Lead Generation + Lead Nurturing + Sales Execution for Small Business
EPOCH blog- everything marketing and sales alignment for small businesses


Subscribe

Your email:

Follow Me

Why Epoch?

epoch               | ep-uhk, or ee-pok |

1. a period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics

·   the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something

2. a point of time distinguished by a particular event or state of affairs; a memorable date

About Teicko

Driven by my passion to see others succeed, I use my high energy, no nonsense style to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in achieving marketing and sales effectiveness beyond their wildest dreams.

Teicko Huber

I've Actually Read 'Em

Innovation Games book

Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play

Serious games provide an unparalleled platform for gaining insight into people, processes, systems, and structures. Oh, and they make business way more fun!

Courage: The Backbone of Leadership book

Courage: The Backbone of Leadership

Punk Marketing book

Punk Marketing

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball book

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball: Find and Sustain Your Life's Work [RULES OF THE RED RUBBER]

The Red Rubber Ball at Work book

The Red Rubber Ball at Work: Elevate Your Game Through the Hidden Power of Play [RED RUBBER BALL AT WORK]

Blue Ocean Strategy book

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant

 

Make Wining a Habit is one of my favorite pragmatics reads about complex selling. 

The Epoch Blog Add to Technorati Favorites

Current Articles | RSS Feed RSS Feed

Seamless Integration Between Sales & Marketing is Not Important

Posted by Teicko Huber on Fri, Jun 18, 2010 @ 07:34 AM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

Correct, sales and marketing alignment is not important if you have cash to burn, you can afford to miss your sales goals and you want to make your customer acquisition costs unecessarily high.

It is estimated the misalignment of sales and marketing costs the US Fortune 100 $225 Billion annually, while small to mid-size business executives can no longer turn a blind eye to the alignment of sales and marketing. The process for lead conversion, lead nurturing and sales execution need to be seamless as any interruption in this sequence can have severe penalties. Whereas, the next competitor from anywhere in the world is only a "Google" query away. 

People buy differently than they used to. We can’t continue “shouting” at consumers and think they’re going the listen...they won’t. Today’s consumer has power. They have caller ID, they have voice mail, they can fast forward commercials, and they have many other tools that allow them to ignore the many messages being “shouted” at them.

inbound lead generation

Power has shifted to the buyer and the buying process has been democratized. Consumers decide what they want to listen to. In case you’re not paying attention, The Game Has Changed small business owners and CEOs. The expectation of the customer is that we empower them to choose us, so empower them to find you wherever they look (hint: 86% of people go to the Internet as part of their buying process [hint, hint: If you don’t think Sr. Executives are going there, think about their direct reports they send to do research for them, they go there]). Furthermore, customers expect a dialogs and not monologue.

pull dont push

 

Since marketing is no longer about campaigns and more about creating and empowering a dialogs with the customer, alignment wiht the customer is mission critical.

Unless you have money to burn, sales and marketing must be aligned and inbound marketing enables this to happen.

 We can help your sales team attract new customers.


Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

2 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Twin Cities Local Pechacek Scores 92% On Inbound Marketing Exam

Posted by Kallie Pechacek on Mon, Apr 19, 2010 @ 02:51 PM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

Certification Awarded by Inbound Marketing University Training Program

Hudson- 4/12/10 - Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Kallie Pechacek as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (HYPERLINK "http://inboundmarketing.com"http://inboundmarketing.com). 



This certification acknowledges Pechacek's proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

Pechacek joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. In total, 1,300 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.

To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Pechacek completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: HYPERLINK "http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes"http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)



The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times' best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google's Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: HYPERLINK "http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors"http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)

This certification is administered by HubSpot.

About InboundMarketing.com

InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site's content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at HYPERLINK "http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register"http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.

