Monday, November 9, 2009

The lead generation tower is best built with content and conversation in context

There were mixed reviews about some of the sessions last week at Onrec/Kennedy. Too much supplier demo selling and not enough best practices content for the audience.

I didn't sit in on all of the sessions, so I can only comment on the ones I did see. Most were on the money with valuable content and minimal selling. Only one started off strong and then went straight to the heart of demo selling, and the uncomfortable chair shifting and sighs were audible.

Not too bad, though. The recruiter audience is more hip to marketing and selling compared to their HR counterparts. Savvy recruiters get the pitch, the schmooze, the woo, the close.

But too many marketers and recruiters don't get content marketing - the building blocks of relationship marketing and sales. Instead, they go straight to the sell schlock and scare the prospect away.

Even on the Onrec expo floor suppliers like Tweetajob, Bond Talent, Simply Hired, Arbita and CollegeRecruiter.com used content to spark conversation (I know there were others as well - please don't throw rocks). The heart of our HRVendors.com business is the HR vendor phonebook - i.e., consumable and reusable content.

Peter Weddle's "Interruption Marketing" session last week was a fascinating content marketing parable. At first glance, it was counter-intuitive to hear this kind of outreach "interruption" because we've all been taking so much about starting conversations via social media and quality content.

But there is an interruption element, particularly in recruiting and direct marketing. No doubt about it. You've got to get their attention before you can have a conversation.

Peter talked about how "traditional recruitment marketing isn't working anymore" - same can be said for product/service marketing. You have to have a strategy to be "politely impolite" to capture the attention of your buyers.

We know that we only have very small windows to capture a lead's attention. To illustrate this point, Peter referenced Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink and the fact that some of our best decisions are made in 20 seconds (rapid cognition).

20 seconds. Damn.

Here are three things to consider with direct "interruption" content marketing:

Content. Of course we start with this. We can all agree that content marketing includes white papers, webcasts, podcasts, articles, tip sheets, videos, etc. You want whole-brain content marketing messages that quickly engage and entice and motivate intellectually as well as emotionally - i.e., I want to know more.

Placement. What's the context of your marketing content? Are you targeting the right audience with the right content? Remember, your long-term marketing efforts are not one size fits all. Cold marketing may start out that way, but how you use other activities like social media to spark conversation with content definitely needs to be tailored to the audience.

Structure. Are you optimizing for your buyers' experience? Is it easy to download your content? Can they easily submit feedback? Can they easily have a conversation with you if they want to know more? Ensure that your landing pages include clear call-to-actions for what you want them to do and why the content is valuable to their organizations.

Regardless of what size you are or what stage of the business you're in, the lead generation tower is best built with content and conversation in context.

And a little interruption to get their attention (wink).

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now joinHRmarketer on Twitter!)


Friday, November 6, 2009

Brilliant? Brazen? Unbelievable? How far is too far when trying to sell?

Kevin Grossman and I just attended a very intimate Onrec Expo this week in Chicago from November 2-4, and though the numbers were small, the conversations seemed to be valuable. (Isn’t that we have been saying about the last number of industry conferences that we have attended lately – SHRM and HR Tech?)

I always find it very interesting to watch how the booth staff get the attention of the delegates – or essentially get their attention to sell. Gimmicks, giveaways, entertainment in the booth, well dressed or seriously bizarrely dressed staff – so many ways, but then it is the sale.

When is it too far? I mean, it is expected that when you are walking an expo floor of any conference that you are going to get “sold” to.

BUT what about during the educational sessions? Aren’t they supposed to be informative and learning experiences?

When the CEO, Business Development person or VP of Sales is speaking, with no client to support the session, there is always a chance that it is going to be a HUGE sales job. A chance – is what I said. I am not accusing all session speakers in that position to be SALES PITCHES, but some blatantly are – and you know who you are!!! Or do you???

What about when the attendees are in their second day of walking the expo, networking with colleagues, going in and out of sessions and then are sitting in a lounge area, comfy couches, feet up, just chatting about anything BUT the conference to bring some sanity to their exhausted brains.

Is that the time to be approached by yet another vendor trying to sell their wares? Is that overstepping the boundary of respect?

