sales effectiveness

“After the Beep, Shoot Me an Email”

November 17, 2015February 9, 2016 Madeline Milani

Cold calling. You’ve done it a million times, and will probably do so a million more. But we keep hearing same the questions pop up in trending sales discussions and articles everywhere. Is it effective or is it outdated? Will we ever move away from it? Is there a better method? A practice endangered to extinction, social sellers everywhere are pronouncing cold calling nearly dead. With so much back and forth, what’s a salesperson to do? The answer isn’t to stop cold calling- it’s to stop leaving voicemails.

The Challenge

As every salesperson knows, making initial contact is the hardest part. Picking up the phone has long been the first step in this process. If someone answers your call, great. But when you’re sent straight to voicemail, that’s where things start to go downhill. It used to take about three to four calls to reach a prospect. Given our increased mobility and new modes of communication, the number of attempts has doubled. On average, less than 1% of calls get returned and less than 2% of those calls result in booked meetings. So what does this mean? It means that there’s a fundamental hole in the way sales teams are reaching out to prospects.

Communication is Broken

Simply put, leaving voicemails is no longer very effective. We’ve all been in the situation where, upon seeing a missed call and voicemail from a friend or relative, you choose to call back without listening to the message. “Did you get my message?” they ask. “No,” you reply, “but I saw that you called.” Unfortunately, the business world doesn’t operate in the same way, and your prospect is not going to call you right back. According to Business Insider only 33% of people listen to voicemails from business contacts daily, and only 18% listen to voicemails from numbers they don’t recognize. Meaning, four out of five of your cold voicemails aren’t even being played. I’m not suggesting that you put down the phone indefinitely. Real-time verbal communication is absolutely essential. But when you do get sent to voicemail dungeon, you need to be more strategic with your follow up.

Resolution

As evidenced by text and email, much of our communication has evolved from verbal to visual. InsideSales reported that the top three forms of messaging that people respond to are email, office phone calls and cell phone calls. Clearly, people are choosing their email inboxes over their voicemail boxes. But even those are becoming inundated with mass amounts of generic messaging. As text becomes less compelling, what is the next medium that will catch, and hold, our attention?

It’s time to take a step back and re-examine our methods. Don’t let an unreturned voicemail slow down your sales cycle. Following up with email is still more effective, but even those can get lost in the mix. So how can you ensure your emails are not only being read, but eliciting more and higher quality responses?

Personalize Your Outreach

Putting a face to a name goes a long way. When someone sees a smile and hears a voice, a sense of trust and a layer of objectivity is established around that individual and their context. Not like in an email, where a text-based barrier makes it difficult to accurately express yourself in letters, fonts and whitespace. And more often than not, your messages are being misinterpreted. With video, this is unmistakable. You’re essentially unmasking yourself and gaining more credibility with your viewers. People don’t want to be sold to. Buyers want to be engaged on their own time, in a new way that’s more dynamic, less about products and more about their business application. They’ve gathered enough information on their own to form an educated opinion. What they need is an expert, trusted advisor and source of guidance. So how are you going to elevate yourself, get more attention and receive more responses? By personalizing your outreach.

Thankfully, we live in an age where new tools and technologies are making communication easier, more engaging and enjoyable. Video messaging allows people to record, send, watch and reply to each other whenever and wherever it’s convenient for them. Technology has advanced enough to the point where we’re not limited to recording videos on our webcams and uploading them to YouTube. Nor are we required to own expensive DSLRs to record high-quality videos. Look no further than to your smartphones. You use it every day, in x amount of ways. The practice of moving the phone from the ear to the front of the face is becoming less of a novelty, and more of a norm.

At OneMob, we practice what we preach. By incorporating video into our email outreach, we’ve seen increases in our open rates, click-through rates and higher quality responses. See how our customers are getting results with video messaging and contact us to learn more.

Watch Me OneMob – Pt. 1, Sales

November 4, 2015February 9, 2016 Madeline Milani

Welcome Watch Me OneMob, a three-part series bringing you all the best ways to use OneMob across the entire customer lifecycle. Check out the video below to learn how you can start selling with video.

Breaking In

Make that first impression count and get that first meeting.

Prospect cold outreach: Warm your prospect up to you with a video that shows you’re not an automated robot- no phone required
Welcome an inbound lead: Introduce yourself as a person and a resource for their needs and questions
Follow up to an unreturned call: Send a video reminder that they can watch on their own time.
Final outreach before “closing file:” Make your last shot your best show with a personalised approach
Revive dead leads: Get yourself back on the radar. Take it from these reps at LinkedIn
Introduction after referral: They know who referred you, now it’s time to know you

Building the Relationship

Now that you’ve got the ball in motion, keep the momentum going.

