Archives for July 2014

Superstar Selling: How to Think Like a Marketer and Sell Smarter

This Old New Business Podcast with Jeff KorhanThis is the debut episode of This Old New Business weekly podcast with Jeff Korhan.

Each 30 minute episode features sales and marketing experts sharing how businesses today are successfully taking their traditional or “old” practices for building profits, and making them new again.

It should not come as a surprise that they are doing this by successfully adapting to a digital, social, and global environment. So, if your business is wants to learn first-hand what works for growing a business today, then you are in the right place.

Our Featured Guest: John Jantsch

John Jantsch is the founder of The Duct Tape Marketing System, and a recognized small business expert. He is the author of a number of books, including Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, The Commitment Engine, and recently released, Duct Tape Selling: Think Like a Marketer – Sell Like a Superstar.

Marketing is the New Selling

www.jeffkorhan.comThe role of the salesperson has evolved into much more than offering information, because these days the Internet gives them access to nearly perfect information for solving their own problems .

A Corporate Executive Board (CEB) study of more than fourteen hundred B2B customers across industries revealed that 57 percent of a typical purchase decision is made before a customer even talks to a supplier. This same CEB study also found that 53 percent of those surveyed claimed that the sales experience itself was one of the greatest contributing factors in continued loyalty to the brand.”  Excerpted from Duct Tape Selling

John says what buyers really need is a proactive sales guide that helps them cut through the sales and marketing clutter to stay ahead of industry trends.

Getting to know the customer journey is vital for then helping them identify the problems they didn’t even realize they had. Now that relationships with buyers often start online, this is clearly the role of both marketing and sales, and is one reason why the line between the two is increasingly blurred.

Superstars Build Digital Marketing Assets

If superstar selling is attributable to educating and informing with content marketing and social media, then this is rightfully the domain of marketers and sellers alike. Since the sales team more than likely is more intimate with customers, its input for building digital marketing assets is invaluable.

The one thing that any salesperson can do to help their customer is assuming responsibility for building digital marketing assets. While this involves additional work , it builds the value of his or her personal brand, along with that of the organization.

John suggested a number of ways for getting started building your digital platform, including organizing Twitter lists of journalists and leaders in your industry. Curate information they are sharing in blogs and articles with Feedly.  Research prospects on LinkedIn and use Hootsuite to engage and learn who they can introduce you too.

Smart Sellers are Collaborators

Better identifying the problems buyers really have to help them attain something even better than they had imagined is ideally a collaboration, as opposed to selling in the traditional sense.

This means using your digital media to show up early and connect, and then finding ways to stay engaged with customers after the sale to make sure they get the results that you promised them. If you expect referrals and repeat business, this should become part of your selling process.

Duct Tape Selling

John says the role of the salesperson is evolving into a collaborator that engages prospective buyers with their companies, effectively becoming an extension of marketing and service.

There’s really nothing new about this, except for how it is accomplished in this digital, social, and global environment. You can learn more by picking up a copy of John’s new book.

Lighting Round Tips and Advice

John’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Forget about selling and just start delivering value.

His Favorite Productivity Tip – Take a 5-minute break for every hour of work and completely get away from what you are doing.

A Quote that has Inspired John’s Success – “Fix the problem – not the blame.”

Key Take-Aways

  • Smart sellers succeed by building a process for intimately understanding the buyer’s journey.
  • Successful selling today requires adapting to new methods for helping buyers.
  • Connect with John and learn about The Duct Tape Marketing System at his online home at Duct Tape Marketing.
  • Check out over 200 valuable digital resources at Duct Tape Selling.
  • Learn how to implement John’s productivity tip using the Pomodoro Technique.
  • Check out John highly previous book: The Referral Engine

How to Subscribe to This Old New Business

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help Us Spread the Word

Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. One click on this ready-made tweet will make that super easy.

If you enjoyed this episode of This Old New Marketing podcast, please head over to iTunes to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.  If you use Stitcher, click here to leave a rating, write a review, and subscribe.

How is your business adapting its selling practices to an environment where buyers have new expectations?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast. 

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInTwitterFacebook, and Google+

Podcast Launch: This Old New Business with Jeff Korhan

new-01

This is the official launch of our new weekly podcast show: This Old New Business.

I know, it’s a curious title.

Until you get to know the show better, just think of it as the serious podcast with the funny name!

The title of the show may at first appear to be a contradiction, when in fact it’s a reflection of a prevailing shift in the marketplace. The line between old and new and what’s relevant in business is blurring, and you’ll discover our guest experts enjoy bringing some clarity to the equation.

