Category: Leadership

LinkedIn is a popular platform for connecting with like-minded individuals and finding career advancement opportunities. But it is also a sales tool that can prove to be invaluable for finding prospects and boosting conversions. 

However, cold emailing or calling isn’t a tactic that will take you far on LinkedIn. No one likes being spammed with promotional content. LinkedIn bot is a helpful tool to avoid this kind of spam activity. The conventional prospecting strategies rarely work on such a platform. 

Are prospects rejecting your connection requests? Are your messages being ignored? Is your content not getting any engagement? If your current LinkedIn strategy is failing to drive results, it’s possibly flawed. In this post, we’re sharing common outbound sales mistakes costing your business valuable opportunities. Take a look. 

Failing to Optimize Your Profile

Before doing business with you, a prospective client is likely to check out your page. To ensure you create the right impression, it’s crucial to optimize your profile. 

When you’re using LinkedIn to drive sales, your profile shouldn’t look like a resume. From the profile image to the summary, you need to be strategic about every section. It should give viewers a clean insight into your brand. An appealing profile plays a key role in creating a positive first impression. 

Not Defining Your Target Audience

LinkedIn has 740 million members across 200 countries. Without knowing your target audience, you will be shooting in the dark with your outbound sales effort. 

Invest time and resources into defining your target audience. In addition to knowing the key demographics like age, gender, and location, you can also consider factors such as company name, job title, skills, and more. 

Not Segmenting Your Audience

It is important to realize that all the products offered by you are not going to be relevant for every prospect. Rather than wasting time on people not interested in a certain product, prioritize segmenting your audience. Dividing your target audience based on similar interest or buying behavior will allow better implementation of outbound sales strategies. 

Just Using Basic Search

Are you just using basic search to find prospects on LinkedIn? You are missing out on a major opportunity to connect with a greater number of prospects. LinkedIn offers advanced search, which is a game-changer. 

Using advanced search, you can highly customize your searches by making the most of the various filters. This feature makes it convenient to find the exact type of prospect you’re looking for. Don’t make the mistake of underutilizing this tool for your outbound sales strategy. 

Not Continuously Growing Your Pool

Finding prospects is not a one-time task. Along with nurturing relationships with prospects, it is also important to continuously grow your pool of prospects. 

If you’ve put in the effort to create a hyper-specific advanced search, remember to save it. You can reuse or rework saved searches to find new prospects. You can also use tools such as Alumni Search and Similar Profiles to have a steady number of prospects.

Not Utilizing Groups

Did you know that there are over 2 million groups on LinkedIn? This means there are groups on LinkedIn relevant to your business. Finding and joining such groups can help you connect with new prospects. It is crucial to follow the guidelines set by the group admin and avoid sharing irrelevant content. 

Moreover, you can also consider creating your own group. This is a reliable way to build strong connections as well as establish credibility in the industry.

Trying to Sell Immediately

Building a long-lasting relationship with a prospect is not that different from a romantic courtship. You have to take your time to understand them, instead of putting all your cards on the table. 

If you have been trying to sell in the very first interaction, stop. Why would a prospect agree to buy your product or service without knowing anything about your brand? You should find something in common with your prospect or engage with their content to get off the right foot. 

Not Offering Value

An obvious sales pitch doesn’t usually work on LinkedIn. Unless you offer value, no prospect is going to care about your product or service. 

What is in it for them? That is something you need to always think about. From understanding your prospects requirements to problems, you should focus on creating solution-centric content for LinkedIn. This is essential to improve engagement and boost conversions. 

Not Researching Prospect

There is nothing more annoying than receiving a message for an irrelevant product or service. If you want to make the most of LinkedIn for outbound sales, make sure you research your prospect before you decide to send a message. 

Just spending a little extra time on knowing your prospects can help you send personalized messages that are worth responding to. Your focus shouldn’t just be on making a sale, rather building long-lasting relationships. 

Sending Default Connection Requests

A popular figure in the industry or a sought-after prospect is likely receiving several connection requests every day. If you want to stand out and get your connection request accepted, you cannot afford to send a connection request with a default message. Customized connection requests will distinguish your request from others and create a memorable impression on prospects. 

Forgetting to Follow Up

Just sending a connection request is not enough. It takes time and consistent effort to build long-lasting relationships on LinkedIn. Following up is pivotal for securing a sale. After you have sent the initial message, remember to follow-up in a timely manner. 

