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It Doesn’t End With the Sale: Managing Customer Relationships0

The Pipeline Guest Post – Megan Totka

Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and attracting new customers while strengthening your relationships with existing ones is a constant challenge. The best way to do so, however, is a matter that often leaves your sales and marketing staff at odds. Your sales force is focused primarily on closing the deal and landing new customers, while your marketing department wants to nurture customer relationships before and after the sale. No matter what your role at your company, however, it’s to your benefit to continue to nurture customer relationships long after they’ve paid their invoices.

Why Long-Term Customer Relationships Matter

We’ve all heard the adage that it’s cheaper to retain a customer than it is to acquire a new one. After all, you’ve already done the wooing. They already love your brand. If you maintain the relationship, they’ll come back to buy other products or services from you, increasing their customer lifetime value.

A customer with whom you already have a relationship is more likely to refer more business to you. They’re happy to tell others about how much they enjoy your brand when communicating through social media, review sites like Yelp, and face to face with friends. A single customer can help attract business from friends and family if they’re happy. And the best way to keep your customers happy is by paying attention to their needs and staying connected.

Managing Your Customer Relationships

Customer relationship management tools like Insightly and Salesforce make it easy to create profiles for each of your customers. You can track critical data like purchases, each customer’s birthday, and communication preferences. Companies use this data to better engage with customers. If you have your customer’s birthday, you can send her a email with a special birthday offer. If you know she has looked repeatedly at a certain item on your website, you can offer her a discount for it. Building a profile is a great first step; if you are in regular contact with a client, take notes each time you speak with them.

Social media is another fantastic tool for staying on top of customer relationships. Since Hootsuite lets you set up custom streams based on your preferences, it’s a snap to set up a stream containing the social media content generated by all your customers. From there, it’s up to you how far you drill down. You could create streams for different types of customers, such as those buying women’s clothes in one stream, children’s clothing in another, and men’s clothes in the last stream. You could set up a search for a keyword that relates to your industry to see who’s talking about it, and connect with them. The possibilities are endless, but what matters is using the info you gather to enhance your customer relationships.

Once you’ve set up customer profiles, it’s simply a matter of paying careful attention to what’s being said, especially if it relates to your product or brand. If a customer’s unhappy with your company, they might not bother to tell you, but reach out on their social network instead. If you’re monitoring your customer Tweets using your new setup, it’s much easier to discover customer concerns—and address them—before the situation escalates.

From a more positive angle, if you notice a customer tweeting about her search for product or service you provide (that they may not realize you offer), your sales team has a fantastic opportunity to respond and develop that interest into a lead.

Email is another great way to stay on connected to your customer. Don’t bombard your customers with emails, but do make your emails frequent and relevant enough to remind them of why they chose to give you their business. Sending one newsletter and one promotional email at specific times each week or month is a good start, but with a little creativity and careful data management, you can create targeted email campaigns for special occasions or broken out by demographic. Using the data gleaned through your customer relationship management software, you can deliver even more sophisticated and targeted messages, such as discounts for a customer’s birthday for example. The better targeted the offers, the better your connection with your customers.

The aim is to keep growing the connection. With intelligent application of the information you gather, you can build real and lasting relationships with your customers that won’t end with the sale.

About Megan Totka

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.

The Pipeline Guest Post – Megan Totka

Social media websites are a great sales and marketing tool, there’s no denying it. I would venture to say that most companies have a presence on at least one social media site, and if they don’t, they should! Many companies are developing marketing campaigns that are design for both online and traditional marketing. For the online marketing aspect, they are normally specifically designed for use on social media sites. Ideally, these campaigns will lead to increased sales for the company.

But how exactly should you use social media to entice your customers to make a purchase? There are quite a few ways to go about it –

Use Photos and Video – social media sites are very photo-centric. There are so many sites out there that encourage users to take photographs of nearly everything they do. Some examples would include Instagram, Pinterest, and Flickr. By taking and posting attractive photos of your products or services, you are more likely to catch people’s attention than by just describing with words. Like it or not, we have become a much more visually-driven society since the advent of social media.

