Why This Stat About Internet Leads Should Worry You

“People often mistake activity for outcomes, but they are not the same thing.” — Anthony Iannarino, The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need

Now that traditional media companies are offering a full array of digital advertising products, we (and our clients) benefit from all of the measuring tools available to us.

When the message is online or on mobile, we have lots of metrics to choose from. It’s important to choose wisely when it’s time to keep score.

In sales presentations, I often see Account Executives focus on their ability to generate click-throughs. Sometimes they even guarantee a specific number of clicks as part of the package.

Problem: the desired end result for most advertisers isn’t a click-through — it’s usually a sale. Clicks are an activity, not an outcome.

You can’t eat clicks and likes.”

Mark Hunter, High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results

A recent study by the SEO firm Straight North demonstrates that all click-throughs are not created equal.

Over 18 months, Straight North analyzed more than 350,000 form submissions and phone calls generated by internet marketing campaigns. What they found is startling:

Only half of them — roughly 178,000 — were genuine sales leads.

Digital salespeople may be shocked by this internet stat
Photo by Brian Jackson

According to Straight North,

Roughly 50 percent of all inquiries are not sales leads, instead made up of things such as:

  • Customer service communication
  • Sales solicitations
  • Job applicants
  • Phone misdials
  • Auto-dialers
  • Full voice mail systems and other phone menu issues
  • Spam form submissions
  • Empty form submissions
  • Form submissions missing contact information such as an email or phone number”

Straight North points out that lead validation is crucial here. When you don’t know what happened after the first click, you don’t know what you’re delivering.

[shareable text=”Clicks are an activity, not an outcome. Focus on the true goal” http://wp.me/p4RXlM-1n4]Clicks are an activity, not an outcome. Focus on the true goal” — Phil Bernstein[/shareable]

If it turns out that half of the click-throughs your campaign delivers are worthless, you may not be delivering the outcome that your advertiser wants.

To generate more sales from the campaign, you’ve got two choices:

  1. Increase the quantity of the clicks with more advertising. If the overall number rises, you can generate more sales even if the ratio of good-to-bad doesn’t change.
  2. If the budget won’t allow more advertising, you need to focus on improving the quality of inquiry, with sharper ad copy, stronger landing pages, and a better sales funnel.

You may think you’re selling click-throughs, but your client wants to buy sales.

Focus on the outcome, not the activity.

–

Here’s a link to a summary of the study:

How to Make Your Last Workday of 2016 Count

 Over the next two or three weeks, many of your competitors will be coming in late, leaving early, and socializing while they’re “working”.

You can do better.

sales tip: call clients on the last day of the year

photo by Monkey Business/dpc

As Anthony Caliendo, author of The Sales Assassin: Master Your Black Belt In Sales, points out,

Business and generating income can’t just stop for the holidays, and salespeople (especially those on commission) need to keep productive in downtimes during the holiday season.”

Among his tips for staying productive during the holidays:

Schedule appointments for the new year instead of desperately trying to schedule sales calls during the holidays. You may typically have difficulty getting an appointment with a prospect, and never get past their gatekeeper. Scheduling appointments for next year – in reality only a few weeks away – is a good way to convince reluctant prospects to meet.

Caliendo’s strategies will work on any day in December. I’m going to add to the list with a recommendation for the very last thing you do in the office this year.

Sales Tip: How to Maximize Your Last Business Day of 2016

Make a list of every client who advertised with you in 2016. Big ones, little ones, annual accounts, seasonal accounts. All of ’em.

On your list you’ll need two pieces of information for each:

  1. The name of your main contact for each company. With some clients, there may be more than one.
  2. His or her phone number. That’s telephone number. If you want this to work, do it by phone, not email.
 

Here’s what you’re going to do — call each one on the phone and thank them for their business.

That’s it.

No selling is allowed on this call. You can’t mention your ratings, or that First Quarter Fire Sale Package. Just a simple thank you.

If you do this in very late December, you’ll get voice mail in the vast majority of cases. That’s fine. You should have a scripted, rehearsed voice mail message ready to leave.*

Leave your message, hang up, and dial the next name on your list. When I was an Account Executive, my message went something like this:

Hello, Jane, this is Phil Bernstein at KEX. No need to call me back — I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for your business this year. I’ve really enjoyed working with you, and hope we can catch up some time next month. Have a great New Year!”

The words “no need to call me back” are key here — once the clients hear that they can relax and appreciate the gesture for what it is.

