Remember when the end of the year was a s-l-o-w time for the staffing and professional services industry? No? Good for you. That means you have been making the very most of end-of-year transitions to finish well and prepare for a new year of opportunities. As you begin that effort, your friends at ClearEdge Marketing have a few end-of-year tips to help you prime your 2010 marketing and sales game.

Five Pre-2010 Marketing Musts

1. Clean Your Prospect List. From Jill Ruiz, ClearEdge Senior Project Manager.
A good or mediocre prospect list is a weakness for any business today. Strengthen your database by ensuring it is a vetted and targeted list of prospective clients that are well worth marketing to. The time you save your sales staff on pursuing poor leads is extremely valuable. The money you save by ensuring marketing programs aren’t pushed out to the wrong contacts is precious. And the more time you focus on strong, qualified leads, the greater your chances are of winning new business. Here are three ways to ensure your prospect list remains lean and effective throughout 2010:

• Purge and update. Get rid of all outdated, inaccurate addresses. Involve your sales team in the clean-up and make it an ongoing effort that is part of your sales process throughout the year.

• Build it out. Grow your list by adding qualified leads from conferences you’ve attended, events you’ve hosted and other networking events and opportunities. Rented lists can also be a good way to enhance your current prospect list.

• Maintain, maintain, maintain. Schedule list clean-up days consistently and in advance to ensure useless addresses are weeded out. Once you’ve implemented multiple list-building tactics, regularly evaluate those investments and their return to determine whether eliminations are required.

2. Leverage Social Media. From Lia Pinto, ClearEdge Social Media Coordinator.
According to Forrester Research, 73% of Internet users worldwide have at least one social media account. Your clients, your candidates and the people you want as clients and candidates are networking, learning and socializing through social media channels in greater numbers. 2010 is not the year to fall behind in the continuous communication evolution. What do you do to keep pace with the social media movement?

• Appoint a person or build a social networking committee. Once you’ve decided to build a social media presence, hold someone accountable. Start with those in your organization who are already familiar with and frequenting social media sites. Identify internal team members who can help contribute content, keep up with networks on a regular basis and watch for information being shared about your business and industry across social networks. And remember-by listening to your clients and peers you will learn how to engage/relate with them.

• Set reasonable, strategic goals. Start slowly and strategically by defining your audience and determining which social media tools and sites your business can leverage with ongoing success. Create a presence on networks where your audience “hangs out.” For example: Are they reading blogs? Do they keep up with Twitter? Do they share content on Digg? Are they viewing videos on YouTube? Are they on Facebook or LinkedIn? ROI for social media should also be different; it depends on what type of interaction you’re looking for and can be different with each organization, industry or social network. Additionally, ROI should not just be monetary, it should be measured “socially” as well.

• Be realistic. When it comes to social media, don’t spread your business too thin. It’s better to become the master of one or two social media sites than to sporadically and half-heartedly post content in five or six places and hope for results. Besides being realistic, also be transparent. Organizations present in social networks need to be truthful and attentive by responding to questions and comments and learning from suggestions and criticism.

3. Review Sales Processes for 2010. From Kathy Dooley, ClearEdge Marketing Director.
Forward-thinking organizations are preparing for the upswing of the market by optimizing their sales processes. Here’s what you can do:

• Examine sales capabilities. Are your sales team and selling approach aligned with how customers buy? Does your staff have the knowledge and tools needed to differentiate you from the competition? Look for gaps in skills and knowledge and find ways to rectify talent and knowledge issues. The beginning of the year is a crucial sales period and you need to have the best team, right from the start.

• Bring process discipline to your sales organization. If the sales process is not clearly mapped out for sales teams, define and map it now. It’s critical to competitive survival today to have a high-performing sales team that management can monitor and support. Without defined sales processes, it’s almost impossible to know how effectively teams are networking and selling.

4. Polish Your Web Site. From Krzysztof Pabian, ClearEdge Creative Director-Multimedia.
To make certain your number one marketing tool is inviting and can deliver bottom-line business results, you don’t need to break the bank. The following small investments in your Web site are worth every penny because they drive traffic and help bring business to you:

• Check the content. A careful sweep will ensure that your business’ messages are strong, clear, appealing and up-to-date. When’s the last time you posted a press release or event? Have you integrated your social media presence into your site? When kept current, your Web site shows visitors what a relevant and credible force your business is. A simple test: What year is your copyright line? We actually see sites with 2006!

• Check your design. Does your site load quickly? Look good on any browser (don’t forget to test Safari and mobile applications!)? If not, visitors could be leaving as soon as they see it. Now’s the time to ensure your site design echoes your brand and company character, and doesn’t get in the way of the site’s functionality.

• Put yourself at the top of the list. Search engine optimization (SEO) will help you achieve strong Internet accessibility. If you haven’t invested in SEO, now is the time. It means the difference between showing up on page one of a Google search, and showing up on page four. Quick fixes: Add title tags to every page and be sure to include meta tag descriptions! Oh, and is your URL registered on sites such as Google and Bing?

5. Get “Creative.” From Jessica Castaneda, ClearEdge Marketing Director.
In our daily dealings with professional services and staffing firms, the ClearEdge team often hears clients say “Once we’re in front of clients, we always win the business. The tricky part is getting in front of them.” What are some of the best ideas for getting in front of prospects for the New Year?

