by Chris Waszczak | Oct 4, 2018 | B2B Sales, B2B Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Outsourced Sales, Telemarketing Services
Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!
To: Wormwood
From: Screwtape
Subject: Divide and Conquer
My Dear Wormwood,
Here we at a critical juncture. The pesky Patient has decided to kick up the level of his marketing. Not to worry—this situation can be the catalyst for a delightfully dreadful downfall. You must learn these three ways to frustrate even the most ambitious marketing intentions: The three D’s.
Divide: Influence your charge to enlist as many disconnected sources as he can find. I influenced one of my own patients to hire a freelance graphic designer, buy into a do-it-yourself website, use his sister to write content, and get a moonlighting “marketing expert.” This motley team had some decent individual talent, but could not form a unified team. Imagine taking ten pieces each from four different 50-piece puzzles, and attempting to fit together a unified picture. My patient “saved” a few bucks, but the ensuing brand message was predictably weak and disconnected; what she lost far outweighed any gains. (She also wasted a good deal of time trying to chase down each contractors to re-explain everything to each.)
Dilute: A coherent, unified team produces an effective, cohesive brand message capable of making powerful connections that lead the humans them to buy, buy, buy. Prevent this happening, at all costs! Just like the game of “telephone,” the more disconnected people that crafting the message, the more diluted, distorted and dissonant it becomes. See the how that works?
Discourage: The regrettable results of the first two D’s will always lead to discouragement. Plant a mixture of truth and error into the Patient’s mind. Make him believe the problem lies in the media platform. “YouTube ads don’t work for me,” or “social media must not produce any real returns.” The truth of such thoughts depends on whether or not he divides and dilutes his marketing message.
If we can portray truth as relative, we can really mess things up!
Your affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape
P.S. We now have the opportunity to guide the patient’s determination by perpetuating the insane idea that trying other media with the same thrown-together “team” will produce different results. Good luck with that one, human!
Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!
Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.
Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.
SalesFish Net of Sales Services:
- B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
- On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
- B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
- Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
- Online Presentations and Webinars
- Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
- Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
- Experiential Event Marketing
- Pre and Post-Event Calls
- Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
by Chris Waszczak | Sep 4, 2018 | B2B Sales, B2B Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Outsourced Sales, Telemarketing Services
Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!
Technology has made it possible for more and more people to work remotely from home. Increasingly, companies are offering remote work options to attract talent and keep costs down, but what are the pros and cons? Where is remote work headed, and is it right for your company? Trending data add clarity to the question.
- Remote work is increasing rapidly. According to a Telework Research Network study, remote work increased 73% between 2005 and 2011 in the US; a recent Gallup survey found the percentage of US employees working remotely rose from 39% to 43% between 2012 and 2016.
- Your competition offers it. According to GWA, 50% of the US workforce holds a job with at least partial telework; 20-25% frequently work outside the office. A 2016 Gallup Poll indicated that 43% of Americans spend at least some time working remotely, most industries embrace remote work, and Fortune 1000 companies around the globe are revamping their spaces around the fact that employees are already mobile.
- It’s where you’ll find top talent. 75% of remote employees earn over $65,000 per year, putting them in the upper 80th percentile of all employees, home or office-based. To stay competitive in capturing the best talent, your company should consider offering remote incentives.
- It’s attractive to employees. According to Global Workplace Analytics (GWA), 80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to “telework” at least part time.
- Remote work resonates with Millennials. A Queens University study reports 49% of Millennials support social tools for workplace collaboration; 41% prefer to communicate via technology. The US Bureau of Labor predicts Millennials, already over 50% of the workforce, will soar to 75% by 2030.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s 2013 remote work ban and those by IBM, Facebook and others bolstered a persistent myth that remote workers are less productive and collaborative. However, these decisions appear to be outliers correlated with company-specific issues, not the overall fitness of the remote work model or the effectiveness of virtual collaboration.
In spite of these few isolated examples, “A variety of studies show that telecommuting and working from home is associated with higher productivity,” David Lewin, management professor at the University of California told Forbes.
