Dear Masterminds:
I am the CEO of a business and marketing firm, operating as a “concierge” for business owners and startups. I run operations and a team of 10. As a relatively young operation, I am faced with leadership and growth challenges and am open to advice. Specifically, I’d like to have a lead generation system that produces 4-8 new clients monthly. As far as leadership, I’d like to know better ways of running my team and helping to nurture and sharpen their skills.
THANK YOU FOR providing us with an opportunity to help support your business development needs. Based on the information provided, we’ve crafted a response from the following perspectives: Internet Start-Up; eMarketing and Brand Positioning, Social Media, Growth and Leadership, Pr
ospecting, Content Marketing, and Sales Team Development. Should you wish to explore any/all of the information provided, we invite you to connect with us either directly or via an additional MasterMinding Request. To ensure a thorough response, we’ve enlisted the expert help of the following Members of our Mastermind Panel Members (listed in content order):
- Massimo Scalzo: Internet Start-Up, eMarketing Solutions, and Positioning
- Debbie Ruston: Social Media, Growth and Leadership
- Tina Cherpes: Prospecting
- Fernando Soto: Content Marketing and Sales Team Development
INTERNET START-UP
I’m quite sure you know that the Internet is the largest ads platform in the world. I’m sure you want your business to successfully compete now and in the future. To this end, it is absolutely vital that you build a strong presence on the Internet, and that you start building your presence in the proper way, so that you can generate leads to turn into customers.
I understand your efforts, that’s okay and you’re not alone. That is what mentors are for. I know from experience, that many face enormous uncertainty about where and how to start. There’s Twitter, Mobile Ads, LinkedIn, Google AdWords pay-per-click Ads, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, SEO, Videos, Webinars, Ezines, Blogging, Retargeting, anything you care to name is on there…..It is a forest full of trees, and people often are lost at how they should be marketing their business on the Network. All the more reasons why yours is a Marketing Service Business. That’s why you need to build a Brand, to generate the most impact and, to convey to your clients the concept that you have the necessary expertise and stay adherent to what you preach.
In my view, this is what you should be doing to generate the most impact, particularly for attracting new leads and customers while building your brand:
A) I take for granted that you already have a Value Proposition, which is a few-word assertive statement that answers the question: “Why should I buy from YOUR COMPANY rather than any of your competitors?”. This is one of the most powerful marketing tool any business can ever have. Another important piece of the jigsaw puzzle, is your “Positioning”, which goes hand in glove with your Value Proposition. The most important reason for mediocre marketing and sales performance is a weak Value Proposition and th
e lack of Positioning. To clarify what is “Positioning”, please read the paragraph “Positioning”, which I will discuss a little later. You will understand “Brand Positioning” a little bit better. This will help you understand why Marketing works in the Mind.
B) You don’t need a stellar website. You need a website that works, sounds and gives people a clear idea of how good you are! I had a close look at your website. The current website does not do justice to you. I believe I can tell you that you need an attractive website that is optimized for converting visitors into leads (which is not at the moment) as well as dynamic Content and related social media sharing. You need to give content for free in exchange of customers’s email address. You need to build a list of customers. Without a quality 2.0 website that looks professional, is targeted, and utilizes conversion tactics to convert visitors into leads and customers, all your efforts on the Internet are wasted. I recommend WordPress of course. Possibly a full-screen responsive template.
C) I don’t know if you already have it, but you also need to correctly use HTML Tags and Meta Tags on every page of your website to provide each page with the best chance at receiving a high ranking by SEO. Please be careful if you create Backlinks. Don’t use software (or providers) to automatically get links pointing back at your website, ’cause it is a direct violation of Google’s terms of service.
D) You need Google Analytics Code installed on each and every page of your website. This way, you will get detailed statistics about your website’s traffic, and traffic sources, in order to measure conversions and sales.