Promote Specific Events – Company events can draw a good deal of attention from customers. These events don’t even have to be sales-related. One of the main goals in sales is just to keep the name of your company or product on your current or potential customers’ minds, right? For example, take TOMS A Day Without Shoes campaign. Is going barefoot for a day going to encourage people to buy shoes? Probably not. But, it does give TOMS a ton of publicity and perhaps people who have not looked at their company before will take notice.

Feature Satisfied Customers – the great thing about social media is that your customers have the ability to give instant feedback. If you like what they have to say, give them a shout-out on your page. You may even get lucky and they may become a brand advocate. This can be really helpful for other customers who have not yet bought from you. When they see positive feedback, it might give them reason to buy. For example, if someone writes a great review of a product, that might be able to sway someone who was on the fence before into giving the product a try.

Build Anticipation – this is particularly important if you are planning to introduce a new product or service. You know when you watch television, sometimes you see commercials for stores or restaurants that don’t have locations near you? Then when one opens nearby, you often feel compelled to check it out. For me, this happened with Kohl’s. They advertised the store in my area for several months before one finally opened. The same goes for the social media world. Prep your customers for new and exciting products or services before they launch. This way, the hype will already be there when you do release the new product.

Social media can be a great way to get customers involved in your business and to close sales. Use it early and use it often!

(Photo Source)

About Megan Totka

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.

The Pipeline Guest Post – Megan Totka

The Internet has opened up a whole new world of marketing and advertising tactics. And although this isn’t breaking news, people are coming up with new ways to utilize the web every day when it comes to sales. But are we letting more traditional sales practices fall by the wayside in lieu of solely committing to digital tactics?

In my experience, the companies with the best strategies are making the most of both types of marketing. Finding a winning combination of traditional marketing and Internet marketing can take some trial and error, but it’s worth it for your company in the long run. Consider these perks of focusing on online advertising and sales:

• Less Expensive
While running a business website isn’t necessarily cheap, there are many ways that you can advertise online for very little cost. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer great outlets for marketing and a variety of tools to help you build your network and share your message.

• Bigger Reach
It typically costs less to reach more people with online marketing. Using social media accounts and websites can generate thousands of views—even hundreds of thousands for successful companies—each month. It’s difficult to reach that many people with traditional marketing tactics and a small business budget.

• More Outlets
There are so many ways to advertise online. Some of the most obvious include social media networks. The biggies include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are hundreds of other social media sites that you might consider using based on your type of business and your audience, among other factors. Community-style message boards, blogs, and websites may also be ideal channels to add to your digital strategy.

Although digital tactics can undoubtedly be effective, traditional advertising and sales still carries a number of benefits, too, including:

• Tangible Nature
Some people like advertising materials that they can see in person or touch. Some examples might include business cards, postcards, or business swag (think branded water bottles, key chains, or pens).

• Increased Permanency
Marketing campaigns such as billboards or magazine ads can be placed for a longer period of time without needing changes. Online, it’s more necessary to keep content new and changing constantly to not only serve your audience, but also search engines.

• Appeal to a Larger Audience
Don’t confuse this with having a larger reach. While online advertising may have the ability to reach a higher number of targeted people, traditional marketing techniques reach multiple generations and income levels and typically aren’t as segmented as digital alternatives.

Your best bet as a business owner or salesperson is to find a balance between the two types of marketing. It’s important to gauge your audience to see which kind of marketing best suits your clientele. If you can find the right combination, you’ll be able to reach a huge audience and give everyone something that they want—not to mention using a variety of marketing techniques will help you increase sales and expose your company to new customers.

(Photo Source)

About Megan Totka

Mar 29th, 2013 Business Acumen, Change, Communication Strategy, execution, Guest Post, Marketing, Social media, Social Selling

Change, Communication, execution, Guest Post, how to sell better, Marketing, Proactive, Sales 2.0

How Hosting Contests on Your Twitter Feed can Improve Sales2

The Pipeline Guest Post – Kim Willington

Of course you know that social media is a great way to get exposure for your business. What you may not realize, however, is that social media is also a great way to increase direct sales — sometimes right from your feed. The immediate, conversational nature of Twitter makes it ideally suited for promoting your business and increasing sales.