• Use the power and accessibility of the Web. Webinars are an increasingly popular means of sharing expertise and thought leadership in a non-salesy, easily accessible manner. Prospects that may not be open to face-to-face meetings, may be willing to listen in on an informative Webinar as they eat their lunch. As long as the material is relevant and timely and you market your event appropriately, you are sure to gain the audience you seek. For additional credibility, consider teaming up with an association that caters to your target market. Associations are always on the lookout for educational content for their constituency. They may be willing to co-host such events and market them to their membership.

• Form networking groups. Unlike social media sites, networking groups enable you to build long-term relationships with clients and prospects using face-to-face interactions. Building an intimate networking group that enables peers-such as CIOs or CEOs-to share ideas, best practices and lessons learned will position you as an industry insider and trusted partner.

• Prepare to launch a Target Account Program (TAP). A TAP allows your business to rapidly increase awareness and create new business opportunities by honing in on a targeted group of well-researched prospective clients. Properly implemented, a TAP will enable you to increase sales activity and-most importantly-set new appointments!

“Out with the old and in with the new.” You often hear this as the New Year approaches. At ClearEdge Marketing, we say “In with the programs and processes that work,”-be they new best practices or old ones-and out with those that haven’t shown a proper return! The real key to success is taking time to prepare your marketing and sales strategy, and that time is now. Welcome to 2010, the prelude. Be sure and make the most of it.

Leslie Vickrey
President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing

Many an IT services company has felt flummoxed by social media and how to take advantage of its diverse capabilities. After watching B2C businesses convert social media marketing efforts into wild successes-think about the forums and blogs dedicated to tech gadgets you love, cars you want and the music you listen to-B2B businesses have been working to generate the same level of marketplace engagement and fan frenzy.

On November 10, ClearEdge Marketing was delighted to host a Webinar on social media and its marketing applications to an audience of TechServe Alliance members. From business owners and presidents to sales, recruiting and marketing professionals, attendees were there to learn how their businesses can use social media to engage clients, prospects and candidates. As presenter, I was challenged to make the content useful to social media neophytes and enthusiasts alike.

Well I like a challenge, and I think the Webinar we came up with did a good job of explaining the fundamental value of social media to businesses today and how to put the tools to work. For ClearEdge (we are a B2B company too), social media has become a way to continuously underscore and share the knowledge, value and hard work of our team through Facebook/LinkedIn postings, tweets and blog entries (that’s right, you’re in our social media Web right now). Our whole staff is out there interacting in the marketplace, and that is expanding our reach and the market’s understanding of our skills, experience, resources and expertise.

For IT services and staffing firms, social media offers numerous ways to do the very same-share knowledge, engage with clients, prospects and candidates and build a captive, vocal base of fans. And while it’s easy to see why Apple, Applebee’s and even Fiona Apple have fans and followers, several industry professionals have asked me what the value of a fan base is for an IT services firm. I encourage clients to see a fan base as a way of momentarily giving your company Star Trek-like capabilities to beam valuable and welcome knowledge directly into someone’s world. Do it well, and those fans will leverage the insights you’ve provided, share them with an even wider audience and praise your brand across their expanding networks.

To learn more about the core value of social media marketing, current trends and successful approaches, I invite you to review my full Webinar presentation online here as well as the transcripts of our event Q&A session, which can be found below. I also encourage you to see the results of the polls we conducted during the Webinar of IT service industry attendees, which you can find on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. I think you will find it interesting to see how your peers are feeling about and using the tools today.

With social media, there is always more to learn, so I encourage you to share your insights and perspective by comment or tweet. We are big “fans” of learning, engagement and lively debate at ClearEdge Marketing.

Social Media Webinar Q&A

If I have multiple social media accounts (i.e. LinkedIn and Facebook), should I list all of them in my e-mail signature or focus on only one?

• a. You should include all icons in the signature and hyperlink to profiles. See the screenshot below for an example of how to do it without clutter. 

Does it take a specialist to build social media pages and profiles?

• a. Not at all. Setting up a profile on LinkedIn and Twitter or a Page or Group on Facebook is easy work. Our Webinar presentation (posted here) includes some tips and best practices you can follow as you do it. In addition, each site provides a step-by-step wizard that makes building profiles and pages quite simple. However, if you don’t have the staff and bandwidth or want to create more elaborate profiles with custom graphics and coding, outsourcing is certainly an option.

What is the difference between a ‘friend’ and ‘fan’ on Facebook?

• a. A friend is someone within your personal profile while a fan is for company (or organization) pages.

Is Twitter effective for posting job openings only or should we add other content?

• a. We suggest tweeting a mix of both job openings and content relevant to your Twitter followers. Try not to tweet about ‘what are you doing,’ but rather what great content or information ‘has your attention.’ For example, tweet about industry information/insights/stats that you stumble upon throughout your day or events that may be of interest to your audience. Request feedback about industry news and information you post. And when tweeting a link (or URL), always send a question or explain what your link refers to.

If you have multiple offices, is it better to have one corporate Facebook profile or separate corporate and office pages?

• a. I think having one corporate Facebook Page (or profile) that is central to your organization is important. This is where you can concentrate company-wide information, press releases, events, photos, videos, etc. And if you want a place to share local information relevant to only a particular office, you can create Groups for offices and list them on the main corporate Facebook page. A good example can be seen on Spherion’s Facebook page. They have a main corporate Page and created Groups for several of their local offices, including them in a separate tab on their corporate Page (see screenshots below). This provides the best of both worlds and centralizes it in one place as well.

