highlights the number of sales converted per initial cold-call contact. These metrics will help you get a big-picture understanding of where your sales teams need help and improved productivity methods.

Other Sales Productivity Stats That Will Blow Your Mind

Sales productivity matters, and these latest sales stats might just blow your mind. But they only reinforce why productivity is so important for so many business owners and sales managers.

• In 2021, 53% of salespeople reported working from home for more than half of their workdays.
• Only 24.3% of sales pros exceeded their 2021 sales quotas.
• More than 41% of salespeople say phone calls are their most productive sales tools.
• More than 80% of sales staff don’t take the time to review and/or correct their sales processes.
• One in every five salespeople say they don’t have the resources they need to be successful.
• Only 15% of all salespeople contacted more than 1,000 prospects last year.
• More than 66% of salespeople only contacted 250 or less prospects last year.
• As many as 77% of salespeople say their employers plan to invest in sales intelligence resources.
• Another 54% of salespeople say using digital sales tools helps them to close more deals.
• Of all the digital sales tools, 70% of sales pros say CRMs are “very important.”
• In B2B sales, 65% of most company sales are generated from referrals.

Eliminate Productivity Obstacles and Challenges

When improving your sales initiatives, processes, methods, and productivity, start by eliminating those aspects that serve as obstacles. Below are just a few of the most common sales challenges and obstacles to consider removing.

Is there too much performance pressure?

While sales quotas and funnel benchmarks are important for your sales teams to know what is expected of them, there can be too much performance pressure. And when your teams are under too much pressure, they can, over time, falter and cave to the weight. Consider giving your sales teams some breathing room with their quotas and activity reporting. And be just as judicious about rewarding them for doing the right things and not just landing sales.

Are your sales processes disjointed?

You might have multiple layers of sales processes in place and several sales levels of teams responsible for executing those processes. In fact, 63% of purchases involve more than four different people at your company, usually an inside marketing rep, a customer service rep, and others. But if you have a communication or process breakdown between all those different components, you’re going to have sales struggles. Look to streamline your online tools and prospecting with your physical teams. Bridge gaps between salespeople and sales support staff and both inside sales and outside sales. And make sure every tool and person within your entire sales process is seamlessly connected.

When was the last time you offered sales training?

Don’t presume that one round of sales training for your teams is enough. Instead, consider building out ongoing sales training to keep your teams sharp and productive. Keep these sessions short and value-packed, focusing on one sales topic at a time. For example, you could host sales training on cold calling, presentation techniques, building a proposal, overcoming objections, closing methods, or funnel management.

Are there breakdowns in sales communication?

Sometimes, breakdowns in sales productivity are a result of breakdowns in communication. Consider evaluating how your teams are communicating with each other, with you, with clients, and with sales support. Spot inconsistencies and create improvements and more efficient communication methods.

Is there resistance to new software or technology?

There are brilliant digital tools perfect for automating sales emails, prospecting schedules, and managing follow-up. But even with the best software in-house, they won’t work if your sales teams aren’t using them. If you suspect there is a resistance to using and leveraging the technology you have, consider hosting training sessions and imposing requirements for your salespeople to use these valuable resources.

Are you experiencing high rates of sales team turnover?

You won’t track sales momentum if you’re constantly having to hire new sales professionals. Check your turnover rates. Typically, sales roles turnover more frequently than administrative or management roles. But if there’s a higher-than-average turnover rate among your sales teams, it’s a sign there’s a problem. Troubleshoot to identify if you need to improve the company culture, change management, or improve resources.

Is your sales team creating a toxic environment?

Your entire sales team could struggle to meet goals and be productive if there is a toxic sales culture. And it only takes one bad sales apple to ruin the entire environment. Friendly competition is healthy. However, over-aggressive competitiveness can be toxic. Talk with your sales pros individually and ask them how they feel about your sales culture to learn if such toxic behaviors exist among the ranks.

Do your sales teams struggle with prioritizing?

Even some of the best sales executives struggle with organizational and administrative tasks sometimes. Your team’s lack of productivity could be remedied by simply introducing training and support for proper prioritizing and task management best practices.

Introduce Sales Productivity Improvements

Once you feel you’ve removed all the sales productivity barriers and obstacles, you can then begin to introduce sales productivity additions. Consider these new or innovative extras to add to your sales methods and support efforts to boost sales productivity.

Get your teams the best-fit productivity tools

Ask your sales teams what they think they need to be more productive. And then – give it to them. For example, maybe they believe their sales tracking software is outdated, hindering productivity. Some might need more flexibility in working hours. And others might benefit from additional layers of sales support.

Automate repetitive and mundane tasks

Look for more efficient ways to reduce or eliminate repetitive tasks or mundane sales processes that could be outsourced elsewhere. Your sales teams can be high-efficiency machines when they aren’t bogged down with spreadsheet management or administrative tasks outside of the sales prospecting, proposing, and closing cycles.

Invest in better sales training

Don’t just host sales training. Host high-value, effective training sessions. Ideally, Crunchbase says that once your sales pro connects with a decision-maker, it should take roughly six calls or engagements to convert the sale. And this might mean you have to invest in bringing in sales consultants for additional sales coaching. Or you might have to invest in making training materials available online for your teams to access whenever they need it.

Practice overcommunication

Introduce additional layers of communication to keep your door open, your sales teams connected, and every support person engaged. You won’t spot sales problems if you don’t know about them. And practicing overcommunication will ensure you’re always in touch with your teams.

Be smarter about prospecting

Some salespeople will waste time driving around or organizing who they plan to cold call without actually prospecting. Improve their productivity by introducing smarter and more efficient prospecting techniques. It can take, on average, as many as eight phone calls to finally engage a prospect. Show them how to make the most of every prospecting opportunity and how to avoid paralysis by analysis.

Try sales manager shadowing

The best leaders are those who can show, not tell. And sales manager job shadowing can be a great way to set the pace and lead by example. While 85% of today’s sales reps admit to having great sales coaching, only 24% say they’re being coached on long-term sales skills sharpening. Consider implementing a regular job shadowing or team sales schedule so your teams can get first-hand knowledge from the best – YOU!

Boost lead-scoring efforts

Look for ways to improve the quality of your sales team’s leads with boosted lead scoring. If they’re targeting the wrong leads, they’ll never be successful. So get better at providing them with high-quality leads and prospects that actually reflect your target market.

Celebrate every sales victory

Don’t just celebrate your top sales performers. Celebrate every sales victory, large or small. By establishing a culture where everyone wins with a conversion, you reduce the risk of over-competitive toxicity as team members compete for recognition at the top.

Sales Productivity Depends on These Key Elements

Whether you’re removing sales productivity obstacles or adding layers of productivity resources, every effort relies on these key elements. Look for those improvements you can make through these lenses to be the most effective.

Consistency Matters

Whatever sales productivity changes you make, stick to them. Consistency with your processes, oversights, and resources is key to building sales momentum. Commit to changes that work and build towards improved efficiency, and you’ll soon build a well-oiled sales team of top sales assassins!

Innovation Matters

If you’re not innovating, your competitors are. And this includes sales productivity and results. Always be looking for innovative techniques and solutions from top sales mentors, other business owners, and in the form of digital software. Your business is always evolving, and so should your sales process.

Concentration Matters

Avoid broad-stroked sales improvements that “might” work for everyone. Get focused on improving one aspect of your sales process at a time, concentrating on solving precise problems. Customize your sales support and training programs so everyone can improve individually, too.

Sales Culture Matters

Your company culture is important, but so is your sales culture. Always look for ways to create an evolving and healthy environment where every salesperson feels inspired to grow and succeed, individually and with your company. And this includes across the board, from entry-level sales to top-tier sales veterans and even sales managers or supervisory roles.

To really improve your company’s sales and conversion results, it’s time to take a closer look at your sales productivity. Talk with your teams and analyze the metrics. From there, you can begin to remove obstacles and introduce better tools. If you need more sales and entrepreneurial insights, come back here often! And for any thought-leadership content needs, business blogging, email marketing, or content requests, let the Ghost Blog Writers team do all the heavy lifting. Contact us and get a free trial post to get started!

The post Ways to Improve the Productivity of Your Sales Teams Today appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

Today, we’re outlin]]>what to do and what not to do is about to get a whole lot easier. And you have plenty of time to make the necessary changes to your existing plans now, so you’re positioned for BIG marketing results in 2024.

Website Presence

Your online window to the world and storefront is your website and, within it, your subsequent landing pages. But they won’t generate leads for your business if you’re not routinely updating and improving your web game. Having a website and having an effective, lead-generating website are two entirely different concepts.

What You’re Doing Right

• If you’re copywriting and sharing original content, you’re doing your messaging right.
• If you’re mindful of SEO, with strong keywords and linking strategies throughout your site, Google searches will find you.
• If you’re leveraging great graphics with user-friendly designs, your site visitors will stay longer.
• If you’re continuously using site metrics to analyze your website’s efficacy, you’re doing it right.

What You’re Doing Wrong

• If your website feels too spammy for salesy, it will be a turnoff to new visitors.
• If you’re not keeping up with website design trends and user experience preferences, you’re losing visitors.
• If your website takes too long to load or doesn’t appear well on mobile, you’re losing engagement.
• If you’re trying to manage the upkeep and visibility of your website without outside help, you’re likely missing out on improvement opportunities.

Landing Pages

Dedicated landing pages are great funnel tools. Here, information lives that outlines precise offers or announcements. And these landing pages can live embedded in your website but are only visible to those who click the landing page link. That’s why they’re incredible for email campaigns and clickfunnels. See what you’re doing right and not-so-right with your landing pages.

What You’re Doing Right:

• If you’re using landing pages as part of your sales funnels, click funnels, and email campaigns, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re using amazing headings and graphics for your landing pages, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re keeping your landing page content simple and easy to follow, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re creating new landing pages for each specific offer, you’re doing it right.

What You’re Doing Wrong:

• If you’re not optimizing your landing pages for mobile devices, you’re losing your audiences.
• If you’re using links on your dedicated landing pages that take visitors away from your page, you’re losing engagement.
• If your landing pages are too complicated or make the users feel like you’re asking too much of them, they’ll stop engaging.
• If your landing pages are missing CTAs, your audience won’t take the next steps.

Content Marketing

All of your online marketing strategies and efforts have one thing in common – content. What you say to your audience and the message you send them should enlighten, entertain, educate, empower, and engage. And because there is so much content bombarding your target audience, you’ll need a dedicated strategy behind your content to break through the noise and make an impact.

What You’re Doing Right:

• If you’re engaging your target audience with relevant and valuable content regularly, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re keeping up with a consistent blog or newsletter, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re sharing industry news, company fun, behind-the-scenes content, and purchasing advice, you’re doing it right.

What You’re Doing Wrong:

• If you don’t have a content strategy or road map, posting and uploading random content, you’re not building momentum or engaging your audience.
• If your content sells too hard, asks too much, or manipulates, your audience is going to venture elsewhere.
• If you’re approaching your content marketing with a one-size-fits-all method, you’re doing it wrong.

Email Marketing

Another online marketing strategy you should be using is email. And today’s email campaigns are far more sophisticated than ever before. Before you go buying all the software solutions and platform applications to start sending mass email campaigns, there are a few things you should know.

What You’re Doing Right:

• If you’re using sign-up forms and opt-ins to grow your email list, you’re doing it right.
• You’re using poignant, brief subject lines that grab the attention of the recipient without overselling.
• You’re segmenting your email lists and sending sequences of emails that speak to each of those segments.
• You’re customizing your email campaigns to conversationally connect with each recipient.