About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot's software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at HYPERLINK "http://www.hubspot.com"http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot's free marketing tools can be found at HYPERLINK "http://grader.com"http://grader.com.

website consulting

 

 

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

How To Attract High Quality Sales Leads to Your Small Business

Posted by Teicko Huber on Tue, Mar 30, 2010 @ 05:08 PM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

YES THIS IS A VIDEO, BUT IT PROVES MY POINT

How You Can Attract High Quality Sales Leads With Remarkable Content

The long term health of your business relies on your ability to draw in high quality leads for your sales team. Without these leads, they’re not able to implement all the sales training you have put into place and morale will sink precipitously. While there is no great secret to attracting high quality leads that convert into sales, there are steps you can take to help turn the Internet into a lead generating machine for your company.

Remarkable Content Puts Your Experience Into Words

Potential customers will always have some reservations before entering the sales process. Cold calling and other measures that catch them off guard can only reach a certain ROI. But article marketing, the act of writing and submitting articles online, gives you an opportunity to catch potential leads as they’re looking for information related to your business. When you find these prospective customers while they’re in the mood to buy, your ROI increases dramatically.

A high quality lead generating article doesn’t take hours or many hands in the pot to create. The best place to start is with one of the major concerns your current clients have that you have been able to not only address but to help them resolve. Break down how you solved the problem into actionable tips. Flesh out those tips into a 350-400 word article that engages the reader rather than lecturing them, and you’ll have completed your first lead generating article.

How Does Content Convert Into Leads?

The power of your article comes from the author resource box that your reader sees after finishing the article. This is your chance to warm up your lead even more by enticing them with your latest white paper or webinar recording for them to download. Of course, you’ll want them to exchange their email for the content that you’re giving them. Once you’ve captured this email, you can hand off the information to your sales team for lead nurturing.

When you finish your article, the first place you should submit to is EzineArticles. EzineArticles.com is the 55th highest traffic ranked Website in the United States. Of the millions of visitors that EzineArticles receives each month, you can be sure that many of these would be highly qualified leads who could benefit from what your business has to offer.

Don’t stop with EzineArticles though. Depending on your industry, there are plenty of blogs, newsletters, and article directories that could benefit from having your article on their site.

Never Lose Your Momentum

The biggest mistake small business owners make when trying to reap the lead generating advantages of article marketing is simply not doing enough. While one well written article with a strong call to action can certainly bring you in a couple of high quality leads, you will start to see more measurable results if you create a well thought out and actionable article marketing strategy.

The more you keep up with this strategy, the more you can expect your articles to go viral and be spread throughout the Internet. Articles will eventually be picked up by relevant blogs and e-newsletters with your strong call to action in tact. Scale this strategy up, and you will have prospects who are so convinced of your expertise and how you can benefit them that they’ll gladly enter the sales process.

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

4 Deadly Sins Guaranteed to Kill Your Sales Efforts

Posted by Teicko Huber on Sat, Mar 27, 2010 @ 11:09 AM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA). Small businesses have been successfully using this approach for over half of a century. Although the ‘end’ may be the same, e.g., a closed sale, the ‘means’ have now changed quite drastically with the advancement of technology and communication mediums like social media used by today’s salespeople.

This blog post is about the 4 deadly sins I see killing a lot of small businesses.

Sin#1) Awareness– Cold calling is now backward thinking. Sure there are plenty of old school tactics to get the prospects attention, but if the salesperson hasn’t even seen the prospect’s homepage and have a certain level of understanding of their business they’ll unlikely be able to sustain the prospect’s attention for very long. They may actually be offended – which is not always a ‘bad’ thing, but in this context it surely is.

Sin #2) Interest – By tracking prospect’s conversations in social media, e.g., LinkedIn answers, Twitter, Facebook Page, the salesperson will gain insight as to what’s currently happening in the prospect’s world. When the salesperson does find a gem of a conversation, they may choose to engage the prospects within the social network in which the dialog took place, or they can simply make the phone call and and make a much warmer introduction – situation dependent.