 How do you find enough content to share with your audience?

• a. Besides your company’s news (press releases, events, photos, videos), you can also keep your audience informed of industry news, statistics, conferences and events. Good, useful information is what keeps your fans and followers engaged and paying attention.

You can keep yourself up-to-date with industry news by subscribing to blogs, using RSS feeds and visiting industry publications online. You can then share links and insights to your fan base and followers as long as you are always attributing the content to its original source. When you share third-party content you must always follow Fair Use and Copyright laws and you need to clearly identify the source of your information as you see in the Twitter feed example below. 

Leslie Vickrey
President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing

Be purposeful, be daring, be creative, be likable and have fun. If that doesn’t sound like the droning recession and recovery advice you’re hearing on the cable news stations, I’m not surprised.

These are just a few of the many lessons I gathered at the 2009 TechServe Alliance Conference & Tradeshow in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. Since the event, my head has been brimming with bright and bold ideas I took in as an attendee and as a speaker on IT services marketing. I want to share some of what I learned at the Conference with the hopes that these lessons inspire new thinking and clever 2010 strategies for your organization.

Do They Like You? It’s a Question Worth Asking.
In business, being liked is not a question of feeding egos; it’s a matter of closing deals. Ken Schmidt, branding guru for Harley-Davidson, shared this insight in his keynote address, which explained how people buy from people (brands and businesses) they like. No matter how clever an ad campaign is or how ambitious the sales person, a prospect will not buy from a company if they don’t actually like you and want to work with your organization. So how do you get prospects to want to work with you? Here was Ken Schmidt’s seasoned advice:

• Don’t rely on subtle cues. Be clear and consistent in your messages and goals. Don’t be afraid to ask bold questions like, “What do we need to do to get you to try our services?” And remember, the meeting is a much bigger deal to you, than it is the client.

• Be clearly, noticeably, purposefully different. It doesn’t matter how any other company does it. Only worry about conducting business the way you know how, with clients and prospects’ needs at the top of your mind. Let them know you value what they say. If they want to see X happen, tell them you’ll take their idea back to headquarters. Making them feel important and valued will help build and strengthen your relationship.

• Do something they won’t expect. Here’s an example: On your way to your next sales meeting, call the client 15 minutes in advance and say, “I thought about stopping at Starbucks on my way to our meeting, would you like me to bring you anything?” It’s different. It’s something they won’t expect. It will make them feel like you did something special for them. If they say no, you don’t stop. But at least you asked.

• Listen and understand. You MUST understand your clients and prospects’ needs, even if those current needs do not include you. If a client or prospect says they don’t need your services at this time, respect that. Send a note with an article you think they would find interesting, and let them know you look forward to having them as a customer-but until then, you hope they’re well. It’s polite and courteous. And who doesn’t like that? Just remember to stay in touch with them from time to time until they are ready to become a customer, and try to give them reasons why they should be.

Be Focused, Firm and Fun
Keynote speaker Cynthia Pasky, who is the founder, president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions (S3), shared her firm belief in how client relationships built on trust are the ones that last. Pointing to S3’s rigorous, unswerving focus on specific industries, she explained how that strong focus on building rock solid relationships across those industries has allowed S3 to enter its 20th consecutive year of growth and profitability. Pasky offered the following ideas for how IT services organizations could replicate their success:

• Define the market-don’t let it define you. Understand what you want the market to be. And know what you want your business to be in terms of clients, size, industry and what type of GM%. Be clear from the bottom up, and stick to it-even if it means you have to walk away from business.

• Don’t overlook account penetration. Ask yourself what else you can sell to existing clients. Is there market share to be had? Do you see competitors when you walk the clients’ halls? If so, there’s share to be had.

• Keep cold calling. Cindy still does it and believes it should be part of every sales rep’s approach.

• Be creative and have fun. If you don’t have a badge that allows you to get into your clients’ halls, sneak in behind someone who does. You haven’t done your job if you haven’t been thrown out of your customers’ offices a few times. While this approach isn’t for everyone, being bold in the right cases can help set you apart and show you’ll do anything to win the business and service the client. Do everything you can to be selling and take good care of your team as you do it. Have fun. Enjoy what you’re doing.

Make Your Message Your Own
I was privileged to lead two marketing discussions energized by enthusiastic participants who are eager to differentiate their marketplace messages and become more effective sales and marketing professionals. One of the primary keys to increasing sales and marketing effectiveness is better collaboration between these two groups.

A poor sales-marketing partnership means longer sales cycles, increased cost of sales, missed opportunities and the risk of looking incompetent to clients and potential customers. A strong sales-marketing partnership equals a rich, qualified pipeline of prospects that feeds a successful, strong sales cycle. Here are a handful of the winning strategies ClearEdge shared with Conference attendees for improving sales and marketing relationships and performance.

• Alignment to the sales cycle. Marketing teams need to design tools that effectively support their sales teams at every juncture of the sales process.

• Targeted account lists. Every sales professional/account executive should be working off of a short, targeted account/prospect list. By building separate, vetted targeted account lists, a business maximizes its sales efforts. Account execs will no longer end up calling into the same account or accidentally calling an existing client.

• Role reversals. Neither sales nor marketing should work in a vacuum. Send marketing out with sales to meet customers and see their environments, learn customer and prospect challenges first hand, see hard jobs like cold calling and presentations first hand, and understand the responsibilities, stress, routine and tools of sales professionals. Send sales over to marketing to learn how programs are developed, the science behind marketing, the people behind the work and the work behind the work.

