I was planning on writing another blog post until the last minute when I decided to write this one instead due to some hard times that have hit home in the triangle area. As I am sure everyone has heard, iContact was acquired and then scaled down causing some layoffs to old colleagues of mine who I also consider friends. This got me thinking about what would make this situation easier on everyone involved. Of course a new job would be great, but there are ways to get jobs a lot faster when unexpected things like this occur. The one that I have always done and will continue to do is network with different people! If you keep your well full prior to getting thirsty, chances of going without water are a lot lower.
When it comes to keeping food on the table in this economy and during these tough times, it is all about who you know. That is why it is extremely important to build up a network of connections that you can fall back on if needed at any point. You may be in a situation where you think you are safe now and love your job, but you never know what life brings so my advice is to always be prepared.
The best way to network and build both professional and personal relationships is by going into every conversation as a sales opportunity. And when I say this, I don’t mean telling your whole life story and why you are the best at what you do. Make it a goal that when you are done with that conversation, they leave with the feeling that you are a stand up person and it is someone you would want to get beers with and hangout with again.
Another way to generate a great network is to help people in need that you may or may not know. This act alone could open doors that you may have never expected. If you put yourself out there for someone not expecting anything in return, chances are they are on your side for the long haul. If they don’t reciprocate in the future, don’t count it as a loss because I guarantee you will feel pretty damn good about yourself. I will take karma on my side any day.
These two things are great, but if there is no follow up, you may as well not even start the process. There are tools that make it a lot easier to follow up today so why not take advantage of them? One of the best tools out there for professional networks is LinkedIn. After each personal or professional interaction, it is smart to connect on LinkedIn to keep that well full. Then, if you come across an article or something that will help one of your connections, send it off to them and stay in touch. People remember those little things and it can make a difference at one point down the line because you never know who your connections know and so forth.
It also never hurts to go to various networking events in your area. This is a great way to build up more connections locally while you are still in a good situation. You may meet someone there that is not in a good situation and have the opportunity to lend a helping hand.
Of course, I never wish these hard times on anyone, but I also think it is a life lesson to learn from at the same time. It is extremely important to realize that all jobs are temporary as you never know what may happen. So, if you are consistently networking you will put yourself in better shape in the future. Lastly, if there is something I can be helpful with for anyone, don’t hesitate to reach out. I may not be able to help personally, but I can definitely point you in the right direction.-Ron
Go Bold or Go Home in your Sales Communications
When starting at Adzerk, I was basically given the reins to the sales process so I started doing research to find the best ways to handle customers that you are talking with through the sales process. I have always been told to ‘be brief, be bold and be gone’ in different sales trainings, but I wanted to make sure that point hit home when creating the process from scratch. I relied on past experiences from different Sales Executives I have worked with along with doing some research on the best ways to accomplish this. The result: a sales process that has the highest engagement rate that I have seen.
The first couple of months in the early stages of creating the sales process, the interactions went okay, but the response from my communications were minimal at best. They were your run of the mill sales emails. Here is an example of one of them:
Hey there,
First off, welcome to Adzerk. We look forward to working with you and your ad serving needs. I wanted to introduce myself as your point of contact through your trial account with Adzerk and also go over some suggestions on how to make the most out of your trial with us.
Are you free in the coming days to discuss in more detail?
Short and sweet, yes, but I found myself not getting much from this even when people were responding. Another big downside to this email is there was no real value to the customer. Every email you get today says how their product is the latest and greatest. So that left Adzerk lingering in the inbox with all of the other ‘awesome’ emails you get on a daily basis. I am not one to stick in with a crowd, so this was just not cutting it for me. On to the next one…
I had to add value, something that would make the customer say ‘I’m glad I read that, it was helpful.’ One asset I hadn’t taken advantage of yet was our one-of-a-kind blog in the ad operations industry, the Run of Network blog (I would be surprised if you didn’t want to read it after that endorsement). I decided to start adding it to some of my emails to add value if they aren’t ready to buy or just looking around. Here is how the new email looked:Hey there,
I wanted to touch base with you now that it has been about a week since you signed up for your trial account to see how things were progressing. I also wanted to see what you were looking to use Adzerk for so I can point you in the right direction and offer some helpful suggestions on how to get the most out of your trial account with us.
When do you have a few minutes to connect to go over these details?
In the meantime, I think you will find our run of network blog beneficial because we update it regularly with useful ad operation articles. You can find it here: http://runofnetwork.adzerk.com
Again, short and sweet, but nothing happened as a result of this email. The customer may have got some valuable information, which I am pumped about, but where did it leave me - no where. On to the next one…
Finally, I decided to ‘Go Bold or Go Home’ after doing some major research on the topic. I decided I wanted to come up with bold ways to make the customer chuckle, stand out in the sea of emails and find out what I needed to know about each and every customer. Do they all respond? No. But, I can at least imagine that they got a good laugh out of my communications and I find out pretty quick if they are serious or not. I stumbled upon a blog post from our friend, Eric Boggs over at Argyle Social that mentioned the exact same points with some examples so I started work on some iterations of what they had. Here is a look at one of many emails that are brief and bold:
Hey there,
You’ve had your Adzerk account for a while now and I noticed you still haven’t scratched the surface on what Adzerk can do for you. I’ve reached out before but we haven’t heard from you regarding your use of Adzerk so I’m hoping you can simply tell me which option best describes where you stand:
A. We haven’t made a decision yet, but Adzerk looks freakin’ awesome! We just need one more reason to pull the trigger.
B. I’ll be serving ads soon, settle down. it takes time to move ad serving over.
C. You made my day! I serve over 100 million impressions each month or have a unique set of requirements and would like to talk to you about a custom package.
D. Adzerk did not fit my needs - leave me alone (Note: it would be real helpful to get your feedback on why it was not a fit so we can make sure we don’t waste anyone else’s time) :)
E. I just want to see how long I have to ignore you before you’ll stop sending me emails.
Let me know what option suits you and I can act accordingly.
As you can see, my goal was to make the person reading it laugh and get into a normal conversation with me. No need to make them feel tense about a cool product right? My thoughts exactly. It actually serves other purposes for us as well. One, it gives the customer an easy response to the email. All they have to do is put A, B, C, D or E in a reply email to me. It also allows us to see where the customer is at in their buying cycle. Don’t decide for them, let them tell you. If they just send an email back that says B for example, I know to back off and let them do their thing. This folks is what I like to call a win-win solution.
This email, along with other iterations have become a big part of the sales process at Adzerk and our customers love getting them now. Like I mentioned previously, it is the highest engagement rate I have personally seen in a sales role. If you don’t believe me, check out a couple of awesome comments from customers:I’m waiting to see what happens if I don’t respond ;) the emails get better and better haha
I am just checking what it is about. It seems to be interesting but I am looking more for places to advertise our product than to show other ads on our websites. So probably A ;)
Warning: If you do it correctly, you will get a lot of smiley faces in your reply emails and it will make you feel good about yourself.
I am always up for seeing other cool emails that companies use, so If you have any cool sales communications, I would love to see them. You can either post here or shoot me a quick email ron [at] adzerk [.] com.
