Never underestimate the advantage you have when selling a product with an expiration date. Insurance producers often take this for granted when it should be viewed as a cherished closing tool. Those of us selling marketing services, cars, computers, or real estate all have to create urgency in our prospects. Instilling that sense is arguably the greatest challenge salespeople face. Ex dates allow you to hurdle that fence quickly, creating ample time to focus on other elements of the sale and to execute with precision.
All posts with the tag 'B2B Marketing'
Sales & Marketing Tip of the Day: Narrow Your Focus
What services do you provide? Why would people want to do business with you? How are you better than the next guy?
These simple questions are much too difficult for many agency executives to answer. The answers are clouded by the abstract concepts and strategies we read in the trade magazines explaining how to mask the fact that we are selling insurance. The quandary is further complicated for those who are striving to be everything to everyone – and are at risk of being nothing to no one.
The fastest and most effective path to cleaning the dust off of your value proposition and finding your true mission as a salesperson or producer is to narrow your focus. Keep throwing the darts at the 20 until you can consistently hit your target. Only then should you consider going for the 19′s, 18′s or bulls-eye.
StartUpSelling provides marketing solutions to insurance agencies. Our deep industry expertise allows us to understand the challenges our clients face and to create effective solutions. Our virtual model allows us to deliver a compelling value and responsive service.
Those are my responses to questions above. Delivered from memory as fast as I can type. They are easy to answer, because we have a highly focused sales and marketing strategy.
Webinar: 5 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success
Join us for this brief, complimentary and educational web seminar. We will review the key steps to developing an effective social media presence. Expert guest speaker and author Alan Blume will review of these simple steps and best practices to optimize social media marketing for insurance agencies. Topics include:
* Selecting the Right Social Media Websites
* Skills & Time Investment Required
* Effective B2B Blogging
* LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Time: 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM PDT
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/608283145
Sell More & Work Less: Real World Scenario Excerpt
About ten years ago, I helped a company develop their virtual sales and marketing strategy. Its solution, let’s describe it as a client behavioral research solution, was new to the market and required an evangelical sale. The businesses targeted for this new solution had to be convinced to take a leap of faith and try a new method to analyze their customer behavior. In addition, this method was a completely Web-based, SaaS solution. Evangelical sales are common with technology companies seeking to sell a breakthrough product (e.g., eMarketing solutions, MP3 downloads, cloud computing, electronic reading devices, and even DVRs).
The first step in the process was to identify the target market and build a suspect list, just as I mentioned above. The CEO had an insurance background and landed a few insurance company clients. We decided this would be the first niche market to target. How did we build a comprehensive virtual suspect list? We utilized several top 100 industry lists and imported them into a simple Microsoft database. We searched for on-line insurance company listings and added them to our virtual suspect list. Then, we called every one of these insurance organizations (there were about 300 initially targeted). These targeted cold calls resulted in up-to-date contact information, key executives, titles, direct phone numbers, and emails. These were often gathered by offering the suspects an opportunity to attend an informational Web seminar.
Within a few short months, the database was quite comprehensive, and the suspect list began to yield a compelling prospect list. Utilizing my Prospect Scorecard system and qualifying acronym, we were able to identify possible buyers, convince these buyers to review the solution in a Web seminar or one-to-one web meeting, and then move them to the qualification phase. Out of the 300 initial suspects targeted, we were able to convince over 150 to review the solution in our first year of sales efforts, and about 20 percent of them purchased within that same year. An impressive result for a self-funded, emerging operation selling 99 percent virtually, without travel or face-to-face meetings and the costs and inefficiencies associated with that model. Today, many years after we helped this client create a target suspect list, they continue to dominate their niche.
For more information: http://sellmoreandworkless.com/
Recent Press Releases from StartUpSelling
Filling the Sales Funnel with the Four Step Insurance Agency Marketing Plan Webinar
StartUpSelling is providing a brief, educational and complimentary web seminar sponsored by WIAA. Our expert panel will review the Four Step Insurance Agency Marketing Plan and discuss the elements required for a successful strategy.
LinkedIn Webinar For B2B Executives – The Facebook of Business
Is LinkedIn really the “Facebook of Business”? How can business executives best leverage this important social media marketing tool?