• Metrics and measurement. To know the effectiveness of a marketing tool or program, you must measure new revenue and clients by program and campaign, the number of lead generations that can be tied to a specific marketing program or tool, as well as how clients and prospects responded to each program or tool. Successful measurement requires a simple reporting system for sales (e.g. CRM, Excel, or an online tool like Salesforce.com), as well as open and honest communications between sales and marketing.

• Centralized tools and information. Easy access to critical information-for both marketing and sales-will ensure a continued symbiotic relationship between the two departments. Marketing should ensure that up-to-date items like collateral, program results and success stories, as well as tool and program training resources are available to the sales team in a central, easy-to-find location. Sales should make information on program progress, program results and in some cases, prospect lists, readily available to marketing teams.

We’ll here’s hoping you still like me and ClearEdge despite the length of this blog. As you ponder my likeability, please remember I have only covered three sessions from a Conference that was packed with more than 30 lesson-rich sessions. Of course, I might share more next month so be sure and tell me what you’d like to hear more (or less) about and I will gladly oblige.

Leslie Vickrey
Founder & President
ClearEdge Marketing

If slow sales are keeping you up at night, it’s time to re-think your process.

As the economy slowly begins to turn around, companies are gearing up for growth. Forward-thinking organizations have prepared by instituting client-focused sales processes that integrate best practices and real-time Web 2.0 technologies to accelerate new sales. Has your company done the same?

The migration from a traditional, seller-focused sales approach to a more client-centric, consultative process is nothing new. What’s missing for many organizations is a disciplined, measurable and consistent sales process that leverages best practices and social media to drive results.

Reality check: Is your process truly a process?
As I work with clients across the nation, I am repeatedly surprised by the number of companies—both small and large—that lack a defined and documented sales process. Although many clients claim to have a process in place, it often consists of procedure sheets and flow charts, or is completely outdated. The lack of a systematic, measurable and well-managed sales process results in disparate methodologies, inconsistent messaging and unpredictable performance across the company. It’s a costly, slow and ineffective way to develop business.

On the other hand, a systematic sales process streamlines, enhances and standardizes business development activities that drive revenue growth. It is aligned with the client’s buying cycle, focuses on the client’s needs and goals, and integrates best practices, technology and tools throughout. Most importantly, a well-crafted process arms your sales team with the knowledge, resources and leading-edge practices needed to capture and grow sales.

Process optimization takes time, discipline and management commitment
Implementing a new or revamped sales process doesn’t happen overnight. It requires thoughtful planning, collaboration and analysis. It begins with an examination of current selling capabilities:

• Is your selling approach aligned with how your customers buy?
• Does your sales team have the knowledge and tools to prove your unique value to the customer and clearly differentiate you from the competition?
• What are the best practices within each sales team?
• Do you have baseline metrics (e.g. average sales cycle duration) that allow you to gauge the effectiveness of the process?

Once you’ve done your homework, the real work begins. The best approach for bringing process discipline to your sales organization is to:

• Determine if you develop the process internally, purchase and customize an off-the-shelf sales process, or develop your own with the assistance of a sales process expert
• Identify an executive sponsor to support and drive the efforts to affect companywide change
• Create a cross-company advisory team to provide input and ensure process validity
• Build buy-in from the entire sales team by eliciting best practices, tools and techniques
• Conduct a comprehensive, objective assessment of how your customers buy so that your process aligns with the way they prefer to be sold to
• Incorporate Web 2.0 tools to simplify research, lead generation and relationship building
• Establish measurements and key performance indicators to determine what’s working
• Routinely evaluate the process and make adjustments so it stays relevant

Integration of Web 2.0 tools and techniques is a must
Gone are the days when cold calling and pounding the pavement were the sales tools of choice. Today’s savvy buyers have raised the bar. They have no desire to speak with you unless you’re able to see the business through their eyes and understand what is important to them. So how do you gain that knowledge?

Strategic sales organizations are using market intelligence and leveraging personal and professional networks to replace high-volume prospecting activities with high-value prospecting activities. They’ve done this by integrating a variety of Web 2.0 tools and techniques—InsideView, Google Alerts, RSS Feeds, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Spoke, Jigsaw and netprospects, to name a few—into their sales processes. These tools enable them to:

• Narrow their prospects to high potential clients that meet their demographics
• Determine the right person at the right level to contact
• Gain market intelligence that helps pre-qualify prospects and conduct sales calls that speak directly to the customer’s challenges or goals
• Leverage personal connections to turn cold calls into warm calls
• Identify compelling events that trigger business opportunities

You can’t manage what you don’t measure
The biggest challenge with adopting a new sales process is getting everyone to follow it. Sales management must continuously reinforce the process, hold salespeople accountable, and monitor and measure performance against benchmarks to ensure the process is working.
In order to provide this oversight, there must be an automated means for capturing, managing and sharing vital customer information. 

On-boarding: The oft-overlooked step
Another mistake I’ve seen clients repeatedly make is not integrating the new sales process into their sales onboarding process. Reviewing the sales process and practicing critical sales skills with new employees not only accelerates their assimilation into the organization — it jump starts their success.

A high-value endeavor
At its core, sales process optimization is about developing and institutionalizing a methodology that aligns sales strategies with company business objectives and customer needs. When this process is managed, monitored and continuously improved, your organization will reap measurable results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs and sustained competitive advantage.