Sin #3) Desire – Strike while the iron’s hot, as they say. It’s critical that salespeople be at the point of action and the only way to make sure they’re is to do some front end work with your marketing budget. I mean seriously. What’s the return on investment (ROI) having a salesperson cold call on cold cold prospects a hundred times a day and having to warm them up over and over. Sounds like reinventing the wheel to me.

Sin #4) Action – It’s true that differentiation takes place from the very beginning, but this needs to be maintained throughout the entire process to this final stage of action. But the truth is, with inbound marketing, the prospect will be continuously taking action this whole time by downloading your whitepapers, watching your informative videos, participating in dialog on your Facebook Business Page, etc. The ‘soft touches’ are no longer follow up phone calls, it’s re-tweeting your prospects latest update.

Are you still stuck in the 1980’s,90's,200's with your sales and marketing methods? Give us your feedback (blowback or not), we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

2 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Marketing & Sales Alignment: Who Dat in Your Posse?

Posted by Kallie Pechacek on Wed, Feb 10, 2010 @ 08:51 PM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

Build a Community

The companies that are growing the fastest have built a community around their product and services. They’ve built up loyal followers who support what they do through and through, and these followers passionately spread the good word and create positive “buzz” around the company’s product/services.


It's imperative that small business owners never forget people trust other people more than ads or other forms of marketing or any claims you make about your product,period. In fact, according to CNW Marketing Research Inc., 72% of ads are skipped by DVR users, and Yankelovioch claims that 76% of consumers believe companies don’t tell the truth in advertising. Whereas a study done by the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth revealed that 67% of consumer purchase decisions are primarily influenced by word of mouth, the number 1 factor. So, some simple advice: Get it going, start building your clan of followers today! Think of them as your posse of marketing tools.


  •  82% of “brand community members” recommend a company or brand more often after they join the community - Communispace
  • 89% of “brand community members” believe the company they're part of is truly concerned on what they have to say - Communispace.
Click here if you want www.focus2grow to help build your posse
Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

1 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Twitter for Small Business (so easy a sales person can do it)

Posted by Teicko Huber on Tue, Feb 09, 2010 @ 07:33 AM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

Twitter- Sending a Postcard (on steroids) on the Internet

Now that real-time content such as tweets are showing up in search results, the importance of engaging in this medium has just increased dramatically. The perceived quality of content in the tweet, and the link they point to, will assist your company in search engine optimization (SEO) when the search engines likely decide to include these in their ranking algorithms. In particular, sales people can contribute to marketing efforts by tweeting key concepts that will contribute to a small business's overall marketing efforts. Most importantly, tweets are limited to 140 characters, so tweets are so easy a sales person can do it.


In addition to contributing content that has SEO value, Twitter can be an incredible source for data mining by sales people. Twitter lists are definitely something that deserve a sales person's attention in 2010, and beyond. You can find extremely resourceful lists to follow, and if you’re quick to the draw in a particular niche, you can create a list of thought leaders which will establish your credibility because other people will follow the list that you created as well. This is all transparent for everyone on Web to see (unless you mark it private which doesn’t make sense within the context of this discussion of Twitter lists). Now do you get a feel for where this is heading?

As you get started in all of this tweeting stuff, you will certainly find the following tools helpful:

Socialite- Aggregates all your social media (mac only)

Tweet Deck- Aggregates all your social media (mac and PC)


Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Small Business Executives: Sales People Need to Engage in LinkedIn

Posted by Teicko Huber on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 @ 07:50 AM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

Small business executives and entrepreneurs expect your sales people to be knocking on our door sooner than later, inquiring how to best engage in social media. If they aren't knocking, this should be a cause for concern! Customers are accessing information differently than before and how customers buy has fundamentally changed. Instead of going to a sales person for information, they are conducting a lot more research online and taking advice from others who have established reputations or experience with your products.

Small business executives need to get on the ball immediately and be prepared to leverage this powerful marketing channel. It is the job of marketing (if you are in charge of marketing, this is your job) to lead the way and direct their salespeople (or not). This may include taking a leading role participating in these social media accounts. Let’s explore some key features in Linkedin that salespeople need to utilize.