That’s what I saw. It was not a long conversation, but a vendor (who was not exhibiting but just “walking the floor”) was obviously catching these delegates anywhere and doing their “thang”.

Quick conversation, “I think I can really help you” and handing out their card. Gone.

Brilliant? Resourceful? Brazen? Unscrupulous? Unbelievable? Workin’ it good?

I can accept having a conversation – ‘how about the weather’ ‘what do you think of (insert you favorite sports team here) ‘ - and if it is appropriate, then exchanging the “so what do you do”.

Build relationships and woo.

But hunting these vulnerable delegates out and BAM POW with a bunch of sugar smack selling!!! I don't think so.

What do you think? Seriously, what do you think?

Well, I did approach these three lovely ladies that had just had their space entered, and NO I DID NOT SELL THEM ANYTHING – I asked them how they felt about what just happened. Interesting answer.

Maybe we should issue those sales people with little black masks and capes so that they can fly in – BAM POW SUGAR SMACK – do their thang – and be gone.

We can see them coming and duck.

Post by Rita Jackson (join HRmarketer on Twitter!)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

7th Annual What’s Next Boomer Business Summit Announced


HRmarketer.com and it's sister product for the Boomer/senior caregiving marketplace SeniorCareMarketer.com will be attending, sponsoring, exhibiting and speaking at the 7th Annual What’s Next Boomer Business Summit.

Learn more about this event and register here.

Why am I posting this on a human resources blog?

Because you cannot discuss the aging population without discussing it's impact on the workplace. And because some HR vendors (and HR professionals) who read this blog will want to attend this event.

I discussed this relationship in a previous blog post titled Baby Boomers, The Aging Population and Human Resources.

In that post I wrote that I'm already seeing some senior care vendors enter the HR space by repackaging and introducing their B2C products/services to employers as elder care type benefits. One of these companies is Heartmath. There is also a new product category -- Brain Fitness and Cognitive software firms like Happy Neuron showing up in human resources shopping lists (training product for aging workers). And I am seeing forward thinking HR vendors enter the B2C space by repackaging their services for aging boomers and/or caregivers. Or putting a new twist on their corporate offerings to capitalize on this demographic change - including some talent management and T&D firms.

In another post Seniors Fuel Increase in Career-Site Visitors. The Bigger Picture we discussed the aging population's impact on employers. In particular, how every company will have to rethink recruitment and retention.

So check out the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit. Some of the speakers include:
  • Kevin Donnellan, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, AARP
  • Mark Graham, Senior Vice President, iVillage.com
  • Dr. Stan Humphries, Chief Economist, Zillow.com
  • Andy Cohen, Founder and CEO, Caring.com
  • Jody Holtzman, Senior Vice President, Research and Strategic Analysis, AARP
  • Gary Moulton, Aging Coordinator/Product Manager, Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group
  • Bud Myers, Senior Director of Merchandising, firstSTREET

Social media fuels the face-to-face fire. Feel the burn.

If you could have 5 leads or 500, which would you choose?

Duh, right?

Now, what if you could have 5 qualified prospects versus 500 cold unqualified leads, which would you choose?

Or for that matter, 5 qualified influencers in your court versus 500 cold leads?

Rita Jackson and I spent that last two days at the Onrec/Kennedy Expo, and if I've gotten anything through my thick skull this year, relationship building is the sum total of all marketing and sales growth. Not sourcing applicants from a job board or sending an email campaign to thousands of people. Part of the equation but not the sum total.

Social media fuels the face-to-face fire. Feel the burn.

That burn is growth. The relationships we take the time to build online via social media (marketing) foster real-time gatherings in coffee shops, on golf courses, at HR Happy Hours, at Fail Spectacularly's, at dinners, at conferences and expos, in airports, in trains stations, at bus stops - you name the physical and we're there.

Think about what that does to drive business across the local and global economies. Interesting related related research that @danschawbel tweeted about this about how social media encourages community interaction, not social isolation.

Get out and build. Onrec was the perfect intimate setting to do that. We exhibited as HRVendors.com and had many quality conversations with recruiters and suppliers.

I'll highlight my highlights in below, but first:

Social media fuels the face-to-face fire. Feel the burn.