Introduction: Make a smooth handoff from the SDR to Account Exec
Confirm meeting with AE: You’re less likely to get stood up
Agenda set for an upcoming call: consider it a warm up
Summarize meeting: follow up with a quick recap and visual/verbal reminder
Trial status update: Save time by verbally summarizing reports and progress
Share best practices: Show them what works to increase activity and engagement
Stay top of mind: During long sales cycle, don’t let yourself be forgotten

Closing the Deal

The buck doesn’t stop when pen goes to paper.

Show a demo: Whether it’s a product or experience, showing goes farther than telling
Introduction: Make a smooth handoff from Sales to Customer Success or Account Manager
Trial summary: Reinforce the value that you deliver with statistics and improvements
Closing proposal: Be less pricey and more personal. Create a relationship and not just a transaction!
Thought leadership: Share meaningful content or messages from executives
Thank new customers: This is the perfect way show appreciation to customers as well as get referrals and introductions to new opportunities

Why Video Works For (All) Sales Reps

November 3, 2015January 25, 2016 Madeline Milani

OneMob Head of Sales, Randy Yabes, has been in the B2B sales game for 15 years. Here’s how video messaging helps him perfect his outreach and ultimately close more deals.

The B2B landscape is continually changing. Since the 2000s, we’ve seen the birth of social media, smart phones and SaaS. We’ve also seen the decline or end of the flip phones, rolodexes, fax machines and mostly everything dealing with paper. In order to succeed, you have to adapt. Call it survival of the fittest. Today, sales orgs are inundated with new tools for sales enablement on the daily. Seasoned reps stick to the tried and true since they know what works. But there are some unique ways out there to stand out from the noise. These ideas aren’t only applicable to progressive millennials, and shouldn’t be ignored. Every rep has their preferred methodology, and my new outreach method is video. Here are 5 ways that implementing video in my sales methodology has helped me adapt, break in, form lasting relationships and ultimately close deals.

1) Gives Cold Calling a Break

Cold calling is monotonous and energy draining. It’s awkward, impersonal and often inconvenient for the person on the other end of the line. Reaching out via video is a successfully proven alternative. In this on demand age, sellers need to understand that buyers want to buy on their own time, so why not present information in a way that they can receive whenever they want? Video allows you not only to pitch your product, but really yourself- as a professional, an adviser and as a personality.

2) Shows More Empathy

The tone in your speech affects people’s perception, instantly. Many times, sellers forget what the experience is like for the buyer. Reps are so concerned with delivering the pitch so perfectly that they forget to ask enough questions and really learn about the buyer and their needs. During the middle of a sales cycle, I use video to re-state the purpose of our partnership. Summarizing gets all parties on the same page. Can I do this via email? Probably. But there is no “empathy” font. There is no “insert joke” button (and no, emojis don’t count). Video allows me to deliver a message in a way that says I am here to help, but in a more personal way than text. Stop treating deals like transactions and more like relationships. Showing empathy affords you trust and credibility, which is key to maintaining relationships and ultimately closing more deals.

3) Affords Honest and Direct Feedback

Once I’ve established credibility with my contacts, communication becomes much more direct and efficient. You’re guaranteed to get more direct feedback from someone that knows and likes you – even if it is a “no”. I just want to avoid the two statuses that all salespersons dread – “maybe” and “gone dark”. It’s easier to blow off a response or beat around the bush with someone you don’t know on the other end of the line. Video provides that familiarity. Receiving direct feedback and quicker answers unsure that both of our our times aren’t being wasted.

4) Improves My Pitch

Every salesperson has their signature style and approach. After years of practice, it’s comfortable to get stuck in the same, “proven” routine. But remember, we have to adapt. Since the ways in which we buy, sell and communicate are continually advancing, can you truly step back and see if you are caught up with the times? Training to enhance your routine is best done through video. It’s a crystal clear mirror to see how you look and sound. Golfers record their swing to analyze that hitch. Singers record their voices to hear those flat notes. Why don’t sellers record their potentially stagnant presentations? Seeing my pitch forces me to listen to how I present, poking holes in my normal speech and highlighting possible bad habits and making improvements. It also gives me the opportunity to try something new, such as a new line or sign-off.