Linked In: An Online Global Network of Business Professionals

Linked In absolutely rocks for networking and indentifying connections between your network and others networks.

Creating a LinkedIn group is another fantastic way to build a community to add value to your niche by providing valuable tips and mindfully answering questions on Linkedin.The best answers for a question posed are highlighted, and when a prospective customer is impressed with the level of insight provided, it’s a good possibility they’ll take note of the individual for future reference when they are further along in the buying cycle. Typically, they would reach out and request a connection as well.

People to Invite to Your Linked In Group:

  • People in your company
  • Key customers and contacts
  • Other industry leaders in your niche

Choose a title for your group that makes sense so people will understand the exact nature of your group. Lastly, make sure you promote your group and integrate it with the rest of your marketing events and programs.

Also, particpating in groups and starting meanginful discussions within the groups is an awesome way to build your credibility on the internet within your niche.

 Three Rules for LinkedIn:

  • Don't be a jerk. Respect the rules and spirit of the group. Every time you or salespeople start a discussion or answer a question, it should add value and not be self serving. 
  • Always include a link back to your Website if there is information of value.
  • Make sure you take the time to read and provide a repsonse that adds value to the the person posting the question. I think too many people are self serving and reply to questions to pitch their services.
If used, LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for your sales people and your company to build and leverage their network.

If you have more question, email me and we can help you do inbound marketing. www.focus2grow.com


Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

1 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Small Business Owners and CEOs Now Required to Engage in Social Media

Posted by Teicko Huber on Wed, Jan 20, 2010 @ 08:34 PM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

 Expect your marketing department to soon have sales people knocking on its door inquiring how to best engage in social media. Customers are accessing information differently than before and changing their habits by conducting a lot more research online and taking advice from others who have established reputations on the internet.

Salespeople need to get on the ball immediately. It is the job of those responsible for marketing to lead the way and help out their salespeople. This may include taking a leading role participating in these social media accounts. Let's explore some key features in Linkedin and Twitter that salespeople need to utilize.

Providing Quality Answers on LinkedIn and Consider Creating a Group

 One great way to build thought leadership is by providing valuable tips and mindfully answering questions on Linkedin. The best answers for a question posed are highlighted, and when a prospective customer is impressed with the level of insight provided, it's a good possibility they'll take note of the individual for future reference when they are further along in the buying cycle. Ideally, they would reach out and request a connection as well. Creating a Linkedin group is another fantastic way to build a community. Invite the following people:

    * People in your company
    * Key customers and contacts
    * Other industry leaders.

Choose a title for your group that makes sense so people will understand the exact nature of your group. Lastly, make sure you promote your group and integrate it with the rest of your marketing events and programs.

Twitter

Now that real time content such as tweets are showing up in search results, the importance of engaging in this medium has just increased dramatically. The perceived quality of content in the tweet, and the link they point to, will assist your company in search engine optimization (SEO) when the search engines likely decide to include these in their ranking algorithms.

Twitter lists are definitely something that deserve your attention in 2010. You can find extremely resourceful lists to follow, and if you're quick to the draw in a particular niche, you can create a list of thought leaders which will establish your credibility because other people will follow the list that you created as well. This is all transparent for everyone on Web to see (unless you mark it private which doesn't make sense within the context of this discussion of Twitter lists). Now do you get a feel for where this is heading?

Click Here to Learn More About Social Media

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Small Business Owners & CEOs: Sales & Marketing Catch the Love Bug

Posted by Teicko Huber on Wed, Jan 13, 2010 @ 08:03 PM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

Unlike the skyrocketing divorce rate of human marriages in the United States, sales and marketing are the starry eyed newlyweds that have not gone on their honeymoon as of yet. Let's delve deeper as to why these two are feeling such a magnetic pull within the context of Six Sigma.

Six Sigma could be loosely defined as `improving a business process by eliminating causes that inhibit maximum efficiency.' Of course we could elaborate a great deal further, but for the purpose of this article we'll explore the five steps of Six Sigma for improvement and how they relate to my above presumption.