What You’re Doing Wrong:

• If you’re buying email lists, you’re risking poor bounce rates, spam folders, and non-target audiences.
• Don’t send the same cookie-cutter email message to all your recipients without personalization.
• Don’t send any emails without first polishing your content for broken links, grammar, and spelling.
• If you’re using the same graphics, content, and subject lines without A/B testing and customizing, you’re burning through your email lists without engaging.

Paid Ads and PPC

There’s a misconception that if you spend money on digital marketing advertising methods, like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Pay Per Click, you’re going to see results. Unfortunately, with so many vying for visibility and positioning, there’s no guarantee your ads are going to turn into clicks, purchases, or leads. If you want to invest in online marketing ads, there’s a right and wrong way to develop your strategy, especially if you want conversions.

What You’re Doing Right:

• Do target your paid ads to a specific target audience.
• If you’re including brief and transparent calls to action, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re using quality graphics and mobile-friendly content with your paid ads, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re following a consistent approach and strategic messaging with your paid ads, you’re doing it right.

What You’re Doing Wrong:

• Don’t blow your budget on paid ads with expectations of instantaneous results.
• Don’t blindly pay for digital marketing ads without monitoring the metrics and analytics.
• If you’re over-cramming content into your paid ads, they won’t have the same impact as brief, precise content.
• If you’re paying for online ads without testing concepts first, you’re likely overspending in the wrong direction.

Social Media Marketing

There’s social media for your personal circles, and then there’s social media for business. And that’s just half the battle. Then you have to decide if you need a presence on Facebook, X (Twitter,) Instagram, or TikTok. Stop chasing the hottest “do this” and “be here” advice. Instead, stick with the pillar do’s and don’ts of social media marketing.

What You’re Doing Right:

• If you’re routinely updating your social media business profiles, you’re doing it right and demonstrating an active presence.
• If you’re sticking to a social media strategy that includes a regular posting/sharing schedule, you’re building visibility, momentum, and trust with your audience.
• If you’re engaging, responding, and following your audience quickly and responsibly, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re using your social media platforms to provide value, fun, and informative content, you’re delivering precisely what your audience wants.

What You’re Doing Wrong:

• If you’re trying to be on all the social media platforms without narrowing your focus on those channels that work best, you’re spreading yourself too thin.
• If you’re not setting social media goals and following engagement metrics, you’re flying blind.
• If you’re spamming your followers online or in their DMs, you’re turning buyers away.
• If you’re overusing hashtags, it’s working against you.

Search Engine Optimization

How visible your brand is online, especially when potential clients browse for things you offer, depends on your ability to master search engine optimization. If you’re struggling to know what you need to know about keyword strategies, local SEO, and Google’s latest algorithm changes, keep reading. Here’s what your business SEO strategy needs and doesn’t need.

What You’re Doing Right:

• You’re conducting keyword research for your specific niche business and including those keywords throughout your website.
• You’re crafting impactful meta descriptions that represent the page content well.
• You’re tying in local city/region information with your keywords to improve local SEO.
• You’re linking to other pages and blogs within your site as well as to reputable external sites, anchoring specific keywords.

What You’re Doing Wrong:

• If you’re over-stuffing your content with keywords, fitting them in where they don’t naturally fit, it can backfire in SEO.
• If you’re constantly changing your SEO strategy to chase trends, the inconsistency could harm your site’s performance.
• If you’re ignoring the search intent or motivations of your target audience, you’re not boosting keywords and SEO properly.
• If you’re not prioritizing mobile formats and responsive design, you’re missing out on Google’s favor.

Video Marketing

Video marketing isn’t just reserved for social media. A brilliant video can cut through the content noise wherever you’re engaging your target audience. From YouTube followings and influencer marketing to boosted engagement with email campaigns and social, video marketing deserves its own strategy. And there are do’s and don’ts to consider to ensure your video campaigns and efforts are driving results.

What You’re Doing Right

• If you’re planning a video content calendar with a strategy, you’re doing it right and will be primed to engage your audience well.
• If you’re sampling various video marketing platforms and channels testing for the best-fit channels for the message, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re keeping your videos short and value-packed with educational, inspirational, and valuable information, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re creating attractive and appealing thumbnails for your videos, you’re doing it right.

What You’re Doing Wrong

• Don’t use your video content as an infomercial, overselling your brand or offerings all the time.
• Don’t make videos with the goal of going viral only since they will lose their efficacy among your target audience.
• If you’re making lengthy intro statements for your video, viewers will tune out quickly.
• If you’re rushing video content without spending time on editing, aesthetics, and branding, your audience will recognize the careless delivery and not follow.

Hashtag Marketing

What used to be a simplistic pound sign has since turned into a wildly popular digital marketing method. Clicking on a hashtag (on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others) will take you to a feed of posts and content related to that hashtag. And there are brilliant ways businesses can boost awareness and visibility with a well-planned hashtag strategy. Consider these do’s and don’ts to make sure your hashtag marketing strategy is working for your brand and not against it.

What You’re Doing Right

• If you’re being creative and strategic with choosing what hashtag phrases you’re using, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re aligning your content with relevant, existing hashtag communities, you’re doing it right.
• If you’re verifying that your social accounts are public, your hashtags will be available and visible to non-followers.
• If you’re including the same few key hashtags with each of your posts, you’ll be building a growing community of posts associated with your brand and business.

What You’re Doing Wrong

• If you’re using too many hashtags within your posts, it can count against you in the visibility algorithms.
• Don’t string too many words together because they won’t be easily remembered or found by those who encounter them.
• Don’t forget to include a brand-specific, event-specific, or sale-specific hashtag to showcase your core message.
• If you’re only using single-word, popular hashtags, your message will get lost in the noisy space and hashtag community.

Keep this online marketing roster of do’s and don’ts handy as you evaluate which channels, strategies, and tactics are best for your business model. And when you’re ready to make a BIG impact with your content marketing, from email campaigns to ongoing blog series, let the copywriting masters at Ghost Blog Writers be your go-to team!

The post What You’re Doing Right (And Wrong) with Your Online Marketing appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

For now, you know your success in business relies on your]]>

Understanding the Differences Between Growing and Scaling

Generally speaking, when you think of business growth, you think of linear growth. Business growth usually requires additional capital, technology, people, or resources. And with those investments, you expect the bottom-line revenue to grow. Scaling is a different form of growth, however.

Scaling is a rapid increase in profits at a faster rate than rising costs. Growth implies an increase in profits as they directly relate to an increase in resources or costs.

Scaling involves increasing your company revenue without linearly investing in additional resources. In fact, business scaling can allow you to increase revenue while minimizing costs. Where growth is more about the size of the business resources, scaling is about the value proposition and boosting results with little to no changes in core resources.

Here’s an apples-to-apples look at scaling versus growth:

• Growth – Focuses on the company
• Scaling – Focuses on the revenue and earning potential

• Growth – Revenue and resource increase together
• Scaling – Revenue grows faster than incurred costs or used resources

• Growth – Is a linear transformation
• Scaling – Is an exponential transformation

• Growth – Aspires to attain a goal or singular end result
• Scaling – Capability to exercise all goals and results together

Different Types of Business Scaling

To help you better understand the methods and strategies for business scaling, consider the different types of scaling efforts.

1. Bootstrapping – this type prioritizes organic growth through internal means.
2. Slow Scaling – this type uses external financing to supplement growth.
3. Fast Scaling – this type of scaling usually involves venture capital and viral growth.
4. Blitzscaling – this is Zuckerberg’s “move fast and break things” approach to leverage new techniques for lightning-fast growth.

In addition to the four types of business scaling, there are four directions to direct that company growth.

1. Scaling Up – upscale existing strategies
2. Scaling Deep – strategically upscale with internal mindset shifts.
3. Scaling Out – making your impact and offering transferable.
4. Scaling Down – grow your impact by cutting back on nonessentials.

The 5 R’s of Scaling

When you’re ready to put your business scaling ideas to task, create a checklist. And for many of today’s leaders, scaling success is achievable when you vet your ideas through the lens of the five Rs.

Readiness – Evaluate how ready your teams, customers, and arsenal of resources are to facilitate your ideas.

Resources – Determine if your scaling ideas require additional resources, like customer service channels, internal staff, or technology enhancements.

Receptivity – Make sure you have the market research data to support your scaling strategy and business-boosting ideas.

Risks – Assess every risk associated with your ideas for business scaling.

Returns – Outline the intended and projected returns, worst and best-case scenarios to set ROI goals.

Don’t attempt to initiate business scaling strategies until you’re comfortable with each of these points. Doing so prematurely will only result in additional challenges, increased risks, and more costs.

How to Scale in 2023

Once you and your leadership teams have a deeper understanding of the concepts needed to scale your business, you’re ready for the fun part. Now, you can start exploring the to-do lists and execution strategies to bring those business scaling ideas to life.

Center Everything On Your Company Offerings

The first priority with any scaling effort is centralizing and building on your company’s core offerings. Now’s the time to really analyze your data and sales metrics to identify which product or service is the most lucrative. A scaling strategy requires leading with this “best foot” forward. And organizations that focus their efforts on a specific offering (instead of casting a wider net to try and scoop up every possible purchase) will scale substantially faster. Consider these steps to apply pinpoint precision to your core offerings:

• Recognize and fully understand your lead offering’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Find and own your niche – then scale.
• Know your competition inside and out.
• Target your core audience’s primary pain point.
• Learn your existing customers’ preferences and purchasing behaviors.
• Create messaging and solutions to those specific customer needs.

Start with Revamping Your Strategies

Start by reviewing your current methods and strategies for sales, customer service, product development, distribution, and marketing. All of these current strategies might need revamping to adjust to your scaling goals. For example, you might need to revise a sales strategy to include additional markets or promotion of additional products and services. Your customer service channels might need improvement to accommodate a growing customer base and need for support. And any current marketing strategies might need adjusting to reach new target markets.

Invest in All the Latest Technology

Companies that don’t continuously evolve and adopt emerging technologies will soon find themselves behind the competitors who do. Today’s technology, from data management to CRMs, can streamline time, money, and resources. And all of those assets are essential to facilitating your business scaling plan. Explore some of these more common automation solutions:

• Project Management Software
• Appointment Scheduling Software
• Employee Onboarding Software
• Accounting or Payroll Processing Software
• Sales Management or Funnel Management Software
• Chatbots or AI Customer Service Solutions

Anywhere that you have an opportunity to automate to save time and money is a must-take opportunity before initiating any business scaling.

Internal Teams

Be prepared to augment your staff and teams with any business scaling plan. This kind of amplified growth usually translates to a need for more sales professionals, customer service teams, and production workers. And with those staff increases comes a boosted need for human resources and internal training. Today’s companies are onboarding new staff with remote or hybrid capabilities, too, to eliminate expenses associated with office space.

Elevate Your Processes

Talk with each of your departments about their current processes and procedures. When scaling your business model, you’re likely going to need to make adjustments to various policies and procedures to accommodate the influx of new business. And your frontline managers and teams can help you itemize the most efficient and effective methods for moving forward.

Outsource and Get Help

Scaling often requires additional insights and services. Don’t be afraid to outsource certain aspects of your business or bring in experts who can help. Small businesses, for example, might outsource payroll and HR functions during a scaling phase, with plans to bring those services back in-house once revenue levels can support doing so. Many companies also lean on outsourced marketing partners for proven results in advertising, content marketing, and product launch efforts.

Diversification Is Key

One of the pivotal strategies for business scaling involves diversification. Look for ways you can boost revenues with one of three basic diversification strategies:

1. Concentric Diversification – This is growth by adding similar products or elements of services to an existing line.
2. Horizontal Diversification – This is growth by introducing new products or unrelated services to the existing line.
3. Conglomerate Diversification – This is growth by acquisition.