The question that emerges is whether remote work is right for your company. A wealth of research strongly suggests net positive effects on team collaboration, productivity and profit.
Lewin cites a 2011 WorldatWork study indicating that companies with cultures of flexibility experienced lower turnover and increased employee satisfaction, motivation and engagement.
Harvard Business Review interviewed Nicholas Bloom on a study launched “to persuade some skeptical managers that flexible work arrangements wouldn’t hinder business performance—to have data that proved the case…We found that people working from home completed 13.5% more calls than the staff in the office did—meaning that Ctrip got almost an extra workday a week out of them. They also quit at half the rate of people in the office—way beyond what we anticipated. And predictably, at-home workers reported much higher job satisfaction. It estimated that it saved $1,900 per employee for the nine months.”
A 16-year study by Idea Champions, cited in a blog by Dave Evans entitled The Workplace of The Future: Connected, Collaborative, Creative, found that only 3 percent of people come up with their best ideas at work. The other 97 percent said they encounter great ideas throughout their day, at home, or even on vacation.
Bloom advises company leaders to test the remote work waters for themselves. “I tell executives all the time to exploit natural opportunities—for example, severe weather that prevents people from getting to the office—to measure how productive employees can be at home. Any disruption that offers a chance to have people work remotely is an opportunity to see how effective they are off-site.”
“Clinging to an old-fashioned fantasy that all work must be conducted in a central office puts companies at risk,” writes Mike Elgan for Computerworld. “We’re now entering an era where a majority of the workforce works remotely at least part time. If your company pretends this isn’t happening, you’ll fail to develop relevant policies and build secure remote infrastructure…The winning approach is not a blanket ban on remote or office work.”
Is remote work right for your company? Could it increase your company’s productivity? Perhaps it’s time to test it out. One thing’s for sure, it’s here to stay. Check out this article on How To Be a Digital Nomad and Work From Anywhere by Alliance Virtual Offices’s Ceci Amador.
Speaking of productivity, check out this guide: 13 Ways to Increase Business Productivity, enjoy!
Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!
Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.
Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.
SalesFish Net of Sales Services:
- B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
- On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
- B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
- Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
- Online Presentations and Webinars
- Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
- Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
- Experiential Event Marketing
- Pre and Post-Event Calls
- Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
by Chris Waszczak | Aug 23, 2018 | B2B Sales, B2B Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Outsourced Sales, Telemarketing Services
Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!
Are your sales needing a boost? Are you having trouble generating quality leads? So often, when companies need sales to pick up, they look for a method or system to pick them up. They try every trick and strategy in the book and, the needle doesn’t move. Maybe they’re approaching it wrong.
In biology, there’s a concept known as the “limiting factor.” It is the idea that the health of an organism, its ability to thrive, could be held back by the lack of something it needs. Take your lawn for example. If it is lacking sufficient iron, it will have trouble greening up and won’t grow well. Iron is its limiting factor. You can water more, add more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium—you might spend big bucks on all kinds of fancy “cures” and potions—but see no improvement. But once you take away the limiting factor by adding iron, your grass will suddenly spring back to lush, verdant growth.
So before you go scour the Internet for articles like, “Seven Strategies to Lift Your Sales,” or you hire a high-dollar consultant, go back to the basics. The following items may seem simple, but if they are deficient or out of date, they could be the limiting factor holding back your sales. Ask yourself these five questions:
- Is my website pulling its weight? A website should be a lead-generating machine, not just an online brochure. It needs to be the hub of all your outbound marketing, the place you’re driving your audiences to. Do you have dedicated landing pages with specific calls to action for specific campaigns or offers? Is your site optimized for the search engines? It may be time to get a website audit to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your site and so you can be equipped with effective website lead-gen strategies.
- Am I tracking and using the data? If you can’t answer this question in the affirmative, you need to speak with a professional who can show you how to set up data tracking, interpret the results and change your approach accordingly.