In particular, hosting contests on your Twitter feed can increase your sales, not only in the short-term but also by promoting relationships with customers and generating leads. Here are a few tips for how you can increase your sales by hosting contests on your Twitter feed:

Promote New Products

When you have a new product, hosting a contest is a great way to generate buzz and to sell more of those products. By offering the contest, you instantly get more exposure for the product, amounting to free advertising that gets people instinctively excited about the product. Those who don’t win the contest will feel like they have missed out on something special and will be more likely to go back and buy the product instead.

Follow Up with Exclusive Offers

After a contest is over, you should build on the momentum that the buzz has created for you. You can do so by offering exclusive discounts or other promotions to your Twitter followers and to those who entered the contest. Perhaps you can offer a discount on the product, or you can offer a special free bonus for those who buy the product.
The exclusivity will not only increase your sales, but it will also help you to increase your Twitter following (which can help you build relationships and grow sales later).

Generate Leads

A contest is a great way to help you build long-term brand loyalty and sales by helping you to generate leads. The key is to create multiple methods of entry that work for you. This can include asking participants to join your e-mail list or to follow you on Twitter in order to enter. The more valuable the prize, the more people will enter and the more leads you will have.
Of course, the effectiveness of those leads will depend upon what you do next. Make sure you have a strategy for lead marketing that includes developing an ongoing relationship and encouraging repeat sales.

Twitter can do much more for you than help you promote your brand. If used correctly, it can help you to increase your sales of your own products or to generate additional revenue through affiliate marketing and advertising. Just be sure to strike the right balance between promotion and providing your followers the information they need, and you should see success.
Do you use Twitter to increase your sales? Share your tips for success in the comments!

About Kim Willington

Kim Willington is a freelance writer and researcher, where she has recently been researching service desk software. While away from work, she enjoys antiquing and hiking with her retriever, Spencer.

Guest Post – Megan Totka

When thinking about writing a blog for a business, most people are not thinking about the blog itself bringing in revenue. The objective is usually to draw people in to the website with a good story, where they will then click around and perhaps make a purchase.

But why shouldn’t the blog itself try to make money and connections? The answer is of course, that it should! There are several ways to get a blog to make money.

Blog sponsorships – consider having blog sponsors who purchase space on your blog. This is an advertisement for a person or company that is permanent on your site. Most ads that you would find on a blog would be constantly changing based on the reader’s browsing history. Having a sponsorship allows the ad-buyer to guarantee a spot on your blog. Typically these are paid for up front, for a particular time period. You may want to consider sponsorships from companies that are in a related field. This way, your sponsor actually has some hope of people clicking on their ad.

Google AdSense or other ad companies – as I referenced above, most ads are ever-changing, based on the user who is browsing the blog. Google Ads target-markets to specific users by using their browsing history. For example, if someone who is reading your blog was also searching for colleges to attend, then they will likely see ads for colleges. This is good for you, the blog/business owner, because they are more likely to click on that ad, and thus make you money. The more readers that you have and the more your web pages help you customers, the more effective Google Ads will be. There are other similar ad companies, as well. If you want to put this type of ad on your blog, it’s good to research all of the companies that offer the service first.

Affiliate marketing – affiliate marketing is where you endorse or advertise a certain company, product, or service in exchange for a percent of the profit from the sales made from this particular company/product/service. There are many affiliate marketing opportunities. One that is popular is Amazon’s affiliate program.

A blog is a great way to give customers an insight into your company. Drawing new readers and keeping current readers interested is the most important factor in getting your company blog to make money. The more people who read your content, the more that can potentially click on your ad. Having strong content that people want to read and share is the cornerstone of a good blog.