Be specific about your growth direction and strategy, identifying the necessary business support and components needed to facilitate growth. And always be open to more passive revenue streams, including subscriptions or monthly service contracts, that can significantly boost revenue without exhausting resources.

Invest in Leadership and Management Development

With all the strategy, process, and marketing changes you’ll be making to prepare your company for scaling, you’re going to need to develop your internal managers and leaders for new dynamics. Mid-level management is responsible for motivating your teams and engaging your customers. So, it’s imperative that they be on the same page about company and team goals. Make sure they have all the training, tools, and resources available so they can be effective in their new management capacity. Skills your managers and leaders should prepare to sharpen include:

• Change Management
• Time Management
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Problem-Solving Skills
• Strategic Planning

Scalable Business Examples

You might be able to scale various segments of your business in stages. Typically, the following examples of business offerings or resources have great scaling potential. Consider testing your scaling strategy with these easy-to-boost elements of your business first. If you can’t scale within these segments, you’re not ready to scale your enterprise just yet. And starting small can allow you to spot challenges to address before taking your scaling efforts companywide.

• eCommerce platforms
• Company blogs
• Affiliate marketing efforts
• App development
• Podcasts or video content strategies
• Email marketing campaigns
• Online courses or downloadable assets

Business Scaling Mistakes to Avoid

When you’re executing plans for business scaling, be sure to avoid these common pitfalls and mistakes. These tend to be the most prevalent mistakes business owners make that end up backfiring and often costing valuable revenue and leading to missed opportunities for growth.

• Avoid scaling too fast.
• Don’t prioritize short-term goals over long-term goals.
• Avoid losing focus on the scaling plan to chase other opportunities.
• Don’t hire teams based on quantity over quality.
• Avoid trying to scale without the systems and processes needed to facilitate your ideas.
• Don’t forget that agility in scaling is key to success, so be ready to adapt.

Don’t Think About Scaling Without a Strong Brand

All of these insights and business scaling best practices won’t move the needle unless and until your company has a strong and well-defined brand. If you’re the slightest bit inconsistent with your brand style, purpose, or voice, your marketing isn’t going to be as effective. And a weak marketing impact will shutter any potential scaling. So, be honest about your current brand positioning and reputation. You can tap into these steps for building a falter-proof brand and foundation for scaling your business.

Brand Positioning – This statement describes what your company does, your unique value proposition, and your perfect-fit audience. It’s a definition that should grow with you as you scale.

Brand Promise – This sentiment describes what people should expect every time they encounter your brand or do business with you. If you can’t deliver on your brand promise in scaling, you’ll need to redefine your brand.

Brand Personality – This sentiment is the personality you want others to associate with your brand, company, and offerings. Imagine your company with human characteristics and use those voices and styles consistently throughout your messaging and marketing.

Brand Story – This story describes your brand history and establishes credibility. It’s a brief statement that captures the essence of your “why” and inspires others to support your growth efforts.

Brand Association – This is a collection of physical attributes for your brand, like the logo, tagline, or imagery. Here’s where you’ll define guidelines for font, colors, and visuals you’ll continue to use as you scale.

Not sure how strong your brand is? Consider putting it through a few tests and measurements. Use your existing brand metrics to evaluate your brand’s strength and see how well it…

• Is specialized to a niche
• Leads in the industry
• Has personality
• Is distinctive
• Is visible
• Is positive
• Exudes persistence
• Extends goodwill

In Conclusion

Scaling your business means making all the necessary changes and setting the stage for all elements to support the growth of your company. Get planning, secure any needed funding, implement the best-fit systems, hire the right people, adopt the right processes, and work with the best partners.

If content is a challenge for you, either in strengthening your brand position or in a new business scaling plan, rely on Ghost Blog Writers! Our team of brand-boosting wordsmiths can help you with marketing collateral, email campaigns, social media content, blogs, newsletters, and so much more! Make GBW your first partnership in your quest to scale your business today! Our strategists and content contributors can bring incredible value to your messaging. And we’re uniquely qualified to assist companies large and small, meaning we can grow with you as you succeed in scaling your business.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Scaling Your Business in 2023 appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

Back before the digital age, you know, when broadcast television and hot-off-the-presses newspapers were the only way to get news, you saw CTAs all the time. Big, bold messages like “Call Right Now!” or “SALE!” drove you to take action. Hard telling how many QVC or “As Seen on TV” products are still looming in people’s closets these days.

Today’s digital landscape of marketing and advertising is an entirely new level of customer engagement and messaging. And the playbook for calls to action is all different, too. So, let’s dissect some of the most impactful CTAs that drive conversions, sales, and bottom-line results. You can get inspired to revamp your strategies and leverage some of the psychology behind attracting new buyers and impulsing more sales.

What Is a Call to Action?

Technically, a call to action or CTA is a term or series of words that prompt an immediate response. Most often, CTAs are used in digital marketing, chaperoning online users to take the logical next step. A CTA doesn’t always have to be a “buy now” initiative. In fact, you can use a strategic series of CTAs to move leads through the sales funnel at any given point.

CTA Buttons – These are the most common forms of CTAs, using an icon with an action phrase that encourages users to do something.

CTA Forms – Form submissions are great CTAs for converting prospects into leads, usually in exchange for customer information or data.

CTA Banners – Banners make for ideal CTAs for deals, sales, or special discounts, and they’re most often colorful graphics that appear at the top, bottom, or side of your page.

CTA Links – Embed links contextually within an email or blog post, using your CTA to direct content readers to take action.

CTA Pop-Ups – Pop-ups can be perfect CTAs for discounts and special offers, with exciting messaging as buttons or forms that direct users offsite.

CTA Slide-Ins – These are like pop-ups, only less intrusive to the customer experience, as they’re CTAs that “slide” into view on the page.

How Do You Use a CTA?

Your online ads, website, landing pages, email marketing campaigns, and product descriptions are all great-fit places to put a brilliantly devised CTA. Use calls to action whenever you want your audience to do something specific. It’s usually a “button” or link that, when selected, will take the user to the next logical phase of the buyer’s journey.

CTAs are effective in any online arena or marketing strategy. And you’ll want to use actionable calls to action with nearly every marketing message and via every channel, including…

• eCommerce
• Digital product descriptions
• Free trial subscriptions
• App downloads
• Membership offers
• Webinars
• Newsletters
• Surveys
• Recruiting efforts
• Scheduling communications
• Event promotion
• Fundraising efforts
• Upselling opportunities
• Referral campaigns
• Digital advertising

What Makes a CTA Compelling?

Obviously, the language you use with your CTA will determine whether or not an online lead is persuaded to take action. You can’t just shout, “Hey you – buy this!” and expect conversions. You’ll want to be creative with your customer-facing instructions. And you’ll want to bake enthusiasm and excitement into every CTA statement. So what makes a CTA compelling enough to inspire action? And what distinguishes a brilliant call to action from a tone-deaf button on your home page?

• Compelling CTAs are brief one-to-two-word phrases or statements.
• Compelling CTAs are easy-to-understand instructions.
• Compelling CTAs make logical sense to the audience in placement and timing.
• Compelling CTAs use language the audience uses.
• Compelling CTAs stand out from the content around them.
• Compelling CTAs have great designs and vibrant colors.
• Compelling CTAs often involve enthusiastic tones and a sense of urgency.

It’s also important to remember that all call to action prompts should include three core elements. They need to demonstrate urgency. CTAs should be educational, describing precisely what the prospect needs to know about taking that next step. And CTAs need to be specific to a precise outcome. Now start exploring some of these compelling content examples and learn what makes them stand out and drive sales results and conversions.

Examples of CTAs That Convert When Used Correctly

When you’re able to tap into the power of a well-placed, well-crafted CTA, prepare for results. Let’s dive into some of the most successful call to action statements and share why they’re so effective when used correctly.

1. “Buy Now!”

Whenever you have an offer, special purchasing deal, or unique buying proposition, this CTA works great. It’s the most common call to action statement to use and, when selected, takes the prospect to the buying page. Get creative, though, and try “buy now for $199” to include price points, too. Including specifics only provides additional clarification.

2. “Add to Cart”

In eCommerce and product-based businesses, prompting the prospect to put their selected items in their online shopping cart is essential. It’s not the official purchase step, so customers usually have an easier time taking this step. This is a great stepping stone CTA to use, nurturing the buyer along. Just don’t forget to follow up with efforts to get people to buy what’s in their digital carts, too.

3. “Yes! I Want 15% Off!”

Use a call to action statement that reinforces your offer. A CTA like this, or some variation of it, capitalizes on the excitement of your enticing offer. Instead of “buy now,” users can opt-in to take advantage of a special deal or discount specifically.

4. “Keep Shopping”

Consider creating more than one CTA option. Instead of asking your prospects to say yes or no, you can provide a yes and a maybe later opportunity. Anyone not quite ready to finalize a purchase can be persuaded to keep shopping or browsing, providing you a chance to convert them later.

5. “Download Now!”

CTAs don’t all have to be about buying. Change up your CTA to reflect what it is you’re offering, including downloadable assets, tools, or software. Consider offering free or discounted tutorials or webinars to get your prospects comfortable with taking action.

6. “Get FULL Access!”

Stage your CTAs in a way that offers more than one purchasing experience. Give your prospects an opportunity to buy tiers of services or access, including entry-level and full-access options.

7. “Unlock Now!”

Using this CTA is often appealing because it provides the user with a satisfying feeling of achieving access, unlocking access to something special, and rewarding experiences.

8. “Get Your Lifetime Access!”

Tap into the fear of missing out or FOMO with CTAs that dangle the carrot. Put a timeframe on your offer, whether it’s “limited time” or “lifetime access.”

9. “Open Your FREE Account”

Anytime your offer includes a layer of free access, use your CTA to promote it. Capitalize it so users can see they can commit without buying.

10. “Sign Up for FREE”

Here’s another example of a CTA that engages with a free offer. Use these CTAs as opt-ins to move prospects closer to a sale without actually asking them to commit yet.

11. “Join FREE for 1 Month”

Use your CTA to describe what it is they’re getting for free. Free trials, whether they’re for one day or 30 days, should be included into your call to action message.

12. “Go Pro”

Use your CTA to describe your purchasing decision as an up-leveling experience. Online users will be persuaded to take action in hopes of achieving an elevated outcome.

13. “Try Premium Today!”

Use the word “try” in your call to action to signify to your prospects they can sample something without a burdensome financial or binding commitment. These are great CTAs for offerings you have that also come with grace periods and easy opt-out options.

14. “Register for the Webinar”

Build excitement for prospects to register or sign up for upcoming webinars or scheduled events. Registration actions are usually free, but they’re great for collecting additional information about your prospects.

15. “Reserve My Best Seat in the House”

Use your call to action to describe the experience the prospect can expect upon purchase. Choose statements that describe an irresistible outcome, like reserving the “best seats in the house.”

16. “Start Closing More Leads!”

If what you have to offer is a solution to the customer’s pain point, use that within your call to action. This allows buyers to choose their ideal outcome, not just agree to a financial purchase.

17. “Start Saving Money NOW!”

Create a sense of urgency with your CTA, and get creative with how you describe buying opportunities. And any chance you have to highlight any potential savings or earnings your offering provides – do it!

18. “Get My FREE Quote”

Using first-person language within your call to action helps to align the decision with the unique prospect. Users feel like you’re speaking to them and offering a next step based on their situations.

19. “Connect with an Expert”

Another advantage of unique CTA statements is your ability to strategically position your brand or expertise. Provide a selection that naturally makes you the industry leader or expert.

20. “Take the FREE Quiz”

Add another layer of engagement to your roster of available CTAs with quizzes or surveys. Make them free, but use them as a method for learning more about your ideal and target audience. And while they might not be ready to purchase outright, they can be moved through your sales funnel with a free, information-gathering quiz or questionnaire.

