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Business Development

  • Airplane-mode networking

    Airplane-mode networking

    After arriving at an event and noticing a few people you know - and hundreds that you don't - what is your first inclination? a) To make a bee-line to those you know? b) To introduce yourself to those you don't? c) None of the above? Sadly, more people are [More]

  • Trust: Earning the Right to Ask

    Trust: Earning the Right to Ask

    How often have you walked in a shop, only to feel pressured into buying something you didn't really want?  Perhaps you were at a restaurant, and the waiter actually sits down at your table, introduces him or herself, and asks for your order? Or maybe you found yourself in the [More]

  • Looking for growth: Back to basics

    Looking for growth: Back to basics

    Looking to grow your organization?  If so, a key question is this:  Where are all of the "new" zip codes?  The ones that live in different sectors and geographies?  The ones who come from different cultural backgrounds and different generations?  The first-time bums in seats? One thing is for sure:  [More]

  • Selling Products using Social Media

    Selling Products using Social Media

    Forget likes, shares, retweets, and comments: how can you use Social Media to actually sell products?  (Here's a post on selling services.) To do so effectively means understanding two key concepts: the funnel, and conversion.  The funnel refers to the process that prospects go through before they actually put down [More]

  • Four Steps from Social Strategy to Successful Sales

    Four Steps from Social Strategy to Successful Sales

    With all of the wheel-spinning and effort spent on social media, wouldn't it be nice to actually use it to grow sales? Not improve awareness, develop the brand, help with marketing, or "continue the conversation". But actually sell. Here are four ways that social media can be use to sell [More]

  • Generating ROI: The other 95%

    Generating ROI: The other 95%

    How do you determine the ROI on your marketing and sales investments? The standard formula is simple: divide the return, less investment, by the investment. A marketing campaign costs $1000, and reaches out to 1000 prospects. Five per cent of these respond, generating $1000 profit, for an ROI of zero: [More]

  • Content Marketing and the Marketing Hierarchy of Trust

    Content Marketing and the Marketing Hierarchy of Trust

    "I am great!  Really.  Truly great!  Really!" How many people (or organizations) have marketing strategies that boil down to self-serving claims of greatness?  (Too many.)  How effective are these emails, LinkedIn profiles, ads, websites, TV commercials, or billboards?  (Not effective at all.) There is a trust hierarchy of marketing strategies: [More]

  • Is Social Networking supposed to sell?

    Is Social Networking supposed to sell?

    Consider these Tipsheets: there are over 650 of them, and they certainly don't "sell" anything.  Each week, I give away a small nugget of information, and tie it to an immediate action.  These non-salesy Tipsheets, like the vast majority of blogs, are designed to credentialize expertise and build trust, slowly [More]

  • Six Steps to Strategic Blogging

    Six Steps to Strategic Blogging

    Chances are that you are not a blogger.  But chances are relatively high that you like the idea of being one. During my last 100 or so presentations, I asked the audiences if they blog: surprisingly, only a sprinkling of  hands typically go up. When asked if they like the [More]

  • Trust Takes Time

    Trust Takes Time

    How long does it take to make a sale?  And is it faster using traditional marketing and sales techniques, or digital-based ones? In traditional marketing and sales, advertising informs prospective customers about a product or service. Those who have a need show up and make their purchase. In the more [More]

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