About Megan Totka

Feb 22nd, 2013 Blogging, execution, Guest Post, Marketing, Sales 2.0, Sales Tip

Commitment, execution, Guest Post, Marketing, Proactive, Prospecting, Sales Success

The Super Bowl: How Advertising is Changing0

Guest Post – Megan Totka

It’s that time of year – the time that many people enjoy even more than the holiday season. NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl have rolled back around, and they bring with them one of the greatest advertising displays of the year. The Super Bowl has always been known for being one of the most expensive advertising opportunities. Many people who care nothing about football, tune in to the game just to watch the commercials.

But how has online advertising impacted the more traditional world of television advertising? The answer is, quite a few different ways.

TV commercials point viewers to social media or company websites – instead of just broadcasting an ad and hoping that consumers notice and buy their product; companies are taking it several steps further. Many ads are interactive, and they include a call to action for viewers. Most ads direct people to the company’s website, Facebook, or Twitter. Or, they include ways to tag the company, such as a specific Twitter hashtag to use to identify that the viewer is responding to the ad that they saw.
Video sites enable people to share their favorites, instantly – this is probably one of the biggest changes, and actually could work against some companies. Instead of having to watch TV to see a favorite advertisement again, all the viewer has to do is log on to YouTube to watch it over and over. This is a double-edged sword, because while viewers will watch an ad over and over, they may not tune into the television shows that will contain future new ads and products.
More interaction between viewers and companies – Doritos has asked fans to film their own Super Bowl ads. The fan-made ads are then posted on the social media pages of Doritos. The fans who made the ads then are encouraged to get their friends and family to vote for their ad. The winner will be broadcasted during the game. This is a level of interaction between company and consumer that is really unprecedented in the world of traditional TV advertising. This is great for companies because consumers want to be talked to, not at. Also, it’s generally common knowledge that the more you can get someone involved, the more likely they are to be loyal to your brand.

I’m interested to watch the Super Bowl this year, and not because I am invested in any of the teams that could potentially be playing. I am excited to see what the companies who pay a huge premium for ad space are getting for their money, and how they are going to continue to be creative in ways to draw in new customers and interact with them. While most small businesses don’t have the capital to advertise on such a large scale, there are other affordable marketing products they can take advantage of. And perhaps there are still some ideas to be drawn from the advertising event of the year.

About Megan Totka

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips. ChamberofCommerce.com has over 7,500 listed Chambers.

Jan 25th, 2013 Buying Process, Communication, Communication Strategy, Guest Post, Marketing, Media, Proactive

Communication, Guest Post, Marketing, Planning, Proactive, Prospecting, sell better

Solving The E-Mail Black Hole1

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

I have always been a fan of Star Trek, and intrigued by some of the possibilities presented in the original and even Star Trek NG. Interesting how some of the things that seemed farfetched, now are not. One that always fascinated me was the black hole; little did I think we would experience it in selling, specifically when using e-mail.

We all wonder when we hit that send button “what will happen with this e-mail?” Will it reach its desired destination will it invoke the desired reaction, what reaction will it initiate, what will its fate be, ignored, read over and over, create action? Hard to tell in the black hole that is e-mail.

Sure, you can ask for a “read receipt”, so what, the is still an information void because all you know is if the opened it, you don’t know if someone read it more than once, where, if they read it on their phone or office or both, or if there is any interest. For salespeople, this creates “prospect paralysis” because they don’t know whether to follow up and, if so, when and how.

But recently I discovered a tool that helps me have a better grip in the black hole. ContactMonkey, a new smart email tracking service for Outlook and Gmail that tells me in real-time if, when, how many times and where a message is opened, as well as what device or browser was used.

Armed with this knowledge, a salesperson has valuable and actionable insight to make better and more informed selling decisions and actions, so they can focus on the most promising prospects and opportunities.

The idea for ContactMonkey emerged when Scott Pielsticker, a serial entrepreneur, was frustrated with not knowing if his sales pitches were getting read or were resonating. To solve this problem, ContactMonkey’s developers created the software, which was recently launched.

