Linda Bishop, President of Thought Transformation

Time is the ultimate level playing field. We all get 24 hours in a day. If you use your time better than the competition, you’ll outsell them. So who are you going to see this week? Are you visiting prospects and customers where there are loads of profitable opportunities to explore?

Or are you seeing Likeable Larry? This guy doesn’t buy much but he’s always glad to see you and you enjoy the conversation.

Everyone repeat after me. “NOT ALL CUSTOMERS ARE CREATED EQUAL.”

Stop calling on Larry. Instead, spend time with customers who have big potential and help you grow your sales.

For more information on Thought Transformation please visit www.thoughttransformation.com or visit Linda’s blog at www.salesisnotforsissies.com.

Dale Rothenberger, VP of The Winters Group & Associates

Today I heard the news that Ben and Jerry’s (you know, the ice cream guys) is abandoning its e-mail marketing initiatives to focus exclusively on social media advertising. Customers provided feedback that the majority of them would prefer to be contacted on social media sites. Going forward, it will send one e-mail update each year to customers, and focus on using its Facebook and Twitter profiles to engage regularly.

Last week, Ford announced it was skipping the 2011 model Auto Show, choosing instead to unveil the newly designed Ford Explorer on Facebook. Obviously, Ford’s success of its purely digital Ford Fiesta Movement, has proven you can rely on the digital (and social) channel to build interest in selling cars.

Starbucks, became the world’s first consumer brand to achieve 10 million fans on Facebook. And on July 21st Facebook announced that it has passed the 500 million member mark – in just six short years.

Is it safe to say that the mobile advertising equation is beginning to add up? According to Nielson, there are now 63 million mobile web users in the US alone, and global mobile advertising will grow 19 percent to $3.3 Billion by end of this year.

This is really good news for our industry.

Customers are now in control – they have to raise their hands to ask for details. Using today’s print technology to capture and nurture a prospect until they are ready to buy uses every communication channel, and who knows better on how to collect and segment data once collected?

Today’s smart Purl’s and QR codes offer the customer benefits they do not have otherwise in this social communication environment. The customer can pick up targeted information and offer feedback. In fact message relevancy has been shown to increase conversion rates by as much as 20X compared to the traditional method of one-size fits all messaging.

What are you doing to keep up with technology in this social space? Have you opened a corporate account on Facebook? Do you have a blog on your site? Are you using video as part of your messaging? Are your videos findable on Utube?

This is the year for companies to jump into social media. Search Facebook for your competitors. Set up a business account on Twitter. Participate on blogs and LinkedIn postings. Find out what your customers are experiencing so you can better recommend and be an active partner with them as social media evolves.

It’s no longer marketing as “eyeballs and ears” but rather “hearts and minds”.

Noah Knoble, Account Executive, Conley Printing

How much do you know about your prospect? If you are doing your homework I am sure you know what book they are reading, where they may have traveled to recently, maybe right down to their birthday and whether or not they are married before you even make the phone call (in addition to the knowledge you should already possess in regards to their business). Now ask yourself, “What do I know about the gatekeeper?” A gatekeeper is a definition us sales people have coined for someone we have to get through in order to get to the decision maker. I am sure we all have gatekeepers that we just can’t seem to get past. If you are all too familiar with the situation regarding the gatekeeper, quickly ask yourself what you have tried to get through. Do you know their first name? Do you know their last name or even the title of their position?

So how do you get through the gatekeeper and to the prospect? Empower them. Empowering someone is the greatest gift you can give a person. Utilize the gatekeeper to make them feel like they play an important role in the decision process. Use tools such as LinkedIn to seek them out. Once you have earned their trust, ask them to introduce you to the decision maker via LinkedIn or over the phone. If they are on Twitter, follow them and get to know who they follow. There is not a more important fan or cheerleader to have than the gatekeeper. Think about it, they see the decision maker every day, they field calls for them, and probably set their schedules too. The gatekeeper plays one of the most important roles for the decision maker, so naturally this person is the one your prospect is likely to trust the most. Make a friend and a fan out of them, ask them to help you, because if you have earned their trust… they will. Finally, you never know when the gatekeeper might just become the decision maker. Next time you are about to call that prospect you just can’t seem to get a hold of, shift your focus a bit, and make the call about getting to know the gatekeeper. If you act as if they are the one you are calling to talk to soon they will become your greatest asset.

So Red Rover Red Rover send the Gatekeeper over.