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Apr 24

Why you do what you do

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Several times this week I have been reminded of this video (tucked away on our inspiration page). It might say leadership, but it is marketing gold.

One of the most important things a company can do is to tell people “why”.

In terms of ‘selling’ ourselves, this is extremely important. Trust controls all decision making, it is a way of measuring the ‘feeling’ of risk, and once people know ‘why’, they relax.

If we have all the right intentions, then people will go with us. We can even make mistakes, as long as we’re trying to do the right thing.

This is a central plank in converting interest, into action. The video does a much better job of explaining.

Simon frames the message in various ways. But to my mind, by not having a central purpose, backed up with a consistency in behaviour that demonstrates these ‘principles’, we will have people wondering, pondering and prevaricating.

Without knowing our motivation they’ll wonder if we’re just doing it for the money, and they know that never works.

I suppose it begs the question. So….

We do what we do in order that our customers can grow. We want them to make enough money that they can afford to pay us to keep working the conversions, because when we get growth, our customers want us to do more work, not less. Enlightened self interest maybe, but it works for everybody.

To the point that if we can’t do it, then we’ll stop charging.

Filed under: Content, Sales and Marketing, Website Conversion | No Comments

Apr 11

Blogs and the likeable experts

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We promised to write about blogs, and it turns out this will be part of a number of posts on the subject. There are some controversial points to cover.

The biggest benefit from a Blog is credibility

When it comes to spending your money on something, the two most important decisions are

  1. What you buy
  2. Who you buy it from

The clarity is great isn’t it?

We do need to be sure we’re doing the right things.

What impression do we get from the blog

Who am I dealing with?

Web marketers spend a lot of time helping people with the product decision, but it is less comfortable when dealing with the question of ‘why buy from us’.

Showing off isn’t natural. It’s very difficult to say ‘hey, we’re the greatest’.

In fact, what can you possibly say that would make that point? Testimonials may be a good start, but then, everyone has those. And because someone always loves you, we always reserve judgement for our own experience

So, that’s it then. A big part of the reason to blog is to give some insight into what it might be like to talk and deal with us, to show, not tell. It is one of the only ways to do it naturally.

With that being the case, a blog has to deliver on our values – or we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot. The pressure is on!

How to deliver

Blogs aren’t (just) about the ‘product’, in fact, that’s just a quick way to show ‘self interest’, which isn’t a good quality when working out who to trust with our business.

Visitors know what blogs are supposed to be for, this is a two way thing, they know where the product pages are.

We picked out the ‘likeable expert’ phrase from someone on the web (Copyblogger, I think). It works for us because people may well buy from you if you’re either likeable, or an expert. Showing both would be perfect.

BY the way. Did you see what we did, we attributed credit where it was due, I must remember to thank them properly some time soon. Perhaps a link… Gosh, what nice people *(this is a bit too obvious isn’t it?)

Showing expertise is self explicable

But to explain anyway

  • Help people understand the risks in whatever buying decision you specialise in
  • Describe what to look out for and how to avoid pitfalls
  • Demonstrate some insight, opinion on some controversial point. Show off inadvertently.
  • Cover off some unspoken objection, it’s insightful

Expertise is a no brainer, but being likeable is a little more difficult. To understand and apply, I mean. You can make the joke though.

So what does ‘likeable’ mean?

I don’t know, and possibly, I can’t say. But I have some elements that might help

  • When it comes to customer service, we like people who act is if they care about something
  • Blogging itself demonstrates good behaviour, we get points for trying when we care enough to write
  • We get to try and help people, keep them out of trouble, and it’s there, in black and white
  • Anticipating a need is extremely good. Thoughtful.
  • Humour can be a bit circular, as we tend to laugh with people we already like. Not too stuffy is good?

Personality

Now hold on a minute. Is this really a good idea?

Like it or not, the world is becoming driven by personality. Politics, celebrity and even sport is ‘more interesting’ for it, for everyone else I mean, not us of course. Formality is taking a back seat, ties and suits (and sometimes shoes) are seen less often, and a conversational style just means that things are easier to understand. Is it really so bad?

The point is

I don’t think we trust ‘professional’, any longer. We associate it with banks, with less able politicians, and with people who don’t want us to know what they’re thinking. I don’t think we need the opposite, but we do need to show we are approachable, likeable and easy to talk to.

We should probably think about the role of the blog too

Blog as part of the website structure

If you’re interested in blogs, you might find out how we structure websites to meet the needs of different stages of the buying process

Filed under: General | 3 Comments

Mar 16

Ask a Silly Question…

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Content writing for dummiesFollowing on from my wonderful introduction by Matt, I thought you may want to know the biggest reason I landed this job in the first place.

