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How social media can improve your sales process (A real business case study)

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Sitting in our weekly sales and marketing meeting, I am so impressed with (yes, my company, but also) how powerful a tool social media is for helping improve your sales process. We’re having a conversation inspired by a single tweet from earlier that week.

The CaseClassroom - Improve your sales process

Recently, one of our sales reps was following up with one of his inbound leads that came through a website lead form. When he couldn’t reach the person on the phone, he left a voicemail offering to follow up on the resources he downloaded.

That could have been the end of that story.

But what happened was the person tweeted about the voicemail, expressing his discontent:

noahwesley : «Someone from HubSpot just left me a VM & told me he noticed I’d been on the site often & «…consuming resources…» …who talks like that?»

The Response

Whoa! That’s not a typical HubSpot voicemail. We create tons of free resources and LOVE when people get value out of them — whether or not they’re interested in our marketing software. We had to respond, and did so in two ways:

  1. The marketing team, which of course monitors company mentions in social media and noticed this tweet, forwarded this message to sales management to respond appropriately.
  2. The marketing team also responded to the tweet from the @HubSpot account, apologizing for the ill-phrased message.

HubSpot : @noahwesley Sorry for the ill-phrased vm. That’s not how we think of visitors. We LOVE when people take advantage of our free resources.

The Result

Noah responded to both the rep’s phone call and the @HubSpot tweet – Success!

noahwesley : @HubSpot No problem at all. I love your free resources, I just thought the phrasing was funny 🙂 Thanks for the follow-up call.

Taking It A Step Further

Improve your sales process - Business strategy plan over ladder leading to success

Already this is a successful use of social media — we uncovered an issue and resolved it quickly. We could have stopped there, but instead decided to learn from this case and improve our sales process. At our weekly sales and marketing meeting, we discussed this tweet and this voicemail. What could the rep have said instead? How can we better follow up with these inbound leads? The team worked together to brainstorm different approaches.

Lessons

There are plenty of examples of using social media for lead generation or for PR or for customer service. With this case study, we learned that social media is a powerful tool for improving the sales process itself. What are the key takeaways?

  1. Listen. Social media gives you visibility into the sales funnel where before you were in the dark.
  2. Respond authentically. This was our bad, we apologized, and that relationship was restored.
  3. Learn and improve. Take this feedback and use it to improve your processes. Never before was it so easy to get candid feedback — now utilize it.

How have you been able to use social media to improve your business processes? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Advice for busy professionals to avoid burnout

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Avoid Burnout

In our culture, we have a tradition of admiring people who stay busy. Unfortunately, for many professionals embracing that belief, it can mean losing fulfillment both at home and in their careers. If you want to avoid burnout, consider incorporating a few changes into your lifestyle to help you keep things balanced and feel more satisfaction in both the personal and professional realms.

Are you burning out?

Being busy is one thing, but burnout is a reality that can sidetrack your home life and career. When you continually overextend your time and energy, you put yourself at risk.

Even if you love your job, friends and family, without proper balance and healthy coping skills, you could be heading for trouble. Ask yourself if you recognize any of these signs of burnout:

  • Feeling fatigued all the time
  • Poor motivation
  • Feeling cynical or frustrated
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Waning performance or productivity
  • Unhealthy choices (poor eating habits, failure to exercise, self-medicating)
  • Continually thinking about work
  • Reduced general satisfaction
  • Increased health problems

All too often, we equate stress with success. A little bit of stress is helpful, such as when you’re preparing for a job interview or competing athletically, but our minds and bodies aren’t designed to be under a continual onslaught of stressful situations.

In fact, chronic stress appears to be linked with cardiovascular disease, digestive trouble, reduced immune function, and neck and back pain. It’s important to address this stress — and make positive changes to help reduce those feelings.

Lighten your workload

Avoid Burnout - Outsource

Being passionate about your job is wonderful, but cutting back can ease your schedule as well as your mind. Do you have tasks you could pass to other team members? Think about delegating some of your to-do list more often, and if you don’t have others who are properly qualified for something unworthy of your time, consider outsourcing it.

If funds or people power are a concern, another option is to add technology that facilitates routine tasks. For instance, bookkeeping, scheduling and communication can all be streamlined with well-chosen apps.