So many parallels between recruiting, marketing and sales. Get out and build and woo.

Yes, I said woo.

During Don Ramer's fabulous presentation based on Arbita's The Recruitment Genome Project, he said that the word recruit comes from the French word for "to woo".

And besides saying woo, I also tweeted that Don was rad, something I haven't said for two decades.

Get out and build and woo. Eric Winegardner (@ewmonster) from Monster sought out specific influencers at the show to talk about the cool new things Monster is doing (more on that in a future post).

The bees knees of the Expo was the launch of Tweetajob. Carmen Hudson's (@peopleshark) leverage of social media and networking really shined a light on this cool new company (more on that in a future post as well).

The world of marketing and recruiting has changed dramatically, but most of us haven't changed with it. The kids who grew up "connected" online are turning the tables on everything under the sun and so many marketers and recruiters still don't get it.

Afraid to connect. Afraid to get out and build and woo.

Social media fuels the face-to-face fire. Feel the burn.

Here are some other highlights and comments as I tweeted them during the sessions I sat in on:

  • Steve Lowisz from Qualigence says stop the recruiting insanity. Challenges remain the same, even though tools have changed.
  • Recruiting is about people. Recruitment mediums are only enablers.
  • HR/recruiting suppliers make your email marketing campaigns mobile friendly with readable text versions.
  • In 2008 over 90K employment discrimination complaints, 290 lawsuits and $102 mil paid out from employers. Average pay out- $250K (from InterviewStudio's Colleen Alyward).
  • Sitting in the applicant video session. Social media to source, but don't be a hater discriminater when hiring.
  • Positive "interruption marketing" strategies in recruitng parallel content marketing in product/service sales (via Peter Weddle's presentation)
  • Recruitment entering the era of the strategist and the specialist.
  • "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18 (via rad Don Ramer)
  • Arbita's Genome Project - the recruitment industry transition is upon us. "None of us is more important than all of us."
  • We rely on next best "silver bullet" instead of leveraging it in HR, recruiting, marketing. Add a werewolf to your gun rack.

Get out, build and woo your prospects and influencers. Get to them and let them get to know you.

These are the relationships that create community, grow business and retain it. (Just like recruiting.)

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now joinHRmarketer on Twitter!)


Monday, November 2, 2009

Is seniority dead to us? All I know is that I'm an average Joe. (Onrec/Kennedy 2009 and Fail Spectacularly)

So I'm sitting in a chair in the sky on Wi-Fi (can't get enough of that line) thinking about the conversation I overheard just two hours earlier on the long-term parking shuttle bus.

The bus driver was conversing with another airport transportation employee about being employed. She said something that struck me.

"My daughter works at Safeway and my son-in-law works for the fire department, and I keep telling them they need to stick to one job, work there a long time and build up that seniority. That's where the pay-off comes."

Seniority. Such an old-school term of entitlement and the old rules of employment. Granted, her context could've been more inclusive of building knowledge and experience, encompassing literal seniority as a well-rounded workforce to be reckoned with.

And you do hear that term in public safety (I had an entire family in law enforcement), retail, manufacturing, hospitality - goodness I heard it at our own marketing firm earlier this year.

So with all the focus these days on knowledge workers, competencies, performance management, employee and leadership development, flat management structures, mentoring programs, cross-functional training -- is "seniority" dead to us?

Even with the full moon early this morning, I don't think so.

I'm on my way to this year's Onrec/Kennedy Expo and look forward to meeting more of the "senior" HR/recruiting rock stars and talking with the attendees about all things recruitment, hiring, retention and seniority. (I'm just an average junior Joe who likes wearing jeans.)

Check out the fabulous line-up of topics the show has in store.

We're exhibiting as HRVendors.com (booth #101), the most comprehensive print buyers guide in the HR marketplace. We're also in HR.com's Virtual Onrec Expo.

We're also sponsoring the fantabulous Fail Spectacularly on Wednesday, November 4!

We'll see you all real soon.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now joinHRmarketer on Twitter!)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

When does the rebirth of the HR/Marketing collective occur? It's right there in our family tree.