Simply, I ask silly questions.

In the growing world of online marketing you can never know everything, and at the beginning I didn’t know anything. Actually I probably still don’t know anything.

The only way I’ve learnt is to ask questions, and the best way is to just ask about everything.

Even if it’s a silly question just ask anyway.

How to use Silly Questions to your advantage

What content writers sometimes forget is that a client’s customers will do the exact same thing.

The vast majority of potential customers don’t know much at the beginning of their search and it is a sales person’s job to talk them through. So, as content writers it is our (using the term loosely) job to do the same online.

Think about what the visitor may ask you if they were in front of you

Most visitors aren’t interested by high levels of jargon and tons of stats, although it can be useful for people who already have the background knowledge and are picking you out of a bunch of competitors.

As an average, if 100 people land on a page, perhaps 90 of them won’t have yet made their mind up what they need.

To enable accessibility to these other 90, the basics need to be written in a way that is easy to understand. Make an effort to include the people who are still learning.

Now I’m not saying that being simple is best, I’m saying we need to do both. A prime example is the Amazon Kindle page, who Conversion Rate Experts wrote briefly about here.

The proof

This is one of the best converting pages on Amazon. Not because it’s short or has the best pictures or has had millions spent on advertising it, but because it caters for everyone.

What starts off as brief description of basic advantages (that anyone can understand) moves on to full technical descriptions. In between this is videos and reviews and all sorts of other things. It’s a full sales conversation on the page.

And that’s what we do.

Filed under: Content, Website Conversion | 4 Comments

Mar 10

Web looks vs Web works

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Website Design is fraught with opinion and bruised egos, and as a designer told me recently, he had to ‘develop very tough skin’ . For my part, it always brings to mind a phrase that I borrow from Avinash of occams razor, which is HIPPO.

Hi.ghest P.aid P.erson’s O.pinion

Hippo showing opinons can get in the way

It’s a phrase designed by a statistician, I think, to poke some fun at the concept of ‘Opinions’. Having my hunches disproven quite often in the early days of web, I have to agree.

Don’t trust your intuition when it comes to ’cause and effect’. The picture above seems familiar, something always seems to get in the way.

Examples of web ‘intuition’

Take ‘Long copy’, for example. Customers often worry that having lots of words on a site or page is not interesting, but the people that actually read it are often those already interested (the only reason Google sent them). A website isn’t advertising – it’s the showroom. People who are interested seem to read everything relevant, and I do mean everything, twice. Long copy often works (in the right place).

Business owners like free traffic, until they find it’s not worth the paper it’s not written on (it depends!).

And as a new friend Mark Oborn was telling me the other day, “Everyone really hates pop ups, but the trouble is they work”.

What we like, isn’t always what works

Foul tasting medicine was the first clue that we don’t always like what’s good for us.

But every time we’re faced with a choice, it’s a coin toss as to whether we can remember that, or not. In our personal lives, it’s a normal decision (or a constant wrestle, depending). Work or play, spend or save, stick or twist.

  • Do what we like, or what we need to
  • Spend money or invest it
  • Choose what looks nice or which works best (it can affect the biggest decision of all)

It’s a pretty human thing to do. But I’d like to tell you, decisions are easier when responsible for results, and when they are the difference between getting paid, or not.

Results based decision making

Choose one from the below, it’s easy, but couldn’t be more important

  1. It looks good, but doesn’t work
  2. It works, but doesn’t look good.

How it looks doesn’t affect results to the same extent as how it works. But ok, so perhaps you’re like me, and always want both? (looks and performance).

Here’s the thing.

When a site is working, a re-dressing exercise will probably help improve performance. If already profitable, then any percentage extra revenue all counts as extra profit – so you can get your money back quickly, or recover if you lose it.

Spending money on design won’t make a site profitable in itself. How it looks is but ‘one small part’ of the website visitor journey.

Get the journey right, that’s where the rewards are.

The real point, is that it’s an investment, which can be good or bad, at different times in the company ‘trajectory’. The return is ‘almost’ everything – and as Warren Buffett reputedly said, “if the money doesn’t work hard enough, choose somewhere else”.

The trade cycle counts

But when the pot is still small, whilst the percentage return has to be big to get a bigger pot, it matters how quick you can turn the handle and get your money back for re-investment.

A work of art is no good if you can’t make the rent payments of a cardboard box, perhaps we should wait for the new Hockney until we’ve made a mint.

Let’s fix how it works – it’s the successful thing to do.

WordPress Websites, Form and Function

One of the most wonderful things about WordPress, is that the way sites look and the way they work, are ‘separate’.