E) You need Engagement. You need a list of customers. You need Email Marketing managed by a Funnel (eCRM) to engage customers and to offer your products/services. You need Content Marketing: few original blog posts added to your website’s blog periodically, even coming from Socials. Each of them with sharing buttons. This is the most powerful and affordable social media marketing tactic available. Socials: one of the tactics (there are others) is to allow social media to promote your business for free by promoting your blog posts. You need at least Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Visual Socials: Pinterest & Instagram. There are others. When you market your service/product, you need “A/B split tested” Landing Pages, in order to understand which factors (headline, layout and so on) generate more leads and sales conversions.
eMARKETING
These days customers no longer separate marketing from the product. They don’t separate marketing from their online experience. In the era of engagement, marketing ISthe company. With regard to this, there is an important lesson to be learned from the modern Marketing: It is crucial to understand that when we surf on the Internet we are always looking for an answer to a precise question. We are always searching for a solution to a specific issue. That’s what customers do. The solution must reflect the experience they will get from You. I mean, You are the “experience”, your company is the “experience”. You need to plan the experience FOR THEM, not for you. To do so, you need to understand your Audience.
Oftenwe are in a tearing hurry, that means that if a page doesn’t grab your attention in a matter of seconds (and most of all visitor’s email), you lose potencial leads for ever. Even if you have the best product/service in your niche.
As you probably know, many speak about “Landing Pages”. This “notorious” landing page is simply a page with a content that should be focused on giving the “ANSWER” to that specific issue or question; the Issue/Question that led your users to your site in the first place. A landing page may be a Homepage or another “customer-taylored” page TO SELL.
I will tell you more, – for example, the landing page you use to convert the traffic coming from Socials should not be the same you use to convert the traffic coming from SEO. The landing page you use to convert the traffic coming from Google Adwords should not be the same you use to convert the traffic coming from Socials and so on and so forth…The reason lies on the fact that visitors, who come from different contexts, have a different “buying” behaviour. They “convert” with different ways and schedules.
They all have in common One Thing: the intention of finding “that” answer – that solution that led them to navigate on the web and land on your website. That’s why the landing page they arrive to, must fulfil “that” specific need or expectation. The rest should be considered of secondary importance, including your story and who you are. Sure, the latter (your story and who you are) are essential elements BUT they are not essential in the moment your visitor look for a solution to his/her problem. In the ZMoT, Zero Moment of Truth, the moment they BUY. The moment you turn a Lead into a paying Customer.
BRAND POSITIONING
The Marketing works in the mind, in the words, visually. The foundations of a business is its Brand. Its Brand Positioning.
The foundation is the fundamental element of the “House”. Without a foundation your house has nostrength, even if the walls are constructed in a workmanlike manner, even if it is designed by a renowned architect. Without foundations, your house not only will collapse sooner or later, but it will put your life at risk and in any case, it will destroy all the work done to build it. How can you effectively create your Brand Positioning ?What does it mean “to position” ?
A) Use the Stairs of Mind.
Take a (business) category that interests you and make this test: imagine the ladder with 3 steps and put on the steps 3 brands or 1.000 for that matter. On the higher one, put the first brand that comes to your mind and so on. Done? Now you are still “unbranded”. You want to place yourself on this stairs. You have to create a difference to step up. Stairs are a collection of categories. You want to get the first place (which is the highest step) but the highest one is already occupied. You follow others or you need to create a (credible – feasible – reliable) Brand in the middle of “zero” brands. Example: cellphone. Cellphones is a crowded market. No way. – Cellphones that go underwater. Maybe there are some waterproof. Ok. But you created a cellphone that can go down 200 metres and diffuses a wave of special light. Are there cellphones with this capability ? No. Then You invented another category and you are on top of it.
Therefore, the positioning strategy – including many that you can use – is this: be the Leader. If the scale of that (business) category is already occupied, create another category in which you are the Leader (if you really have the necessary expertise).
C) Be Different, not Better.
You have to find something that differentiates you from the competition and makes – because of this difference – your offer more desirable. The essence of the Brand is a reference to the diversity of a product/service within a category.
What you need to do is to find a way to be perceived as being different from your competitors. It will obviously (and hopefully) be a difference that makes you “different” (of course putting at the top of the agenda the right and honest business ethos).
D) The rule of Focus.
This concept – Specialists versus Generalists – is a key concept of Brand Positioning. In a competitive market, a specialist wins against a generalist, although it apparently has to give up a part of the market.It means that you have to say, convey, communicate, always ONE THING: your “Brand Promise”. Not a lot of things all together!