Positive coping methods to avoid burnout

Avoid Burnout - Yoga

There are healthy, natural ways to manage stress that you can incorporate into your business day. One natural stress management method is meditation. Harvard Health Publishing notes mindfulness meditation could potentially lower your levels of stress and anxiety. Not only that, it’s convenient since you can slip in some breathing exercises from your car, in the office, or wherever you happen to be when you feel the tension rising.

Yoga is another natural solution since it incorporates mindfulness with physical activity. If you aren’t getting in workouts, consider adding it to your lifestyle — it’s multitasking at its best! And supplements may be something to discuss with your healthcare professionals when it comes to stress management, as they may help regulate your mood and decrease anxiety.

Boost personal efficiency

Avoid Burnout - Boost efficiency

After parceling out tasks as much as possible, boosting personal efficiency can free up time and energy for things like working out or dinner with the family. Prioritize work carefully, and flex timing on less important tasks. Do your top items when your energy is best, so if you’re a morning person, schedule key meetings early in the day, and so forth. Lump lower priorities into low-energy, open slots in your schedule. And lastly, consider whether your workstation could be more efficient since you might not even notice that your office surrounding is slowing you down.

Burnout is a real thing, so avoid putting yourself at risk. Find healthy ways to manage stress, reduce your workload, and improve your efficiency. Balancing your personal and professional life can improve your health and save your career.

 

Up Next: Want to find business zen? Paying yourself first will help.

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Seven things to consider prior to launching your business blog

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launching a business blog

In many ways, launching a business blog is like designing a rolling ball sculpture. Rolling ball sculptures also known as kinetic sculptures are so engaging because of the visual and aural spectacle — following intricate roller coaster paths, clinging and clanging along the way.  But the basic element is they are designed for perpetual motion.

The same goes for your business blog and the basic key to success is to plan for it to be a perpetual outlet for remarkable content.  When planned right blogs end up with the appeal, rhythm and engagement found in rolling ball sculptures.

 

Here are seven things to consider prior to launching your business blog:

 

1. Set aside time

Blogs fail because businesses cannot keep up with them.  Blogging requires frequency and commitment.  You should think about how frequently you want to blog and how much time you need per week to write.  Then set aside that time and stick to it.

2. Build a network or following

Your blog has a greater chance of succeeding if you have a larger community to share your content with.  Plan to build up a network or following prior to launching your blog.  That way it will have a wider reach from the get-go because more people can share it.

3. Keyword research

launching a business blog - keywords

One of the biggest benefits of creating content is the search traffic it will attract to your site.  Do some research so you are targeting keywords that will bring in good qualified traffic to your site.  If you are struggling with what to write about this is also a great way to queue up some ideas for articles.

4. Create calls-to-action

You should take the time to think about what calls-to-action should go into your blog posts and create them.  If you want to derive business value from your blog in the form of leads and customers you need good, relevant offers to go along with your content.

5. Queue up articles

launching a business blog - schedule

It never hurts to stay ahead of the curve.  If you plan to write once a week it may not be a bad idea to queue up four to five articles so you have a month’s worth of content ready to go.  This way you can stay consistent and keep up with your established publishing frequency.

6. Set up RSS/Subscriber feeds

If you want to grow your business blog you need to build a subscriber base.  Think about how to position your RSS feeds or email opt-in on your blog and your website to maximize subscriptions.

7. Ways to promote it

Lastly, it is critical to think about ways to promote your blog.  Will you tweet your articles or include them in your company newsletter? How often? How about sharing them on Facebook or LinkedIn? You might want to include your RSS feed on each of your profiles.  Spend some time on figuring ways to get the word out there!

What are some of the preemptive things you have done to help the success of your blog? Please share your experiences in the comments.

 

Up Next: 10 ways small business marketers can crush big competitors

 

Photo credit: Crimfants

Cash Flow Survivor

Survivor del Flujo de Efectivo: ¿Puede superar a su competencia en astucia, jugar mejor que ella y vencerla?

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Utilice estas 3 estrategias alternativas de financiación empresarial para evitar el destierro de su flujo de efectivo.

Cash Flow Survivor

Aunque es verdad que hoy día Survivor es el «veterano» de los programas conocidos como reality shows, ¿quién puede negar el entusiasmo total que siente cuando ve a sus competidores favoritos ganar y enviar al equipo contrario a enfrentarse al Consejo Tribal? Pues, cuando se trata de competir en el mundo de los negocios, encontrar la forma más creativa de mejorar su balance final también puede sentirse como ganar el ídolo de inmunidad y echar a la competencia por donde vino.

