Breaking news, there is more than just a top to the sales funnel... there's a bottom too!

The Missing Link
The Internet truly has lead to a new way in which people consume, and thus has lead to a new era in how we market to the online consumer. However, I feel a huge component has been lost in translation. We've forgotten about the end of the funnel... the SALE! We can generate all the leads we want with inbound marketing; adding and adding and adding to the top of the funnel, but what good are any of these leads if we don't get them through to the bottom of the funnel. In the end, it still comes down to having to close the deal and make the sale.

When it comes down to running a business, the bottom line to keeping a business on it's feet is the sale right? The sale is what brings in the "cha ching," and without it your business is dead.

The Take-Away
Marketing and sales work hand in hand and must align. You can't talk about inbound marketing without talking about sales. It can be said that Inbound marketing has made acquiring more leads easier, quicker, more automated, and cheaper, but however you want to say it, it's still just the means. You can't forget about the end goal; You still have to close deals, and thus you can't forget about the bottom of the funnel.

What is your demand generation requirement to meet your sales goals? Ask yourself how many people you must meet to reach these goals, and then use marketing in combination (traditional, inbound, direct selling) to work backwards from here; Because remember, Inbound marketing is only the topside of the equation.

Start closing more sales today!

 

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

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.

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.

 

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.

Be Remarkable, Be Compelling

We’ve entered a new era in marketing where the prize will go to the big brains and
not the big wallets. The playing field has been leveled and tipped in the favor of the small business owner.

Content is the new king. Keep your cash in the bank. Money will follow eyeballs. Once again, this is in the favor of small business owners who are close to their passion. Content is the currency, but passion is the fuel. In this era especially, it holds true that it’s not really what you say, but how you say it. This is a great thing for small businesses, because it allows them to eliminate the one thing that used to separate them from their larger competitors, money. Consider Blendtec, a company that sells blenders. They started creating remarkable videos demonstrating the capabilities of their blenders (we’re talking blending credit cards, McDonald’s value meals, lighters, cell phones, etc.), and then published these “will it blend” videos to the Internet for virtually FREE. Internet users found them and love them.

How the viral success impacted Blendtec

• “The campaign took off almost instantly. We have definitely felt an impact in sales. Will it Blend has had an amazing impact to our commercial and our retail products.”- Tom Dickson
• The video series earned an annual pay-out of about $15,000 from the Web video hosting service Revver
• As of June 21, 2009 the videos had collected a total of 83,238,033 views on YouTube

It just goes to show that you don’t need a ton of money to create buzz for your company’s products/services. Use your brain and create something unique and buzz-worthy and people will come to you. Pull viewers in by being remarkable.

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

I don't care how much you tweet, how much you blog, how much you faceplant, I mean Facebook...You've got to produce a product that leaves a mark, and it needs to be provactive, which is different than being offensive. Although, being provocative sometimes requires you to be offensive (have fun figuring this out).

 

(Drop Kick Ale is Absolutely Remarkable and it tastes great)

 

Nonetheless, our society conditions us to fall in line, do what is safe and color inside the lines. Furthermore, what many think is remarkable is really shades of gray. In his book, Linchpin Author Seth Godin writes about a scenario with a conductor, Roger Nierenberg. Roger asked the symphony orchestra conductor to play a piece of music as syncronized as possible. Then, he asked them to play the same song again and go to their own pace and enagage the music how they wanted to. As Seth went on to write, the two versions were very hard to tell apart except for by the highly trained ear. Because we are so conditioned to color inside the lines, few reach their full ability as sales and marketing professionals.

What is one thing you can do within your sales and marketing to be remarkable? Focus on fixing that before you hire a social media consultant, build a website or hire a sales person.

If you like this, please share it with a friend.

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

A business owner screams, "We need more sales!" A sales person cries out, "We need more leads!" A few short years ago, the small business owner would have been justified in saying good riddance and tossing that salesperson out on his or her rear end. But times have changed(enter inbound marketing and social media), and the business owner needs to hear this plea with an open mind and not brush it off as just a complaint from a whiny sales rep.

Pause, take a deep breath and ponder...

Is my sales person truly whiny or does your small business have a marketing problem? Is the money I'm spending on marketing producing leads for the people selling?

Ponder all you want but it is marketing's function to drive the consumer from awareness to a point of decision and the salesperson's job to get them to take action. Asking the salesperson to do this greatly increases the length of the sales cycle and leads to high turnover in sales organizations because humans just aren't wired for this.  Moreover, most sales organizations place this responsibility on the sales people exclusively.