Depending on where the business is, there can be a template which might suit a micro, or starter company. Later on, they can support the most bespoke design, any customisation in fact.

But the investment in the functionality can come before the aesthetics (in the beginning). An update in design doesn’t mean any change in the content. They’re ‘separated’. A refresh, or a slow progression, is perfectly possible.

And if you think that WordPress ‘always’ looks the same, we can show you the difference there can be. Having said that, perhaps business WordPress Websites look the same for a reason?

Footnote:

For the sake of balance (and my designer friends), when the pot is ok, it is often very important to have the right design – for more reasons than you might think.

Filed under: Web Marketing Strategy, Website Design, Wordpress | 9 Comments

Feb 4

Conversation Starter

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Something changed. And it suddenly got a lot more colourful in the office.

our kind of people

Copy, Content and Distribution

Loads of copywriters have told us that they struggle to sell their own services , ironically, and I have seen customers actually screw up their noses at the mere mention of the word. I guess it’s one of those words that can mean different things to different people.

As a result, there is a lot of confusion around the purpose, the benefits, and the value.

But, what we know is that when we write pages on our customer websites

2. The number of visits to websites goes up

1. The number of leads goes up

As a company we need to be able to add that value. The more words you have on the website, the more relevant traffic you get. It’s simple really:

Words make web marketing work better, and they get to repeat themselves again and again, over a very long period.

If you work hard at knowing what to say, it gets even better.

And, so, we’ve been busy. In fact, we have been doing so many things for other people, that we had no energy to write our own!

That’s not right.

So, we are so very pleased to welcome Jessica McGinn to help us onto the next step, and I’m very sure our customers will be just as happy.

About Jess

Now, Jessica can write.

She gets ‘context’, and thinks about how words make people feel. Having said that, our Jess isn’t that worried about saying what she thinks about pretty much anything.

Which is why I’m not showing her this before I hit the publish button.

But whilst writing will be a very important skill for our little community going forward, managing that content in WordPress is just as important. Even if customers send us their own stuff, it still needs structuring for the web, editing and laying out.

We’ve seen already that being web dexterous will be a massive help in ‘getting things done’. And things are getting done faster around here. You’ll see.

A Learning Process

After 6 very solid, brain exploding weeks of learning at speed, we’re just about ‘ready to go’.

And I think we’ve spent useful time learning about learning, teaching, conversations, and all related to web marketing and sales. They say you never really know a subject until you’ve taught it, so I’m glad to have started on the content badge now.

So, I guess I ought to finish the intro and say, ‘Hi Jess’.

Here are some subjects you might choose for a first blog post. Or, choose something else, we’re only just getting going after all..

  1. Websites are conversations
  2. Learning is at the heart of all good conversation
  3. The best conversations come from really good questions
  4. The best time to write about something is when you’re learning it

What is it about learning lately….

Filed under: Running a Business | 3 Comments

Oct 27

Big Brouhaha in Google Land

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Another ‘bombshell’ was landed on the Search Engine Optimisers by Google last week, when they announced, for user privacy’s sake, they;

“will no longer report the query terms that the user searched on to reach your site”

Oh fickle finger of fate. As soon as you get over your Panda eyes (the name of Google’s last bombshell), you suddenly can’t see anything anymore. Curse the luck of the SEO.

SEO is the house, Google is the sand

If you build a business based purely on SEO, the model is likely to come under pressure at some point. Google change their minds, they catch up with all the ‘tricks’ eventually, and this can have a big effect, instantly and dramatically.

How do you fancy building a business on something that might disappear in the snap of fingers?

And another thing. Where’s my soapbox….I’m not sure I understand why the world expects to continue to receive ‘free advertising’, or why they are so upset when it is affected by Google’s move to protect user privacy.

SEO people are very much up in arms, a link for their trouble. But as for telling Google you’ll have to go black hat to get around it. That’s not smart.

How will this affect our web marketing lives?

Only for those Logged in to google, right?

Ok, this does only apply to ‘Signed In’ visitors (Google Plus anyone?) but we are already seeing visits with search terms as ‘not provided’ – the numbers of people logged in will grow rapidly in our view. Google Plus will be a big part of search, you won’t want to miss it.

Sorry, it is really ‘going to be going away’

Bye Bye, it was nice knowing you

We will miss those search terms, they were insightful.

If you could discover the terms that were converting, then you could focus efforts. And, as only a small proportion of terms ever convert into enquiries, it was like finding nuggets of gold in the sifting pan, or striking oil even.