So tell me, what is your company doing to optimize its sales process? Do you have any best practices worth sharing?

Kathy Dooley
Marketing Director
ClearEdge Marketing

You’ve followed part one of this blog and spent the time and allocated the resources to conduct an internal audit of your database. You’ve evaluated and implemented the multiple tactics in part two of this blog to grow your prospect list. Now what? The last, and arguably most important step to an effective prospect list is to maintain, maintain, maintain!

Step 3: Maintain, maintain, maintain!

Regular maintenance of your list cannot be stressed enough. This ensures your database is always fresh and accurate and steadily growing. There are two critical steps to maintaining your list:

1. Regularly scheduled clean-up—As I stated in part one of this blog, regularly scheduled list clean-up should become a part of your sales process. Develop internal processes that work for you, such as an annual sales team “spring cleaning” day, and bi-annual “update your profile” e-mails. Document the process that fits so you can use it going forward. Schedule the next list clean-up day(s) and “update your profile” e-mails ahead of time to ensure they do not fall through the cracks.

2. Tactical Evaluation—Once you’ve implemented multiple list building tactics, they need to be evaluated in order to determine any that are ineffective. Do this at least bi-annually and annually. You can schedule the tactical evaluation to coincide with your clean-up day(s) and “update your profile” e-mail blasts. Evaluate the investment and return (quality prospects added to your list) to determine if any tactics need to be eliminated and dollars need to be reallocated. Use the first evaluation as a benchmark going forward. Again, document these processes and schedule the evaluation days ahead of time.

The key is to develop and document processes that work for your company. Make it a part of your culture. It will take some time and effort, but with an accurate database, you will see higher ROI and business growth. 

Do you have additional information for people looking to implement a list development strategy? What best practices work for your company when cleaning, building and maintaining your list?

Jill Ruiz
Senior Project Manager
ClearEdge Marketing

In part one of this blog, I discussed how to conduct an internal audit and clean the list you already have by engaging your sales team in “spring cleaning” and sending “update your profile” e-mails. Once that process is in place, you are ready to find new prospects for your list. 

Step 2: Find new prospects—build your list!
The key to building a solid, accurate list is by utilizing a multi-channel approach to diversify your list growth tactics and reach as many prospects as possible. The most frequently used tactics, which I will explain in detail below include, but are not limited to, online registration, gathering qualified leads at conferences/events, referrals and co-registration, research firms and purchasing/renting. Choose at least three tactics to implement.

Conferences and other events
Conferences and tradeshows are favored ways for companies to grow their prospect lists, since you are able to interact with and evaluate prospects who express interest in your services. This is an effective way to zero in on your target, but make sure the sales team follows up with all prospects in a timely manner via a phone call. If they aren’t able to follow up by phone, as a back-up only, send an e-mail thanking the prospect and offer an incentive for them to register on your Web site.

Don’t stop at conferences. Participating in local events and associations, networking lunches, sponsoring Webinars, even online discussion forums and newsgroups—almost anything can (and should) become a list-building opportunity.  

Use your Web site—online registration
Developing an online registration (opt-in) form is perhaps the easiest, most cost-effective way to build a prospect list. Make sure all of your marketing efforts direct prospects to this online form, including your advertising, direct mail campaigns, e-mail signatures and social media efforts (including your corporate Facebook page, LinkedIn accounts and Twitter tweets).

The most effective registration forms collect only the necessary information. This form should not take the place of an introduction sales call. It’s an opportunity to gather the critical contact information for your sales team to follow up and start the sales process. The best way to get prospects is to give an incentive to register with your company. Offer relevant thought leadership pieces such as industry surveys, business articles, newsletter case studies or even conference and event notifications. Remember, a lot of people get annoyed when requested to register—so, be sure to make the content they are registering for of relevance and value.

Referrals and co-registration
Referrals are a useful and easy way to gather prospects. It’s simple to add ‘Refer a Friend’ links to eNewsletters or a call-out to a direct mail campaign, but make sure you offer an incentive that is relevant and will attract your target.

You can also team with companies or organizations to offer co-registration. Co-registration is when one company, on its own opt-in form, offers their subscribers an option to opt-in to another company. For example, you subscribe to an eNewsletter on a Webpage, and in the process, you are invited to subscribe to one or several other eNewsletters of the same general interest. You and your partners jointly grow each other’s lists. Look for sites similar to your own by searching for them in search engines and directories. If they have an eNewsletter similar to your own that doesn’t necessarily compete, opt-in to see what types of communications they send. If you find the information will be of interest to your target, the company is a good candidate. If they don’t have an eNewsletter, you may be able to arrange a deal where they would offer free subscriptions to your eNewsletter from their site in exchange for a link from your site to theirs. Just be aware that co-registration requires close monitoring, to ensure poor performing sources are identified and removed. 

To rent, or not to rent? Using outside list rental and research firms
Buyer beware! In my experience, companies who rely too heavily on rented or purchased lists are often disappointed in the results as well as the cost. There are also subscription-based companies, but those can be costly as well. Used (smartly) as just one part of a larger overall list development strategy, rented or purchased lists can enhance your internal prospect list even further.