21. “Submit Your Answer”

If you’re not up for building out a questionnaire or survey, you can still use your email, website, or landing page as an info-gathering tool with one or two questions to engage your prospects. A “submit your response” type of CTA is a risk-free engagement that nurtures your audience towards eventually buying.

22. “Schedule a Demo”

Use your CTAs as tools to schedule connections and additional engagements with your prospects. Link to calendar app or form that allows them to determine a convenient time to demo a product or speak to you about your offering.

23. “Browse Openings”

Use this CTA as a secondary option for users who may not be ready to engage yet. These recruiting CTAs can provide insights about careers, company culture, or growth opportunities in jobseeker settings.

24. “Learn More”

It never hurts to include a benign CTA that encourages users to just “learn more.” These links should point to other landing pages or digital assets that keep the sales process moving.

A/B Testing Your Call to Action Statements

The other key to a successful call to action strategy is constant improvement and evolution of your efforts. Much like other marketing strategies, CTAs will work brilliantly with some audiences but not others. CTA designs in a sequence of emails might be different from those you find success with on your website. The only way to keep your CTAs fresh and effective is with split testing or A/B testing ongoing. Here are just a few CTA elements that you can focus on when testing:

• Text, color, and font
• CTA placement or location on the page or within the copy
• Button designs and sizes
• Media including images or videos

Change things up and try new designs or CTA messages with different products or audiences. Fine tune your efforts in line with those testing results. And recognize that any opportunity you have to make a CTA personalized or customized, the more engaging it will be.

Get inspired by these call to action statement examples and start creating your own for use throughout all your marketing strategies. Use the psychology along with brilliantly crafted phrases to inspire your audiences to take action and buy! And remember, for CTAs and all your marketing content, including blogs, white pages, web copy, newsletters, and thought-leadership articles, rely on the talented wordsmiths at Ghost Blog Writers!

Sample your FREE first trial post!

(See what we did there with our own CTA?)

The post 24 Brilliant Calls to Action You Can Use to Close More Sales appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

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If you’re assuming both are the same question, they’re not. In fact, there are clear distinctions between marketing and sales. And if you’re still chasing down best practices for both without separating them and setting proper results expectations, you probably feel like you’re spinning your wheels. And you’re certainly not seeing results.

When business leaders treat marketing and sales the same, they’re missing valuable opportunities to capitalize on unique differences in strategies and resources. And these leaders are usually overspending on ads that aren’t producing and wrist-slapping their sales teams too frequently.

So, separate marketing strategies from sales strategies – they are NOT the same. And ultimately, since your big-picture goal is to increase sales conversions, keep reading. We’ll show you how to tap into marketing and sales independently to achieve those boosted bottom-line results you want.

1. Marketing and Sales, Defined

Forbes says that “marketing establishes a brand’s reputation,” while sales “ensures the brand endures financially by generating revenue.” Similarly, HubSpot defines marketing as a way to “inform and attract leads and prospects,” whereas sales “works with prospects to convert them into customers.”

But I think I like the US Chamber of Commerce’s definition the best: “Marketing builds awareness of your organization,” while “sales turns that viewership into profit.”

The point to takeaway here is that marketing and sales each serve two unique purposes. And without understanding the distinctions, you could be building your strategies all wrong. You might even be one of the many businesses out there, frustrated because all your “marketing” efforts aren’t translating to sales. Do any of these real-life situations sound familiar in your business right now?

• You’re wondering why you’re spending ad budgets on campaigns that are only generating followers and likes, but no sales.
• Your marketing is handled by an admin or salesperson.
• You can’t figure out why Facebook isn’t bringing in customers.
• You only send email campaigns that feature “buy now” CTAs.
• Nowhere in your current strategies do you have a plan for “nurturing.”
• Your teams can’t distinguish between a lead and a prospect.
• Your current content strategy is really just a series of sales pitches.

Don’t worry. If these sound familiar, you’re not alone. And it just means you need a bit of marketing and sales strategy realignment.

Why separating the two continues to be a challenge

If you’ve been in business long enough, you remember the days of conducting business without the internet and mobile devices. Back then, your “open” sign was your marketing tool. And if you had a budget for it, legacy advertising would help boost sales.

The marketplace and economy are vastly different now. Businesses are getting in front of their audiences long before their audiences even know they want to buy. And it’s the understanding of that “journey” a potential buyer takes that requires a marketing strategy. The traditional methods for sales conversions are still relationship-based and intended to generate revenue. But business leaders still struggle to recognize that it takes a separate strategy to get their target audiences to the point of becoming an interested prospect before they try to sell.

Trying to leverage sales techniques using marketing strategies isn’t going to be effective. It would be like asking a random person on the street to come into your store and buy something. Sure, you might convince a few people to come in, but most will feel pressured and become disinterested. Only, when you come at your audience online with a hard sales pitch, they won’t just keep scrolling. They’ll never look back.

And if any of this is resonating with you and your current marketing and sales strategies, it’s time for a reset. Recognize the two are different and explore these insights for realigning your efforts.

2. What Marketing Strategies Do Best

Let’s start with marketing, the methods and strategies you use to tell the world, “Hey, we’re over here… selling something.”

Marketing your brand can invite your target audience to take a closer look at your business and offerings. But it has to resonate with what they want, prefer, need, and are curious about in the first place. This is why you always talk about building out buyer personas for your marketing. Once you have personas prepared, you can look to build a strategy to achieve the following primary goals.

Introduce your brand and offerings

Your marketing strategy will need to reach people who’ve never heard of you and introduce your brand. These messages will look and feel like introductions, not hard sales with intense calls to action. Just like when you meet someone new, you expect that engagement to be friendly, informative, and impressionable.

Attract leads

Your marketing strategy will also need to reach those who are familiar with your brand but maybe haven’t expressed any interest beyond the general awareness. You’ve introduced yourself to them. Now your marketing content and efforts should start to entice and attract them. Attracting leads still isn’t selling. So, you’re not hitting them with a big sales offer just yet. Instead, nurture those who are aware into becoming comfortably familiar and potentially interested.

Turn leads into prospects

Lastly, use your marketing strategy to create a path for leads to become prospects who have a genuine interest in what you sell. These messages and campaigns will use incentives to encourage leads to take the next step. It might be a click funnel campaign or a series of emails asking for a next step. But this leg of the marketing race should be preparing for a hand-off to sales.

Tools and strategies

When developing your marketing strategies, assemble the tools that help you do all of the above. And don’t feel pressured to use them all at once. In fact, you’ll have the best results when you focus and dominate with a select few. Here are the top marketing strategies to consider:

• Social Media Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Internet Marketing
• Blog or Content Marketing (Ahem, GBW can help here.)
• Print Marketing
• Video Marketing
• Email Marketing

3. What Sales Strategies Do Best

With marketing squared away, we can now look at sales, the methods, and strategies you use to tell your captive prospects, “Hey, let’s process that payment for you.”

If your marketing strategies are effective, you’ll assemble an ongoing flow of leads-turned-prospects who are ready to take the next step toward conversion. And it’s here that your sales strategies take over to continue nurturing and “selling” those prospects on making a purchase. These are the intended outcomes your sales strategies should look to achieve.

Recognize the sales cycle

When your sales team is handed a prospect, the sales strategy should first identify where the prospect is in the sales cycle. They’re interested, yes. But are they ready to buy right now, or will they need additional engagement before making a decision?

Solve their problems, now

To drive home the “buy now” result, your sales strategy should offer a solution to the prospect’s problems now. It’s not the time for gentle introductions. Now’s the time for precise calls to action and tactics that directly ask for the sale. If the prospect objects to buying now, the prospect returns to the sales cycle for additional nurturing.

Follow up on satisfaction

Your sales strategies aren’t done once a prospect buys and officially becomes a customer. In fact, existing customers are all interested prospects who could still buy from you ongoing. They’re also great resources for referral business and testimonials. So, make sure your sales strategy outlines a process for following up after the sale, ensuring customer satisfaction, and continued nurturing for repeat business.

Tools and strategies

When developing your sales strategies, like marketing, you’ll need to assemble the best tools to help facilitate sales and empower your sales teams to drive conversions. Depending on what you sell, products and services will require different sales techniques. Explore some of these sales methods to find your best-fit combination of efforts:

• Solution Selling
• Inbound Selling
• Concept Selling
• SPIN Selling (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need)
• NEAT Selling (Need, Economic, Access, Timeline)
• SNAP Selling (Simple, ‘Nvaluable, Aligned, Prioritize)
• Challenger Selling

4. Develop Them Separately, then Combine for Blockbuster Results

While you’re encouraged to develop your marketing and sales strategies separately and with separate expectations for results, the sweet spot is when you can achieve marketing and sales alignment. In other words, develop those strategies in a way that they cohesively support each other. And when you can find that magic wand, you’re going to need to buckle in for serious growth.

Align goals and objectives

When you develop your marketing and sales strategies, make sure to start both with goals and objectives that align. If both segments seek to achieve aligned results, you can successfully build them together.

It’s kind of like being a parent to more than one child. You love them all equally but recognize learning and parenting techniques might be different. Your marketing and sales strategies should aim for the same result but may get there differently.

Keep sales and marketing collaborative

Avoid trying to separate your company into “sales” and “marketing” teams who work independently of each other. Each relies on feedback from the other. And they need to be collaborative in understanding their respective roles and goals within the overall process of attracting and closing new customers.

Track and measure everything

Marketing best practices change. Sales techniques change. Your market changes. And the only way you can keep up with all these potential shifts is with data. With every marketing and sales strategy you implement, make sure you’re also tracking progress, effectiveness, and results. It’s the metrics and ongoing audits to review that will alert you to changes. And from there, you can make adjustments precisely where they’re needed.

Without metrics and data at each campaign or effort, here’s what happens. You see that you’re not closing sales, but you can’t pinpoint where the problem is. So, you impose strict sales quotas and demand more from your sales team. Only, because you don’t have data, you don’t realize the breakdown is occurring in the marketing aspect of your process, and you’re not attracting the right prospects. Your salespeople aren’t the problem; it’s the marketing that is no longer effective.

Stay flexible and dynamic as a company by staying on top of the analytics that demonstrate how well each marketing and sales strategy is working. Here are just a few key metrics to consider tracking for your strategies:

Marketing Data

• Conversion Rates
• Bounce Rates
• Click-Through Rates
• Website Traffic
• Social Media Engagement
• Cost Per Lead
• Lead to Customer Ratio
• Organic Traffic

Sales Data

• Total Revenue
• ARPA (Average Revenue Per Account)
• New vs. Existing Revenue
• Win Rates
• YTY Growth
• NPS (Net Promoter Score)
• Quotas Achieved
• LTV (Lifetime Value)

5. Strategies Aren’t Concrete

Remember, as you develop or review your marketing and sales strategies with these insights in mind, nothing has to be concrete. The beauty of strategies is that they can be adapted and changed. Realign your goals and separate your expectations for marketing and sales. Then, keep track of your results and get feedback from your teams. Test new channels, sample new campaigns, and get creative with how you attract, engage, and close. The winning combination for you can only be discovered by testing and innovating.

If during your strategy reassessment, you decide you need a better method and partner for content marketing, remember we’re here to help! The talented team of wordsmiths and copywriters at Ghost Blog Writers can take the guesswork out of any content-related marketing project you have. And we certainly know a thing or two about marketing and sales alignment, too. So, you know we can elevate your content game in the right direction and in alignment with your big-picture goals.

The post Marketing & Sales Are Not the Same: 5 Things to Know to Improve Conversions appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

It’s no secret that today’s most successful sales teams rely heavily on their abilities to build relationships with their prospects and clients. Naturally, it makes sense for today’s business leaders to focus on improving their relationship-building techniques to then improve sales results. But there’s more to it, especially if you want to experience sales like that Hoover Dam bursting analogy.

