Marketing and Sales

Amidst the mayhem of new media such as YouTube, iPods and blogging, using one advertising medium is rarely satisfactory. With consumers wading through an informational glut meant to provide ultimate personalization, marketers must pull out the big guns to ensure their messages are heard. E-mail, direct mail, television and website promotions are only a few of the ways to encourage an audience’s response to a campaign. It’s a delicate balancing act of maintaining enough presence to be seen, heard and responded to, without bombarding a potential audience into annoyance. In the case of direct mail, the most successful campaign is the one that nestles

According to legend, ancient rug makers wove intentional flaws into their carpets to remind people of their human nature, reinforcing the notion that perfection belongs to a higher power. If only we could remember that basic truth when our teammates upset us. How many times have we lost our tempers when coworkers made errors—perhaps similar to ones we have made in the past? Mistakes do happen, so it seems only natural to be understanding. Furthermore, everyone should maintain boundaries to keep themselves and their companies safe. Having boundaries also keeps individuals from overreacting when encountering conflict in the workplace. It’s not that mistakes should be

While salespeople scramble to catch the most promising and qualified short-term prospects from marketing-generated leads, nearly three-quarters of these leads that convert to sales are ignored. Why? Because salespeople are measured and paid for winning the short-term sales race, typically leading them to only focus on easy opportunities. This lack of effort in the lead development process may be costing organizations a bundle in profits. Industry experts estimate only one-quarter of those who are going to buy do so within the first six months of being approached. Yet roughly another quarter buy within a seven- to 12-month period, another quarter buy in a 13-

The world is full of salespeople who claim, quite proudly, to have great relationships with their customers. Unfortunately, the phrase “great relationships” is often a veil salespeople use to hide weaknesses in their selling skills. For example, if experienced salespeople believe they have developed great relationships with customers, they spend their time visiting these customers, and focusing on maintaining friendships. In turn, these salespeople might fail to present new products or services aggressively because it might jeopardize interaction with a client. In addition, they never close a sale because they might not be able to handle rejection from a client with whom they

The incentive business is booming. One would think the promise of cash is generally incentive enough for competitive salespeople to cross quota finish lines each year. However, businesses invest approximately $1 trillion per year in sales teams, reported the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement’s white paper: “Making the Case for Sales Incentives to the Tune of 10% ROI.” Incredibly, sales incentive industry research indicates motivational programs such as gifts and trips are more effective than monetary rewards when it comes to companies seeing returns on their collective trillion-dollar investment. In fact, a 2005 study by the Incentive Federation titled “A Study Among

By Peter Koeppel While most people have heard of blogs and podcasts, few are taking full advantage of what these marketing mediums can offer their businesses. As recently as two years ago, blogs and podcasts were viewed as nothing more than places for opinionated people to rant and rave or assert their viewpoints. Today, blogs and podcasts are the most explosive marketing vehicles to emerge since the Internet. BusinessWeek reports that more than 40,000 new blogs are popping up every day. And in 2006, the number of podcast feeds exceeded the number of radio stations worldwide, according to the CIA World Factbook. This means

If you train employees to routinely do things without understanding the subtleties and context of their actions, you run the risk that they’ll do the right things, but in the wrong way. Here are some of the most common customer service rules, when to break them and alternative best practices to apply instead. Rule One: Always Use the Customer’s name. Dale Carnegie said “The sweetest sound in any language is the sound of one’s own name.” Though it may be true that using a customer’s name can create a sense of intimacy, it can also have the opposite effect. Overusing customers’ names may make

When managers can double as successful motivators, they inspire their employees to get excellent, breakthrough results. There are as many different ways to encourage employees as there are managers trying to inspire them. Some managers sweeten the motivational pot with contests, rewards and bonuses. Others use threats and punishments to keep their employees “in line.” The one common theme that often runs through management, however, is that most managers don’t ask their employees how best to motivate them. Instead, many managers end up playing a guessing game—and often wind up losing. While experts don’t necessarily agree on all the different ways people respond to incentives,

Headquartered in New York City, interactive marketing and communications provider NAK is offering clients a new way to improve the effectiveness of direct response campaigns by combining the persuasive attraction of direct mail with the interactive power of personalized websites. Supporting the effort is proprietary technology from MindFireInc., whose flagship product, LookWho’sClicking?, is a Web-based application suite that helps automate the creation and management of personalized URLs (PURLs), personalized landing pages and tracking reports. NAK first creates an attention-grabbing postcard that provides each prospect a website address containing his or her name. The PURL is the key to accessing a Web landing page that is

True teamwork is one of the rarest, most exhilarating and most productive human activities possible. Every business wants to harness this incredible energy, but achieving such a level of motivation is not always easy. A team is not just a group of individuals who work at the same location or have the same logo on their business cards. A real team consists of people who may be unequal in experience, talent or education, but who are equal in their commitment to working together to achieve goals for the good of the organization, each other and their customers. If companies are going to be successful,