January 22, 2011

What Time of Day Is Best for Thinking of Ideas?

One of the first lessons I learned in college was to learn what times of day you are personally most productive. It takes some time and discipline, to monitor one's own efficiency, but in the end, I do not believe there is ONE time of day that is best for everyone, I believe it is up to YOU to decide.
Unfortunately, professionally speaking, we often don't have the luxury to CHOOSE what time of day we want to brainstorm. As a marketer, I find "mind mapping" an extremely effective exercise to spark creativity.
Mind Mapping is a technique used to enhance thinking processes. Whether while taking notes during class, brainstorming a process or creatively collaborating on a project, it allows the user to record raw facts and pieces of information that fit together but that might not be noticed otherwise.
  • Starting a Mind Map is easy. Simply write the name of the subject you are interested in the center of a blank piece of paper and draw a circle around it. All further levels will work from this starting point.
  • Important facts or questions make up the second level. These are connected directly to the center point. For example, if using “Tell a Story” as the central idea, the second level could be the standard “Who, What , Where, When, How” questions.
  • Delve deeper for more information. From this second level, all additional levels are connected. For example, under the “Who” heading, there could be sub-levels of “Who are the characters” and “Who is the audience.” Additional levels and ideas are placed on the Mind Map making sure they connect somewhere to the diagram. Using colors coded to the levels you are working on can also assist with the visual information. If one part of your map connects to another, link them.

To get more information on Mind Mapping, there is a video on YouTube of Tony Buzan explaining the concept.

January 12, 2011

RIP Cold Calling
Survived by Social Networking

Cold calling has been served notice, a new era beckons and with it an altogether different way of working. Social networking has arrived and will soon replace cold calling as the predominant method of prospecting in business.

I know many people will think that there is no replacement for activity, specifically picking up the phone. Yet, no matter how intelligent you are about cold calling, it is what it is – speculative, scatter gun selling, not to mention costly and increasingly ineffective.

Consider the following data I found online...
In a test which spent an equal amount of time cold calling and using social media (9 AM - 5:30 PM; M - F).

Cold Calling Results

  • Outbound calls made 325
  • Meaningful conversations (pitches) and brand touches 80
  • Meetings made 4
  • Sales made (as a direct result of cold calling) 0
These are average conversion ratios for time spent but it comes with much overhead.

Social Media Results
  • Inbound calls generated 8
  • Meetings as result of inbound calls 3
  • Sales as a result of inbound calls 2
  • Brand touches (from site statistics unique views of content) 422
  • Visitors to sales associate's blog Subscribers (RSS) to sales associate's content 27
  • People following sales associate's Twitter 12
  • New contacts 71 (on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeCanDo.BIZ, etc)
  • Listeners to sales associate's Podcast 83
  • Opportunities to sell found 21
  • Online conversations had 39
  • Warm call list (names generated expecting a call) 11
The cost of the social networking blitz to find new business opportunities, other than time and internet connection are small, if anything at all. Most importantly 2 sales were closed, covering any cost associated with the activity and generating a very healthy return.

The central question, however, is do modern-day sales people have the level of skill required to conduct a social media campaign individually? The simple answer is no. Not all salespeople will have the necessary skills, but having a skills gap is nothing new on the sales floor otherwise we wouldn’t have the multi-million pound training industry!

Can the skills be taught quickly and cost effectively? Yes. I have always taught people that sales is a process: follow steps one through five to achieve your aims. Social media networking can be processed as well, giving salespeople clear guidelines on the ‘how to’ and ‘how not to’. We spend millions every year teaching salespeople to cold call better, use the latest CRM (customer relationship management) system, be better team players and so on; and so it must come to pass that companies will need to train all staff to be ‘social media savvy’ as it extends far beyond just sales – marketing and service need to be in on the picture as well.

Naysayers?... Agreed, updating your Facebook page with pictures of the weekend, playing silly games, nudging or poking other people is not the best use of your company’s time. But creating engaging, thought-provoking, discussion-opening content, centred around your products or services is.

Social media networking will reduce dependence on cold calling. I am not saying it will eradicate the need for the telephone – that perhaps is to bold an idea. But I am certain it will become the first step in prospecting for new business.

What kind of results are you seeing when you pin Cold Calling vs. Social Networking?



By Jennifer Pricci