Five Key Attributes of Salespeople

According to a survey of some 5,000 executives, conducted by a joint team at the Sales Executive Council and Marketing Leadership Council, respondents were asked to list 50 key attributes of salespeople in order of importance. Here are the top five:

1. Offers unique and valuable perspectives on the market.
2. Helps me navigate alternatives.
3. Provides ongoing advice or consultation.
4. Helps me avoid potential land mines.
5. Educates me on new issues and outcomes.

Each of these attributes speaks directly to an urgent need of the customer not to buy something, but to learn something. They're looking for salespeople to help them identify new opportunities to cut costs, increase revenue, penetrate new markets and mitigate risks in ways they may not recognize.

The message from the customer is clear: "Challenge me. Teach me something new."

Don't Use Social to Generate Sales; Make Selling Social

'Fan-Led' Successes Are Built on Old-School Push Promotions 

Some say we can't value social-marketing efforts directly. Others claim that if we can't attribute a return on investment, we shouldn't be doing it.

But maybe we're all missing the point. Maybe the problem is not whether social value can be measured in dollars. Perhaps the issue is that we can't measure in dollars objectives that weren't intended to be profitable in the first place.

Most CEOs and CMOs have a clearly defined objective to make money for their organization. Yet most social-marketing programs are still designed to create engagement, gain followers or generate Facebook likes. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that there's a disconnect there. Getting to an ROI figure from most social efforts doesn't take better analysis tools -- it simply takes the inclusion of objectives that are centered on generating profit.

Customer loyalty, advocacy, engagement, interest and awareness are all important in the marketing funnel, but the assumption that they supersede the "baser" activity of selling is pure hubris. If customers don't also desire "buying" relationships with us, then we have no business being in business.

We need to get to a better balance with our social-marketing efforts and speak to the entirety of the customer permission set, including how they want to buy from us. Only then can we form measurable profit objectives that intersect with these permissions. Because the object of social marketing is not simply to collect audience appreciation, but to make every customer experience shareable -- including the purchase.

For example, Zappos has been heralded as a "social brand." But that's not entirely true. Zappos is a "customer service" brand. The majority of its "social marketing" investment actually goes into hiring the right people and creating amazing customer experiences. I still talk about the time I sent an anonymous gift with Zappos. During the transaction, the operator fawned over me repeatedly for making such a wonderful gesture. It was a little embarrassing, but I was gratified. Then came the surprise, because over the next two weeks this operator shipped to me gift package after gift package of cookies, socks, books and even a messenger bag in appreciation of my act of kindness. It was amazing!

Sure, Zappos still collects "likes" for posts about new articles of clothing or holiday well-wishes. But it has a broader mission of making the sales experience personal, meaningful and ultimately shareable.

In a nutshell, Zappos doesn't do social to generate sales. Zappos makes selling social.

Further, the assumption that the spectrum of social media is being ruined by the "old" tactics of push selling is disingenuous. Push and pull always need to work together. We can say that Louis C.K. or Radiohead have proved that fan-led pull efforts are the new way to market. But have you noticed that nearly all of these "fan-led" successes are built on the backs of years and sometimes millions of dollars in old-school push promotions?

Going back to the Zappos example, it may use social to generate pleasant relationships, but it also buys a boatload of social ads that push product. What's more, it is one of those vendors that uses "stalking" ads that display the products you last looked at on its site. And frankly, despite the creepy factor, customers don't mind for the most part, because the relationship the company has built is centered on us buying stuff from it.

The real value of social to an organization is that it shreds the veil between marketing and operations. It puts on public display every customer touchpoint within the company. So we need to stop creating passive programs that simply use social media and start thinking of social marketing as a discipline of doing business in a manner customers want to share. Selling must be social. Because only then are we able to measure the profitability of social marketing.

(Source: Advertising Age, 04/17/13)

U.S. Digital TV Users Soaring

U.S. digital TV users are climbing faster than expected.

The number of U.S. digital TV users -- those who view at least one TV show per month via the Internet -- will climb 37% in four years to 145 million in 2017, from 106 million in 2012. This amounts to digital TV user growth climbing at a 6.9% compound annual growth rate -- a higher increase than previously forecast in August 2012 by eMarketer.

Next year, it says digital TV viewers will cross a critical tipping point -- surpassing 50% of the U.S. Internet user population. Those users who watch at least one movie per month on any Internet-capable device will climb to 115 million in 2017 from nearly 80 million in 2012, a 9.7% annual growth rate.

A Belkin and Harris Interactive survey of U.S. Internet users said 12% would consider replacing their cable or satellite subscription with a streaming media subscription, such as Netflix or Hulu Plus in 2013. A total of 30% of respondents were inclined to at least consider cord-cutting.

Still, another 37% "strongly disagreed" when asked whether they would consider replacing cable and satellite with only digital Internet TV.