How to write a Brand Positioning Statement? By 3 rules:
1) it must simplify
2) it must explain
3) it must remind
In other words it is a statement that should simplify, explain and remind your Brand Positioning. This is not a Vision, and/or Mission document, please when you make that, don’t resort to jargon. This is just a simple sentence. It is built in a specific way – in order to guide your Brand Positioning communication. The Brand Positioning Statement has this format:
<Brand Name> is <What it is> that makes <your distinctiveness> .
So, the secret to an effective branding is FOCUS.
I summarize here the 3 rules of Brand Positioning:
Rule # 1:
“Use the stairs in the mind”
Be aware that a potential customer has, for the category of your business, at least a scale with 3 brands in order of preference. Your brand strategy aims to put your brand on that scale, possibly in the first place (it is the most effective strategy) . So if the scale is occupied by competitors, you should create a new “scale in the mind” (niche) in which you are the No.1.
Rule # 2:
“You have to be different, not better”
This is the core of the Brand Positioning: to find and communicate the difference between you and competitors, so that your difference makes you more interesting or at least worthy of a proof of purchase. There are many ways to find your diversity and you can fine-tune them later.
Rule # 3:
“Communicate always your Brand Positioning”
The message that communicates your brand positioning must be clear, until people acquire it in their mind. Remember that your Brand Positioning is often the reason why they chose you.
SOLUTION
First thing in the morning: there is no Internet miracolous online marketing solution. There is a huge number of “pirates” who offer miracolous solutions, but these are nothing but scummy material.
There are a couple of theories that have been proven extremely effective as regard to online marketing, internet sales techniques, online customer experience and traffic engagement. These proven theories (used to rise billion profits by some of the most important publishing companies (and few others) have their own set of rules to be successful. Some of the best and most serious marketing minds have worked on them developing effective online strategies that work (almost) on any market niche.
I, myself, did draw on them to work and develop a Digital Business Blueprint that embraces the 3 fundamental areas of Digital Marketing: Traffic Ecosystem – Conversion Ecosystem – Profit Ecosystem. Not to mention the Leadership sides to build such a Thinking System. Indeed, Leadership is a prerequisite for sustainable MKTG growth and Success. But it would take too long to go into all this. It’s enough merely to say here that this “leadership process” goes through the main building blocks of a Leading Digital Strategy. Even tough, apparently the two things (Leadership & Digital Marketing) are unconnected.
SOCIAL MEDIA
I would suggest that you build up your social media presence and connect with those within your ideal target market. Every social media platform is different, however as an example, Linkedin is a great platform to join groups within your niche market. This gives you an opportunity to join in group discussions, add value and knowledge and that alone will draw clients to you. Another option in the groups is to post your own discussions and those that resonate will join in the conversation. Many will connect with you if they see you are in sync and that also can lead to a new contact.
GROWTH AND LEADERSHIP
Regarding your question about growth and leadership, this is something that is vital for the long term success of you and your team. Continued development is something that many companies do not recognize the importance of. Learning to take personal responsibility, make powerful decisions, understanding risk, collaborating and masterminding with like minded people, gaining clarity on your goals, leading by example, employee engagement, etc., are all vital to the success of your organization.
PROSPECTING
Effective prospecting is an intentional activity which requires planning. What does our ideal customer look like? Where will we get our prospect information? What’s the best time to make contact? What are the key metrics? How do I find the decision makers and move past their gatekeepers? How many qualified leads will I need (on average) to generate one sale?
If there is a single prospecting mistake to prevent, it’s failing to make the investment in the up-front planning effort. And, just as there are keys to prospecting success, there are also common pitfalls of poor prospecting we can learn to avoid.
Failure to measure and evaluate our activity and our results is a common prospecting pitfall. There are a wide variety of tools available from pencil/paper to sophisticated client relationship software, and regardless of our individual preference, we can improve our ratios if we understand what is working for us (and what isn’t). Arguably the best tracking tool that exists is the one our team will actually use.
Unless we’re able to properly profile and clearly define the attributes of our target market, we’re likely to invest a great deal of time and energy without producing a meaningful return. We can avoid letting this prospecting mistake trip us up if we qualify our search; it’s much easier to find what we’re looking for if we know what we’re looking for.
Historical sales ratios exist for nearly every industry. When we fail to know the ratios for our particular niche, we can set ourselves up for a great deal of frustration. If our sales team has core competency skills and our prospects are qualified, it becomes a numbers game and the numbers can’t beat us. If we know the math, we need only apply persistent repetition.