I keep seeing much discussion about how human resources needs to be more business savvy and strategic and how they should work more closely with recruiting, internal and external branding, marketing and public relations. Outsource the backend administrative work and and work on identifying, hiring and developing long-term employees and growing the business.

I'm reading The Trouble with HR - same theme. Last night Amybeth Hale (The Research Goddess) initiated an important conversation about how recruiters should care about marketing and PR - similar theme. Brand for Talent recently posted a New Role in HR: A Hybrid, in that marketing should be a part of HR - same theme.

Wait a minute. Roll back tape. Almost, almost -- there it is!

C'mon. Really.

Aren't entrepreneurs and small businesses with initially limited to no staff this exact idealistic strategic hybrid? Like most of business in the HR marketplace and beyond?

Don't we:

  • Identify and market need and then plan and execute product/service development?
  • Identify, hire and development staff to build, market, sell and support said product/service development - i.e., talent management and business development alignment?
  • Conduct performance management reviews, offer training and development opportunities, employee recognition programs, etc.?
  • Create company and product/service brand messaging and marketing/PR strategy to generate publicity, traffic and leads and identify future talent?
  • Launch a blog and participate in social media to do the same?
  • Currently have no HR representation so we outsource payroll and backend administrative work?
The entrepreneurial bosom has been incubating this HR/Marketing collective for decades and yet as companies grow, these roles specialize and fragment and disconnect. I understand that we as small business leaders cannot be all things to all people and do them all well, but still, the framework is right there.

How is it we can bring them all back together again? When does the rebirth of the HR/Marketing collective occur?

It's right there in our family tree.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now joinHRmarketer on Twitter!)


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Your Website, Social Media and Content Marketing - So happy together...

If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together*

Someone twittered this little eMarketer gem the other day titled How Do You Measure Success - a survey of over 200 marketing managers that included these top three methods of how they measure success:

  • Number of new customers acquired
  • Number of leads generated
  • Over net increase in sales

I was surprised that customer retention was so far down on the list, but how do these gel with your companies?

More interesting for me were the top three "most effective ways to communicate with prospects and leads." Check it:

  • Corporate website
  • Social media
  • Custom content and media

Our latest marketing eBook is all over this and content marketing has been at the heart of our marketing methodology for years. You want your website found and you want to create fresh content to keep it being found (blogs are a search engine's best friend).

I'm just sayin'. The preliminary results of our latest HR buyer survey show that:

  • Over 50% of HR decision makers go online first to search for HR products and services, including HR informational websites (search-engine friendly content, content, content).
  • 26% search daily - 28% search weekly
  • Over 25% read blogs and participate in social media weekly

The survey is still open by the way, so if you're an HR pro reading this, please complete one! HR suppliers, send your customers the survey link.

Ah, yes...so happy together...

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now joinHRmarketer on Twitter!)

*"So Happy Together" - The Turtles


Thursday, October 22, 2009

When Free Releases and Social Media Press Releases Fall in a Forest of Silence

There's a reason why we've been telling HRmarketer members and clients for years to send text versions of their press releases direct to journalists and editors. I'm not talking about an Internet wire service distributions because I'll get to that shortly.

I'm talking about creating media distribution lists from our media outlets database and send releases directly to journalists and editors via their contact email. HTML releases will still get trapped most of the time as opposed to text releases, and most email clients - in particular Outlook 2007 - won't even download images unless you have your settings automated or download manually each time.

And it's really all about the content - the story - you're pitching, not whether or not it's visually appealing with images and formatting. Who cares? Journalists don't. Just look at AP stories online. Ensure your direct releases get read - send them as text releases. All URL's will still be read as live links, no worries there.

Next up is distributing via Internet wire services. Here's a question: if your release falls in a free-online-distribution-service forest, and no one can find it online, does it make a sound?

Not really. At least not compared to using paid services Business Wire, PRNewswire, Marketwire and our long-time favorite PRWeb (our Internet wire service partner of choice via our Direct2Net service).

In fact, check out these online statistics from a recent HRmarketer member distributed PRWeb release. It is definitely THE most cost-effective online distribution service that allows you to search-optimize your releases with keyword embedded links, attached files, images and more -- ensuring they'll be found in Google News and Yahoo News. And they be found not only by media but also prospects and other buying influencers.