Evidence of growing digital TV/movie usage, says eMarketer, comes from Netflix -- which reported U.S. streaming revenues of $2.19 billion for 2012, growing moderately from quarter-to-quarter, with its U.S. rental DVD revenues totaling $1.14 billion and declining each quarter.

Wayne Friedman - Media Daily News

'Listening' for the Solution

If you're talking, you're not listening, and as a result you're not learning anything that you'll need to reply in a way that progresses a sale, you're not earning your prospect's trust, and you certainly won't earn the right to ask for the business.

Ideally, you should talk 20 percent of the time; ask questions and listen 80 percent of the time. Then and only then can you tailor your sales presentation to the prospect's real needs, and in the process, earn their trust and the right to close the sale.

Keep your questions brief and concise. The more complex the question, the less likely you are to get the information you need. Simple sentences generate complex answers, and this is what you want to hear because the customer will be telling you how to solve their problem, but you'll hear it only if you're really listening and not multi-tasking mentally.

Until you know what they do, how they do it, where, when, with whom and why, you have no business -- or credibility -- telling them how you can help them to do it better.

The Socialization of Ads: How Twitter and Facebook Are Focusing on Marketers

Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP Group CEO, says Twitter is a "PR medium," not an advertising one (and neither is Facebook). His comments follow Twitter's launch of its advertising API touted as a booster for marketers to manage campaigns. 

"If you look at the Olympics in London, the big winner was Twitter. It wasn't Facebook. It wasn't even Google. We did analyses of the Twitter feeds every day, and it's very, very potent. But I think because it's limited in terms of number of characters, it reduces communication to superficialities and lacks depth." 

Undaunted, Twitter is forging ahead and fashioning itself as an ad platform. Its API launch partners include Adobe, HootSuite, Salesforce, SHIFT and TBG Digital. Aside from creating a larger revenue base for Twitter, the API could lead to more ads on the site and apps which is worrisome to users. 

"Launching an ad based API does not mean we've changed our philosophy or that a user will see more ads in their experience," said April Underwood, product manager, revenue at Twitter. "From a user standpoint it doesn't mean we're becoming more aggressive in terms of ads or altering the user experience at all. This is all about giving marketers more choice as well as a broader set of tools in their arsenal that they can use in how they want to work with us." 

With this latest change, businesses will be able to work with Twitter's partner companies to create more in-depth and targeted ad campaigns to run on Twitter, as well as integrate Twitter advertising into broader marketing strategies across a variety of sites and platforms. 

"Slowly, but in plain sight, Twitter has opened a marketing window that didn't exist before, a window that allows marketers -- or anyone -- to exploit, in real time, moments both expected and completely unplanned," notes AdAge. Twitter Revenue Chief Adam Bain added, "Marketing has evolved to a series of 'now moments,' and we are the platform that can deliver that moment." 

In another move to promote simplicity and ease, Twitter has introduced the mobile video app, Vine. According to creative director Rus Yusupov, "An interface should get out of the way." Vine doesn't even have a play button. The interface is slick, perfect for quick-hit responses or campaigns in terms of advertisers. "At the very least, it offers a fresh way to share a promotion or a response, give people a look behind the scenes or an imaginative expression of what the brand believes in. This is advertising, just not as we know it." Vine simply adds another dimension to Twitter's advertising arsenal and certainly gives marketers using the platform a leg up on the competition. 

Speaking of competition, Facebook began testing its own advertising API in 2009, allowing marketers to create automated campaigns integrating multiple ad products as well as tools for measuring the impact of the ads, the best time to run them and which groups to target. 

Facebook is testing "different sizes based on connectedness," notes AllFacebook.com. "News feed ads coming from brands that users or their friends have liked will still show up large, but ads coming from pages that neither users nor their friends have liked will show up smaller." This adjustment is a welcome one, as users of the social site are oft to complain about the increasing amount of ads and promotions showing up smack in the middle of their friends' status updates, no longer restricted to the right sidebar. 

On the mobile front, Facebook is tweaking sponsored stories and application install ads in the mobile news feed including a new like icon and for iOS users, the header, "Suggested App." 

Sorrell, however, is not convinced. "Facebook to my mind is not an advertising medium. It is a branding medium. So if I can get you to say something nice about WPP or me or one of our companies on Facebook to your wife, your friends, or whoever, that's good." 

A "number one ranking on Google seems more important than a Facebook 'like.' This doesn't deny the potency of Facebook. But it has to be seen in the context of a long continuum of brand building."

(Source: BrandChannel, 02/26/13) 

Economic forecast: More jobs, faster growth

The first half of 2013 is expected to be sluggish as government spending cuts dampen growth and a payroll tax increase crimps consumer spending.