I learned this technique from Jim Doyle, who was my sales coach at the time and is now my boss. I did this on the last day of the year for six straight years.

What happened when I did it?

I got a few clients “live”, and a few return calls that day. In fact, I once got a $3000 direct buy for January from a client who had, earlier in the day,  unsuccessfully tried to reach one of my competitors.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

In most cases, my clients had already gone home for the New Year’s break. This meant my message was often the first thing they heard when they came back in the office in January, and I’d often get thank-you calls the first week of the year.

Those conversations often turned into money — sometimes quickly, sometimes a few months later.

Holiday cards and gifts wind up on the stack with everyone else’s offering. An email may not even be read. A simple, low-tech telephone call can set you apart from the competition, and put you in a stronger position as 2017 gets underway.

* For a great tip on building your voice mail skills, read Paul Castain’s blog post The Three-Minute-a-Day Phone Workout.

Question: [reminder]What’s your best tip for staying productive during the holidays? [/reminder] Share your answer on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn

Note: This is an update of a post I wrote a year ago which generated a huge response. As people move away from desk phones, this may become tougher to do effectively. I almost decided to switch to sending video emails (I use BombBomb for video email, and like it a great deal), but have decided to use the telephone this year and see how it goes. 

 

When the Client Just Won’t Make a Decision

When I sold advertising for the New York Mets, my efforts were aided by some built-in urgency: every advertiser wanted their fence sign to be up by Opening Day.

Photo by Michael Flippo
 
Opening Day was fixed on the calendar, in early April every year. Clients had to have their copy turned in by mid-February. 
 
Before the painter would even start work, we required a signed advertising contract. This hard deadline forced clients to make a decision. 
 
Advertising sales in the “real world” doesn’t generally work that way.
 
With the exception of some special programs and events like Valentine’s Day or political season, there’s no natural deadline.
 
Clients can start their radio, television, print, outdoor, or digital campaigns whenever they want. This week, next week, next month, six months from now. 
 
This can make it tough to close business.
 
 
 
                   Photo by Boyan Dimitrov
 
A TV sales manager recently wrote to me looking for ideas to create urgency and close business faster. 
 
I replied that this isn’t always possible, or even desirable. Customers will buy when they’re ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell.
 
As Kevin Davis put it in his book Slow Down, Sell Faster,
 
Every sales leader wants fast sales; the trouble is, there aren’t many fast buyers…They are unlikely to change their buying process to match your selling process, so your only option is to be the one who switches.”
 
A further complicating factor is that if there are multiple decision-makers, each one may be at a different point in the sales cycle. Pushing a client faster than they’re ready to go can result in a shut-down of the whole process.
 
That said, sometimes a client is just about ready to go, but needs a push to take action. Here are some ways to create a little urgency when appropriate:
 
  1. End every meeting with an agreement to move forward somehow.
  • Has the client asked you to re-work the creative or the broadcast/digital plan? Set a face-to-face meeting where you can bring the revised plan in person. If the advertiser asks you to email it, ask them to commit to reviewing it by a certain date, and schedule a meeting or at least a phone call to discuss it. 
  • Does the client need to talk with his accountant? Ask when that will happen, and make an appointment for a face-to-face meeting the day after that conversation is to take place. This requires the client to put something on his calendar, which will force him to either talk to his accountant or admit that he hasn’t.
  • One note: “Why don’t you call me some time next week?” is not an appointment. An appointment has a date, time, and location — recorded in the client’s calendar.
  1. Put an expiration date on every proposal. Nothing fancy — it can be as simple as “Proposal valid through 5pm Friday, December 9.” Not in small print — in big print where the client can’t miss it. What happens on December 10 is up to you, but to protect your credibility the deal needs to change somehow. Rates might rise; sponsorship mentions could be pared back. 
  1. A variation on this: for the right piece of business, a “sign by Friday” bonus can be very effective. Extra commercials or sponsorship mentions; free production if you normally charge for it. They only get the bonus if they sign by the deadline.
  1. If the idea’s strong enough, and the client likes it enough, tell them that the idea’s too good to go to waste, and you’re going to have to take it to a competitor if they don’t sign on by a certain date. Then… take it to a competitor. 

None of this will work if the client’s just not ready to buy. But if they’re on the edge of doing something and need a push, these things may help.

The key is to have your pipeline full enough with clients in all phases of the sales cycle that you don’t need any one deal to close right now.