A great post titled 5 Ways Free Press Release Sites Can Cost You from 30-Minute PR outlines the pros and mostly cons quite well. Here's a quick summary:

1. Extra time investment

Time is money. When you pay to distribute online press releases you can often rely on just one service, especially if you use big, established newswires like PR Newswire, BusinessWire and Marketwire. Even PRWeb can provide enough coverage to justify just using a single provider.

2. Online exposure and visibility

One reason to use multiple free press release sites is that you can’t rely on a single free press release site to deliver the typical coverage and exposure you receive from a paid site. Granted, you can increase visibility by paying to upgrade (see #3) but then that’s not a free press release site and it is costing you, right?

3. Upgrades = extra cost

Now this is an area that gets right to the bottom line. How do free press release sites stay in business? Well, advertising revenue is one way. Another is an upgrade fee. And then they're no longer free.

4. Performance metrics/course correcting

At a high level, you can view online press release metrics in two camps: external and internal. External includes search engine performance, keyword ranking, press release views/downloads and backlinks. Internal refers to how that traffic shows up to your website: visitors, conversions, etc.

5. Staying power

One of my most effective online PR strategies is creating evergreen content somewhere in the press release. That way, when the release is found via a keyword search, there is content still deemed relevant to the user.

And that's the long-lasting beauty of search-optimized releases being distributed online via our Direct2Net service - it's aggregated content found again and again as long as you're distributing regular press releases online. Those links keep on truckin' back to your site.

Lastly, what about all the hubbub over the past few years on social media press releases. Similar to free online distribution services, they just aren't indexed and found in search engines like paid distributed services are (again, Direct2Net/PRWeb).

Read this informative post titled Social Media Press Release Blown Away in Hail of Bullets.

As you can see in the graph, SMPR's just don't fair as well as traditional press releases do online.

The concept of social media press releases is cool - embedding rich visual content with RSS feeds to video, podcasts, etc. But they just aren't search-engine friendly. At least not yet.

Many of the new distribution options and PR measurement tools worked. But adding social media elements to press releases didn't. Blogs and other social media enable two-way conversation, but most press releases - even many of ones that use the social media format - are essays, not interviews; broadcasts, not conversations; lectures, not discussions.

Rebecca Corliss on HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog stated back in May, "Use social media and multimedia elements in your PR strategy, not your press releases."

Post your "social media press releases" with multimedia elements in your social media newsroom and make it a Destination Site - use other marketing and PR activities and traditional and online search-optimized release distribution methods to drive traffic to your content-rich site. The EmployeeScreenIQ University site is a great example of this.

For those of you who skipped to the end, look out for my falling trees:

  • Send traditional press releases direct to journalists in text format, not HTML or social media press releases.
  • Don't use free press release distribution services exclusively. Experiment if you want, but makes sure you use established paid services like PRWeb (Direct2Net) that will get your releases found in Google and Yahoo News.
  • Don't send social media press releases. Instead, create a social media newsroom destination site with all sorts of multimedia goodies to share via RSS with folk and use traditional and search-optimized press releases and social media marketing to drive people to it.

There you have it. Time for lunch.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter!)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The end of magic lacking in the HR marketplace

I first wrote about the cult of personality in the HR marketplace almost two years ago, and although the closest I've ever personally come to stardom is playing the role of Epstein in a sixth-grade Mad magazine spoof of Welcome Back, Kotter, the magic lacking since in our space has been palatable.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of quality HR supplier leaders in the HR marketplace, but after reading John Sumser's post earlier this week on where Recruiting.com is now, you wonder where the Jason Goldberg's are today. You've got Larry Ellison from Oracle, but that's an anomaly of sorts, out of our mainstream.

Just as we're looking for HR to shake things up and be a dynamic business leader in today's organizations, I'd like to make the same call to CEOs and Executive Management in our space to shake things up and be dynamic leaders in the greater global business pool. Find an edge and jump and instill that in your culture from the inside out (great call with Vocii about this yesterday).

The space is too buttoned down still and supplier differentiation is tough for HR buyers. And all the marketing and PR in the world isn't clearing the clutter. Eat some Apples.

Ah, but there's a new consolidation taking place between supplier and cult of personality.