The nation's economy and job-creating engine will start to purr later this year as business activity picks up — more than offsetting federal government cutbacks, predict economists surveyed by USA TODAY.

After starting the year slowly, the economy will shift into a higher gear this summer and then grow for the next nine months at the fastest pace in three years, according to the median estimates of 46 economists.

"I think we're really on the verge of this becoming a self-sustaining recovery," says Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Bank.

The economists expect average monthly job gains of 171,000, with the pace quickening late this year. They expect unemployment to fall from 7.9% to 7.5% by year's end. In October, economists surveyed predicted average monthly gains of 155,000.

Several said they raised their forecasts in part after the government this month revised up its estimate of average monthly job growth from 153,000 each of the past two years to 175,000 in 2011 and 181,000 in 2012.

The revisions reflect a job market that's expanding more rapidly than previously believed, Moody says.

After gaining an average 157,000 jobs a month in the first quarter, the economy will gradually gather force and add 184,000 a month by the fourth quarter, the economists say.

The first half of 2013 is expected to be sluggish as government spending cuts dampen growth and a payroll tax increase crimps consumer spending. Those surveyed expect the economy to grow at less than a 2% annual rate the first six months of 2013.

But Congress and the White House averted a worse fate by agreeing in January to keep income taxes stable for households earning less than $450,000 a year. Thirty-seven percent of the economists are more optimistic about this year's outlook than they were three months ago.

What's more, the economists expect the effects of the federal cuts to fade by the fourth quarter, with growth picking up to a 2.7% pace. They say the housing market is rebounding, a rising stock market is boosting consumer wealth, the European financial crisis is easing and Corporate America is cash-rich.

Allen Sinai of Decision Economics, says the most positive development is that households have worked off much of the debt that hampered their spending in recent years.

Some remain cautious. ITG chief economist Steve Blitz say it's unlikely consumers will return to their free-spending ways.


Paul Davidson and Barbara Hansen, USA TODAY - February 10, 2013

Marking TV’s “Cuban” Influence

Talk is cheap. Television networks are not. Mark Cuban, billionaire, is one of the rare few that can afford both. And he’s proven his affinity for each by recently speaking at NATPE, about many topics, among them his AXS TV network and his belief in the power of television in our society.

At first blush, television isn’t thought of as “Social Media.” Social Media is typically thought of as reserved for status updates, hashtags and an oversaturation of baby pictures. Therefore, “Social” is a viral space that needs word of mouth and a busy personal network to have its impact.

The example that Mr. Cuban used was the billion or so online views for “Gangnam Style”. No one will dispute that YouTube is squarely a “social medium,” but all of those combined views of “Gangnam” didn’t match the social experience of watching the Super Bowl, voting for your favorite Idol or Voice or Dancing Star, or seeing the ball drop on New Year’s Eve.

And that’s the social aspect that Mr. Cuban was focusing upon. That TV is a place to share in an experience, not one to share your experiences. He called it “zero latency,” in that we all experience it at the same time. Despite this being the Era of Time Shifting, television is truly the Mass Medium. “Gangnam” was a meme, and as he said, “who talked about it when they watched it?” Those billion hits on YouTube don’t translate on the same cultural consciousness level as television because we don’t have the same connective experience with it.

Moreover, the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform report confirms the ongoing dominance of television in the face of the Online Spring – 97% of all video is watched on television. Online accounts for 2% of all video viewing. Mobile, 1%.

Let’s face it, no one’s going to pass on a chance to do TV because they want to stay on YouTube.

Social Media without television would be a very different place. It’s no coincidence that Mr. Cuban is talking about this - he’s invested in a broadcast television network. And it’s for exactly that reason – “to tap into the immediacy of TV and its dominance as a social media conversation starter.” Mr. Cuban believes that he will be providing a network that is of particular interest to the “Cable Nevers” and cord cutters. He hopes to give them a “unique experience” of immediate, live content that delivers the scale of broadcast television.

TV is really the only medium that begets content on another medium. We talk about TV on social media. Especially those live events that people share on TV. All it takes is a look at something like the Grammys. It’s a broadcast event, but will have the most social media mentions for the week. The fact is, television drives a large percentage of social media conversations in some way. Typically it’s about what we’re watching — or telling others they should be watching — but often it’s passing along information that they’ve learned by watching television.

Mr. Cuban concurs. “Television has become the medium to start a social conversation. We have become so Internet centric over the past 20 years that everyone assumes the solution for social media will be on the Internet. It’s TV.” He added that “We’re using television as an instigator (for posting to social media). The reality is that when you are watching TV, it’s a unique experience that you cannot get online.”

So why should we pay so much attention to what the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks has to say about TV? Well, he made his fortune in the dot-com boom, selling his Internet radio business to Yahoo!. So perhaps this Internet radio guy might have learned some valuable lessons about long-term success and taking his business to the next level—by investing in broadcast television.