 

Are You Maximizing This Free Source of Prospect Intelligence?

There’s an easy-to-find source of marketing data about your clients… and many salespeople don’t bother to use it.

Salespeople should check client social media every time.
Photo by Octavus

It’s your client’s Facebook page.

Before you roll your eyes, take a moment to ask yourself — are you looking at those Facebook pages before every meeting?

In my travels as a broadcast and digital sales trainer, it’s been my experience that less than half of the salespeople I work with look at the client’s Facebook page before a call.

If you’re one who does, congratulations. If you aren’t, you’re missing opportunities.

Here’s what I found during pre-visit prep for one Midwestern market:

  1. “Check out our brand-new TV commercial — it starts next week on Channel 4!”  The prospect was about to start a campaign on a competitor, and had posted the ad on social media for everyone to see. 
  2. Photos of a brand-new location for a multi-store retailer, with information on an upcoming Grand Opening Sale.
  3. “Come meet the wacky Z95 Morning Crew — they’ll be at our Sherwood store this Saturday from 9 to 11!” That’s how we found out the client was advertising on the radio.
  4. A Facebook page with no posts since July of 2015. When I asked the client about that, she told me she wanted to do something with social media but really didn’t know what or how. 

All of these things were in plain sight on the customers’ Facebook pages — and all came as a complete surprise when I mentioned them to the AE’s.

Many clients update their social media feeds much more often than their own websites. They do this because Facebook is easier and faster to change, and because they are more comfortable on that platform — they are spending a lot of their personal time there anyway.

For this reason, you should be checking Facebook and the client website before every meeting. 

Things to look for:

  • How many “likes” do they have? If you’ve been to the page before, how does this compare to the last time you looked?
  • How often do they post?
  • Scroll down the page — what are they talking about? Is it mostly sales pitches? Employee profiles? Photos of happy customers? Invitations to events they’re putting on — or radio remotes put on by your competitors?
  • How long has it been since the last post? If it’s been more than a month or two, they may need help — and your digital team may be able to help them.
  • Click on the “Videos” tab — are there any commercials?

Although Facebook is the most common channel advertisers are using, many companies you call on are also using Twitter. And, of course, the people you meet with are likely tohave profiles on LinkedIn.

Check ’em all.

If you go through this exercise every time, you’ll learn things about your clients and prospects that they might never tell you, even as they’re telling the rest of the world.

From there, you can turn that knowledge into money.

Why the Best Rehearsal Audience Might Be Your Dog

“Preparation with improvisation produces spontaneity.” — Michael Port

When I begin working with a new group of television salespeople, I tell them that part of preparing a winning presentation is rehearsal.

I tell them to say every word out loud in advance – it sounds different coming out of your mouth than it does in your head.

Some sales staffs get together and present to each other. Some Account Executives go home and present to their spouse or significant other.

One AE I worked with was too nervous to present to her co-workers, and didn’t have anyone at home to rehearse with – she lived alone with her dog.

So, she told me, she presented to the dog.

rehearse your next sales presentation with yout dog
Photo by Javier Brosch

 

I believe her – when she got up in front of me, her manager, and the client, she nailed her part.

I’ve told that story many times, and it generally gets a laugh. But it turns out that there may be something to her method.

The New York Times recently reported on a pilot project at American University in which nervous business school students practiced public speaking by presenting to canines:

The audience dogs, as they are called, are a pet project of Bonnie Auslander, the director of the Kogod Center for Business Communications, which helps students hone their writing and speaking skills. Given “the whole fever pitch of dogs in therapy” — pettable pooches routinely show up before finals on some campuses — Ms. Auslander decided to use dogs to help students with speech anxiety. The center booked about a dozen sessions last semester and employed six ‘locally sourced’ dogs, recruited for their calm personalities.”

 According to the University, the theory is that “addressing a friendly and nonjudgmental canine can lower blood pressure, decrease stress and elevate mood — perfect for practicing your speech or team presentation.”

My household doesn’t have any dogs. As an experiment I recently tried presenting to my one-year-old cat, Biscuit.

Photo by pdxknitterati
Photo by pdxknitterati

Results were mixed: she watched me for about 90 seconds, then started batting a pen cap around the room.

So I can’t recommend presenting to a cat. But if you’re nervous about getting up in front of a room full of people, a dog might just be the rehearsal audience you’re looking for.

[reminder]When has rehearsing your presentation really helped you. When has LACK of rehearsal hurt?[/reminder]