Here is an example, a seller fires off an e-mail to a prospect. After the email has been sent, the salesperson will be able tell if and when the email has been opened, which is a great starting point. The more the message is opened, the more interest someone likely has in the proposal.

But there’s even more insight that can be gleaned. Where was it read, what device was it opened on. ContactMonkey allows you to know if a message was opened on a mobile device, within the Chrome browser or Outlook. If an email is originally opened on an iPhone, and then opened on Chrome or Outlook, it could mean the e-mail and or any attachments generated solid interest.

The same approach works for location. An email opened by recipients in Toronto, Boston and London is another indication of good interest. Especially if you are working with prospects with decision makers in multiple locations, as it makes its way around you gain insight.

For salespeople, this information makes it easier to focus on better prospects interested in their email, while they can quickly ignore or reformulate plans for prospects that paid little or no attention to their email.

For “warm leads”, you can figure out the best time to follow up. If there’s a lot of interest in a message in a short period of time, the salesperson can strike while the iron is hot — knowing that they will likely get a good reception.

ContactMonkey allows you to add a new layer of intelligence to email so salespeople — and other people who want to know if their email attracts any interest — can work better, more productively and close more deals.

I speaking with the team, they tell me they are planning to add a dashboard to let people take a holistic view of their email activity to extract key trends and best practices.

If you are a seller and you want to get more out of your email, check out ContactMonkey and see how it can help you Sell Better.

Please note – I get no commission or compensation from ContactMonkey.

Enter the Art of Sales Contest – Win Tickets

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Guest Post – Megan Totka
Most businesses, whether they are small, large, brand new or established, are turning to more high tech sales tactics to gain and retain customers. This of course is an important part of marketing and sales. High tech sales tactics have become important over the past couple of years because so many people have moved such basic parts of their consumer life online. Due to this shift, more traditional sales practices have been rendered moot. Many industries that offer advertising in print, such as newspapers and magazines, are no longer as successful as they once were.

Customers not only turn to the web to research products that they are interested in, they are increasingly more likely to make the purchase there as well. Companies are using this as a reason to focus all of their sales tactics and marketing dollars to the Internet. While this may seem like a good idea, the entire population is not yet Internet-savvy, and even those who are heavy internet users can still appreciate what might be considered old-fashioned marketing. It’s all about keeping the customer happy anyway, right?

Probably the most dynamic and important traditional marketing strategy is person to person marketing. Personal presence is a great sales tactic for so many companies. Even companies that are internet-based can benefit. If your company does not have a storefront, there’s still tons of opportunities to get out into your community – or any community, really, if you are based online – and show people what you have to offer. Some great places to consider getting out and talking to people would include community events like markets or festivals, job fairs, business expos or trade shows, college career days, and more. If a potential customer sees you while you are out and about, chances are good that they will remember the name of the company associated with the friendly face they chatted with. Since we are human and the need for interaction is one of our core qualities, meeting someone face to face is nearly always going to be more memorable than a phone call or e-mail.

Holding your own events as a company can be a great idea also. You can hold events at your storefront, if you have one. Or, consider partnering with a similar business or businesses at a local fair, festival, or special event to promote each other. For example, a new, online kids clothing boutique could partner with a photography studio and offer a special for a free photo shoot with purchase, or a coupon for a discount on clothing with every photography session purchased. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. Make sure that all representatives from all companies involved are friendly and knowledgeable about products and services offered by the other companies that are present.

Print marketing is another choice when it comes to old fashioned marketing techniques. Yes, I know earlier in the article I mentioned that print marketing is on the way out. And for the most part, it feels like it is. However, there are still some instances in which print marketing can be very valuable. Print is still one of the more common ways that companies offer coupons and discounts to their customers. Print marketing companies such as Val-Pak still mail coupons to their customers. Bed Bath and Beyond is another that sends paper coupons. Small businesses can also utilize smaller publications. Think local magazines, community newsletters, and even ad books for local sports teams. Print advertising is often inexpensive. It doesn’t have to be fancy, either. Simply a company logo, clear contact information and an offer (coupon, discount, etc) make for the most effective print ads.