Using companies like Hoovers and Harte-Hanks or subscription-based companies like ZoomInfo can sometimes be ineffective if your prospect list is highly targeted (typically, the more criteria you have for your target, the smaller the list will be); which is often the case in selling a niche service versus something broader. However, it doesn’t hurt to look into it. Just make sure to ask critical questions such as how they update their information (opt-in, members update, phone calls, outside databases/partnership, etc.)? How frequently that information is updated? What are their opt-in permission levels? What information is included in the list name, company, address, phone, e-mail (e-mails are usually an additional charge)? How frequently do you get to use the list (is it one-time purchase or multiple uses)? What is their policy for returned addresses (in other words, if x% are bad contacts, how many will they replace)? Finally, ask for a sample name or two from a company where you know the contacts you are requesting. This tactic will help with a quick “spot” check on quality.

On a separate note, if you are using e-mail as part of an online campaign, most list companies will send the communication for you, and will not reveal the address unless the prospect opens or replies to your e-mail. Therefore, it is important to inquire about the list companies’ process and reporting. A good practice would be to sign up to the list firm’s eNewsletter to see firsthand what kind of information they send, how frequently and what kind of contact information they are looking for. 

Some list companies will also offer a telemarketing service as a follow-up to your communications. If your sales team does not have the capacity to follow up with every prospect after a communication has gone out, outsourcing the telemarketing service may be worth the extra cost.

Another, often more effective tactic is renting lists from associations or trade publications in your industry. You have a greater chance of reaching your specific target audience through these vehicles. Do your research to determine which associations and trade publications you should approach by downloading or requesting a media kit and find out if they offer list rental services. More often than not, they do!

What is your advice or personal experiences with building your company’s list? Do you have tactics that work? What do you think other people should know about before buying a list?

In part 3 of It’s All About the List: List Development Strategies That Enhance Your Marketing Campaign, I will discuss the importance of and how to maintain your list. Please click here to continue to part 3 of this blog.

Jill Ruiz
Senior Project Manager
ClearEdge Marketing

To maximize ROI and grow your business effectively, you need to have a solid, accurate database. Having a solid prospect list is the backbone of any company’s sales strategy and a critical component to continually achieve desired ROI in your marketing campaigns, Keep-in-Touch (KIT) Programs or Target Account Programs (TAP).  Take the time to build and maintain your database. If you don’t, you are simply wasting time and money.

In the first of a three-part blog, I will address steps you can take to achieve the most effective prospect list:

Step 1: Conduct an internal audit—clean your current list!
Step 2: Find new prospects—build your list!
Step 3: Maintain, maintain, maintain!

Step 1: Conduct an internal audit—clean your current list!
Most companies have a prospect list already. But so many people move jobs within a given year that, lists become outdated, inaccurate and are therefore fairly useless. The very first step in developing a solid, effective prospect list is to clean up the one you already have (and if the list you have is a stack of business cards sitting on each sales person’s desk or in their LinkedIn networks, start building and documenting your list now, now, now!). It’s important to regularly validate the information in your prospect list—after all it’s the lifeblood of your sales efforts (which is why it is so surprising how many companies don’t invest in nurturing and building it!).

With that said, your sales team should be involved in and accountable for the quality of this list (although marketing and inside sales can support with research as appropriate, it’s the sales team who owns the relationship). An effective way to engage your sales team in an internal audit is to dedicate a day (or two) of your team’s time to call and e-mail everyone in their database. Turn this into a “spring cleaning” activity with incentives such as catered lunch, casual dress and/or a contest to see who can update their lists the fastest and most accurately (tracking the returned communications, either e-mails or printed pieces, against the sales person as they come in). And who knows, maybe client meetings will occur just by reaching out to update contact information!

In addition to your sales team spring cleaning, you might want to send clients and prospects periodic “update your profile” e-mails, note cards or customer surveys. Offer them incentives for replying, such as discounts on services or an attractive raffle prize. If you feel none of these efforts are right for your company, you may need to invest in outside help to clean up your list. Most telemarketing companies offer this service, but the fees can be steep and you lose the “insider’s knowledge” your sales team has of each client and prospect. Not to mention you lose an opportunity to reach out to those prospects you may not have approached in a while.

List clean-up is not a one-time solution. It’s ongoing and should become part of your sales process—an annual or bi-annual activity that not only ensures your list is always accurate it ensures the right prospects are on the list. Think about it. When you buy a list, one of the first questions you ask the list company is how often do you update the list. Why should it be any different for your actual list?

What is your advice or personal experience with cleaning the list your company already has? Do you have an internal process in place? Is that process regularly put into action? Do you think it’s successful? If so, why? If not, why not?
 
In part 2 of It’s All About the List: List Development Strategies that Enhance Your Marketing Campaign, I will discuss various ways to find new prospects and build your list. Please click here to continue to part 2 of this blog.

Jill Ruiz
Senior Project Manager
ClearEdge Marketing

So, I was talking with a friend who works in sales (selling technology professional services to the C-Level) about how things are going. I asked him the question, “Are clients buying?” Of course his answer was not the resounding “Yes, they’re signing contracts left and right,” that we are all hoping for. But, it wasn’t a solid “no” either. What he’s finding, and I found interesting, is that clients are now talking more than they were a few months ago about what they will be doing in the near future. They’re agreeing to meetings and demos, and brainstorming solutions that will take their company to the next level.

Now we all know that those conversations are great, but what we all need is the signed contract. But given the fact that conversations are happening, companies are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, things are loosening up even a slight bit-we can all count on the fact that those signatures are going to start hitting the paper soon.