Not Having a Strategy

If you are serious about leveraging LinkedIn for outbound sales, then it’s imperative to come up with a detailed sales strategy. If you don’t have a system in place, it can become difficult to measure results. Instead of adopting certain tools randomly, a solid plan will help focus your efforts. 

Wrap Up

When you’re just starting out, running campaigns and driving sales on LinkedIn can feel overwhelming. However, understanding your audience, using the right tools, knowing the inbound vs outbound sales difference, and making consistent efforts can help you build strong customer relationships as well as improve your closing rate.

Owning a business today is all about marketing yourself online. Building a proper website and associating platforms like a blog and social media with your website is the easiest, fastest, and most effective way to building a client base. 

How exactly is this done? 

There are multiple steps you can take to ensure that your optimizing your online presence in a way that’ll make your content more visible to potential and existing clients. Here are just 7 ways you can be successful in this task. 

1) Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of moving your content up the pages of Google and other search engine pages. There are multiple techniques you can implement with your online content so that when someone searches for a desires service, your business will be one of the first they see. 

Some of these techniques include: 

• Using researched keywords in your content 
• Including backlinks on your website
• Using internal links to up engagement 
• Optimize your images using ALT text 
• Research your top competition and utilize what works for them 

Search Engine Optimization can be a tricky concept to grasp. Luckily, if you’re having difficulty you don’t have to do it alone. There are SEO agencies you can hire that will help take your business and its online presence to the next level. That way you’ll be assured your SEO implementation is being done properly. 

2) Register Your Business On Google 

Working in tandem with SEO, registering your business with Google will also make your business more visible. When people are in the vicinity of your establishment, Google will be able to recommend your services to them. For instance, a potential customer types, “restaurants near me.” If your restaurant happens to be in their area I’ll be a top result on Google! 

Google Business also offers customers the chance to leave reviews for others to see. That way customers will know your company is legitimate and reliable. Since it includes your contact information and location readily available, customers are more likely to reach out in comparison to if they had to search for your business’s contact information. 

The cherry on top of it all is that Google Business offers a deeper look into your businesses navigation and analytics. 

3) Use Google Analytics 

Speaking of analytics, Google also offers Analytics software that can track your entire online presence. Google Analytics tells you everything you need to know about how customers interact with your website and anything else you have connected to Google.

It can track: 

• How long users stay on your website 
• How long it takes for them to sign up/make a purchase
• People’s navigation patterns 
• Which page garners the most engagement 
• The demographic of your viewers 
• What time of day garners the most clicks 

Google Analytics is also the perfect tool for any third-party company you bring in to help with growth. They’ll be able to have a basis of where your company lies and will better be able to create a plan that’ll drive even more traffic to your online sources. 

4) Set Up A Blog 

Every company website should have a blog attached to its name. Blogs bring in viewers and potential clients that aren’t even intentionally searching for your services. This is the best way to expand your target audience outside of its simplified niche in a risk-free way. 

While setting up a blog is a great first step, you now have to figure out effective ways to drive traffic to your blog. Of course, like for your website, SEO will be your blog’s best friend. Especially with techniques like linking back to other articles and keyword research. 

The main thing to remember when creating content for your blog is to make sure that what your releasing is relevant to your consumers. One way to ensure this is by releasing evergreen content. These would be articles that will stay relevant for years to come. Google values this content and a higher standard and will promote it more often than the content it sees as unuseful to its users. 

5) Set Up Social Media

Social Media has been all the rage for years and will be all the rage for years to come. However, it’s important to stay up to date with all the changing tactics trends, and new apps that continuously get released. Social Media is an everchanging environment but if you can find a good pace for your company – can be an amazing way to attract prospective clients and build a community.

Social Media like Instagram and Facebook even have their own ad system, which can get your message across to thousands of online users in a matter of minutes. Social Media is also a good place to link to all of your other platforms like a blog or website. This cross-promotion should also be done in reverse as well. Always link back to your social media on your blog and website.   

6) Start a Newsletter 

Newsletters are one of the sure ways you can get information out to subscribers and customers who you know value your content. These customers would have signed up either through a portal on your website or even through a link on social media. 

Newsletter platforms like Mailchimp are easy to use and will be able to give you the analytics you need in order to optimize the day and time you send your email and what content garners better feedback or produces the most clicks on the links to your other platforms. 

The newsletter can include content like upcoming events or even a brief overview of new blog posts! 

7) Make Sure Your Platforms Are User Friendly

Finally, it’s important to make sure that all of your online content is optimized to be as user-friendly as possible. This means making sure your website is compatible on multiple different devices and is straightforward when it comes to navigation. 

When you’re writing your blogs make sure to space out your paragraphs so that users aren’t overwhelmed by large blocks of information. That can be daunting for someone who is casually browsing online. 

Offering tech support is also important. This will make your company and its online presence more reliable and set a good image going forward.

IoT devices are the perfect blend between technology and gadgetry. IoT or the Internet of Things refers to a network of smart devices communicating with each other. These could consist of things like temperature, heat, or moisture sensors, cameras, thermostats, smart switches, lights, doorbells, and so much more. Thanks to IoT, the concept of a smart home is now very much in the domain of reality. In fact, many people expect IoT to take off and penetrate US household markets in the same way as Spectrum mobile plans. But IoT applications extend beyond residential use, into many aspects of the business world. This blog explores how IoT can potentially improve customer service in a business.

Using IoT in Customer Service

IoT devices are smart devices that gather information and communicate with each other. The right information, when gathered through an IoT device and analyzed properly, can often offer useful insights and identify areas for improvement. In terms of customer service and the larger customer experience that businesses offer, IoT devices can be a very crucial tool.

Remember, in the 21^st Century, customer service and customer experience are key differentiating factors between you and your competitors. It is very easy and very common for customers to take their business to your competition if they are offered a better experience there. Therefore, by improving CS and CX, you are building a stronger competitive advantage. And IoT can help in several ways, including:

Observe and Improve the Product or Service Experience You Offer

The biggest advantage of an IoT network should come from its ability to gather data on how your customers experience your product or service. Customers typically have specific uses for products or services, but there can often be expectations that you may not be meeting. It may be even more dangerous when competing products or services are meeting those expectations.

IoT devices can gather and log information like product failure, service issues, warranty claims, product defects, and much more. All of this data can help you build an understanding of how consumers perceive and experience your offerings. With this, you can begin to identify areas that you can improve to offer exceptional customer service.

Improve Your Ability To Deliver a Personalized Experience

Personalized experiences are one of the best ways to create happy, satisfied, and long-lasting customers. Both customer acquisition and retention rely heavily on the customer experience you offer, and personalizing each interaction for an individual customer can go a long way. But with digital commerce and online shopping, it is often very difficult to personalize experiences for every customer.

However, an IoT network could potentially automate some bits of the personalization process and make it easier for human agents to deal with customers. For example, IoT devices may be able to identify not just specific customers, but also specific problems they might be having. This won’t just impress customers, but also save time in solving their problems.  

Identify Areas To Improve Your Product or Service

IoT devices in the future will probably not be limited to gathering customer experience information. They will most likely also include gathering product or service data as well, such as the problems consumers encounter when using them. This data can be invaluable to businesses in terms of product/service development. Businesses can analyze it, identify product weaknesses and flaws, and fix them in future iterations. This means a continuous process of improvement, which helps products and services stay relevant for longer. 

Discover New Opportunities for Related Products

The information from using IoT in customer service can also help businesses identify new business opportunities and markets. In many cases, especially in the tech industry, these new opportunities are often closely related to your existing product or service. Customers will often ask for features or options that may not always be possible to include in your primary offering. But you can always create a related product or service that offers the things that your customers need. Otherwise, someone else could step in to meet that demand, and you could miss out on an opportunity that you may otherwise be well placed to take advantage of.

Many solar installation companies often recognize lead generation as one of their biggest problems. The reason for this may be that the industry is rapidly extending and evolving and sometimes getting new customers can be a bit challenging. 

If you are a solar business owner you may feel overwhelmed and confused and it’s no wonder. Getting qualified solar leads requires a lot of work and organization. It’s not as simple as paying for a billboard or a commercial. You must convince your customers to choose your solar business by creating interest and presenting your value. 

If you are curious about this topic, please continue reading. Here we will explore how to be successful in solar lead generation and discuss various marketing strategies.

Invest In Solar Appointments

This is a very easy and cheap way to grow your company. Most businesses set their appointments with customers through their call center. Since many call centers use automated phone calls and don’t get customer’s consent, buying solar appointments is a much better option. All you have to do is to hire a call center and lead generation will become their job and their worry. Make sure you research your target audience and create the best offer for their needs. You will realize in no time that this simple step can make a huge difference in your business’s growth.

Create A User-Friendly Solar Website

Creating a professionally designed website is essential for every business. A smooth user experience is one of the most important aspects. You need your audience to stay on the website as long as possible because you want Google to “think” your content is great and move your website up in search rankings. 

Here is a list of key features your website must have:

• It should be well-organized and easy to navigate.
• Don’t forget that customers prefer aesthetically pleasing images.
• Make sure it loads quickly.
• A website must call the audience for action. For example, you can propose a free solar evaluation for everyone who fills in their personal information.
• Ensure your value proposition is clear and easy to find (it’s best to put it on your homepage)

Use Social Media For Lead Generation

Your website is important but, in order to extend your reach further, try building an online presence on social media. Many lead generation companies claim that LinkedIn helps them the most to get their leads, but you should focus on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well. 

If you are underperforming on social media, do your research and find out on which platform your ideal prospects spend the most time. Studies have shown that commercial clients may be more likely to be on LinkedIn, while residential clients often lean towards Instagram and Facebook. 

Social media is a great tool to connect with your potential customers and it doesn’t take much effort. Update your profiles two to three times a week and use a variety of content. Experts recommend using your own content (photos, videos, blog posts, testimonials, etc.), as well as shared content from other solar businesses and websites. This strategy allows you to present yourself as a valuable solar information source while still advertising your own business. Connecting with as many people as you can and creating a professional reflection is the key.

It’s important for you to create awareness of solar services amongst your audience and the best way to do it is to make a blog or post some high-quality articles about solar energy and its benefits. Your potential customers must understand the importance of your business, share your ideas, and get interested in your products. This way they will certainly become your leads and help you grow your solar business.

Try Email Campaigns

When potential customers like your website and your social media, you may think that it’s enough for them to become your leads. Unfortunately, sometimes they can be impressed only briefly and quickly forget about your business. Email campaigns for residential and solar business leads are a great way to build a relationship with your audience. It’s important not to put any pressure but still remind them of your qualities.

In order to get their personal information and email it’s best to offer them something small in return. For example, you can ask them to sign up for a free consultation. This way your customers will be more interested and they will give you their email willingly. Make sure you send them a welcome email and inform them about the news every week or two.

Solar energy is important for our planet and humanity, yet many people still find it confusing. Solar energy shouldn’t be a foreign concept and lead generation may pique potential customer’s interest in your service. Follow these simple tips and we guarantee your clients will choose your business over another.

Raising funds for projects or ongoing commitments within your organization can be difficult. If you have regular fundraising events, or if you have sporadic one-off fundraising events you will want to ensure that you get the most out of each event as possible. To ensure your events are successful you are best to plan as far in advance as possible, but, in addition to planning and executing successful events, what else can you use and implement within your business to increase your funds. The answer is that you should be using software to track your fundraising activities and ensure they are successful, but why?

Why Fundraising Software Is Beneficial

If you do not know what events you are running and how much you are getting from each event then how you can look at how to divide or share funds, or even establish what has worked and what has not. Efficient and effective fundraising needs to be monitored and tracked to allow you to see what is working and what is not within your organization. If something is not working as effectively as you thought then it is better to stop trying it and to focus your organization’s time and effort on projects and events that get your results.

Streamline Fundraising Activities

Not every fundraising activity you implement will work, so it is better to know which ones do and which ones don’t as soon as possible. The team behind Driven explained that streamlining fundraising activities allows your organization to only implement strategies that work. When you approach fundraising strategically then you instantly focus more on how well the activity is working and ultimately benefiting your organization. Of course, you may be targeting multiple audiences with different fundraising techniques and strategies, and when you utilize software you can ensure that you are reaching your target audiences in an effective and timely manner. Utilizing software will allow you to streamline everything that you are offering to ensure that you are getting the most funds for your organization as possible.

Monitor And Track Fundraising Activities

When you implement fundraising activities it is always beneficial to see what is working. Whether you run 2 or 3-day events, or your activity is lasting 6 months plus you need to be able to monitor the success and results you are achieving. When you monitor and track regularly you can implement changes quicker and easier which will ultimately make sure that you are raising as much money as you aim to.

Targeted Results

When you implement and use the software you can set targets, and you can work towards them. Quite often fundraising fails when you forget to set targets. Targets for fundraising allow you to get the most out of each activity and this is crucial to the success and development of your organization. When you set targets you can forecast your efforts and focus on planning for your organization. If you can utilize the target setting then you will notice a huge difference in your fundraising efforts. When you use software to set targets you can also keep track of past targets, seeing what was achieved and what missed the mark. Target setting might sound tedious, but it is vital for ensuring you get the most out of all fundraising your organization undertakes. 

People Management

From volunteers to directors to donors, everyone that contributes to the fundraising efforts in your organization needs to be monitored and accounted for. Having access to personal information and data will allow you to utilize people to their best abilities, and it will also allow you to work out your expenses. Fundraising efforts cost money, so matter how big or small, and quite often you will have to pay people to fundraise for your organization, in this case, it is wise to know how much you are paying them, when and for what, and by utilizing software you can track and see this information clearly and quickly. Managing people ensures that you know who is doing what within your organization, from the top to the bottom. When you manage people within your organization you can manage your funds more effectively, and you can ensure that those who are successful at fundraising are doing what they do best.

Fundraising for funds and money is highly competitive. To ensure that your organization gets the funds it needs to continue, carry on and even push forwards you need to ensure that your fundraising activities are successful. Careful research, planning, and monitoring all rolled into one will ensure you achieve your organization’s fundraising goals and targets.

Considering the number of brands – there are more than 28 million small businesses in the United States alone, and even more mid-to large-size businesses make that number enormous. Thus making competition hard, considering that there are 28 million businesses in the world – it’s an overwhelming number to deal with as a brand, most especially in a time when information is in surplus and digital exchanges are commonplace.

More so, it’s even more complicated, when you think of all the brands competing with one other for visibility and profitability. Nowadays, brands compete to get potential customers’ attention by using advertising and marketing campaigns to attract their target audience’s attention. Regardless, if you want your audience to notice your brand amongst the great mass of competition, what you need to do is stand out.

I know the question now is how do I do it? You can do it by making sure your brand has and demonstrates these important qualities:

You Should Be Original.

If you want to stand out from the rest of brands; your brand needs to be original – more so your brand assets should stand out and be original; take brands like Apple, Microsoft, and Google, etc., their brand assets stand out. If you try imitating a competitor’s brand, people won’t have a real reason to choose you in contrast to another brand. If all you always do is send messages that constantly rely on sales talk; it might not resonate with many of your customers. Instead, do something that a brand hasn’t done before – be different and develop a unique image and voice that’s ingénue. This is easier said than done, of course, but it’s a vital step if you don’t want to blend in with the competition – in more light, stand out. 

Be Sincere

Another thing Is that your brand needs to demonstrate a high level of sincerity. If you try to respond to all of your customers on social media with the same copied and pasted corporate response, customers will see you as a bot that cares only about maximizing profits. Instead, show your human side. Capitalize on the personality of your brand and talk to customers the same way you would speak to a friend. You might not be perfect at doing this, but as you move forward, your customers will be able to build a much better relationship with your brand. Sincerity is one easy way to build customer trust and thus building a good brand. 

Consistency Is Key Also

It’s easy to blend with other brands if your message isn’t consistent. You should clearly define your brand standards; they should be clearly defined or better still have multiple people executing these standards to a great degree of effectiveness. The goal is to make your followers, customers, and readers stick around as long as possible; but to do this – they have to be familiar with your brand. You can achieve this the best way possible by also reaching your customers in the best way possible; not jeopardizing your brand standards. Ensure that all of your team members are working well enough on your advertisement campaigns – your team members should be skilled at what they do. 

Understanding

Let’s be honest; the best and most popular brands are the ones who understand their target audiences. They do this by creating messaging that is relevant for only one target nook – if you’re targeting parents, you can talk about any common parenting problem. By doing this you demonstrate a degree of sympathy and in turn, make it easier for that target audience to connect with you effectively. Over time, this will create increased interactions with your brand, which in turn will lead to more traffic and conversions. You must research your target demographics well enough and this should be done constantly, you should also adjust your wordings and targeting when needed.

Bonus: Focus On Your Strengths.

You will notice that you can do a lot of things well but for your brand to stand out, you need to focus on your strengths. Make your brand stand out from others by identifying whatever skills, product, or services that make you different. Focus on this – and use it as your unique selling point, instead of trying to be all things other brands are. Try to become a specialist; at a select few products and services. This will encourage you to provide excellent products and services well enough, deliver an outstanding brand experience and in time your brand will stand above the rest.