Es posible que ganar o perder el juego dependa de sus finanzas. En el caso particular de la financiación empresarial alternativa, existen tendencias que siguen moldeando la forma en la que las empresas modernas pueden asegurar un capital de trabajo adecuado (algunas tendencias son nuevas y algunas son de eficacia comprobada y han sido aprobadas por los clientes).

¿Está listo, Survivor? Le dejamos aquí tres aspectos a tener en la mira mientras juega mejor y con más astucia que su competencia y la vence:

1. Supere con astucia los desafíos de su préstamo bancario

Cash Flow Survivor Outwit

Cuando necesita fondos para su negocio, uno de los primeros lugares al que posiblemente acuda es el banco. Pero los bancos pueden establecer requisitos inalcanzables y obtener un préstamo puede volverse un obstáculo instantáneo. Desafortunadamente, sabemos que los negocios enfrentan dificultades para acceder a créditos y la falta de efectivo puede poner su negocio en peligro.

Para superar con astucia los criterios tradicionales para préstamos, forme una alianza con un socio capitalista alternativo que pueda ofrecerle soluciones tales como el factoraje, que le permitan vender créditos pendientes para acceder a efectivo con mayor rapidez. Se le paga por adelantado y puede continuar con su funcionamiento habitual, incluso si su calificación crediticia no es la más sólida. Lo más importante es formar esta alianza con un socio capitalista alternativo que tenga una trayectoria comprobada y esté dispuesto a trabajar con usted para progresar hacia sus metas.

2. Supere los riesgos del juego

Sentir que uno naufraga sin un salvavidas es terrible, por lo que es importante contar con un equipo de apoyo que lo ayude a evitar cualquier riesgo en sus negocios que lo deje a la deriva. Sin importar si se enfrenta al riesgo de no recibir pagos en fecha (o de no recibirlos nunca) o de ser objeto de fraude, o a riesgos de ciberseguridad, o a no tener dinero a tiempo para hacer pagos a sus proveedores y personal, usted querrá mitigar estos problemas.

Para comenzar, asegúrese de que su tribu (también conocida como socio capitalista) tenga la experiencia necesaria para respaldar su derecho de cobro. Su socio capitalista debería tener su propio equipo dedicado a evaluar oportunidades riesgosas de financiación, y debería estar dispuesto a decir que no ante oportunidades que, probablemente, lleven a que su antorcha se apague. Y dado que el 76% de los negocios se preocupan por los riesgos de ciberseguridad, es importante que usted trabaje con socios que estén igual de conscientes que usted sobre los riesgos que presenta internet y que tomen en serio la privacidad y seguridad de los datos.

Vinculado: 5 maneras en las que el factoraje puede ayudarle a superar obstáculos de flujo de caja

 

3. Venza a la competencia sin renunciar a su capital

Cash Flow Survivor Outlast

Luego de hacer un arduo trabajo para que su negocio crezca, ¿renunciaría a su capital en la empresa para obtener financiación? Muchos propietarios de negocios hacen esto y acuden a firmas de capital de riesgo, padrinos inversores, microfinanciaciones, o incluso a amigos y familiares para incrementar su capital de trabajo. No obstante, según la Universidad de Cambridge, el 67% de las empresas prefieren seguir un modelo de financiación de pasivos (como ser financiación de Órdenes de Compra) antes de renunciar a una parte de su negocio.

¿Por qué sucede esto? Es posible que tenga que ver con la previsibilidad. A menudo, su balance general es más fácil de entender que otro modelo, y saber exactamente cuánto dinero pidió en préstamo (y debe devolver) permite que el propietario promedio de un negocio formule un plan que se ajuste a su cronograma.  Por el contrario, el modelo de capital puede generarle más dudas y dejarlo preguntándose exactamente a cuánto de su negocio renuncia.

Incluso si lo exilian a Redemption Island, usted tiene la posibilidad de volver y ganar el juego de Survivor del Flujo de Efectivo. Obtenga su ventaja secreta actualizando su presupuesto de flujo de efectivo para predecir su flujo de efectivo por ingresos y egresos. Evalúe todas las opciones de financiación disponibles para determinar cuál será mejor para mantener un flujo de efectivo constante que le permita no gastar por encima de lo presupuestado. Y, por supuesto, no tema explorar opciones por fuera de aquellas que le ofrezca el banco.

Financiamientos Recientes – Mayo 2019

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Diagram

Recent Fundings – May 2019

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