Here’s why you should be focusing on the relationship-nurturing aspect of your sales process. And your teams need to embrace these relationship-based sales strategies to be successful.

What Is Relationship-Based Selling?

There’s sales; then there’s relationship selling. It’s a relatively newer concept, opposing traditional transactional selling, where the focus isn’t on the conversion or sale. Instead, relationship selling is about authentic connection and building trust. Once the trust is established between the buyer and seller, the transactional sales come naturally.

This technique exists to combat the emotional component of a consumer making a purchasing decision. So, even if your product or service satisfies all the needs and preferences but still seems unknown or inspires prospects to hesitate, you won’t convert them. However, when you build the trust component, you eliminate any “red flags” a customer might sense about your brand, offer, or company. And then, your product or service becomes a no-brainer decision.

Needs Selling

You’ve likely heard of needs selling, which is similar to consultative sales. With this relationship-building technique, your sales teams focus on the customers’ pain points. These engagements involve needs assessment conversations where you can learn what challenges your prospect is facing and what goals they have. Using their “needs,” your teams then present a solutions-driven option unique to the client and rooted in that trusted partnership experience.

Trust Selling

There are trust selling techniques to know, too. These sales strategies are more sensible for large ticket purchases. Smaller purchases with self-checkout methods aren’t going to require the same level of trust that a larger investment purchase, with potential risks to address. Trust-based sales focuses on demonstrating, not “selling” the solution. This is where you’ll share the results of others, demonstrate product effectiveness, and highlight the positive outcomes of your solution.

Why Relationship-Building in Business Matters

Today’s customers make purchasing decisions based on personalized problem-solving and customized experiences. Regardless of what you’re selling, you have to find a way to package your sales efforts into those two categories. When 86% of all consumers say their experiences are just as important as the service or product they intend to purchase, it signifies just how important the relationship really is.

Therein lies the big question most leaders face. With all the sales automations and technology in place, how can you be sure you’re cutting through the “template responses” and creating authentic connections with your prospects? How can you be creating relationship-based engagements and end-to-end solutions if your technology feels cookie-cutter?

Customer Relationships and Technology

You can actually have and master the best of both worlds – the firm relationship-driven connection and the seamless automations that streamline the sales process. And since most of today’s consumers are researching and making purchasing decisions online, that’s where you can begin your relationship-building connection.

Start with a Great-Fit CRM

Any great plan or well-executed sales strategy needs a nerve center. And the customer relations manager or CRM you choose can be just the hub or central command for all things client engagement related. Identify the best CRM platform for your business model and start developing methods for:

• Using the CRM data to create customized client offers
• Improve engagement with next-step and nurturing communications
• Collect customer feedback to identify areas of improvement

If you’re not yet using a robust CRM solution, don’t wait another minute to invest in one. Like, now. Here’s why:

• More than 65% of sales teams that use CRMs hit their quotas.
• Roughly 74% of businesses are currently improving their customer relationships with CRMs.
• The average ROI of a great-fit CRM will yield $8.71 for every dollar invested.

Customer Retention Strategies

Relationship selling isn’t just for new prospects and leads. It’s an ideal strategy for developing incredible retention strategies. Keep your best clients coming back. Those companies that can provide a “consistent” experience will be able to retain as many as 80% of their customers. Alternatively, those companies unable to create those lasting experiences will only retain roughly 33% of their customers.

A CRM can integrate everything, including SMS, social media, and email marketing platforms, into one convenient hub. So you can better manage customer experiences and communications more effectively. It’s this “omnichannel” experience that allows you to keep your best clients over time.

Brand Loyalty Strategies

Your CRM is also your primary tool for building relationships that support brand loyalty. When your audience learns to prefer or favor your brand over other available options, you’ve established brand loyalty. And once they’re loyal, they not only keep buying, but they’ll also refer your brand to others within their circles. The stronger the relationship you have, the more purchases you can expect. And recent consumer-facing studies suggest that 37% of people consider themselves “loyal customers” after they’ve purchased five times.

What Are the Real Benefits of Relationship Sales?

If you’re still not convinced that you might need to realign your sales strategies to be more relationship-focused, consider these key advantages. In today’s marketplace, regardless of your sales offering, relationships with your customers are the ONLY way to increase conversions.

Relationships Allow You to Anticipate Client Needs

When you build relationships with your prospects and clients, they’ll be more likely to reach out to you about new needs and preferences. It’s how you keep an eye on emerging buying trends and spot anticipated challenges.

Relationships Are Cushions When You Drop the Ball

Despite your best efforts, it’s a given that someone will drop the ball at some point. But if you have a strong relationship with your prospects and customers, minor hiccups in your process will easily be forgiven.

Relationships Lead to Great Referrals

When you build great experiences with your audience, they’ll be more likely to refer others to your services or products. And when your prospects have a relationship with your brand, they’ll be eager to convey their trust to others.

Relationships Provide Insights into the Competition

As your prospects and clients build trust with you, they’ll also be willing to share insights about other offers or competitive deals they encounter. And the more you know about what your competitors are doing, the more agile you can be about staying ahead.

Relationships Drive Long-Lasting Revenue

As previously mentioned, there are better results with customer retention when you develop a strong relationship with your clients. Forming authentic connections ensures every sale you make translates to a longer lifespan of additional sales.

Relationships Change Tough Clients to Brand Champions

Tough clients with demanding requirements are out there. Manage service delivery and expectations flawlessly when you build the relationships you need with them. It’s the trusted partnership that will transform even the most challenging clients into brand champions.

Executing the Relationship-Based Sale

So, what can you and your sales managers do right now to affect change with your sales strategies? How can you infuse your efforts with all the best relationship-building techniques?

The best sales strategies focus on them, not you.

Read that again. Because traditional sales methods focus on company quotas, goals, and revenue, they’re not going to be effective in the relationship method. To develop an authentic relationship with anyone, you’ll need to make it all about them. Here’s how you can do that effectively, one step at a time.

Keep track of personal details you uncover in your process, like client birthdays or special occasions that come up in conversation. Those details demonstrate your willingness to listen and your genuine care for them.

Learn about business and professional goals and use those as you further the relationship and in providing sales solutions.

Create customer contact points that do nothing more than touch base. If you only connect when you want something from them, they’ll recognize you prioritize the sale more than the partnership.

Share industry-relevant news with them and ask questions. This shows your interest in learning more about what they do, what they offer, and what they think.

Provide added-value insights, free resources, and tutorials. They’ll recognize your genuine interest in helping them, and you’ll effectively build more trust.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Relationship-Building efforts

You can measure a traditional sale pretty easily, right? So, how can your company effectively track and measure a “relationship?” When changing your sales strategy, you’ll need to also change your analytics. How you define success with a relationship-based sales method is going to be vastly different from the old-school sales quotas you’re used to tracking.

There’s ROI for those traditional methods, where you measure costs associated with sales tools and staff and revenue generated with direct sales. But there’s also ROR or return on relationship. This is a measurement technique that dives deeper into the insights and data and provides you with metrics that gauge how effective you are at developing relationships.

Bottom-line – ROI is about dollars and cents. ROR is about audience connection.

And yes, there is a way to measure relationships.

• Calculate the number of clients who’ve purchased from in any given timeframe.
• Calculate, of those clients, which have you helped again over the last 12 months.
• Calculate from those you’ve helped how many came as referrals or repeat buyers.
• Calculate by dividing the total number of clients you’ve helped over the last 12 months by the total number of repeat or referral clients.

If the ROR percentage is high, you’re doing well at building relationships. If it’s low, you’re missing big opportunities to increase sales and grow your business.

Tips for Infusing Your Sales Strategy with Relationship Selling

When you base your sales strategies on how many customers you help, not just how many sales you make, you can transform the focus to relationship-building. And then, you can look at every aspect of your marketing and sales to realign the goals there. For example:

• Are your email campaigns helping customers or addressing their needs?
• Are your company’s social media profiles offering valuable and engaging insights?
• Is your content welcoming and insightful in a way that inspires interaction?
• Do you actively listen to your customers and have quick response times?
• Does your company offer free or value-added assets just because?

Imagine your sales teams and customer service staff all executing one common goal – to help the prospect or client. When everyone’s seeking new ways to be helpful, not just close deals, trust and loyalty become the pillars of your brand. And THAT is when the revenue pours in like a river.

Remember to:

• Encourage personalization and customized engagements.
• Establish the strong relationships before asking for the sale.
• Be the solution and problem-solving partner.
• Collaborate instead of sell.
• Be an active listener and adapt accordingly.
• Demonstrate your expertise and authority through helpful offerings.
• Always be a giver, not a taker.
• Center every engagement on them, not you.
• Be transparent and honest about expectations and deliverables.

Whatever you’re selling or offering, today’s customers will only be buying if there’s trust, respect, and a relationship. Consider these insights to evaluate your current sales strategies and develop new roadmaps to increased sales success. Relationship selling is the key to landing more clients, boosting revenue, and scaling your business.

Don’t forget. Ghost Blog Writers is always here to help you implement any content-related relationship sales strategies! Our team of writers can execute engaging blogs, thought-leadership articles, white pages, social media campaigns, email marketing sequences, and more! Let us help you, so you can help your clients and start landing more!

The post Why Today’s Sales Strategies Rely on Relationship-Building Skills appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

And more importantly, do you know what you need to effectively stay relevant to your customers and your market? If you’ve spent the last couple of years trying to survive, dodge, and weave, then 2023 is your year to thrive, boost, and grow.

Part of your team and company conversations will likely include growth strategies as well as scaling strategies. The two are different and require unique lenses. And considering how challenging today’s economy and business climates are, you’re going to need to get really good at targeting both to succeed.

If you want to stay in business, with your growing revenue, you have to constantly be moving forward. And these are the insights that might inspire you to be like those company leaders who have cracked the code to both growth and scale.

Distinguishing the two, think of growth as a linear effort when a company can add new resources to increase revenue. This might include people, tech, or funding. Scaling, on the other hand, is growing revenue without necessarily changing the roster of resources. Scaling is like turning up the volume on your existing business model on a broader scale.

Defining Growth

When you focus on growing your business, you essentially look for ways to boost revenue, brand awareness, presence, and customers. And to ensure you continue on a growth trajectory, you’ll want to evaluate and improve every level of engagement and operations. Growing can manifest in a variety of ways, including expense reduction, new services, and broader markets.

Methods for Growth

You can look for ways to explore new growth centers with your business, like new products, services, or solutions. But there are other channels, too. Today’s leaders are venturing into new markets, especially with the ability to hire remote talent. Can your core offerings serve customers across state lines, in other regions, or globally?

First, identify where your opportunities are, and from there, you can develop plans and operational roadmaps to leverage those opportunities. What can you do to make your company bigger, leaner, faster, or stronger? Additionally, you’ll want to identify which direction you’d like your company to grow.

Internal Growth: Healthy growth doesn’t always mean to the right and up. Improving internal policies, procedures, and operations can streamline how your organization delivers. Boosting company culture and infusing processes with automation and technology can be great methods for growth.

External Growth: Healthy external growth means setting realistic goals for revenue, market expansion, or product launches. Be sure to create strategies to enact that growth, leveraging your existing company strength and structure as the foundation for new endeavors.