 
1. DEFINE

I've repeatedly stated that `growth starts with understanding.' But how can you understand something if you have not identified the problem? Far too long have we (small business owners and you CEOs) forced our sales people to bear much of the burden of lead generation while we kicked back and rested on our `yellow page,direct mail,radio ads' marketing laurels. We pondered countless hours as to why our revenue targets were falling short. NOW is the time to admit there is something you can do to help your salespeople become more successful by integrating lead generation and lead nurturing in your marketing efforts.

  2. Measure

If it's not measurable, it doesn't exist is a very wise mantra to Excel (pun intended) in business. More than likely you've measured your sales people by their activity, appointments set (or actualized), and ultimately deals closed. Maybe it's time to start looking at other metrics such as cost per lead. Have you done that lately?  To take this a step further do you understand the full sales cycle from Awareness-Interest-Decison-Action? If you can readily answer these questions, you would be in the minority!

  3. Analyze
 
What is the cause and effect relationship in your sales process? Massive action equals massive reaction is a logical assumption. The more phone calls your salespeople make, the more deals will be closed. However, it's unlikely you are getting the best return on investment (ROI) if your sales person is not sitting at the closing table. You are throwing money away (I'll gladly take some off you hands if you have it to waste) by having them make cold calls. Allocate a larger portion of your budget on the front end with inbound marketing to reap the rewards on the back end.  Simply, adding more people does not absolve the problem.  It is my opinion you should not add sales people if you don't have enough sales leads to keep them busy moving people to action.

  4. Improve

Experiment with different systems. For example, you could turn your website into a `lead generating machine' by creating valuable content that prospects would gladly give up their contact information. If done correctly, inbound marketing can bring in many more qualified leads for your small business for your salesperson to contact and close because they are reaching to prospect at a particular stage in the buying cycle (depending on your offering).

  5. Control

As we continue with using your website as a lead generator theme, make sure you're using a closed loop marking system so you can identify exactly where your leads are coming from so you will know where to focus your future marketing efforts. The old adage of a business making the statement, "we know we are wasting half of our marketing budget, but we just don't know which half" is now obsolete with lead tracking technology and the evolution of our wonderful internet.

Please, email me if you have questions on how you can get your sales and marketing on a honeymoon... teicko@focus2grow.com....If you want to help yourself go to www.focus2grow.com and learn more.

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

3 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Marketing- Alert: Client in the News!

Posted by Kallie Pechacek on Wed, Sep 23, 2009 @ 12:05 PM
  | Share on Twitter Twitter | Share on Facebook Facebook | Submit to Digg digg it |  Add to delicious  delicious |  Submit to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon |  Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn |  Share On Technorati Technorati | Submit to Reddit reddit 

September 22, 2009-
Check out the Season Premiere of Extreme Makeover Home Edition! This episode airs this Sunday night September
27th at 7PM on ABC-TV.

A previous marketing client, Ancientwood, is proud to have donated a stunning dining table to the deserving family in this episode of the program. While all reports tell us the family loves their Ancient Kauri table, we are also hoping the star of the TV show, Ty Pennington, talks about (and shows off) the 50,000-year-old dining room table!

A new container of Ancient Kauri is on the way from New Zealand, and we are hoping for an adequate supply through the Fall and pre-Holiday season. However there are 10 million expected viewers of this popular prime-time television show that may see Ancient Kauri wood for their first time. Supplies may get a bit short. If you have Ancient Kauri in mind for something this fall we suggest you secure your supply of wood
soon!

We are hoping to see some good shots of the Huber family enjoying their Ancient Kauri table on prime-time television, and are excited that we are able to be a part of this fantastic cause.
marketing client in the news

160 Madeline Island, La Pointe, WI 54850 USA Website
http://www.ancientwood.com

Email: info@ancientwood.com

Phone: 888-201-7544

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

All Posts | Next Page

Invitation to blog for us!

Browse by Tag