Wedding Invitations, Prospecting Emails and Word Choice, Oh my!

Oy vey is more like it.

I remember downing a few espresso's at a Starbucks with my fiance (now wife) as we tried to wrap our brains around the appropriate word choice for our wedding invitations. 

It was downright exhausting but in the end I think those invitations we agonized over came out alright - after all, just about everyone we sent them to RSVP'd yes !

It struck me that although there are many outstanding SDR and Sales professionals in the B2B universe there are quite a few who just don't put the time in when it comes to the word choice they choose in messaging to their prospects.

Funny thing about that is - the people you invite to your wedding know (and hopefully love) you, your prospects do not ! 

I get it - in sales there are activity goals and the whole 'numbers game' philosophy has its place if you want to be successful in this business.

That being said, there are tools and best practices to help today's B2B SDR and Sales professionals be more efficient so we must use the time those tools help us save to ensure that the words we string together are thoughtful, personalized and speak to the potential need of our prospects. 

If we don't we're just wasting the cost of a stamp so to speak - prospects will just RSVP no and miss what could have been a hell of a party, if only it was conveyed to them that way.

Have a great wknd everyone,

Joe

Lead Nurturing & Numerology - Is There a Magic Number ?

I don’t think I ever thought about it as a child but as an adult I’ve grown to be fascinated with numbers, from a numerology perspective.

For my wife and I, 28 is our number and I sometimes joke that I'll write a book one day called ‘The Power of 28.’  There have been way too many amazing (to me :) run in's with this number to list but here are a few favorites.

• First date: December 28th 2009
• Exclusively dating: January 28th 2010 
• After searching for two years we found our dream home – you can guess what the address was

And when my wife asked me to write something on the bottom of her wedding shoe I racked my brain thinking how can I write something meaningful enough for the occasion and on such a small surface ! After some serious thought this is what I came up with…of course.

In professional life I’ve had many discussions and read many articles on the topic of lead nurturing.  Everyone wants to know how many touches does it take to go from prospect to Sales-Ready lead ?

At the end of the day, and my fascination (obsession) with numbers aside, I know that no such magic number exists here.  But I do believe there are magic behaviors.  Here are three that I believe are necessary if your team wants to seriously nurture a lead.

Persistence.  It certainly takes more than one outreach in this business.  The folks your reaching out to have plenty going on and they don't even know you so you need to be in it for the long haul and consistent in your outreach.

Thoughtfulness.  When you put yourself and/or your company ‘out there’ in front of a lead you are giving that lead the opportunity to form an impression.  Whether they respond or not, it needs to be a positive one.

Purposefulness.  Relationship building takes precious time (that thing no one seems to have enough of).  If you are ultimately seeking a lead's time you must be mindful of what you share with them and what they’d like most from this new relationship.

I've noticed that some people respond to 'data-supported' statements, others take better to a softer approach and still others most appreciate it when messaging cuts right to the chase.

In marketing and sales we first make educated assumptions as to what should resonate with our target audience and then, as we actually get to know our leads we truly learn how to speak their language.  So now, not only do you need to learn your significant other's love language, you need to learn your lead's love language too :)

But I think you'll be better for it.

After all, if you take the time to recognize what resonates with the leads you nurture, no matter how they engage, your team will eventually be able to craft messaging and an approach that gets closer and closer to feeding their minds and speaking to their (professional) heart.

As I type this I can't help but laugh at the words - this is way too deep for B2B marketing right ?  But what is a 'lead' but an actual person with a potential need and what does the word 'nurture' really mean if not to purposefully encourage the development of, in our case, a relationship ?

So we might as well call it what it is: 'lead nurturing,' the thoughtful and purposeful process of forming relationships with other people.

That's as worthy an aspiration to work towards and strive for as I've ever seen.

Joe

Rip Van Winkle - That's Me I Guess

Just call me Rip, Van Winkle that is. 

 Posting today on this blog reminds me of that classic. Has it really been almost 10 years since my last blog post ?? Well I can tell you this, unlike Rip I certainly have not been asleep in the Catskill Mountains all this time.

 On the contrary, life has been that busy, a good thing but I am excited to resurrect this 'blogger.com' blog, especially as I embark on this latest journey in my career.

 I've just recently joined PureB2B and I am thrilled to be working for some Sales Leaders that I've worked with and admired for years. The last 15 years of my professional life have been spent selling enterprise technology software, procurement consulting and B2B technology advertising sales. And like everyone else who's been around, I've got stories to tell.

 Stories of career highs and lows flowing alongside and inextricably tied to equally high and low memories from my personal life.

 Its interesting how that works. Professional and personal life can sometimes feel entirely separate but at the same time so tightly weaved together. Makes me think of a book I love that is one part simple Italian recipe book and one part a story of love and learning about where you're from (the book I'm referring to is 'Many Beautiful Things' by Vincent Schiavelli - the 'Subway Ghost' in the movie Ghost :) I highly recommend it for the tales and for the cool recipes.

For the rest of my life I'll always remember the time I made 'Cauliflower Under Seige' !!

I've never been short on passions, interests that kind of thing so in this latest iteration of my blog I'll talk about how my many personal passions tie into my professional passion of B2B marketing and sales.

 For example, I like to make cheese - in particular fresh mozzarella ! It's fun - I do it for my family and I've even done it with some of my clients.

 How in the world is cheese-making related to B2B marketing you ask ? Well, both can be learned rather quickly but both take a lifetime to master !

 And while we're talking cheese, here's a place that does it right :)

Here's hoping you enjoy some good cheese this wknd

Joe