Technology and sales go hand-in-hand, but it’s often hard to know which pieces of technology you should choose for your sales goals. John Davis of Three Martini Lunch explains some general sales strategies for small businesses and then dives into an explanation of some of the best technology for sales teams (with just a few shameless plugs for his own apps).
Not enough time? Catch the short, short version below the video.
What’s The First Step In Becoming A Successful Manufacturer Or Rep Company?
Number 1: Narrow your focus: Whatever type of work you’re doing, try to narrow your focus to one or two things. You’ll find that your company does best when it says, “We are going to go after target X” where target X is very precisely defined. The more definition and structure you put around the goal, the better. We know you want to do a million and one things, but gear it down big shifter! A narrowed focus is much more effective.
Number 2: Take care of your brand and your reputation: Deliver the best product or service that you can. When customers have successive positive experiences with your company, you build up good business karma. Nobody likes a jerk, and nobody buys from a jerk (unless they’re Donald Trump), so keep that customer service level high to reflect best on your brand and reputation.
How Has Technology Changed The Way These Marketing And Sales Strategies Look?
Robots sell everything now. Just kidding (but only sort of). The key to technology and sales is this: technological tools have to augment the existing sales process, not replace it. Technology is changing handshake meetings and sales calls only in the way they are being set up, but for large B2B purchases, the face-to-face meetings and phone calls still have to happen. As John says, “I have a hard time believing that existing marketing and sales strategies will ever be replaced.”
How Do Outside Reps Fit Into The Picture With Ecommerce/Direct Sales Being Easier Than Ever?
Know your process and have a strategy. Technology is a strategy right? Wrong! Technology is only a tool that augments your existing strategy. You need to know exactly when and how to engage your reps and distributors (without consulting the NSA) so that when you pass them your pre-qualified leads, they can close the loop. Sales and marketing are two separate things, and reps and distributors are not marketers: their job is to close the business.
Ecommerce and direct sales are just tools that can make the end goal more attainable; however, technology can help speed along the process. For instance, a dedicated CRM system can help the sales cycle move much more quickly and efficiently, and it can make the experience better for everyone involved, especially the end customer. The technological tools are not the strategy: they just help the process along.
In one example of this, John’s most successful manufacturers get a 2-to-1 return on dollars spent when using Google AdWords, through which they are able to send in 4 to 5 leads a day.
What Tools Are Available That People Just Aren’t Taking Advantage Of
CRMs
If you’re starting from the ground up, a good first step is getting a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management system) so you know who you’re marketing to. Also, get someone to look at your CRM to break all that data down into usable statistics, and follow these two steps when picking a CRM:
- Make sure you get something that is online! If you get something that only exists on your server, you’ll end up with angry, hulk-smash reps, less sales, and thousands of dollars wasted on an unused CRM
- Make sure your data is portable. Picking a CRM is a major task, so make sure your data can be easily exported and then imported into a new system to avoid major migraines in the future. Whatever CRM you pick today will probably need to change as your business grows, and you don’t want to a nightmare, 3-month-long breakup, so choose your CRM wisely.
Cloud Computing
Next, get cloud everything. Seriously, if you can put your entire office in the cloud, do it. Cloud computing (having someone else host your data) is so much better than having your data on site. Whether for email, CRM, or otherwise, find a reputable company and go with it: cloud computing will make your life so much easier and fluffier. Well, maybe just easier.
One of John’s favorite, simple tools is Gmail. Not all email systems are the same. John (and everyone else not using America Online in 1994) uses Gmail because it’s a database: you can keep information in it forever, so you never lose an email. John hasn’t deleted an email since 2008, which is amazing, and scares us a little. The bottom line? Get an email provider that has no limit on the amount of information you can store.
The next cloud tool is Evernote. John says, “It’s like my second brain! I use it constantly.” It’s a cloud based note system, and in addition to writing notes and making lists, you can add (and annotate) pictures, receipts, and PDF’s (all of which are searchable). For those of us without a personal secretary, Evernote comes in a close second (it gets first place when it starts bringing me coffee).
Other Apps
Calendly is another excellent app. It’s connected to your Google calendar, and it lets you create different types of meetings and send out a link that shows blocked out time where you’re available to meet with a customer. People can set a meetup time right from the link instead of the sending 5000 emails to figure out you can only meet Saturday at midnight.
CustomerMapr and LineCard (John’s Apps)
As for John’s own super-cool technology, the first app plugged is CustomerMapr, which shows you which customers are nearby your location or any location you choose. And no, it’s not a stalker app! It just looks up addresses you already have in your contacts.
It’s not connected to an NSA database, so it doesn’t show you where people are in real time, but it does send out an email to contacts whose addresses are near you to see if they are interested in meeting up (they may not actually be in the area). Customer Mapper makes it possible to convert a failed business trip (where a customer has backed out of meeting for whatever reason) into a successful business trip with another customer.
LineCard, unsurprisingly, is an app for displaying your line card of product lines. In the app, you can set up categories of products, and then upload PDF’s, promotions, videos etc on a website, which then shows your uploaded items in the app for all the sales people in the field to use. Let’s you get rid of those dusty old binders that sales people keep around their offices and put everything on your smart phone.
LineCard let’s manufacturers push information out to the field quickly and easily to engage with their salespeople. For businesses with multi-channel sales channels, engaging 1% to 2% more of those salespeople on a daily basis can do fantastic things for sales.
How Should People Start Scoping Their Own Technology Project?
It depends: When it comes to mobile app creation, having a clear focus applies a billion times more to app development. Mobile apps are expensive (easily tens of thousands of dollars), so you need a clear strategy of how you will engage with it and, even more importantly, how it will pay for itself! John’s first question is “Hey, are you SURE you want to do this?!” If they’re crazy enough to do it, then they go from there.
If it’s something simpler, like “What kind of computer should I use for my business?” John asks “Well, what do you do?” It’s very situation based.
It’s all audience audience audience. Ask yourself, “Who is this for? What is it supposed to do? Is it going to pay for itself?” Don’t just start randomly creating apps or adding technology to your business because they seem like cool ideas! It’s like coming up with a new product: make sure it’s in line with what you already do.
You don’t want your app developer to just say “how high” when you tell them to jump. You want a partner who will help you reach your goals by using their expertise to point you in the right direction.
How You Can Get A Hold of John to Buy His Cool Apps
To get a hold of John about any of his advanced applications, check out the following links:
Email: jd@linecardapp.com
Twitter: @johnprdavis
Download LineCard: linecardapp.com
Download CustomerMapr: Download from the app store
John’s Rep Company: pauldavisautomation.com