StartUpSelling Announces Sell More & Work Less – Web Selling Techniques Everyone Should Use
Reblog: Top Ten Email and eMarketing Mistakes (via Alan Blume’s Web Marketing Blog)
When using eMarketing or email communication, it’s better to focus on what is likely to arrive, than on what might look good on your computer screen. In other words, think about what the email will appear as when delivered, as opposed to the original which you perceive was sent. Here is a list of ten important eMarketing (or business email) mistakes to avoid.
- Do not use an enhanced email signature: If your email signature (your name, contact info, etc.) uses a large font, is boldfaced, or appears in a different color, this is called “shouting” in email jargon and Outlook Junk Mail filters and corporate email filters don’t like this. Your email is more likely going to arrive in a spam filter or email junk folder. This is true for large scale eMarketing campaigns and your individual personalized emails.
- Don’t use an HTML email: These days text base emails stand a better chance at getting past junk mail and corporate email filters than HTML emails. Besides, if you’re using HTML, you’re more likely to take advantage of special fonts, invoking some of the issues noted in rule #1.
- Avoid words like “free”: It’s one of the most common words activating junk mail and corporate email filtering. It’s right up there with the prescription dysfunction drug names and other spam alert words and phrases. [More...]
Reblog: Most Popular Ezine Articles and Click Through Rates (CTR) via Alan Blume
Most Popular Ezine Articles and Click Through Rates (CTR)
Posted on February 26th, 2012 by Alan Blume
I’ve now published over 100 articles on Ezine and track metrics on a weekly basis. My overall goal is to create relevant content germane to our target markets including, B2B Marketing, marketing for technology firms, Law firm marketing and Insurance Agency Marketing. The key marketing metrics provided by Ezine include views, clicks and click through rate. These can vary dramatically, as a popular and well viewed article doesn’t necessarily generate the best Click Through Rate (CTR). In the example below, the #1 article received the most clicks (that makes sense) but the #3 article, though viewed significantly less had a much higher CTR and as a result, almost as many clicks.
- Should You Hire an Agency Producer Without a Producer Marketing Plan
- Traditional Magazines Vs Online Magazines – A Short Term Win and Long Term Rout
- Are the Days of Direct Mail Marketing Dead For Insurance Agencies?
- The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss – Fact Or Fiction
- Insurance Agency SEO – Search Engine Optimization and Long Tail Keywords
Narrow or niche articles can often generate the best results. for example, my article entitled “Create A Virtual Buyer Persona – Spend Time With Prospects Who Can and Will Buy” had a very high CTR (16%) but ranked much lower on total views. In general, one can assume that a mix of topics, both broad and narrow, balance readership with CTR. Ongoing monitoring and measurement is always helpful with Social Media Marketing initiatives.
Make your LinkedIn Profile a Marketing Tool
This morning I noticed this article on the Inc. website. The author reviews “6 Steps to More Marketable LinkedIn Profile” and the suggestions are very similar to the best practices we share with our clients and in our webinars. Paramount to the authors philosophy and to the StartUpSelling mantra is to make your profile appeal to those you want to connect with. If you focus on information and keywords that are meaningful to you, your profile might appear impressive but is unlikely to attract prospects. By focusing on the data and phraseology that appeals to your target market, you will make connections that are interested in what you have to offer.
Be Your Brand
This morning I ran a few SEO tests, at one point just typing the name of our business into Google. The result it shown above. I had not noticed this previously, but the second auto-fill result includes my name. I thought this was interesting for two reasons.
First, I am pleased that people will easily be able to find my contact information when they wish to reach out to StartUpSelling. Second, and more importantly, I think this shows clear personal and professional brand alignment.
I have always believed that it is important to connect yourself with your brand – to be your brand – when you are evangelizing a product, service or solution. Its great to see Google making that connection.
Sell More & Work Less – Real World Results Excerpt
Real-World Results
This simple-to-learn model has resulted in large six figure sales to people whom I never met face to face, and many small deals that never would be profitable in a traditional business. My virtual team frequently closes a wide variety of business deals including many marketing and lead generation projects, which range in value from under $10,000 to over $100,000, and do so without ever leaving their homes, be they in Massachusetts,
New York or Nevada.
Small businesses, entrepreneurs, small office/home office professionals, and even burned out salespeople seeking a better business opportunity and lifestyle can use these sales tips to drive sales virtually and more profitably. Millions of people’s lives can be transformed by learning to sell more effectively and efficiently. Even if they don’t call themselves “salespeople,” everyone is trying to sell something to someone. Today, they all need current, web selling skills to succeed.
