Simplify Selling With Technology and AI

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According to multiple studies, sales reps spend less than one-third of their time actually  “selling”.

Meanwhile, selling itself has become more complex than ever before, with more administrative work required for each sale. With the virtual world allowing more buyers to be more involved in every conversation, sellers are simply overwhelmed and unable to stay on top of the multitude of tasks and touchpoints.

You might be asking yourself, how could AI solve this problem?  Doesn’t more technology lead to more complexity?

And the answer is yes, it can — if not implemented properly.

The #1 reason for using AI in sales, according to a recent Harvard Business Review article, is to make a sales rep’s life easier, not harder. If used properly, Artificial Intelligence can be a powerful tool and act as a teammate for a salesperson.

AI can handle the non-selling activities – preparing for meetings, researching industries, updating the CRM, and handling all manner of repetitive tasks, allowing the salesperson to increase the amount of time they spend building relationships, finding opportunities, and ultimately — closing deals.

These benefits don’t apply to only enterprise level companies.  Entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small businesses have just as much to gain from this time-saving technology.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Access Management predicts that if implemented properly, AI could be used to save 27% of a sales rep’s time.  Since, as noted above, those sales reps are now spending only one third of their time selling, might technology at least double their effectiveness?

Artificial Intelligence is still advancing, and, every day, we are learning more about how to make the most efficient use of it.

 It’s still early in the game. For salespeople, the key is staying informed enough to not be left behind.

Today’s guest post was contributed by Jordan Ledwein,”the AI Sales Guy”. A Certified Sandler Trainer and a Partner in Sales Lift, a HubSpot Agency, is a frequent guest on Sandler podcasts and webinars, sharing strategies to help sales professionals combine methodology and technology and “sell smarter”. For more information, check out https://www.sandler.com/training-centers/i10-solutions-llc/ and https://saleslift.com/  .

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Content Creators Need to Think Like Wolves

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After re-visiting Michael Breus’ book The Power of When, I’ve concluded that, in order to create marketing content for a business or practice over the long-term, we need to think like wolves….

The book, based on circadian biology, explains that there is a best time for each of us to eat lunch, ask for a raise, write a novel, and take our meds, depending on our individual “chronotype”. 50% of people are Bears (who prefer a solar based schedule and have a high sleep drive). Dolphins are light sleepers, while Lions are morning-oriented. The author describes wolves as “night-oriented creative extroverts” with a medium sleep drive.

From a content-marketing point of view, a key clue may be found on Page 77 of Breus’ book, where the author notes that “wolves see every situation from multiple vantage points”.  The big thing about content marketing, I’ve often explained to business owners and professional practitioners, is learning how to keep on keeping on. No doubt about it, sustaining content writing over long periods of time without losing reader (or writer!) excitement is the real challenge, one that “wolves” are best equipped to handle using their ability to approach the topic from “multiple vantage points”.

  • In order to add variety, I teach content writers to experiment with different formats, including how-to posts, list posts, opinion pieces, and interviews.
  • Different articles can present the same business from different vantage points, “featuring” different employees and different departments within the company.
  • Individual posts – or series of posts – can be tailored to different segments of the customer base.
  • Different pieces of content can offer valuable information and advice relating to different aspects of the business’ or the practice’s product or service offerings.

While “wolves are creative and completely open to trying new things,” the author cautions, “they do run into some trouble sticking with it”. Breus’ advice? “Be spontaneous about the direction you choose, so long as you take walks and eat meals on your correct bio time.”

My own advice, meanwhile, is that sustaining an engaging business blog  over the course of years is very do-able – so long as you stay engaged.  Keep learning by “reading around” – books, blogs, articles, magazines, almanacs – you name it, all to stay aware of developments, cultural changes, even controversies.

Whatever your circadian biology, in content writing, it helps to think like a wolf!

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Grounding Yourself in Purpose

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“Some ideas just stick,” Laura Spence-Ash tells writers in Poets & Writers magazine. It’s important for writers to pay attention and find patterns and concepts that they themselves find pleasing, using those patterns to “find a way forward” in expressing ideas to their readers, the author explains.

“Sticky” ideas are important in content marketing, because they help the different elements – social media posts, blog posts, web pages and newsletters – “fit together” as components in an ongoing strategy. At Say It For You, we use the musical term leitmotifs. “The leitmotif is heard whenever the composer (of, say, an opera) wants the idea of a certain character, place, or concept to come across,” Chloe Rhodes explains in A Certain “Je Ne Sais Quoi.

In planning content marketing strategy for your business or professional practice, one important step, we explain to our clients, is to select four or five themes that are important to your point of view. As their marketing consultants, we will then make sure those themes appear and reappear in all their marketing communications.

Not to be confused with “keyword phrases”, themes express desirable outcomes resulting from successful use of a product, a service, or a methodology. For example, a residential air conditioning firm might use keywords such as “air conditioning”, “HVAC”, and “air conditioning repair”. The recurring themes, in contrast, might be “comfort” and “a healthy home environment”.