In the meantime, there are several things that we can do to stay in front of clients so when the time comes that the proverbial coffers for technology investments are opened back up, we’re all ready. Here are some tips my friend shared with me, along with articles on each topic:

1. Create Valuable Reasons to Connect. Identify your top prospects and research material that might be useful to their company. Maybe you’ll find an article about an industry trend that relates to their business, perhaps you’ve seen some statistics pertinent to their industry, or it’s possible that you can share a best practice that might be helpful to them either from your own business practice or a non-competing client. Try inviting your client or prospect to a business-related function as your guest. The more face time, the better. As an example, Steve Ballmer recently presented at a Chicagoland Chamber event. Great opportunity to invite (and pay) for a client to join you at an event. Identifying ways to connect with prospects at low or no-cost is an art mastered by nonprofits that have much to share about how to deepen relationships by maximizing existing communications. Come up with a value-added reason to reach out and keep your company name in front of the prospect.

2. Build Trust. It’s no surprise that the level of trust in companies across the U.S. is at a record low. And since people tend to do business with companies they know and trust, now is your time to make sure that your company is viewed as trustworthy in the eyes of your clients. Simple things like calling when you say you’ll call, providing information that you say you’re going to provide by the time you said you’d provide it, sharing success stories, all of these actions add up to trust in you and an increased likelihood of being selected when the time comes to sign on the dotted line.

3. Recognize and Appreciate Your Customers’ Situation. Obviously in a sales role, it’s important to touch base with clients and prospects. What’s important right now, though, is to meet them where they are in terms of the status of their business. Be empathetic to their current situation. If they are unable to buy today, listen to their concerns, probe them about how they’re overcoming challenges and ask about areas unrelated to what your company has to offer. From your customers’ perspective, demonstrating true concern for their company will go a long way when they reemerge and are ready to make purchasing decisions. Just because companies are hit with hard times doesn’t mean an end to business opportunities.

4. Make the Most of the Buffalo. Make the most out of every marketing effort possible. It’s not a big surprise that most companies want to achieve big marketing gains with little marketing spend. So, once you identify a message or an article or a case study that is relevant for a group of prospects, be sure to e-mail the link, post it on your Web site, include it in a newsletter-use it wherever feasibly possible to increase your connection with clients and prospects in a way that is beneficial to them. Also, be sure to leverage the tools you already have in place and maximize your own marketing opportunities.

5. Be Patient. It’s extremely hard to be patient, especially today when the typical sales cycle is being dramatically extended. However, patience is a strong virtue in negotiation, and without it, you typically can kiss a sale goodbye! Patience shows a customer that you care about their success, not just your deal. Whatever strategies you implement for increasing sales and setting the state for future success, be sure that you practice your patience.

We’re all in this together. We invite you to share some of your tips and stories of sales survival.

Jennifer Higgins
Senior Writer
ClearEdge Marketing

So you conquered your cold call, terrifically TAPped and scored a sales meeting. Now you just need to nail your presentation and leave a lasting impression. The best way to do this? Be prepared. This may seem like Business 101, but going back to basics always pays off.

Over the years I’ve heard horror stories from clients about sales presentations and client meetings. Almost every story boils down to one thing: not being prepared. Below are some preparation tips that will help ensure your sales meeting yields the positive results you’re after.

Pre-meeting Prep

Define goals. Before the meeting, you must understand what the specific audience members’ needs and expectations are, as well as spell out your own specific purpose. With clear goals, it’s easier to ensure everyone’s needs are met. Even consider asking your prospect questions prior to the meeting-to help frame the conversation, set expectations and ensure they’re getting the most out of the meeting.

Create an agenda. You wouldn’t go on vacation without your luggage, so why would you go to a meeting-the meeting you set up-without a plan? An agenda is a “meeting map” that lets everyone know where the discussion will go and that you’re taking your prospect’s time seriously.

Know your audience. Take some time to research the basics of the company you’re meeting with, as well as who you’ll actually be speaking to. What are their names? Titles? Roles? If you understand where they fit into the company’s decision-making process, you can tailor your presentation to meet their needs and answer their questions. It’s also a good idea to be aware of any predispositions or prior knowledge they may have about your company and product, as well as the jargon they use (like, what does “scrum” or “agile” mean, if relevant to them).

Prepare with purpose. If you’re creating an actual presentation to help guide the meeting, make sure the content is purposeful, thoughtful and customized to cover all of your audience’s needs. Avoid filling your PowerPoint with slides about your company-remember, it’s not all about you, it’s about the prospect. Don’t waste their time by making them sit through irrelevant material. Break down your content and allocated time with the prospect-if you have an hour to learn as much about them as possible, try and only spend the first 5-10 minutes informing them about you to gain credibility and get them to open up about their needs.

The design of your presentation is also important. Your template should be up to date, with logos and graphics that are attention-grabbing and interesting. Dates, services, client lists, case studies, etc. need to be current. Try to avoid content-heavy slides and/or talking directly to the slides (i.e. reading verbatim what’s on the slide!).

Work with a partner if necessary. Does someone else at your firm have more expertise than you on a certain aspect of your product or service? Partner with that person for your meeting. Make sure each of you contribute valuable information.

Practice. Poor presentation skills are one of the most common pitfalls with sales presentations. The best sales teams rehearse regularly and are rigorous about presenting in top form. New, less experienced sales staff should be trained to present.

Confirm. The day before your meeting, send an e-mail to all audience members that confirms the logistics and includes the meeting agenda. Be careful to word the message in a way that doesn’t make it easy for them to cancel. For example, end with “I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow” versus “Let me know if we’re still on.”