Growth Challenges

If company growth were easy, every organization would be doing it. There are, of course, obstacles and challenges today’s company leaders can expect. While you’re planning your growth strategy, make provisions to address roadblocks, market shifts, and unpredictable problems. To do so, you can work with your teams to make educated predictions based on your data and industry trends. Then develop solutions or contingency action plans that perpetuate growth and address these questions:

• What can we remove or reduce in our operations that might prevent bottlenecks and roadblocks?
• How and when can we determine a profit center is no longer a profit center?
• Are there steps or nuances to our service worth eliminating because they no longer provide value?
• If our market does A, B, or C, then what’s our response and course of action?
• How efficient are the current methods for problem-solving and customer service?

Growth Tools

Based on the expert advice out there from economists, business leaders, and analysts, there are three primary tools for growth in 2023, regardless of what you do, how big you are, or where you’re located.

Lead Generation: Tap into every method that helps cultivate prospects and new customers. These strategies will require adopting the right software solutions that allow for the implementation of your curated action plans. Reach a broader audience, track each stage of the customer journey, and land more customers. Lead generation offers the highest impact and lowest cost method for growth.

Market Data & Research: Invest in every resource at your disposal that allows you to collect and analyze data in real-time. You don’t have to guess your way through advertising anymore. You can make critical company decisions based on actual metrics about your market, your industry, and your customers.

Digital Marketing: Today’s business leaders know the ultimate key to growth success lies within the organization’s ability to tap into engaging digital marketing resources. Find processes and technologies that make every engagement your customers have with your brand online user-friendly, informative, and problem-solving.

Personnel Growth: You can’t expect to open the floodgates for more customers, new processes, additional data, and new core offerings without manning all the necessary internal stations to handle and manage them. Spend time with your HR teams and develop a strategy for onboarding top talent you need to execute every growth strategy you have in the works.

Company growth in 2023 is one piece of the puzzle. Today’s leaders will also need to explore the potential for scalability.

Defining Scaling

If you’re a startup, you’re definitely going to be looking into scaling methods and strategies. But even established businesses can make shifts to embrace a broader audience and expand their company’s footprint in a relevant way. Remember, scaling is more about amplifying your existing structure and core offerings. Bottom-line revenue will increase, as will every other aspect of your business, without the need to introduce something entirely new. Here’s how today’s leaders are planning to scale their organizations.

Methods for Scaling

For starters, you’ll need to ensure your company has the necessary components for successful scaling. These are the signs you’re ready to take the next step to grow exponentially.

You have a proven business model: Your current business model will serve as the foundation for any scaling. If there are any internal roadblocks, silos, or breakdowns, you’ll need to remedy those first before enacting any scaling strategies. If your existing model is solid and works well for everyone, from your customers to your core staff members, then you’re ready to take scaling steps.

You have more work or customers than you can appropriately handle: Another sign that you need to act and develop scaling strategies is your workload. If you’re getting more business than you can handle or have had to turn down new business, you’re ready to amplify your business. You’re essentially looking to expand your business model in a way that allows you to accommodate the expanding workload.

You are and have been reaching your previously set goals: Don’t start chasing new scale goals if you haven’t had much success reaching any other previously set growth goals. However, if you’re looking at the data and reporting from 2022 and have proof that you’re effectively hitting those goals, you’re ready to target new heights and start scaling.

Scaling Challenges

Scaling an organization can be wrought with just as many challenges as traditional growth methods. So, as you create your company’s scaling roadmap, prepare for hiccups along the way, much as you did with your growth planning. Ask yourself and your teams these questions that will lead you to better identify anticipated challenges.

• Can your company’s current systems and infrastructure withstand the additional growth?
• Do you have enough (or the right) employees in all the right places?
• Can you financially support your scaling agenda at every level?
• Will your customers feel any growing pains as you scale?
• Are the new-to-you, broader markets ready for what you have to offer?

Scaling Tools

Be diligent about developing your scaling roadmap. Don’t embark on any action steps without first consulting your teams, surveying your customers, and evaluating your company data. Then you can effectively create a strategy, with precise to-do list tasks and a chronological order of operations, to affect growth. These are the core elements to consider first.

Decluttering Company Systems: Before you enact any scaling strategy, leverage every tool and resource you have to eliminate unnecessary everything. Talk with your teams about what steps in the process or current systems that no longer provide value in the new scaling endeavor. To get bigger and better, you must also be more efficient. Anything within your various company operations that wastes time or doesn’t support the new goals – get rid of it.

Aggressively Attacking Company Weaknesses: Don’t gloss over current chinks in your armor. Tap into the tools, software, and otherwise that help you attack company weaknesses quickly and with pinpoint precision. Issues will undoubtedly arise as you scale. So, any procedures, metrics, or systems you have for identifying problems will also need to be amplified, as will your methods for problem-solving.

Improving Customer Engagement: Ideally, as you scale your business, you don’t want your customers to sense a change. Prevent them from feeling your growing pains by beefing up your customer service segments and engagement initiatives.

Internal Company Culture Initiatives: Scaling your business means scaling your teams. If you have one salesperson, you’re going to need ten. If you have one HR manager, you’re now going to need support staff. So, onboarding new team members to sustain that growth is paramount. But don’t just hire people to fill critical gaps. Instead, embrace methods and tools that inspire employee loyalty, attract top talent, and sustain an environment of collaboration as you grow.

Automate Everything: Lose the paper trails and automate everything. Any busy work or tedious tasks should be replaced with digital solutions, apps, and company dashboards for electronic management and engagement. There just won’t be enough time in the day for any of your teams to facilitate growth the old-fashioned way.

So, with some understanding of the scaling methods and strategies today’s business leaders are exploring, it’s time to mesh both growth and scaling strategies together for simultaneous results.

Steps to Start Growing and Scaling Your Business

Whatever you’re planning for your business, keep these growth and scale strategies in mind. And as you meet with your teams to discuss ideas, run through these checklists of considerations so you can make the most actionable and realistic roadmap for your company. Both growth and scaling are achievable with the right tools and resources. Pre-planning for upcoming challenges will ensure you won’t be blindsided by roadblocks. And taking care of your employees, existing and new hires will be the added layer of operational success you need to achieve your growth-centric goals.

Implementing your new growth and scaling strategies will require a bit of a checklist, too. So, this loosely assembled roster of initiatives should help inspire you to start taking action with whatever company growth plans you have in mind.

• Defining Your Existing and New Target Markets
• Assessing Current Capital, Assets, and Resources
• Lead Generation, Sales Funnels, and Analytics, Oh My!
• Preparing for Emerging Growth Pains Now, Not Later
• Automations for Everything
• Trimming the Fat and Beefing Up Profit Center Support
• Training and Delegating New and Existing Roles
• Continuous Review and Adjustment

Today’s business leaders are exploring all their options for growth and scaling in 2023. And these are the considerations they’re weighing to develop their most effective strategies for success. If you’re growing or scaling, just know that it’s the forward motion, no matter what it looks like, that will keep your business thriving.

And let’s not forget one of the most important components of any marketing effort you have in mind is content strategy. Your messaging matters, and you don’t have to go it alone with Ghost Blog Writers in your corner. Connect with us to share your growth or scaling plans for 2023, and let our teams of inspirational and engaging writing help produce the best content to complement your goals. If you’re not sure about your content creation just yet, we can help you there, too. Let us share insights and trends for 2023 to help you check content off your overall growth to-do list!

The post Growth & Scaling: How Today’s Company Leaders are Succeeding at Both appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

When you’ve spent a decade, or in my case two decades, in a sales role, you have quite the arsenal of stories and memories. There were some pretty incredible sales victories over the years. And plenty of failures dot my timeline, too. More im]]>sales metrics for 2022, I thought it might make sense to share some memorable stories from the field. These are just some of the most career-impacting lessons I’ve learned in the field, cold-calling and presenting products and services. Maybe you can be inspired to reflect on some of your own sales lessons and take those lessons-learned into your sales strategy for 2023.

1. Be Kind to Competitors

Lesson Learned: Don’t just call on your clients; be kind to your competitors. As much as you’d love to “beat them” in landing new business, you’re all in the same industry together. And building great relationships with them can be incredibly rewarding.

Years ago, sales meant getting in your car, driving to client locations, and trying to ask for the meeting in person. And it was best to plan your day geographically, to hit all your businesses in proximity to each other. It was also a best practice to not show up empty-handed. So, depending on where we were going or which top prospects we planned to visit, we’d go all-out and bring delightfully decorated cupcakes, boxes of donuts, or even full pizzas.

One day, with extra donuts in hand, a co-worker visited a competitor. It was a small business that had been in the market for years before our company arrived and had a majority of the clients signed on with her. Friendly conversations ensued with the delivery of the extra box of donuts, and it soon became a regular pitstop. No matter who went to that territory with goodies, our biggest competitor always got some.

One day, and out of the blue, one of our top client prospects called and asked to schedule a meeting with our reps. Then another hot prospect called, and another. Finally, we discovered that our biggest competitor had decided to retire. And because of all those friendly visits with donuts and candy, she called every one of her customers and told them to contact our company to take over their services.

2. Planting Relationship Seeds Early

Lesson Learned: Planting relationship seeds early and often pays off in a big way. And even when you’re not asking for the business, building rapport with your prospects will ensure you’re top of mind when they do decide they’re ready to chat.

There are always some prospects on your list that never buy. They’re never interested in meeting with you, nor do they have time to chat. But there they are, on your sales funnel, and you have to make your calls anyway. One such “never-going-to-buy-from-you” prospect was on my list as a brand-new salesperson for this television station. My job was to sell local advertising. And this client was a sizable organization with branded national television spots already in place.

So, as a newbie, I visited this business first. I went in, introduced myself as the new girl, and met the decision-maker. Nice enough guy, but as I had been forewarned, he wasn’t interested in buying anything from me. I continued to visit occasionally, just popping in and saying, “Just making sure you’re still not interested” in my jovial way. And politely, he would always laugh and say, “still not interested.”

Until, one day, he was interested. He had a new product line to sell that didn’t get a mention in any of his nationally-produced ads. And of all the major television networks in town, he chose to call me and schedule the meeting. I had built the relationship with him over time, never selling him, just making myself available. And when he was ready, those early relationship-building efforts paid off in a big way.

3. Mistakes Make You Human; Embrace Them

Lesson Learned: So, this isn’t my story, but it’s a gem. In sales, we’re trained to be polished, have all the answers, and to never make mistakes. But my co-worker Nella proved to me that mistakes are human nature. And being human is far more effective than being a salesperson.

There was a prospect all of us salespeople knew well. It was a family-owned furniture business with a notorious reputation for not only refusing television ad reps but also for being nasty to them. We’ll call her Donna, and let me tell you; she was a pitstop none of us wanted to ever make – that is, until Nella came along. A longtime veteran of television sales who had taken a career reprieve was back in the sales saddle. She was lively, hilarious, and really great in this role. And she was going to make a visit to see Donna on her first day back in the field. We all silently prayed for her.

When Nella got back to the office, she shared the story. And, yes, notorious Donna had agreed to meet with her. Whether her technique was intentional or not, it worked. Nella brought the human element to her approach in a brilliant way – she did something stupid.

Nella shared that she has a habit of taking her heels off when she’s driving. Arriving at this furniture store, she pulled into her parking spot, right in front of the giant glass doors and windows of the showroom floor, slipped her heels back on, and walked in to meet her fate. Donna was there and promptly told her to leave, grumbling at her in disbelief that anyone from our station would even bother stopping in to meet. Nella thanked her and headed back out to her car. She sat in the driver’s seat, slipped off her heels, and unexpectedly got a call. As she fielded the call, she pulled out of the parking lot, and it wasn’t until she was a few blocks away that she realized the worst had happened. She’d left her heels in the parking lot of the furniture store.