There are certainly many times and places to use Internet marketing. It’s even okay to use it as your primary marketing strategy. You can even hire a company to do your internet advertising for you if that’s what you want. Just don’t forget that more traditional marketing strategies are still relevant.

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She writes on business news and small business tips for Chamber’s business directory. ChamberofCommerce.com is the largest Chamber of Commerce online.

Hanging Out with @GlobeSmallBiz: How to develop a Winning Sales strategy

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business’ Small Business interview series on Google+ Hangout. As the title suggests, we discussed a number of topics relating to sales, and sales challenges important for small business owners.

This was not only a great use of the technology, but we covered a number of key issues potential pitfalls, and opportunities for small business owners.

Take a look, comment, enjoy, and profit.

httpvh://youtu.be/A3FEyN2B4dE

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

While we talk about “a sales cycle”, but the reality is that a sales person could in fact have multiple cycles unfolding at the same time, all different in length. Based on your offering there could be different elements that come into play, different product lines, software vs. professional services, as an example. On the other hand, the zone (active, passive or status quo), the buyer has a direct influence on the length of the sales cycle as well; those actively engaged in the market will make for short cycles, those passively looking, will take longer. The largest group, the status quo, will be extended cycles, and thereby present a number of challenges.

One of the biggest is the fact that because it will be a much longer “client acquisition cycle”, it will require greater creativity on the part of the sales person and their sales organization. Because of the extended time, and the fact that the buyers are in “who cares” mode, it will require more touch points as a result. This not only requires the discipline to actually carry out these touch points, but also require greater creativity in the nature of those touch points.

Consider this set of stats:

Only 10% Of Sales People Make More Than Three Contacts
2% Of Sales Are Made On the First Contact
3% Of Sales Are Made On the Second Contact
5% Of Sales Are Made On the Third Contact
10% Of Sales Are Made On the Fourth Contact
80% Of Sales Are Made On the Fifth to Twelfth Contact

This means that with buyer in the status quo zone, know that if they don’t respond to the initial two or three approaches, the whole thing will just go away, confirmed by the stats above. And for someone in the status quo, ignoring things come naturally. And let’s face it is easy to ignore some of the irrelevant messages they receive, often the message is so general the only thing unique about the message is the individuals’ first name, due to the “merge” function in their automated marketing tool they use.

This is where a contact strategy becomes important in a number of ways. First, just having the contact diarized ensures you follow through the six or seventh time in a long client acquisition cycle. But to win, the number of touches is just the start, with buyers in the status quo content of the message rules. While I am not suggesting that you need to create a unique set of content for each target, I am suggesting that you make sure that you COMMUNICATE with the buyer, not just touch for the sake of touch and the need to hit a stat.

You need to create and tell a story through your communication, a story that will achieve two basic things. Most of all engage the buyer based on the content, its relevance to the person or organization you are targeting. Second, demonstrate you understanding and ability to help the buyer in a specific way, again achieved through the story you weave. Yes there will be calls to action, but hey will be tied to elements of the communication, not just repeating a singular message “call me”. If they see value in the content, they will see value in meeting with you, it may take a bit longer than with active or passive buyers, but it is up to you to develop and execute a contact strategy that will prepare the buyer to think of you as the one they would like to change with.

Next Step

Understand how long you sales cycle is with Passive and Active Buyers
Calculate you “client acquisition cycle” with status quo buyers
Map out a contact strategy, including touch point, medium, nature of messages, etc.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

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What's In Your Pipeline?

How Hosting Contests on Your Twitter Feed can Improve Sales2

Does Your Small Business Blog Make Your Company Money?1

The Super Bowl: How Advertising is Changing0

Solving The E-Mail Black Hole1

Please note – I get no commission or compensation from ContactMonkey.

Enter the Art of Sales Contest – Win Tickets

Old Fashioned Sales Tactics that Your Small Business Can Utilize117

Hanging Out with @GlobeSmallBiz: How to develop a Winning Sales strategy45

Value of Contact Strategy – Sales eXchange – 14160