During the Meeting

Know your content. A colleague of mine (I won’t name names) once gave a knowledgeable, seamless presentation to a client by phone. Impressive. Unbeknownst to me and fellow audience members, she gave that presentation while walking through an airport parking lot searching for her car. Very impressive. While I don’t recommend trying this for yourself, I do recommend owning your content-knowing it inside and out. No reading slides word-for-word the entire time.

Outline next steps. Make it clear for everyone at the end of the meeting what will happen next. There should be a form of action that allows you to reach out to audience members again. Let them know you’ll e-mail a sample case study or article about a specific topic or question covered during your conversation. Invite them to an event. Send a proposal if there’s an opportunity. Or, schedule a follow-up meeting. Always take into consideration what’s next.

After the Meeting

Follow through. Whatever action you tell the audience you’ll take, take it. The meeting is your chance to make a great impression, and prove that your firm is prepared, organized—best-suited to meet your audience’s needs. Following through on your promises proves you’re trustworthy, and gives them a preview of the road ahead should they choose to work with you.

Leslie Vickrey
President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing

While the use of print ads, radio/TV ads and event marketing has been down recently, e-mail marketing is one form of communication businesses are really clicking with. A recent Marketing Sherpa survey found that e-mailing to house lists was up 48%. A Forrester Research survey predicts that in five years, clients will be deluged with more than 9,000 e-mail marketing messages annually. That’s about 25 messages every day. With more businesses utilizing this marketing method how can you ensure your e-mails aren’t deleted faster than you can say “junk mail?” 

To answer this question, let’s first look at the reasons e-mail marketing is so popular.  

It’s cost-effective. You can run a valuable, effective e-mail campaign with a minimal investment to create and manage. And forget about postage or envelopes. With e-mail marketing, you can get your message out to hundreds, even thousands of contacts in a matter of seconds, by clicking a few buttons. 

It’s simple. Whether you manage your campaign in-house or use a third party, the tools to send it are very intuitive and easy to use, and the results are easy to measure. 

It’s accessible. Nearly everyone has an e-mail address and can be reached via this medium. 

It can be as frequent as you’d like (just don’t go overboard). With a plan and some discipline, e-mail marketing allows you to regularly stay in front of your clients and prospects. 

While these characteristics make e-mail marketing popular, the popularity brings consequences, including a decrease in industry-wide response metrics and in subscriber tolerance. Dozens of e-mail marketing messages every day means recipients may not have the time or interest to even open a message, let alone click through it. And while someone may have signed up to receive your messages, too many will cause them to put you on the top of their blocked senders list. 

What You Need to Avoid the Blocked Senders List

A plan, discipline and the following tips will help you stay in front of your clients and prospects, providing them with perfectly timed, high-quality e-mail marketing messages. 

• Thoughtful, valuable content. Whether you send your message in the form of a newsletter, Keep-in-Touch (KIT) program or e-card, content is king. Your message must be clear, concise and appealing, so that people will read it, gain interest, and ideally, reach out to you. But you can’t just have great content. It needs to be appealing and appropriate for each segment of your target audience. While you may not have the resources to craft a different message for each group, you can create different subject lines that are relevant for each.

• Branded template. Your e-mail template doesn’t have to be elaborate, but you want readers to know it’s from you. A simple, generic design that includes your company logo and reflects your brand can be reused time and again.

• Discipline and consistency. Just as two trips to the gym each year will not prepare you for a triathlon, your e-mail marketing campaign will not gain client interest if you only send it twice a year. To increase open rates, you must be consistent. If your campaign is monthly, it’s important to send your message around the same time month-over-month (e.g. the third week of the month). A little discipline will go a long way in your effort to stay top-of-mind with those on your list, and the more familiar your list members are with your company, the more likely they are to open your message.

• Consider a third-party service. While you can use a personal e-mail program such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes, programs like Vertical Response and Constant Contact allow you to upload your e-mail template, test it, send it to a large (or small) list and track the results of your campaign. Both programs are relatively inexpensive and are easy to use.

Measuring Your Results

Once you’ve blasted your message to your list, programs like Vertical Response and Constant Contact allow you to see results on things like who opened it, clicked on any link within your e-mail, as well as which e-mails bounced, and who unsubscribed from your campaign. MailChimp provides an “apples to apples” benchmark comparison for small businesses in several industries, so you can see how your numbers compare.

If your open rate is low (under 25%) on your first few campaigns, don’t be disappointed. It can take several months for people to become familiar with your company and gain interest in your messages. But there are several things you can try to boost your open rate over time. Play around with subject lines, always keeping them simple and short. Experiment with launch times as well. You may be more likely to open a message on Thursday or Friday afternoon when the week is winding down, as opposed to Monday morning when your inbox is filled with requests. Another method is to identify the recipients who haven’t opened the message and have your sales team and recruiters forward the original to them with a personal note. This helps them see your subject line as relevant to them individually.

While it may take a while to perfect your timing and subject line formula, one thing is certain. A list filled with incorrect or old e-mail addresses will not reap positive results. It’s better to have a shorter, accurate list, than a long one filled with addresses that aren’t in use anymore. So take the time to clean your list! Before you blast your message, check for typos, broken links and missing graphics. And remember: you can never send too many tests.

Jessica Elliott
Marketing Director
ClearEdge Marketing