We hope you join us every join.

About The Show

This Old NEW Business is a weekly podcast show featuring sales and marketing like John Jantsch, Chris Brogan, and Jill Konrath sharing how businesses are successfully taking old practices for building profits, and making them new again –  by adapting to a digital, social, and global environment.

Many of us have to some extent resisted this transition, but we now of course realize

Our guests will be sharing inspiring stories and case studies from their experience working with real companies that have successfully made the transition to what works in business today.

Our first episodes with John Jantsch and Chris Brogan are now published, with Jill Konrath set to go live this week.

To download and listen to them more quickly, head over to iTunes or Stitcher If you search for it instead, you’ll find This Old New Business with Jeff Korhan under the Business category. Come back to JeffKorhan.com/podcasts for the show notes. That’s where you’ll find links to everything mentioned in the show.

Once we settle into a rhythm, the show will publish every Friday morning (North America time). However, to get things off to a running start we are publishing two episodes this week, with the third  and fourth close behind next week.

We Are Having a Contest!

Let’s have some fun with this.

To show our appreciation for you helping us get the word out, I’ll give away 12 signed copies of my book Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business. This is a hard copy book that will be shipped, so I’ll have to limit the winners to the United States and Canada.

For my international friends only, I’ve got a complimentary 30-minute consultation with me via Skype.

You choose the topic. You will have to speak English of course. If your bandwidth is low or you are challenged with the English language, we can confine it to a Skype text chat.

www.builtinsocial.com

Here’s all you have to do. 

  1. Head over to iTunes
  2. Download and listen to the show
  3. Leave a rating and review on iTunes
  4. Email me a screenshot of your review at [email protected]

I’ll leave the contest open through 6:00 PM August 15th, Chicago time.

Special Thanks

Regular readers know this podcast has been in the planning for some time now. I’d like to thank Mike Stelzner for first planting the idea when I was a guest on his Social Media Marketing Podcast.  Thanks also to John Lee Dumas for inspiring me to ignite at his daily Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast, but more importantly for the step-by-step guidance available his Podcast Paradise member community. Finally, thanks to Craig Price, host of the The Reality Check Podcast for invaluable last minute help to bring it all home.

Just as these friends have graciously shared their expertise and experience to help me move my business to the next level, This Old New Business with Jeff Korhan promises to do the same for you. Our upcoming special guests are leading experts on Facebook, Google+, content marketing, local small business, SEO, and more.

So, please stay tuned or head over to iTunes or Stitcher now to give it a listen.

One more thing: To get timely updates to your email inbox, please subscribe here.

How To Listen and Subscribe to Podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher

Since launching my podcast I’ve learned that podcasting is new to a lot of people. So, I’ve put together a video tutorial that will show you how to listen and subscribe to podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher using your computer or mobile device. And while there, how to leave a rating or review, as well as why those reviews are so helpful for those of us trying to spread the word.

 

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley)  

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInTwitterFacebook, and Google+.

LinkedIn: A Global Economic Platform

It’s not necessary to understand how the social networks function to derive utility from them. However, that knowledge will not only give your business more clarity for making better decisions, it will help it identify and adapt to emerging trends long before the competition. The magic that enables the various digital networks to do what […]

Read the full article

Here’s How to Communicate with My Business

Does your business have a system for receiving, organizing, and processing inquiries? This is vital for converting your content marketing, SEO, and social media into profitable outcomes. How a business communicates with its communities is marketing. Tweet this The smart ones use it to distinguish their company as professional, caring, and easy to work with. […]

Read the full article

3 Content Marketing Planning and Productivity Tips

As we cross the annual midpoint, many businesses experience a transition period, making this an ideal time to assess marketing effectiveness to make the necessary adjustments for finishing the year strong. However, unlike the obvious transition to a new calendar year, this yearly midpoint often passes by with the lazy summer that accompanies it (here […]

Read the full article

Marketing to Be a Distinctive Business

Everyone is on a journey. Our job as businesses is to make the journey of our potential buyers better in some way. We have to be THE preferred solution – the oasis in a desert of clutter that inspires them to action. This means becoming a distinctive business. Failing to distinguish your business is to […]

Read the full article

Markets are Lazy and Forgetful

Is your business one of the best-kept secrets in its industry? Assuming your general capabilities are in order, the reason for this is more than likely your marketing. #1 – It lacks clarity and is therefore confusing. #2 – It is inconsistent and therefore not memorable. Both challenges are easily resolved Tell the Market Only […]

Read the full article