Prolific and trusted HR bloggers, especially those who are refreshingly direct, sometimes brash, occasionally irreverent, let your hair down and die it purple in your face let's do this thing called HR supernova who owns your ass and don't you forget about it --

Or, just simply refreshingly direct, are now merging with HR suppliers.

YourHRGuy (Lance Haun) went to MeritBuilder. Jobing.com acquired Cheezhead (Joel Cheesman). And this week RecruitingBlogs.com acquired Punk Rock HR (Laurie Ruettimann).

It's the end of magic lacking in the HR marketplace and the beginning of the new rock star content marketing differentiator. Who's next?

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter!)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

You're sitting in a chair in the sky, so while you're up there appreciating it all, start a helpful conversation.

There's a very funny video making the rounds on Facebook with comedian Louis C.K. doing his schtick on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. If you're interested, watch it here.

The whole point of the bit is the fact that we've become impatiently complacent take-for-granted magic-bullet-biting babies. One of my favorite lines is when he's taking about flying and how so many people don't appreciate how far we've come with global transportation.

Did you partake in the miracle of human flight? You're sitting in a chair in the sky. It's amazing.

Amazing indeed. Unfortunately we want our oompa loompas right now and it's multi-generational. I don't know how many HR Suppliers I've spoken with who send out one direct marketing campaign or one search-optimized press release with the expectation they will have throngs of buyers and media flocking like bugs to a porch light.

The bigger the number the better. Qualifying fit comes later. Five hundred unqualified Webinar registrants versus five highly qualified and motivated buyers. Which would you choose?

Now jump to the fact that with all the "now" technology we have today to help keep us organized and focused, the true average length of time we can focus on a project is 11 minutes before being interrupted. (Based on research referenced in The Myth of Multitasking, which I highly recommend.)

11 minutes.

I can't even get dressed by myself in 11 minutes much less spend any quality reviewing HR supplier pitches for a new [insert product and/or service here]. No wonder disruptive marketing doesn't work.

In marketing and sales, we're focused so much on the brand slamming and the product/service pitch, thinking that our messaging alone will convince our buyers to knock on the door and come on in for coffee and a contract.

But there are so many other factors involved on the buyer side - so many political, financial, switch and background tasking craziness, and other circumstantial factors - most of which we know nothing about and/or we never try to address.

Recently we were on a call with a supplier interested in our agency services, and I assumed based on how well it went, that the deal was in the bag.

The same bag that keeps getting kicked down the road, for no other reason other than they're still getting their ducks in row.

How many times have you heard that? What the heck is going on?

I just ordered Dirty Little Secrets where the author deals with the fact that:

One of the problems we're having selling now is not about a buyer's need, or our solution: it's the internal, behind-the-scenes issues buyers are having difficulty managing internally. And these issues are now very politically motivated and economy-driven.

I look forward to reading it, but in the meantime what can we do?

  • Continue best practices content marketing to help educate your buyers and build thought leadership, credibility and trust (white papers, webcasts, podcasts, etc.).
  • Develop buyer and influencer relationships via social media by investing the time and staff needed to do so (read our eBook).
  • Speaking of influencer relationships - start a business blog, identify those blogs you should be reading, and participate in your industry conversations. This is the new media you can no longer afford to ignore.
  • Revisit HR trade shows to develop buyer and influencer relationships - the face-to-face interaction is critical and social media fuels this. The investments are big with sometimes little immediate return, but if you want to get what's going on, include these activities.
  • I can't emphasize enough - focus on developing relationships with your buyers and influencers. Period. Get to know them.
  • Send your prospects helpful resources like The Myth of Multitasking or other HR-business-related resources completely unrelated to your product pitch - help them help themselves.
  • And lastly, ask your current customers why they bought and what were the "behind-the-scenes" issues they had to manage. They are your immediate champions - ask them.
  • And just as important, courtesy of an invaluable comment from @loismelbourne co-founder of Aquire, It is also very valuable to ask questions of the people that didn't buy from you. If you treated them right during the buying process, they will often share their reasoning for choosing against you, or for making no decision at all.

You're sitting in a chair in the sky, so while you're up there appreciating it all, start a helpful conversation.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)