CPC is still information rich

But in the SEO’s mind, the biggest of ‘rat smells’ is that this doesn’t apply to Google’s advertising clicks. Google rightly argue that it will stop people spending money if you can’t tell what is working or not.

I can only say they haven’t met half the people using Adwords that I have.

Nevertheless, it looks like, for the moment we will still get search queries for visitors from paid, however hypocritical and however much SEO’s cry ‘foul!’.

Justifying the difference in stance, I keep thinking that being logged into Google must allow people to identify you personally somehow. It would explain the instant decision and not very well thought out response to the not very well thought out… outcry.

No change there then

We’ve always argued, (as most people who know us will verify).

Oh, we should have carried on with that sentence… we’ve always argued that we don’t start SEO until we understand the phrases that will convert. And the quickest, most reliable way to discover what works or not is to run very tightly focussed Adwords campaigns.

Depending on the volumes, this can be slow. But, actually, it is better than going fast and wasting loads of (clients) money on generating loads of traffic that does…nothing. We’ve asked them, they agree. Well, some do, occasionally.

So, we can still find the phrases that work in the same way we have always done. And we do understand from our Adwords data how many people are looking for things. Which is pretty much the only reliable way to focus the SEO activity.

You do know that we love SEO?

If we know what’s working, we want to make sure we optimise the site to focus on attracting attention from Google and visitors on that subject. This won’t change, data or no SEO data.

We will still be able to focus the content, we can still see that people are coming to the landing page, and we can tell the percentage that convert – just not the rate of conversion in precise terms from free visits any more. But the overall figure will be there to justify our existence.

And, we should also still be able to see ‘where we are in google’ for search phrases as a reference to how we’re doing.

If all Search Query Data went away?

We don’t want Search Data to go away, lets get that straight. But what would happen if it ALL disappeared.

My view is that people would have to put their faith more into good content, and they would still do the things they do today. It would just be like TV advertising all over again. You know half of it works, just not which half.

It would be more important to invite website visitors to identify themselves, at which point we may have permission to follow up and track their interest. That would encourage more content marketing which essentially trades valuable content for permission to stay in touch during the buying period. It’s called Marketing Automation.

Marketing Automation – the hidden grey line

This is where things have been getting tricky in the last few years. Systems have been starting to track people anonymously when they arrive on websites.

Systems like Marketo, Pardot and dozens of others have been starting to keep records of anaonymous visitors to be assigned to real people when they eventually identify themselves.

If you’re in marketing and you get excited by that sort of data, then you probably shouldn’t have it.

Along with re-marketing, which is essentially tagging people when they come to your website and then following them around with Ads (so….that’s why SEOMOZ advertise on some very strange sites), all of this behaviour freaks visitors out, or it would do, should they know about it.

And that’s where this ruling is coming from.

The impending doom

This just can’t happen, or I’m moving across the Atlantic. Don’t worry, I’ll visit, you’ll keep in touch, it’ll be great for holidays.

The information commissioner’s office to be found at – ico dot gov dot uk

I’m not linking to them, I don’t want them to know I exist. They’re pushing ahead with their public protection charter and threatening to implement policies that will make you seek permission to use any sort of anonymous analytics. Seemingly this has to be done before people get to the site – (well, that’s just as silly as what they’re suggesting).

It only applies to Europe, not the rest of the world. Europe can afford the loss of business, right?

Bottom Lines

You have to respect people’s privacy, it is a fundamental human right. There’s no doubt it is a good thing if the prospect of collusion and sharing data is about to undermine our travelling aorund the web unmolested.

And if Ryan air manage to increase their fares automatically the second time I visit their website, then so can other people.

But I don’t personally think there is anything wrong with tracking people anonymously. We don’t need signatures for people who happen to be caught on cctv.

Oh wait, We do.

The man who knows everything about CCTV rules says it’s covered by the Data Protection act, and you can actually demand to see what you were wearing in the tax office last week.

So we’ll have to wait and see. Apparently, the Euro Debt talks continue, and we may be out of Europe by the morning.

Well, you never know your luck.

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Filed under: SEO | No Comments

Mar 10

SEO Advice for 2011

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The Internet changes so rapidly, it is sometimes difficult to choose what to focus on first.

Google Advice

Thankfully, there are a few places around the net that offer advice, and one of the best is the chaps from google themselves. The latest (March 2011) is a question around larger company SEO…

In summary then

  • Speed of site is important from a user point of view, and so Google is also now taking this into account
  • Get CEO (they must mean MD) ‘buy in’ for projects and train the team.
  • Produce great content and use Social Media to promote it

Plus – there is a terrible joke about being on the same page.