Nella said she turned around and went back. There were her stylish, slingback pumps, sitting in the parking lot, right in front of all those windows and front doors of the store. She realized she had an audience watching her, too, and Nella took that opportunity to go back into the business. “I’m sorry, but I had to share what happened,” Nella told the staff members laughing at herself, and Donna emerged from a back office. Playing off her own blunder, the group laughed and sympathized. And even Donna lightened her tone, engaged in conversation, and ended by telling Nella she could come back the next Tuesday for a meeting.

4. Every Door, Store, Floor, Cranny, and Nook

Lesson Learned: When you’re pounding pavement, and making cold calls, remember it’s always a numbers game. The more doors you walk through, the better your odds of finding a “yes” client. Don’t skip any pit stops along your way. Hit every door, floor, store, nook, and cranny. You might otherwise be missing out on a goldmine.

Don’t judge me, but at one point in my career, I sold toys and widgets out of the trunk of my car. You know the guys, the young men and women who approach you in a parking lot offering executive laser pens or remote-control cars for $10 or $20. Yes, I was one of those guys, and the sales technique involved canvassing areas, door by door, and popping in to sell our cheap wares on impulse. I was a peddler.

I did learn a lot about sales in this role, especially the value of a “no.” I knew I’d have to talk to 100 people in a day to effectively sell everything in my trunk. So, no one was off limits. I’d find them all. We’d sell in pairs, often splitting up to tackle opposite sides of the street and meeting back up to move on to the next street or industrial park. This particular day, my partner had been taking a lot of rejection, so I offered to help. I asked if he had hit every open door on his side of the street, including a pole barn-looking metal building between two businesses. He said he hadn’t gone in there because he didn’t think it was a legitimate business since it looked more like a private garage.

I made my sales buddy follow me, and together, we knocked and entered. To our surprise, there was a group of about 20 hunting men, all in their coveralls, drinking beer in this man cave of a garage. I explained what we were doing and what we had to sell, and this group welcomed us with open arms. We sold everything we had in the trunk that day, and those guys told us anytime we were in town to stop by and show them what we had for sale. My sales partner learned the value of hitting every door, every time.

5. Sell the Solution, Not Your Product

Lesson Learned: Don’t focus on selling your product or service. Instead, be focused on selling the solution. Clients won’t be sold but they will consider more efficient, lucrative, or cost-effective solutions.

Before I broke into television, I worked for a startup phone company. I had a sales support role, often accompanying salespeople on their sales calls to help sell the support side of changing company phone service providers. And we had new technology to offer, too, including internet, which was relatively new back then. And one day, I tagged along on a sales call to the CBS affiliate television station, with plans to sell them on switching their phone and internet service.

This business had 30+ phone lines, and during the sales conversation, the general manager and my rep were going back and forth about price points per phone line, upgrade fees, and logistics. I then jumped in and switched gears. Instead of changing your 30+ phone lines over to our service as-is, what about having us install a T1 trunk line (a more innovative solution for phone service engineering at the time) to digitize your service, provide you with the ability to have up to 40 phone lines, for less than maintaining your current 30-line setup?

The silence turned to a resounding “yes!” I had stepped out of the sales pitch and offered a more innovative solution. We not only got the business from this television station, but that general manager called me privately later and offered me my first job in television because he had been impressed with my strategy.

6. The Power of a Thank You

Lesson Learned: In today’s age of digital correspondence, you can stand apart from other sales reps by sending the hand-written thank you card. Here’s one instance that the snail-mailed thank you card helped me land a $3 million contract.

I had a National Sales Supervisory role with a staffing agency. I would try to participate in RFP bids for giant, multi-location manufacturing and distribution companies that would routinely use temporary staff throughout their busy seasons and year-round. One massive prospect agreed to have a phone call with me to discuss our services before allowing us to participate in their company bidding process. Company HQ was three states away, so I would have to make an impression on the phone, which would be difficult to do. The call went well, and he said he would circle back and let me know about his final decision within a few weeks.

I decided to hand-write a thank you card, sharing my appreciation for his time to talk with me about being a new staffing provider. I included my card, on which I had also written “thank you,” and a few company-branded swag items. About two weeks later, I received the email that read, “thank you for your card and for sharing your company offerings.” That email included a contract for services that included my company as the staffing provider for the next three years. Billable revenue for the duration of that contract translated to $3 million. My little thank you card had made a big impression where others had relied on digital correspondence.

With the year wrapping up, now is the perfect time for reflection. As a company leader, you can look back, too, on all of your sales experience in the field to identify great lessons learned. Hopefully, you enjoyed these few of mine from memory lane, and you get inspired to share your experiences with your teams.

Today’s sales and marketing efforts are vastly different from years ago. But always be looking for those lessons learned because even yesterday’s lessons can still be applicable strategies today. And don’t forget; when you need content, including sales collateral, newsletters, and web messaging, let Ghost Blog Writers help!

The post Outbound Sales: 6 Crazy Stories from the Field appeared first on Ghost Blog Writers.

What you’ll do instead is paddle out to the middle of the lake ]]>

Now, let’s pivot to look at your business model. Is your company fishing the right way? Are you waiting for new clients and leads to “jump in your boat” on their own accord? Are you dangling the shiny lure or lively worm from a pole to catch the big bass? Or are you harvesting en masse, like the ocean fisherman do, with pulley systems and acres-wide nets?

If you’re not sure which strategy your business is actually leveraging right now for growth and new leads, then you can benefit from this complete review of inbound and outbound strategies.

Definitions and Basics of Inbound and Outbound Marketing

Let’s start with the basics. Inbound marketing strategies involve methods for attracting customers with the use of engaging content through unobtrusive techniques. Inbound is passive, whereby you try to attract new customers without directly soliciting them for their business. These are the strategies you’ll use to generate and build brand awareness and loyalty. It’s designed to help people find their own way to your business through distinct message channels that help them along their buying process.

Alternatively, outbound marketing refers to the strategies and methods for attracting customers with a more direct approach. These efforts involve “out” reach with active sales initiatives. These strategies also involve content, but the channels are more assertive, like sales calls, email marketing, paid ads, and targeted landing pages intended to grab a customer’s attention and inspire them to take immediate action.

Key Differences and Expectations for Results

So, the marketing gurus have varied opinions on what percentage of inbound versus outbound is considered to be the best at producing results. Your business model, core offering, and buyer’s cycle will help you determine which makes the most sense to lean into further. But it can be helpful to first understand the key differences to manage your results expectations. For example, writing and posting a few social media posts isn’t going to open the floodgates of leads. And sending sales emails only works when you have a targeted audience list of recipients, not helping to do much for general brand awareness to new customers.

Engagement Differences:

Inbound marketing is passive, meaning you seek to engage only those leads you want. Outbound marketing is active, meaning you’re going after the leads you want right now.

Communication Differences:

Inbound marketing messages are customized, usually to segmented audiences, based on buyer personas you’ve created that represent a target market. Outbound marketing messages are individually personalized, intended to further the one-on-one conversation leading to a conversion.

Timeline for Success Differences:

Inbound marketing, because of its passive nature, can take several months or years to generate the momentum needed for sustained results. Outbound marketing has more of an acute timeline, whereby your direct sales efforts can take effect within a few moments of the conversation’s inception up to a few weeks to achieve sustained results.

ROI Differences:

Inbound marketing is practically impossible to measure with analytics. Because you’re casting a net of awareness and unable to individually track engagement prior to a customer reaching out, it’s hard to quantify ROI. Outbound marketing, however, is analytics-driven, with measurable data you can collect and review in real-time.

In the end, both strategies are effective. And both can be developed and executed for the best results. Just know what goals to assign to each campaign, and be prepared to manage your expectations accordingly.

Start with Your Primary Goals

Don’t be rigid with either inbound or outbound marketing strategies. Position your marketing and sales effort in a way that allows for dynamic shifting between one or the other, or both. Maybe there are busy or peak seasons in your industry that dictate when you engage heavier in outbound versus inbound. Or it could be you’re growing into a new market segment altogether and need a robust inbound strategy to build a lead generation funnel and brand awareness to a new audience. The key to knowing what you should be doing now lies in addressing your “now” goals and then your “later” goals.

• If you need sales now, go outbound.
• If you’re launching a new product, heavy inbound.
• If your competitors just maneuvered ahead of you, bolster both inbound and outbound.

Outbound Will Always Be Effective If…

What you don’t want to do is subscribe to the line of thinking that only one of these marketing strategies is effective. A business without an outbound strategy will soon fall behind. Here’s an example.

ABC Carpet Cleaning relies heavily on inbound marketing strategies, and whatever leads come in from Angi’s List, the website contact us forms, or from past cleaning customers. But their competitor, XYZ Cleaning Company, is actively surging outbound marketing and sales campaigns with paid ads, email blasts featuring cleaning specials, and EDDM coupons. Soon, everyone in town is trying out the other guys, leaving ABC Carpet Cleaning wondering why their phones stopped ringing.

The moral of this carpet cleaning story is to never become complacent with one or just a few select strategies. You’ll want to always have your foot on the gas, with direct engagement and outbound efforts, to continuously generate buzz and immediate leads for your business.

Inbound Will Always Be Effective If…

There’s another scenario whereby putting all your eggs into the outbound marketing strategy basket isn’t always the best way forward either. Here’s the scenario.

ABC Construction has a robust sales team in-house, with rigorous cold call benchmarks and monthly quotas. But their competitor, XYZ Contractors, has been diligently building an inbound strategy of blogs, newsletters, and passive campaigns that are starting to position them as the leader in the industry. Soon, ABC Construction’s sales reps are running dry on conversions, and the brand is earning the reputation of “high-pressure sales tactics.”

The moral of this construction company story is that direct sales won’t generate the brand awareness, strategic brand positioning, and loyalty that inbound marketing will. And it’s a reminder that the best marketing and sales efforts require a healthy combination of both to remain competitive and successful.

Know Your Tools and Choose Wisely

Here’s a short list of inbound and outbound marketing channels you can explore. Remember to keep your audiences in mind and use your buyer personas to guide your messaging. Keep your content consistent regardless of the strategy you use, and any new campaign should support your company mission and brand voice.

Inbound Channels

• Website
• Landing Pages
• SEO
• Social Media Marketing
• Press Releases
• Blogging & Guest Blogging

Outbound Channels

• Email Campaigns
• Sales Calls & Cold Calls
• Direct Messaging Campaigns on Social Media
• Landing Pages
• Advertising (TV, Digital, Print, EDDM, Billboards, etc.)

Don’t Cut Either Out Altogether

For many businesses, when budgets get tight, it’s the marketing spending that often takes the hit. But even in your most financially dire moments, it’s marketing and sales that will keep you afloat. If anything, it’s the most important investment you should be making. Just know that when the concerns are immediate, it’s the outbound strategy, with measurable and precision-driven results, that will produce revenue today. And it’s the inbound strategies that often cost less to establish and keep up that will ensure you have prospects to close tomorrow. But cutting out both will be like closing your doors altogether and will result in total stagnation.

Don’t Try to Cheat the System

Here’s the other caveat. There are plenty of influential marketers out there touting what you should be doing to rank for SEO, beat the algorithms, and drive more leads. But if you focus on beating the system, you’ll lose sight of what really attracts your customers – your ability to solve their problems.

Stay focused on being that problem solver, whatever your niche or offering. As your customers’ problems change, you can change your solutions with them. And messaging across both inbound and outbound strategies will ensure you continue to be in a prime position as the leader in your space.

Don’t write blogs, for example, with keywords and awkward phrases that you think Google will pick up on and favor. You’re not trying to sell to Google. You’re trying to engage a client.

Here, you’ll notice that we write like we talk. We’re having a conversation right now, and I’m legitimately trying to offer solutions to your problems. If you’re reading this, then we hopefully brought something to you of value. And that’s the approach you should take with any inbound or outbound strategy. Be authentic to your brand voice with every statement, sales call, online ad, blog, or newsletter that bears your logo.

