Comments on: IT Sales and Marketing Must Adapt

By: Bob Leonard

Bob Leonard — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:30:06 +0000

Lee,

I checked out your website. It looks like you’re doing all the right things. Plenty of relevant and useful content on the site. You have a well-written blog that’s frequently updated and contains meaningful info.

Re your location dilemma. Here’s what I’d recommend… it’s going to take time and effort. First define your prime suspects. Develop a profile of the types of businesses (size, location, industry, etc.) that are your best targets. Use your most profitable customers as a guideline. Then use LinkedIn and Twitter (maybe Facebook and FourSquare) to find the companies and people who fit your prime suspect profile.

Once you’ve targeted them, see where they’re hanging out. It may be in groups that are geographically dispersed, but that’s OK. Follow the individuals, listen to what their issues are, and when it’s appropriate, when you can give value, join the conversations. There are a number of tools that can help. HootSuite is an excellent one to aggregate across social media platforms. And, as in the comment above from Scott, use a CRM to keep track of the people and conversations.

Let me know how it works out 4 u.

Bob

By: Bob Leonard

Bob Leonard — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:00:41 +0000

Scott,

You’re right on re the CRM integration. Once you begin to engage prospects, you need to track the conversations. You can easily have 50 of them going concurrently. I know I can’t keep track of that many. The CRM is a way to organize, prioritize, and make sure your responses are appropriate for each individual.

Thanks for the comment.

Bob

By: Lee Kirkby

Lee Kirkby — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:02:57 +0000

We are a VAR with a B2B clientele and part of our challenge is to find those people who are already engaged in the social media conversation that we can talk to. We are just early in our use, although we have been active in linkedIn for some time. I find it a bit of a challenge to decide which conversations we should be monitoring and participating in, since most are from across North America and at this point we are much more locally focused. How have others dealt with this dilemma?

By: Sathish

Sathish — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:49:31 +0000

I recently attended a workshop in Social Media marketing and my take is that it’s an ocean. A social media strategy needs a concerted vision, patience and resources to ensure that your campaigns/messaging is relevant and engaging.Though its early to predict the returns and to measure its effectiveness for SMBs, it is imperative to leverage the social media sites/tools and be a part of the action!

By: Daniel S Ross

Daniel S Ross — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:08:59 +0000

The line between sales and marketing blurred a very long time ago. In the early 90′s, it became clear that marketing’s responsibility was to communicate a strong value proposition, identify qualified prospects and establish a rapport with customers through high value touch points. Social media is simply a new enabler of that imperative.

For very small firms, current technology allows you to play on the big stage and compete with anyone. Of course, there are only so many hours in the day. As a result, some things haven’t changed. You must be sure your offer is truly differentiated. If not, you may still do okay, but your cost of sales will be higher and your close ratio lower.

The most difficult thing for very small businesses is to focus. On the one hand, cash is king. So you chase every deal. That is a path to slow growth. In that respect, social media can be a distraction.

If you have eight employees, my advice is to focus your resources on some key markets. Don’t try to be everything to everyone.Develop a good customer data base of your best prospects and focus on them.

Best,

Dan Ross
Executive Director
Entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia