The Sales Equation: Explained.

I often describe our approach to marketing as based on two simple principles. They are 1) the flow of information and 2) the exchange of information. The exchange of information leading to a resolution... this is how we describe sales.

At the end of the day, we are all in sales. Some organizations are order-taking businesses and some have to work a sales equation in order to get new business. (Misunderstanding how media buys works with this is a whole other blog but, let me say, this is a major small business problem.) When marketing a small business, particularly a professional service, it is vital to understand how the sales equation is enabled by marketing. This is how you get a truly in-concert marketing and sales program that results in sales.

So, in a nutshell, this is how we apply this principle to marketing. Sales is the exchange of information leading to a resolution. This requires participation from two parties: someone or something from your business and the prospect or prospective patient. In other words, we want to start and maintain as many conversations as possible. This gives your sales person a chance to use their selling skills to make sales. Very little business closes itself, so participation is key.

In the old days, a sales person was limited by capacity, or the number of relationships he/she could maintain at one time. Now, we have databases and communications technology that help us increase our capacity. But this is really only more bandwidth on what you can manage, it has little to do with how much you can really handle in terms of closing business. So, prioritization is now the key to greater sales productivity. We want your sales people to spend the majority of their time exchanging information that can result in immediate sales.

So, what and how should our sales people be prioritizing? Clearly, the prospects that are nearest to closing demand the first, best attention and other prospects can be channeled into a “pipeline,” or possible down-the-road business. The key to a future flow of business is to establish as big a pipeline as possible. We like to call this your Circle of Influence. (You can read more about Circle of Influence in Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People). However, this is much more than a list of names. It is a group of people who still require the exchange of information leading to a resolution, only with a little less urgency. Stop exchanging information with them and they will get their information somewhere else. So, it is necessary to use technology to allow you to keep as many people warm as possible.

So... Key Marketing Objective: Keep prospects and sources of referrals in your circle of influence receiving information. Blogs, social networking, email marketing... these are all ways to use technology to broadcast your information on a one-to-one basis and set yourself up for both direct and indirect responses.

Once you have some information that someone has shown interest... they have clicked through on a topic you emailed them... they have expressed some interest directly... they give you indications that they are listening... they become fans on your Facebook page... you can make rifleshot lists for follow-up. This is a marketing step that requires some sales support. It requires participation and pro-activity.

Let’s say you email market a general list about a specific topic. By clicking through to read about that topic, they indicate some interest. That shorter and refined interest list can be contacted directly with a friendly follow up call with a related offer or more information, or a question about their interest. In this scenario, a pattern of click-throughs indicates a greater interest. If someone continually clicks through on blogs about a specific cosmetic procedure, don’t you think that indicates some interest? Ok, the marketing part is done. Time to hand off to sales. With some sales follow up on those more defined targets, the chances of taking the exchange of information to a more meaningful level improve. Now, you are back to sales. Be proactive. Go get the new business.

This is just one example of how measuring technologies, understanding how messages work and having marketing activities that support a sales plan can make your marketing and sales more effective. Using these and other One-to-One Marketing techniques can fill your pipeline and refine the time your sales people spend on selling. Less time wasted, more ground covered, better prospects... it all equals more business. You just have to coordinate the marketing systems and sales.

We teach you to do this in my coaching program. If you are ready to run your business like a sales organization that is more efficient and more profitable, installing techniques like this will help greatly. If you are interested in learning more in my coaching program, please let me know. The cost is only $300/month for coaching and usually it pays for itself right away when we cut wasteful parts of your current marketing plan. If you are interested in my coaching program, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.

So, who is working on their 2010 budget?

In all my December coaching meetings, I try to focus some time on budgeting for 2010. This is important because it is so easy to get tempted into trying and buying other things. Not to say that a certain amount of experimentation is bad. It just should be done under the proper conditions including tracking responses.

Some budgeting trends I noticed in 2009 were 1) a reduction of yellow pages advertising, 2) an increase in Pay Per Click/Pay for Performance services and 3) a reduction in print advertising. In general, the Recession was good for one thing, I think. It helped clients invigorate their desire to keep the develop the customers they have. This led to a greater emphasis on gathering emails for email marketing and it helped with an interest in social networking such as Facebook. Both of those methods of communication cost very little (in fact, Facebook can be free if you choose not to advertise).

Heading into 2010, it is clear that some people are ready to take the next step in online marketing. For most, this will be a step into a Banner advertising program that coordinates with your paid search. This year, we made some banners that included video. This makes them much more eyecatching and seem more important than a static JPG graphic. And, with companies like Reach Local (who we recommend for paid searches), your banner ad can be used for rebranding. Loosely translated, this forces a second and then repeated look at your ad on popular Internet sites (like MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, CNN, etc) onto people who have clicked through paid links to your web site. In otherwords, if someone clicks through one of your paid listings, then your banner ad follows them around the Internet, increasing the number of exposures they have to your brand. You may have noticed this happening when you use the Internet.... seeing the same ads seemingly everywhere. I notice it quite a bit when I am casually surfing.

If you are interested in a branding ad program with video ads, please let us know. Otherwise, as you plan your 2010 budget, I ask that you consider my coaching program for marketing guidance. It is a great program to make sure you are using the proper marketing, media and sales principles in your business. Coaching is only $300/month and it pays for itself in only a few months when wasteful spending is cut. Please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com if you are interested.

Google: Load time will be a factor in ranking sites

It is commonly known that there are hundreds of factors that work into search engine algorithms. However, recent news and buzz in the Internet search community indicates that Google (the most substantial and largest search engine) will be adding loading time into their algorithm beginning in 2010.

It is unknown how much weight this will be given in the algorithm because the exact formulas are never published. However, since page load time is something you can address with design, it make sense that this should be addressed if it is an issue on your site.

What about Flash?
Of course, this discussion will revive the age-old Flash vs. HTML argument. More than 80% of the sites we design are both Flash and HTML. We moved to recommending this format a few years ago and it has resulted in a best-of-both-worlds situation. Our Flash/HTML blend of design gets clients a high level of aesthetic and plenty of HTML elements to better optimize the site with keywords.

If you have an all-Flash site, I would be most concerned about this new factor if you have a long animation at the outset that loads before your home page loads. This will count against your load time and... well, let’s face it... that is pretty outdated these days. We haven’t designed a long loading animation at Dog Star Media in about five years if that tells you something. And, yes, a new DogStarMedia.com is coming later this month so if I can let my old animated beginning go, you can, too!

What about video?
If it is done properly, your video loads onto your site from an Flash media server. This loads in your video faster all around, which is why we do it. However, if your video is just an element or a module on the page, then this is not going to count against your site loading statistics. For example if you have a video on your site or some of our Flash video web drops (where the doctor talks directly to you), then you are streaming this video into your site from the Flash media server. It is not part of your page load. So, don’t let this new talk about site loading time dissuade you from adding video or Flash to your site. For cosmetic doctors and dentists, these are important elements in making the proper presentation. You just need to know how to add those elements in without hurting your loading time. This is a complicated point but it should be a major consideration when choosing a web design company. We understand all of these elements and build them into our designs. Be warned: Others do not.

So, it is probably time for you to look at your web site and ask yourself if your loading time is going to be an issue. An easy self-test would be 1) Do you have an opening animation? 2 ) Do you have an animated landing page that precedes your home page? 3) Do you have an all-Flash web site that was designed years ago before recent improvements have become standard. If you answered yes to any of those three, you should probably contact us for a design consultation on how to improve your design. Feel free to contact me at donald@dogstarmedia.com for more information.