- Do I have a lead-nurturing sales funnel? It’s fine to offer an eBook or give a webinar, but those are just lead magnets. You need to have a long-term lead nurturing strategy that leads people from that initial contact, to interest, to the sale. For example, if you lead a webinar, it’s fine to offer an eBook as a takeaway, but if you haven’t gotten them to opt in their email address, you’re missing a chance to keep the conversation going. Work with a marketing professional to help set up automatic drip email campaigns, pay-per-click and other strategies that will help fill the funnel. Make sure those campaigns are based on solid, skilled sales content.
- Are my online and offline media integrated? Make sure that your offline strategies like direct mail, advertisements and even vehicle signage link back to your online strategies so you can get them into your funnel.
Yes, these seem like elementary concerns for a business, but too many people overlook the opportunity to dial in the fundamentals. Sometimes, getting your sales growing strong again is just a matter of providing that limiting factor—and it may be a relatively easy fix!
Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!
Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.
Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.
SalesFish Net of Sales Services:
- B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
- On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
- B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
- Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
- Online Presentations and Webinars
- Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
- Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
- Experiential Event Marketing
- Pre and Post-Event Calls
- Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
by Chris Waszczak | Jul 25, 2018 | B2B Sales, B2B Telemarketing, Brand Marketing, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Outsourced Sales, Telemarketing Services
Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!
Getting on page #1 of the search engines is a great goal; winning Facebook likes is nice. But such things mean nothing if your content isn’t engaging. In fact, any marketing medium is only as good as its content.
You’ve probably heard the oft-repeated maxim that “content is king,” and there is truth behind it. Content mainly refers to the written word, but may also include such things as images, photos and video. A lot of people focus on getting their business seen, but form without substance is dead. Even more than where you place your message is what you have to say and how you say it.
According to the Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) blog, What is Content Marketing? If You’re Not Content Marketing, You’re Not Marketing:
“Content marketing is a…technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience—with the objective of driving profitable customer action. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty…Consumers have simply shut off the traditional world of marketing. They own a DVR to skip television advertising, often ignore magazine advertising, and now have become so adept at online ‘surfing’ that they can take in online information without a care for banners or buttons (making them irrelevant). Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective by the minute, and that there has to be a better way. Thought leaders and marketing experts from around the world…have concluded that content marketing isn’t just the future, it’s the present.”
Constantly pitching your products and services will turn people away; however, if you’re educating, entertaining and engaging your audience with relevant content, you are likely to get results. “Selling without selling” is the most effective way to generate leads.
Here are a few stepwise tips, based on the “AIDA” model to help you understand how content marketing leads to a sale, without appearing to sell:
- A: Get Attention—before anything else!
Minds are either captured or lost in the first few seconds of contact. Don’t start your website, advertising, posts or updates explaining your attributes and features you offer. Start with a great headline and an introductory paragraph that answers the question, “Why should I care?” Why are people searching for your services or products anyway, and what is their emotional state when they encounter your message? Meet them at that place.
- I: Develop attention into Interest
Leverage the attention you’ve gained with compelling content. “According to the Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60% say that company content helps them make better product decisions. Think of this—what if your customer looked forward to receiving your marketing? What if when they received it, via print, email, website, they spent 15, 30, 45 minutes with it?” (CMI)
- D: Lead the visitor to a Decision.
Make your content so compelling and informative that the reader will want to know more, that you have the goods or services to meet their needs. They may not yet be ready to buy—they may not even act for some time—but if you can get them to decide that you are worth further consideration, then your content is working. You will have Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), so that when they are ready to buy, you’re foremost in their thoughts.
Provide a simple and non-threatening way for visitors to get more information; offer them an exclusive benefit such as a free white paper or webinar. Make it easy to take advantage of your offering, but don’t always go straight for the “Buy Now” button. Some people act in small steps, nibbling before they bite, so don’t try to set the hook too early.
Content marketing is a specialized skill, so hire a great content writer, not just someone who knows how to build a pretty website or who knows Facebook inside and out. A skilled content marketer will turn your marketing to gold.
Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!
Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.
Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.
SalesFish Net of Sales Services:
- B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
- On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
- B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
- Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
- Online Presentations and Webinars
- Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
- Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
- Experiential Event Marketing
- Pre and Post-Event Calls
- Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
by Chris Waszczak | Jun 19, 2018 | B2B Sales, B2B Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Outsourced Sales, Telemarketing Services
Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!