5) Keeps Me Optimistic

Selling is one of the toughest jobs because your success is instantly measurable, and success is dependent on buyers making decisions that are in your favor. It’s daunting. It’s tough. But remember this; you are the tip of the sword. You are the first impression that your company makes in a partnership. What inspires me about using a video is this statistic alone: that the average person receives 121 emails a day, a number that is still on the rise. Sending a video itself is already entirely fresh approach to initiating those new conversations and fostering communication. I’m confident and optimistic knowing that I’m delivering something unique from other sales reps because I’m reaching out in a way that’s sincere, unexpected and engaging. The positive feedback that I get from prospects affirms this.

About the Author: Since the early 2000s Randy Yabes has been tasked with building pipelines, growing sales teams and developing structures for companies like Staples, IDG, Extole, Experian Information Solutions, and now OneMob. Connect with him on LinkedIn to see how he’s adapted in the SaaS sales world at startup’s and the Fortune 500’s.

Send Emails that People will Actually Want to Open (and Watch!)

October 29, 2015February 9, 2016 Madeline Milani

Can you remember the last email that stood out to you? Given that we receive so many emails that are solicitous, transactional and dry, it’s hard to recall. As any professional, this is the last way you want your messaging to come across. Luckily, there are ways to rise above the rest. Taking a few minutes to spice up your emails has proven to make a big difference. The numbers don’t lie- personalised emails deliver 50% higher open rates and 22% higher reply rates. Here are some themes to keep in mind that will make people remember, reopen and refer on your emails

Be Straight

Cut to the chase. Our attention spans are short, so you have a limited amount of words and time to catch and keep someone’s attention. A simple message, without too many ideas and directions, is the easiest to remember.

Make them Unexpected

People expect lame emails and pitches. What they don’t expect is a sharp subject line, a funny GIF or a dynamic video- and those are what stick out. Be counter-intuitive and send something unexpected.

Stay Authentic

Forget the technical jargon, product features and bulleted statistics. Images and videos bring an email to life and encourage engagement. Visual content is substantial, and can translate an idea or experience instantly into a memorable and meaningful concept.

Establish Trust

With consistency comes credibility. Sending current and relevant content on a regular basis builds up your integrity with customers, and will make them more likely to pay attention to and engage with your content.

Evoke emotions

A successful company doesn’t just sell a product, they sell an experience. In the B2B space, it’s buying into relationships as well, which are formed through discovering mutual commonalities and connections and take time to nurture. It’s not enough to communicate and engage through text. Step up your messaging with engaging content in a dynamic format that will truly resonate.

Tell a Story

Relating to my previous point, emotional appeals increase engagement and build rapport. Creating a narrative around your brand captures these emotions and experiences, and takes your viewer on a journey. Make your story about the customer and tailor the information to the individual. This will encourage not only reaction, but action as well.

There are many mediums out there that can capture these ideas, but only one is capable of embodying all five- and it’s video. Video puts a live face to the name, connects sounds and visuals to the story and triggers emotional reactions through the senses. A dynamic video will inform and engage your audience, keeping relationships strong through the entire customer lifecycle. It doesn’t require a lot of time or resources either. There are a number of video platforms that you could choose as your host, but only OneMob gives you the tracking, analytics and freedom of mobility. For tips on how to improve your emails and examples of video use cases, check out our support page.

Video Messaging – the New Kid on the Block

October 27, 2015November 12, 2015 Madeline Milani

If the rumors are true, then Sales Enablement 3.0 is upon us, and this puts us sales and tech professionals at yet another split in the road: to continue down the current path with our social selling and email tracking, or take a slight left at the bend and see what new concepts have surfaced.

If you’ve had your ear to the ground lately, you’d agree we’re moving towards heavier sales automation, predictive sales intelligence and video messaging. Given sales automation is the most established, and sales intelligence is difficult enough for the wisest and most experienced — take a go with video messaging.

Primarily, we need to understand what video messaging is to the B2B space and then what value it provides to sales messaging and pipeline generation.

What is it?

In its simple elegance, video messaging is recording and sending sales and marketing messaging via email. Sending video in B2B sales, as prospects have told me, is a novel concept. The goal is to create a video for your audience, whether it’s to set a new meeting to a specific person or to promote awareness for your event/cause to a broader audience.

How does it work?

There are a small handful of video messaging platforms for recording and sending video messages. Features and quality vary, including CRM integrations, mobile apps, corporate branding and even DNS set-up for the enterprise crowd. With OneMob you can have all of these features, plus the technology for a recording and sending solution that is both trackable and scalable.