If you admit you have a marketing problem, inbound marketing can help decrease the length of your sales cycle and maximize the ROI of your sales team. An investment in inbound marketing supports your sales process.

According to HubSpot's "2010 State of Inbound Marketing Report," the trends of 2009 have been reconfirmed. Inbound marketing decreases cost per lead by 60%. I would also contend having more sales ready leads has a major impact on the length of the sales cycle for a wide variety of reasons.

If salespeople are randomly calling on prospects (whether they are existing customers or not), they are still just throwing darts in a non linear space-time continuum hoping it lands on a star. But if they're only catching roughly 3 out of a 100 people who are looking to buy, the return on investment (ROI) for their time invested in prospecting sucks.

Over half of the respondents in the study claim they will increase their inbound marketing budget in 2010. As Seth Godin said, "by the time there is a case study in your specific industry, it's going to be way too late for you to catch up." Gary Vaynerchuk also has emphasized how fast business moves and why a wait-and-see approach is dangerous.

Wake up and start creating content and enable your small business to participate in the conversations happening throughout the Web. Business are acquiring new customers by spending a portion of their marketing budget for lead generation and not just brand awareness – although you get both of these by embracing inbound marketing.

Don't set up your salespeople for failure. It's your responsibility to keep current with market trends, not just within your industry, but in how actual marketing and selling is getting done these days.

 

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

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.

So...the day starts at the butt crack of dawn 3:45AM. The typical life of a small business owner. Trying to get billing done, invoice, study my craft and prep for a prospective new client meeting before 9AM.

I shower and cruise to Starbucks, but the address in my GPS led me to a warehouse where Starbucks apparently used to be. I happend to catch a glance of a Caribou Coffee out of the corner of my eye and head there as my back up. (What is sad is this use to be my first choice before they went public).

I plow through a few emails and decide to take a break to grab an oatmeal. I place my order for oatmeal and I get a "what type?"  I reply, "What do you mean what type?" The Barista looks at me with a blank stare...Good question, I know we have a lot of choices.  Aaargh!

While this young woman was very kind to cure my illiteracy and read my twelve choices off the menu, I was sadly reminded why my once favorite place is now last on my list behind Starbucks, Dunn Brothers and a local hole in the wall.  

So here is the lesson for small business owners in the context of my blog, Epoch.

Don't Follow, Lead. If you do follow, blow the competition out of the water!

Caribou has 500 stores and Starbucks has 9,000! Caribou Coffee is so much smaller and nimbler, it should have been the company to offer coffee in a packet you can take on the road. Or, being an outdoorsy coffee shop, their food selections should resemble those items that take you back to where the Caribou hang. For example, I would offer a breakfast sandwich called a Crystal Creek Sunrise Scramble, inspired by some customers trip they had camping at Crystal Creek in the Tetons. If you are going to follow, make sure you are clearly better than the competition. Note, more is not better. If I was running Caribou Coffee I would have hired someone to create an out of this world gourmet oatmeal, instead of the undercooked crap from a packet I'm eating right now. This would be more consistent with their attempt at "fresh baked" pastries in the store.  

One more non-coffee example: iPods were not the first to market, but they clearly were superior to any media player on the market when they hit.

Build a Community. Human beings buy stuff, not demographics.

I use to feel like the folks at Caribou Coffee were my buds. When I went into the Caribou this morning at 5:30AM, there was no one but me there. I did not get a greeting from the two people that saw me walk in.  

I will go one step further and say that if you go to the corporate Website, there are no invitations to follow them on Twitter, Facebook or the like.  Once again, this suff is free, and social media is the easiest way to stay dialed in on the market and your brand. 

I would totally leverage inbound marketing to keep a pulse and inspire my community to help shape my offerings.

Be Authentic and Avoid the Mushy Middle. Mediocre is a Horrible Aspiration!

Starbucks always has been a kind corporate, sleek refined more upscalish coffee shop. Whereas Caribou is a rough and tumble back country type of experience. However, you would never know this other than the little bits and pieces of Caribou and rustic stuff in their decor. Being a kayaker, backcountry camper Caribou used to be the place where I could go to escape with my buds. Now they are a toned down chain trying to appeal to the masses and not doing very well, based on their financial performance.

To summarize, authenticity, the ability to innovate on a dime and create an intimate community is the biggest game changer small business owners and CEOs have.  I'm certain if Caribou would embrace these truths they would post stronger financial earnings and they would again become my first choice.