Marketing is about more than the tools you use; rubbing elbows is also important. Social media, in particular, was designed as a networking and word-of-mouth proxy. In other words, it’s the online version of schmoozing. Besides social media marketing, it’s important to remember social media networking. Talking at people is different than talking with them.
It’s important to evaluate your social media goals: why do you have social media and what do you want out of them? Realistic expectations that social media can deliver include: Brand awareness, increased search engine value, long-term community connection, insight into customer minds, competitive analysis. Unrealistic ones include: Dramatic sales increases, benefits from casual or occasional use, a “silver bullet” effect.
Think as well about how you will educate and engage your audience. What are you going to talk about besides yourself, your products and your services? If you plan to use Social Media to push a sales message, don’t bother. People want interaction, entertainment and information relevant to their lives, not a sales pitch.
Consider the Voice of your communications and be consistent with it. Do you want to be funny, serious, speak in a pirate accent (arrr…)? Choose a tone and personality that fits with your brand as well as your target demographics’ personality. Just because you’re a “serious” business doesn’t mean your Facebook voice has to be. Think AFLAC and GEICO—NOT boring (and that’s the point).
Make a plan ahead of time, including how often you will post, as well as topics you wish to cover. You will need to provide content at least a couple times a week to maintain interest. Beyond content, however, it’s crucial to be responsive and conversational with your following. It’s better to build deep connections with a few target businesses than shallow connections with a multitude. Make a target list, and then be consistent about commenting on their pages, sharing their content and developing your online relationship.
Make sure your social media is truly social; don’t neglect the good, “old fashioned” foundations of human relationships and effective conversation. Talk with people, not just at them.
Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!
Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.
Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.
SalesFish Net of Sales Services:
- B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
- On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
- B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
- Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
- Online Presentations and Webinars
- Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
- Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
- Experiential Event Marketing
- Pre and Post-Event Calls
- Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
by Chris Waszczak | Jun 1, 2018 | B2B Sales, B2B Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Outsourced Sales, Telemarketing Services
Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!
Business owners often ask the question, “When is the best time to put resources into my sales & marketing?”
The answer is simple: always. If you want to avoid the “feast or famine” revenue swings so many businesses experience, then you need to be consistent in reaching out to new prospects.
It’s tempting to cut back on your marketing and sales efforts when things are busy, or when you have new contracts in the hopper. The danger, however, is that sometimes a verbal approval on a contract gets put off or drops off a potential client’s radar. If you’ve slowed down on your prospecting in anticipation of the next contract keeping you busy, you’ll be left with an empty pipeline.
Even if you’re landing plenty of work or making lots of sales, markets ebb and flow. As we learned from the recent recession, the economy is a fickle thing, as peaks are inevitably followed by valleys.
So, our simple tip to level out the ups and downs is to never stop marketing, never pull back on your sales. If you find yourself with more business than you can handle, you can always add more resources, refer, or negotiate deadlines. It’s a good problem to have—certainly better than the alternative of going through dry spells.
Besides helping you keep the pipeline from shutting off, staying consistent with your marketing and sales also presents the opportunity to refine and strengthen your message, media, demographics and timing. You can do this very simply through A/B Testing. A/B testing consists of testing one variable of a message and comparing it with a control.
For example, you may test one email subject line against an alternative; you might have two versions of an ad designed and measure the effectiveness of each; you can test different call-to-action offers, such as a free eBook vs. 10% off your services for example. You can find plenty of good advice on A/B testing online. One of the main things to remember, however, is that you generally want to only test one variable at a time. If you’re testing sending an email at 8:00 am vs. 4:00 pm, don’t use a different subject line for each because if you do, you won’t know if the time of day or the subject line accounts for the performance difference.
Keep your marketing and sales machine going through all the ups and downs and you’ll have more of the former and less of the latter!
Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!
Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.
Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.
SalesFish Net of Sales Services:
- B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
- On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
- B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
- Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
- Online Presentations and Webinars
- Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
- Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
- Experiential Event Marketing
- Pre and Post-Event Calls
- Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