Why would I do such a thing?

1) Video thumbnails deliver the highest CTRs

This is where message differentiation comes into play. The majority of buyers already think you and your competition are more-or-less the same (via The Challenger Sale). If your messaging looks alike, then they’re ignoring your email all the same. That being said, there’s no better means of driving high CTRs than a video thumbnail (MarketingProfs). So if you need your initial message to be received, include a video. This is a personal, digital approach and is best for top tier accounts. Since great sales people take the time to know their audience and tailor their message, do yourself the favor and give your great messaging the best odds of being seen.

2) It doesn’t get more personalized or trustworthy

Sales automation has made sales people seem like robots. There’s minimal room for personalization, so most emails look the same at first glance. Seeing a smiling face, a company logo, plus physically hearing and seeing the sales person carries weight — the type of weight sales people long to replicate via their rare and invaluable face-to-face meetings. If I had a dollar for every time a prospect noted I’m “the guy with a beard from the video” as we began our first meeting, I’d have enough dollars for Chipotle for me and a friend, plus guac.

Keeping in Mind…

Video is an additional outlet to phone calls and emails that go hand-in-hand with any sales position. In a time where sales automation is becoming bigger than ever, video is pitching value via a wider and more consistent net. While phone and email aren’t going away anytime soon, video is looking to be the next accepted addition, creating the Big Three in foundational sales outreach. So, while the sales effectiveness space is preaching volume, video is singing personal touch.

About the Author: Devin Reed is the newest member to the Sales team at OneMob as a Sr. Account Executive and author of The Reeder. Having spent his career in technology sales, specifically on ROI-focused software selling at the executive level, he credits audience analysis as the success of his outreach, along with overcoming the fear of clicking “Send” on those not-so-ordinary emails to top executives.

Your Emails Are Terrible

October 23, 2015February 9, 2016 Madeline Milani

Yeah, we said it. Here are five, all too common ways that plain text emails are bringing your sales down. The good news? Video helps turn them around.

Vague Voice

You can only say so much about yourself in an email. Words limit our ability to not only convey, but interpret emotions. In fact, studies show that over half of emails are misinterpreted. This means there have been times where you’ve come off in a way that you didn’t intend to. From a sales perspective, this can be detrimental. When selling becomes less emotional, and all about logic and facts, the connection is less personal and thus diminished.

Solution: Video is better than a phone call because it allows you to express yourself verbally and physically. Yes, body language is still important. Show that you mean what you say.

Mechanical Messaging

Cold calling is the more personal attempt to reach out, but can be awkward and end in a harsh hang up, bruising your ego. It’s easier to say “no” when you don’t know the person on the other end of the line or email chain.

Solution: Video is a much better alternative, letting you introduce yourself and make your point, without interruption. Your prospect can puts a face to the name, and it shows rather than tells others about you. A visual along with a voice makes you more likeable and proves that you’re not a robot. Nobody wants to be a robot.

Pointless Replies

You’ve been in that frustrating situation with a client where after a confusing email exchange, it’s just easier to explain verbally. And to add to that, you’re playing phone tag and it’s getting you nowhere.

Solution: An easy and instant medium to explain yourself, videos can be watched on a person’s own time, as many times as they want. If they still still have questions, they can shoot you a video back as well (hello, new video reply feature). Problem solved.

Idle Conversations

Have you ever liked someone just by the sound of their voice? It’s the intonations, cadence and emotion that bring a name to life. You can tell if someone is interested or not, which is why phone calls have traditionally been the base of selling. Buyers like to know and trust who they’re buying from. With so many missed calls and connections, it’s hard to keep up.

Solution: Sending a video of yourself keeps the conversation stimulating and dynamic, helping you foster trust and maintain a solid relationship– which will ultimately get you that deal.

Prolonged Sales Cycles

With our inboxes flooding on the daily, it’s easy for messages to go unnoticed or have delayed replies, holding up the sales cycles.

Solution: If you can’t meet in person or talk on the phone, video is the next best thing. It speeds up communication. OneMob has proven to shorten the sales cycle by increasing response rates tenfold.

The way we consume media is becoming less text based and more visual. We’d rather watch the news than read the paper, send a snapchat over a text and chat via video rather than phone. So it’s only natural that our business practices align with our personal ones. But before any of these innovations, (even writing) communication was done in person. In an increasingly global and digital age, this is no longer as possible. Video is the next best way to maintain personal connections. Using OneMob can help professionals connect, build trust and ultimately make better sales. You’re not a robot, so don’t sell like one.