The HubSpot Model for Inbound Marketing

Most business owners have a strong grasp of the ideal sales pitch for their products or services. So, crafting an outbound strategy with calls to action, strategic buy-in points, and persuasive language can be easier to develop. But it’s the inbound strategy that continues to be the stumper, with its impossibility to guess or measure. And that makes it even harder to invest in, considering you can’t always track the ROI or measure A/B testing. But HubSpot offers a pretty sound theory about developing inbound that makes sense for any business model.

To really get your audiences to find you online naturally, with social media, blogging, and search engine prompts, consider the “attract, engage, delight” wheel.

Attract new and future customers first, with smart use of:

• Ads
• Video
• Blogs
• Social
• Content

Engage those you attract second, with smart use of:

• Lead generation tools
• Email marketing
• Marketing automations
• Chatbots and customer service
• Lead management and opt-in funnels

Delight them finally, with smart use of:

• Thought-leadership content
• Email marketing
• Conversations
• Attribution reporting
• Marketing automations

Outbound Solves Immediate Needs

If your business has immediate needs for sales, lead generation, and conversions, developing your outbound strategy and leading with it will be your best bet.

Same-Day Conversions

The beauty of outbound, especially if it’s well-developed and in the hands of effective salespeople, is that it has the ability to generate leads and convert new customers immediately.

Incredible Audience Targeting

Outbound marketing and sales tactics will position you directly in front of potential customers and prospects, even if they don’t know they need you yet. It’s like cherry-picking your best prospects and then going after them with your offer, where you maintain control over the entire engagement process.

See Quick Results

Inbound marketing is your long-game strategy, meaning outbound marketing is your “right now” strategy. If you need results and more sales right now, outbound sales efforts will boost those transactions.

So, let’s go back to the fishing boat.

If you’re in that boat, starving because you haven’t eaten in three days, you’ll probably need to dress the lure, get the line in the water, and grab the net. You’ll use whatever resources you have on board to land a fish or two right now.

But you can also be setting fish traps underwater. These methods will allow you to attract fish to the boat, making them easier to catch. And you might even catch enough in your traps to eat for the next few days.

Marketing works much the same way. Yes, you’ll need strategies for attracting customers, and closing leads now. But you’ll also need to be laying the groundwork for future customers, new to you customers who don’t know they need you yet and funneling them right to your call to action.

With a healthy mix of both inbound and outbound messaging across all your relevant channels, you’ll continue to grow your business and scale successfully. Consider these differences between the two methods, and hopefully, you found inspiration into developing the right strategy your business needs right now. And if you need more help with developing your inbound efforts with messaging, newsletters, or blog strategies, let Ghost Blog Writers be your guide!

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Today’s sales workforce looks vastly different than it has in years past. And how consumers and customers make purchasing decisions has, too. So, it only makes sense that the old way of measuring success and performance no longer be relevant, right?

There’s more to quotas, what they’re intended to do, and how they work than you might think. And to really know if sales quotas make sense for your teams, it boils down to a few key elements.

Aggressive Quotas Were Effective in 2015

Not too long ago, titans of industry, including Forbes, all shared proven insights behind aggressive quotas actually working to improve sales performance. Across a variety of industries, the implementation of aggressive quotas did, in fact, correlate to better numbers. Sales members are typically competitive by nature. And the effective use of quotas would tap into that fierce competitiveness, whereby most would respond well to the challenge of monthly or yearly quotas. And honestly, for some industries, this type of performance metric continues to be the driving force behind any strong sales team.

But so much has changed since 2015.

Thinking about the mass adoption of online purchasing and decision-making alone has made it harder for salespeople to build customer relationships. People don’t want to meet with someone to be “sold” a product or service. Instead, consumers across a variety of segments are increasingly doing their own homework, adopting tools to solve their own problems, and engaging with brands they like. If your sales teams are missing their traditional quotas, it might be less about your workforce and more about your changing client audience.

Quotas for Prospecting Are Great

Today’s sales assassins are changing direction. The days of generic elevator pitches and impulse conversions are in the rearview mirror. The savviest salespeople are mastering their strategic relationship-building skills. They’re focusing their efforts on prospecting, introductions, and filling their funnels full of potential leads that might result in sales calls and conversions later.

I had a sales manager once share the Ferris Wheel analogy. The riders getting off the ride represent the conversion or the final sale. But before anyone gets off any ride, they first have to:

1. Want to ride it and get in line
2. Wait and then be seated in their swinging cart
3. Take the journey upward
4. Get stopped at the top and along the way as other passengers get off the ride
5. Make a complete rotation or two before finally exiting the ride

Sales is more like the Ferris Wheel today than ever before. First, you have to attract customers to your product or service. Only when they want it will they engage. They might have to cycle through an entire funnel of interactions and engagements with you before they ultimately decide to buy. So, how are your sales quotas fitting into that dynamic? If you’re only measuring conversions, you’re missing a host of other sales metrics that lead to those final numbers. And if your marketing, advertising, and branding aren’t attracting riders to your Ferris Wheel, your salespeople won’t ever meet their quotas.

This is why having a sales quota for the prospecting and lead generation phase of the sales cycle is becoming more advantageous. When you drive your teams to fill their funnels, they’ll naturally have plenty of potential business to close. And sales is still a numbers game, even if you’re looking at a different set of metrics than you were before.

Quotas for Performance Metrics

This isn’t a pitch to dismiss your sales quotas altogether. They’re still essential tools for measuring performance. You set goals and objectives for your company’s growth, scaling, and revenue. None of which will ever be possible if you’re not onboarding new clients. When leaders demonstrate to their sales teams just how their performance fits into the overarching strategy, those sales reps will see that the quota is more about keeping the company healthy and less about the “gotcha” tool to micromanage their efforts.

When you have a team member who misses the quota, it should signify to the sales manager that there might be a reason to have a conversation. If the salesperson knows why he or she didn’t hit the metric, and most often, they know exactly what went wrong, it’s an easy fix. But if the sales rep misses several consecutive quotas, that’s more of an indicator of poor performance. Sales managers can look to identify if more training is needed or if additional resources need to be provided. Or maybe, you just have a lazy person on board, looking to milk a few base pays before jumping ship to the next “sales job.”

The key is not to “sink or swim” your teams on quotas alone. Have the conversations and identify the looming issues. Poor-performing sales reps can be transformed into sales assassins with the right coaching, tools, and motivation. And considering how tough it is to find and hire great salespeople these days, it might be more advantageous to work with the team you have to improve their skills and efforts rather than start over with a rookie bench.

Quotas Can Be Motivating

Having some 20 years of first-hand sales experience, it’s the sales quota that keeps you going. Much like any other role, sales reps have good months, bad days, and record-breaking years. It fluctuates because, well, we’re human. But getting through those lazy moments and those days you just don’t feel like cold calling is imperative and made possible by that looming sales quota.

Consider implementing tiers of quotas or benchmarks for your teams. Work with each sales rep individually to analyze the pipeline and project short, mid, and long-term projections. Setting a yearly goal is the starting point. Maybe it’s to sell $100,000 in widgets. Working backward, that translates to $25,000 widgets sold each quarter. That’s a little more than $8,000 in widgets every month, or $2,000 in widgets sold weekly. From there, managers can break it down even further to demonstrate how many cold calls need to be made in a day to achieve the appointments and numbers for the week. Sales reps will then see the path of math to hitting their goals. Hitting $100,000 sounds lofty and out of reach. But making 30 calls every day is a tangible task.

Who Determines the Quota?

Don’t use outdated metrics to determine quotas. Instead, check your analytics, monitor your industry fluctuations, study the economics in your region, and talk to your sales managers. The pandemic demonstrated just how quickly consumer purchasing habits could change. If you’re not completely in tune with all the factors that play into how you close new clients, you’re not measuring the right things. Don’t hesitate to talk with your salesforce directly, either. They are your front line, your first line of defense, in the trenches and in the field, hearing all the objections directly.

Before you settle on any sales quota, consider trying to hit it yourself. No one is more of a champion of your business than you are. And if you’re unable to hit a weekly or monthly quota, neither will your best sales members. Additionally, make it a best practice to revisit established quotas quarterly or annually to conduct an audit and verify if any changes need to be made.

How Your Sales Teams Feel About Quotas

If you’re using sales quotas the wrong way, your teams will absolutely hate them. And they’ll likely leave for another organization that uses quotas the right way. Quotas are absolutely about workforce accountability. But they’re more about setting and hitting goals, motivating the teams, and quickly identifying challenges that may arise along the way. If you’re brow-beating your teams about their quotas or hovering with threats of consequences, they won’t stick around. And if your quotas and consequences are unrealistic, they’ll abandon ship, too.

If you really want to know what your sales teams think about their quotas, ask them. Remember, the best quota systems are those developed with your teams, not based on company objectives alone. As much as everyone despises ongoing meetings and daily recap emails, consider keeping a quarterly one-on-one schedule with each member of your team. Sit down and ask them about the objections they’re encountering. Ask them about tools and resources they wished they had at their disposal. And make sure they’re feeling confident about their career trajectory and earning potential. They’ll honestly tell you exactly what you need to know about how to help them improve and what realistic quotas make sense to implement.

Keep Your Job Quotas vs. Reward Quotas

Quotas should still be viable metrics in your business model. What they shouldn’t be, however, is an end-all benchmark for differentiating a good sales rep from a poor one. Sell 100 widgets every month, or you’re fired. No one wants to work with those do-or-die consequences, especially if they’re strong reps who recognize other failures in the marketing and sales strategy that won’t support their efforts.

When your reps do well, you do well. See to it that you’re using quotas as a tool to improve their chances of success within your organization, financially and professionally. Discuss with them their personal goals for earnings and translate those goals into what they need to do in sales to get there. Reward those who meet their goals and quotas with recognition, front-row parking, and bonuses. And whenever you raise the stakes or the quotas, don’t forget to also raise the reward.

Don’t forget to roll up your own sleeves and get in there with them. If the month is closing and the team is shy of the quota, get creative with contests and spiffs. Get on the phones with them or go in the field and set the pace. Reinforce the idea of meeting a quota as a positive experience, not a negative one. And they’ll recognize their value in achieving those quotas, driving them to higher performance levels.

Salespeople Want to Be Autonomous

The best salespeople want to be assigned the job, know the goals, and be left alone to work their magic. Don’t impose a quota system and then micromanage their every move. Here’s what I mean.

In one sales role I had, I had a manager come to me in the office one day and say, after the morning meeting, you need to get out of the office. Upper management doesn’t want to see any salespeople in the office during the day. So, I had to go find somewhere else to make my calls and send my follow-up emails. It was illogical, too, since I had always managed to meet my quotas.

In another sales role, I had a client call me. She told me that one of my sales managers had shown up at her place of business, asking if I had been by to see her. I had, of course. But she was put off by this “checking up” on me by my manager, so much so that she called me to tell me about it and express how shady she felt it was. I was embarrassed, and it turned out I hadn’t been the only rep he’d backtracked. Again, it was entirely unnecessary since we were all regularly hitting our quotas, too.

The moral of these stories is don’t be a micromanager. If you set quotas for your teams, let the quotas do the work. Give your reps what they need to succeed and help establish the goals for them to be successful. Then, move out of their way and let them do what you’ve trained them to do.

So, are quotas still a thing anymore? Yes. And they’re still important to your company bottom line. Just be sure that you’re using them the right way and not fostering an environment of unnecessary pressure, unrealistic expectations, or unwarranted consequences. Remember, your sales reps want to be successful. Quotas should be used to help them do just that.

Check out some of our other business blog topics regarding sales and performance. And when you need content to share, let the team of writers at Ghost Blog Writers help!

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