Prospecting is a learned skill advanced through intentional activity and our long-term success requires us to actively identify and engage in an ongoing process of targeting and attracting qualified leads that drive new business. Our success will not likely be the effect of a single method but of discovering and incorporating a variety of methods that produce measurable results. Once your prospects have been properly profiled, following are a few (of many) prospecting sources to consider.
Satisfied Customers, Referrals, Internet, Trade Groups, Publications and Shows, Networking, Company Marketing Efforts, Commercial Databases, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes, News Organizations (both local and areas where targeted prospects are), Chamber of Commerce Directories, Public Libraries (Reference USA database).
CONTENT MARKETING AND SALES TEAM DEVELOPMENT
Recruitment, Training and Implementing
Key to the success of any business is the sale of its goods and/or services. When cast into the role of CEO and recruiter/sales manager, the entrepreneur must remember to wear one hat at a time. The first step toward meeting sales goals is to recruit the right talent. The job candidate must “fit” with the entrepreneur’s core values – not just meet the technical aspects of the job description. Speaking of job description, this should be in writing and reviewed with the applicant. Have the applicant describe how he/she is qualified for the position, what training the applicant possesses and what are his/her short and long term goals. Leading the candidate with open-ended questions will reveal a wealth of information about him/her. If the entrepreneur does not feel comfortable with the recruitment process, recruitment agencies will recruit talent for a fee. The importance of recruiting the right talent cannot be overemphasized.
With the right talent in place, the sales manager hat comes on. The sales manager is responsible for training, motivating, implementing, and rewarding the sales team. 
This is an ongoing process. In small sales operations, the sales manager/entrepreneur is usually also a member of the sales team – in other words a selling manager. A selling manager leads by example. The sales manager needs to demonstrate his/her ability to perform the tasks expected from the sales team. A technique that selling managers use to challenge their sales teams is to see who can outperform the sales manager. The winner earns bragging rights and this leads to a culture of friendly competition and high performance. Besides friendly competition and commissions, praise is a powerful motivator. To grow a high producing sales team, start by setting easily attainable goals. Progressively increase sales quotas as your sales team increases their closing ratio. Reward high performance with a sliding scale commission plan that rewards high achievers. In sales, praise and money are powerful motivators. There are other motivators that have an exponential return on investment.
Training is one of those motivators. Investing in sales training for your team will give them the tools to excel – crushing sales quotas. The sales manager can work with team members one-on-one, finding out the team member’s strengths and weaknesses. Together, they can create an action plan that leads to sales success. Do not forget to say “good job” regularly when a team member excels. Those two words are powerful motivators. Continuing with sales training, an investment in a formal sales seminar or training program can supercharge your team. Offering a large selection of courses, Dale Carnegie Training is considered one of the best.
The final focus of this paper is content marketing sales and telemarketing. While B2C telemarketing is held in contempt, B2B telemarketing is an important aspect of doing business. It is the most effective strategy for lead nurture producing the best quality leads. When telemarketing fails to produce good leads, it is usually due to contacting the wrong prospects. For telemarketing to succeed, the most important investment is time. Properly trained telemarketers will require a certain amount of time to finesse their presentation and closing skills. This holds true whether telemarketing to sell over the phone or calling to set appointments. The relevance of the offer will drive engagement. Telemarketing is a powerful tool to drive traffic to websites and social media. Preparing a telemarketing campaign requires the same preparation as content marketing. Bad data leads to bad results. Provide well trained telemarketers with good leads and telemarketing campaigns will deliver. An excellent source for lead generation and automation of all sales and marketing functions is Salesforce. This link is a demo of their lead management software: DEMO. For phone skills development see SEMINARS. And finally, for training in content marketing the Content Marketing Institute offers several programs.
Editor’s Note: “Mentoring Matters” is an exclusive ongoing series of Articles featuring select questions received from our readers via our MENTORING Channel, with responses provided by our MASTERMINDS Panel. If you’d like your business or career challenge considered for publication, please visit NEED A MENTOR? today! And don’t forget to join our new mentoring community on Linkedin, committed to giving back by paying it forward: BIZMENTORING 360°.