Social Selling in 5 Minutes

October 20, 2015February 9, 2016 Madeline Milani

In the first of a three-part series, OneMob Sr. Account Executive, Devin Reed, shares his philosophy and methodology for sales communications. Here are his tips for making the most of social selling.

“Break through the noise” is the newest catchphrase in sales departments. But while sales leaders tell you to make your messaging standout, what they really mean is get creative. The desire to have a unique approach has become a need to have rather than a nice to have. Why?Buyers have more options than ever, and are being flooded with more attempts to grab their attention than they can honestly handle. So it’s up to you, the seller, to get crafty. And that’s where social selling comes in.

Social selling is much simpler than its reputation portrays. With all the LinkedIn training available, plus the numerous 3rd party social selling companies offering training, mastering this new communication strategy can seem overwhelming. And while it’s becoming the newest, and nearly expected, form of literacy within Sales organizations as it gains traction — it doesn’t take long to become effective — nor does it require knowing the full product suite of LinkedIn.

Here’s my definition: social selling is finding actionable information related to a prospect and/or company that is relevant to your value proposition, and most importantly, initiates and accelerates engagement while building rapport. It’s that simple.

In my opinion, the end goal of a “social selling touch” is to (1) set a new meeting,(2) be referred to the person you wish to contact, or (3) build credibility — in no particular order. The key to being effective is not always getting exactly what you want when you want it, but any response, for even a quick “no” saves time and money for any sales professional. I’ll break them down a bit further:

1) Setting a new meeting — this one is most obvious. It’s what sales reps live for and what sales leaders love seeing (and hearing). First, or Net New, meetings are the lifeblood of every hunter’s pipeline and the foundation of success for every closer.

2) Reaching your ideal contact — There’s no shame in asking who the right person is, though some would argue you should already know via LinkedIn. But if your product needs that special someone — the person in charge of webinars, evaluating sales enablement tools, or putting pen to paper for every key purchase — it helps to triangulate that person to ensure your outreach is landing on that ideal contact.

3) Building credibility — I loop this in with “accelerating deals” because it’s an outcome of becoming credible in the eyes of your buyer. If you see a prospect post an article, give it a quick read and comment to let them know that not only did you read and enjoy their post, but you’re smart enough to give some insight into how it pertains to them. The more they trust you, the faster they’ll move, and they less they’ll push back since they’ll view you as a consultant.

The Tools for Social Selling

First is LinkedIn. If you don’t have their Sales Navigator, get it. It’s the base for all my social selling. It’s a fantastic software and the best for locating target prospects, but it really only tells us what they’re current responsibilities are in their current/past roles, shared connections and their collegiate alma mater. It tells us who to contact but rarely how to engage. It provides relative topics and talking points regarding their interests and focuses that can be leveraged to initiate a conversation, and hopefully, a two-way relationship.

Next up is Twitter, my personal favorite. This is a great tool to use in addition to LinkedIn , since most peoples’ Twitter feeds are loaded with both professional and personal posts. This could range from their company’s new product offering, updates and events, to their opinions, interest and hobbies. These are the best feeds of information as an outsider looking in and should be treated as such. Take time here to find relevant information, creatively tie it into your ask, then make your outreach entertaining to read and relevant to them. This is how we come full circle, combining our foundational LinkedIn information to more useful and personal content from our prospect.

Lastly, we have content. This isn’t so much a specific “tool” so much as an aid, per se. This is why we reached out. This might be their personal blog, an interview they’re mentioned in, an article featuring them, or simply something that you know pertains to them. It’s a win-win because you’re always in the know about current events in your space, and you get to leverage this knowledge for your own benefit.

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Between LinkedIn, Twitter, and relevant content, the rest is up to you. Use your personal flavor to come full circle with a detailed and personal message. Deliver a message that can’t be ignored. Basically, be the the cool rep, the prepared rep that’s hard to say “no” to. Before long, you’ll find your responses will be more frequent and with a tone of sincerity not commonly offered over the first exchange.

Lastly, be weary of when you turn on the “sell” switch and start pitching directly. The fastest way to become a corporate social leper is to blatantly pitch your product prior to your audience’s consent. Social forums like LinkedIn (not including InMail), Twitter feeds and comment sections for articles are not the places to deliver your value prop. Instead, offer relatively unbiased opinions or thought leadership that justify your ask for their time and attention.