Today’s guest post is written by Molli Megasko. 

I live in New York City and finding a spot for dinner can be a daunting task.  With about 25,000 restaurants an easy cab ride away, Google just doesn’t cut it.

If my husband and I feel like eating out (which is most of the time), we have a process.  We choose a culture, pick a neighborhood, find Zagat-rated places, then look at the reviews on Yelp.

This usually narrows it down to two or three, then we choose by menu choices or which place can seat us sooner. Continue Reading »

I’m a big believer in integration. Not integration from the perspective that you’re saying the same thing through every communication channel, but from a “breaking down the silos” point-of-view.

You see, marketing, public relations, advertising, HR, IT, customer service, and all of the other disciplines are supposed to work in tandem with sales. Not in silos, but together.

But it rarely happens that way, which is why we see the fatal silo mistake, especially in B2B sales.

Consider this: You’re on the road, meeting with clients, prospecting for new business, and attending conferences, trade shows, and cocktail receptions.

You’re rocking your meetings and ready to get back to your desk in a couple of days to start closing some new deals and make your numbers for your year-end bonus.

Back in the office, your colleagues have created a campaign that integrates direct, email, public relations, and print advertising around a series of webinars. The webinars are created to generate leads that they’ll then hand over to you for conversion. Continue Reading »

When I speak to CEO groups, the first thing I ask the audience is what they want to learn during our three hours together.

More often than not, they want to know how to use LinkedIn for prospecting.

It’s so simple, it’s a wonder hardly anyone uses it.

If you love to make cold calls, you’re sick in the head and there is no need for you to read on. But, if you’re like me, and would prefer an introduction or a warm lead, following are five steps for using LinkedIn to do just that. Continue Reading »

Marcus Sheridan is the author of  the popular blog The Sales Lion.

Dear Twitter,

Yes, I know I should have written you this note quite a while back but I finally had to come to grips with the gross error of my ways when I misjudged your character many moons ago.

Part I

You see, it all started when I was told by some social media guru that you were the next big thing. Needing whatever help I could find to sell more swimming pools, I figured I would give you a go. That’s when I put your little symbol up on my company’s website and just waited for the followers to pour in. But do you know what? They never did. Continue Reading »

Guest post by Mark Schaefer, author of {grow}.

I was reading a blog post the other day and this comment captured my attention: “Content is NOT king. It is the conversation around that content that is king.”

I recently wrote about how many of these conversations we THINK are occurring on the social web that are not occurring at all. A blog comment is not a conversation. A tweet or a status update is not a conversation. Pushing a “like” button is not a conversation.

So if you accept that we rarely have real conversations around here, what ARE we doing and does it have any affect on sales? Yes, I said sales. Marketers do not exist to drive re-tweets or page views. We exist to sell more stuff to more people for more money. Continue Reading »

Guest post by Douglas Davidoff, founder and CEO of Imagine Business Development.

Are your sales efforts aligned with your social media strategy?

Your company’s Facebook page is alive, active and people are “liking” it. You have multiple people tweeting, and comments are regularly being posted to your blog. Your social media strategy is alive and engaging.

Now take a look at the rest of your sales and marketing activities.

• Are your ads different than your competitor’s ads? Do they fit with and support the engagement you are trying to create with your social media?
• Are your salespeople asking the same boring questions that other salespeople ask? Or are they focused on selling your stuff or deepening their understanding of customers and prospects?
• Are your account managers and customer service people merely responding to issues or are they deepening their knowledge to create new opportunities for both you and your customers? Continue Reading »

Catherine Novak over at WordSpring wrote a great post Tuesday on the merits of content versus conversation. As the word count on the comment I began to leave for her continued to grow, I realized I just might have a blog post of my own on my hands.

In her post, Catherine quotes Cory Doctorow (via Clay Shirky): “Conversation is King, content is just something to talk about.”

When I blog, my primary goal is to strike a conversation. Some people write for catharsis. Some to preach. Some to sell. I write for conversation.

“But this very post is published on a business blog,” you might be thinking. “Isn’t the point of a business blog to sell?”

And it would be difficult to argue with you – or with Joe Pulizzi, who wrote a solid post of his own on Tuesday entitled “Sales Is the Reason Your Content Exists.” But, wait, hear me out. Continue Reading »

Last week I was on a flight doing my second favorite thing…eavesdropping (people watching is my favorite). I was so intrigued by the conversation behind me that I stopped reading to listen.

Guy #1: What do you do?

Guy #2: Business process investigation.

Guy #1: I see.

Guy #2: What do you do?

Guy #1: I am part-owner in one company and full owner in another. We do disinfecting and decontamination of large businesses.

Guy #2: That’s very interesting.

Are you kidding me?! Business process investigation? Disinfecting and decontamination of large businesses?

Does anyone know what either of these guys do for a living?

One of the things we work on with clients, especially in today’s age of text messaging and social media, is how to deliver their elevator pitch so they quickly gain interest from their audience – reporters, customers, prospects, candidates, even someone just checking out your Twitter bio, trying to decide if they’re interesting enough to dive deeper.

Can you imagine if these guys were on the news? What if this is what their Twitter profile said?  Would you have any inclination of wanting to learn more?

What if, instead, the conversation went like this?

Guy #1: What do you do?

Guy #2: I go into businesses to help them streamline the processes they use for operations and sales so their people are able to go home and have dinner with their families every night.

What are you compelled to do if the guy sitting next to you says that? Do you want to learn more? Ask questions about what it is he does and how he can make sure you’re home with your family every night in time for dinner?

Turns out that’s what business process investigation means.

Guy #2: What do you do?

Guy #1: We go into locker rooms before and after every game to disinfect the floor, the lockers, the showers, and the walls in order to keep germs and viruses at bay. One of our clients is the NFL and, as you can imagine, it’s really important the players not get sick. It’s our job to make sure they don’t.

I know, if the guy sitting next to me says that, I want to learn more about which locker rooms he’s been in and which teams he works with. Likely I’m not going to hire him, but I am interested enough to have a conversation and, perhaps, refer him to businesses I know who would use his services.

Keep this in mind not only when you’re networking at in-person events, but also in the way you present yourself in everything from your Twitter profile to the “about us” on your Web site. The name of the game is to encourage people to want to learn more, not use vague sentences and large vocabulary because you think it makes you sound smart.

Some people are master networkers and use even plane time to prospect for new business. If either of these guys changed the way they introduced what they do for a living, they likely would have exchanged business cards at the end of the flight.

How can you become a master networker, both offline and on?