When owners express doubt about their ability to keep generating new content, I often remind them of late CEO of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs. Biographer Walter Isaccson noted that Jobs owned more than a hundred black turtlenecks.  Not only was this convenient, but it conveyed Jobs’ signature style. For much the same reason, defining “sticky” concepts about your industry, your products, and your services, helps, not only in keeping content focused and targeted,  but keeping it going! 

“Grounding yourself in purpose” means focusing on the ideas and the phrases that you find “stick in your mind”, on principles so valuable to you that you feel compelled to share them with your audience.  Use those “sticky” word patterns and concepts to “find the way forward”, feeling compelled to share those ideas with readers.

 

 

 

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No-Nos — and OKs — for Content Writers

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Earlier this week in my Say It For You blog, I showed how Mark Byrnes’ cautionary advice to financial advisors applies to creating content for blog posts, newsletters, and even emails. Today’s post represents my reaction to a list of common grammar rules Words Trivia thinks we content writers should actually break. 

The way the Words Trivia editors see things, overly strict grammar rules “leave writers constrained and limited in their expression”.  As a content writer and trainer, I agree – but only when it comes to some of those rules the editors claim are made-to-be-broken. I’d say “yes”, for example, to starting sentences with “and” or “but” to connect ideas and add flow, and “yes” to splitting the occasional infinitive.

  1. I most definitely concur with breaking the rule about maintaining consistent sentence structure and length throughout a piece. As the editors correctly point out, mixing short and long sentences can create a rhythm, emphasize certain ideas, and prevent monotony.
  2. Frankly, my feelings are mixed when it comes to embracing the “singular they“.  “They” may have been accepted in modern writing (going along with society’s respect for those who do not identify within the binary gender system).  However, rather than the highly awkward “Every nurse should take care of his/her own uniform and cover the expense him/herself”,  or “Every nurse should take care of their own uniforms…” (which still grates on my ear), I’d write simply, “Nurses should take care of their own uniforms, covering the expense themselves.” By being gender-neutral, we writers can avoid being either awkward or gender-insensitive. 
  3. In terms of using double negatives to emphasize contradiction, saying “I can’t get no satisfaction” may be fine for Rodney Dangerfield, but (sorry to disagree), not for marketing content writers.  Sure, as Forbes points out, humor is attention-grabbing and can serve to make business owners more relatable, but it can also cheapen ideas and even be offensive.

Yes, I know the online crowd likes to be informal, and yes, blog posts are supposed to be less formal and more personal in tone than traditional websites. But when content of any type appears in the name of your business (or in the case of our Say It For You writers, in the name of the business owned by one of our clients, the brand is being “put out there” for all to see.

My advice on content writing “no-nos” and “OKs” – Find the fine line between letting rules constrain your creativity and getting a grip on your grammar!

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Content Writing Mistakes to Avoid Like the Plague

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Mark Byrnes’ cautionary advice is meant for financial advisors, but some of the social media mistakes he’s telling his readers to avoid are warnings all content writers need to hear, and apply to blog posts, newsletters, and even email correspondence.

  • Not being authentic

Content that does not line up well with the firm’s brand or even the advisor’s unique individual brand will most likely be rejected by readers, Byrnes warns.

In your blog or newsletter, we teach at Say It For You, allow people to hear your distinct voice. Got limitations? Those may be precisely what makes you seem real to your readers. 

  • Being too salesy

Rather than boasting about all your own capabilities, put the target market first,  encouraging the audience by asking questions and conducting polls, the author suggests.

The tactic of using questions in titles is one I’ve often suggested to content writers, because often we can help searchers formulate their own questions by presenting one in the blog post or newsletter itself. 

  • Being too long winded

If content rambles on and on, viewers will click away and abandon anything that does not get to the point, Byrnes cautions.

Attempting to cover too much ground in a single blog post or even article, we lose focus, straining readers’ attention span.  Each post, I teach in content creation sessions, should contain a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of the business or practice.  

  • Taking the foot off the gas

Maintain consistency. Creating a steady stream of content takes time and patience. Interviewing other thought leaders and creating strategic alliances are ways to keep the content momentum going, Brynes suggests.

After years of being involved in all aspects of content creation for business owners and professional practitioners, one irony I’ve found is that consistency and frequency are rare phenomema. There’s a tremendous content fall-off rate, with most efforts abandoned months or even weeks after they’re begun. Yet, as online marketing guru Neil Patel stresses, websites that publish regular, high-quality content provide real value to users.

  • Hiding your personal side

Advisors should write about their involvement in community and in fundraising efforts, sharing their passions.

Content can focus on personal anecdotes relating to the owners’ community involvements and even to community happenings and concerns. 

  • Ignoring the trends

What are your clients and prospects doing online and why?  What has changed?

One rule of thumb in content marketing, we know at Say It For You, is to narrow down the target audience.  To be an effective marketing tool for your business, your content must be aimed at a specific segment of the market. Ask yourself : “Who are my readers?  What do they need?  Where are they ‘hanging out’ online?” 

All those “no-nos” listed in Financial Advisor Magazine? Content writers – take heed!.

 

 

 

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