 

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

This blog post will most likely end up being a spirited, impulsive rant  aimed at firing up small business owners.  So, I apologize in advance if the read is rocky.

 Last night, I had the privilege of attending the inaugural event for the India Chamber of Commerce.  If you want to see impressive ambition, keep tabs on this group.  They put there money where their mouth is and I was blown away by their passion, respect for others and quiet pride.  Also in attendance was Governor Tim Pawlenty and the First Lady. 

 So, the event kicked off with three slides being projected on two large screens.  Each slide was a photo from the rear of a man and a woman in India on motorcycles.  The men all had helmets on and the women did not.  We were then asked, "what do you see"?   After some jokes, the presenter said he saw a business opportunity to make helmets for women in India.

Last night inspired the following notions for me:

1.) Business is moving 10 times faster than it has ever moved.  This is important to remember because this is good for small, nimble companies and we should be using this to our advantage.  Conversely, it is mission critical that entrepreneurs keep up with the times.  

2.) Customer understanding is not the same as understanding consumer surveys. I think it was Henry Ford that reflected back and wondered what the survey results would have been in regard if he has asked the questions about how citizens of the time would have wanted to improve transportation. His speculation was they would have asked for faster horses and buggies.  Surveys are not enough, understanding the customer, better than they understand themselves is your mission.  Know what your customers are not saying is more importnat than what they are saying.

3.) Your best customers might not be in the United States and you don't need a huge ad budget to reach them. Many wonder if the the whole internet thing and social media is a fad, and they couldn't be further from the truth.  Your next best English speaking client might only be a mouse click away in India.

I will close out this post with, change is happening all around us the small business owners.  This is an unprecedented time for those in sales and marketing the services for small business.  You must keep the 3 marketing concepts at the top of your mind if you want you business to thrive.

 

 

Focus To Grow is a marketing strategy and sales execution consulting firm that works exclusively with small companies to accelerate sales growth.  Learn more at www.focustogrow.com.

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

 

The scene is coach Herb Brooks talking about what it will take the Russians at the olympics. As a marketing strategy and sales execution guy for small business, I think we have much to learn from Herb.  

 It is my hope all entrepreneurs and small business owners walk away with these lessons from the video clip:

• The best sales professionals in the world work best when they have a sound marketing approach and sales structure they operate within. Organizations put too much on the individual and overlook the critical management structure that needs to be in place for individual sales professionals to win.

• It may be necessary to change the way you market your services to generate leads. You may also need to make drastic changes to your sales approach. These changes may require you to train harder, move faster, be more creative and leverage the team.
• You need to have a plan and work the plan.
• Be willing to change.
  
• Don't depend too much on one individual person's talent.
• Have a lofty goal to work towards.

Entrepreneurs and business owners that keep these principles will find executing their sales approach to be more effective.

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

I've Always been a fighter. Having spent a lifetime overcoming obstacles, I've never allowed circumstance to determine success personally or in small business sales and marketing consulting. So, to frineds and entreprenuers around me,  it was no surprise that in 2005, I used a long surgery recovery to research strategies on how he could help small businesses and enntrepreneurs increase sales. From that new insight, as well as five years of medical sales experience, I developed a small business sales and marketing management consulting company, Top Line Growth, LLC. It turns out this tough economy,  sales and marketing help is exactly what small businesses and entrepreneurs need.

Top Line Growth utilizes a systematic turn-key approach to align and and get the most  a small businesses systems, people and strategies. Another way we help companies grow in a recession, we partner with best-in-class providers of high power sales and marketing tools. Top Line Growth tailors these tools to fit the specific requirements of small businesses and and entrepreneurs.  For small businesses that lack focus or have stagnant growht,Top Line Growth can help you find your focal point and give he tools and insight necessary to increase sales.

Through Top Line Growth and the Sky Center, I am challenging small businesses to focus on two things, focus and growth.

 

If you are serious about a no-nonsense, “shot-in-the-arm” approach we can help you take small businesses or start up ideas from stagnant to successful. To learn more, contact Teicko at 888.834.3060 or teicko@focus2grow.com. Individuals, looking for new sales and marketing tactics, can find Top Line Growth Courses at http://www.focus2grow.com under the extras/news tab.

About Top Line Growth – Top Line Growth is a minority-owned business specializing in re-thinking and re-engineering sales and marketing operations of emerging and visionary companies. Beginning in 2005, Top Line Growth was started by Teicko Huber, Principal, Keynote Speaker and Innovation GamesTM Facilitator.

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