Of course, now that Social Media counts towards search engine results, I should imagine that more people will have to get involved. Like us, for example, yet more learning to do!

What do we mean by Social Media

  • Blog, as a hub for all activity, RSS built in and Email
  • Media: Videos, demos, screenshots, infographics, web casts,
  • Platforms: Twitter, LinkedIN, Facebook if necessary, Slideshare, Flickr,
  • And then spread the news: Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, industry blogs

Creativity for SEO Success

Another gem of advice comes from the creative productivity blog, Lifedev. I truly believe that creativity will drive success on the web, as every business moves towards becoming its own micro media channel. It’s not just design, it’s what and how you say things.

That phrase from Google they keep repeating, ‘Great Content’ means that it should be interesting – and that means; educational, entertaining or inspirational. And, if you want all three, some shiny infographics are probably a good bet. More on those another time.

Here’s their shortest guide to SEO ever

We linked to this

Simplicity at it’s best.

Filed under: Creativity, SEO | No Comments

Jan 19

Marketers get this

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Please find below some links to marketing genius which lightens the heart

It is fantastically creative, insightful and educational on many levels.

What people really like looking at, reading about is themselves. And laughing at themselves is just the best of all.

This is like Dilbert, but segmented.

cartoons for business

the website is here

Filed under: Fun, Marketing Resources | No Comments

Aug 9

Should you have more than one website?

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Questions about multiple websites, or mini sites, are common from our customers, so we ought to write about it!

First of all, there is no rule that says that an organisation shouldn’t have more than one website.

Inevitably, this question is about whether multiple sites are good for search engines, and good for the visitor. But in many ways, ‘what is good’ for search engines and people is one and the same thing.

Search Engines do work really hard to discover what is good for searchers, because if they get it wrong consistently, there is nothing to stop us all using a different search box in the future. And let’s face it, they tend to do a really good job of it…it is amazing technology.mini websites

What’s good for the visitor?

If we’re considering a different group of visitors, with different tasks, then the answer is easy. Think seriously about doing different business on different websites. The example would be if we had two separate divisions, that happen to share the same building.

As you are still reading, then we should think about that single organisation website.

But as an service provider focussed on our own client’s success, we like to think more (only?) about those visitors who might buy at some point in the future. It makes it easier to decide what might best help visitors make ‘the right decision’.

What do they need to know

This really does focus the mind – because if you had 100 people stood in front of you every day (because we’re doing your marketing)  then how many different questions might you get.

Each visitor has a different set of questions

Lets help all those people by covering everything they might want to know, and put that information under their nose. In our experience, it just works best. Remember that most untamed websites convert at less than 1% – or in other words, just one out of those 100 visitors decide to do something. There’s room for improvement.

So, following this through. Being successful in converting website visitors into sales conversations does usually mean having more information on the website than originally anticipated. Visitors just have such a wide remit, especially early on in their investigations.

How come our website ended up so large

It is easy to sell left handed widgets if that’s what people are looking for, but sooner or later, we’re going to have to explain to other people what exactly they are and why they might want one.

As long winded as this is – it goes to explain why people’s websites will always end up much larger than originally planned.

There are literally thousands of ways to describe the same thing, especially when even slightly complex. When people want their teeth straightened, for example, you couldn’t guess they might use 1 out of 2-3000 different search phrases, at least.

Whichever way that you present the information, whether on long pages (which does work well), or splitting it up into easily navigable sub areas on a website, this will appear messier the more subjects you have.

Can we do anything other than have multiple sites

Strategies will be to ‘turn the website upside down’ so that every sub landing page acts as a visitors personal home page, with everything pertinent to their decision being put under their nose. This is a fine principle, and works great for paid search, and to an extent it is a great principle for unpaid search too. But it eventually presents challenges to Search Marketers when nearly every inbound link you might get from the outside world comes into the home page, and needs distributing.

It’s not impossible, but it gets harder to prioritise content when different parts of the business are all screaming at you to get their stuff to the top.

But inevitably, at some point, it is going to occur to someone to have a different website.

The benefits of mini sites

  • Domain words are quite heavily weighted if they are keywords, which works if enough people look for them
  • Sites are more specific, and visitors feel you’re focussed which helps conversion (big point)
  • Visitors don’t get distracted from your mission. It is obvious what you want them to do
  • Links can weigh more heavily when aimed at less competitive ‘sub’ market material

The downsides of mini sites

  • You literally have to double your marketing efforts
  • Splitting marketing efforts could be like splitting a political party in two, when neither would get into power
  • Not as much cross fertilisation of customer types
  • If owners don’t take them seriously, mini sites can feel unloved and put people off
  • Age is a factor, and new sites take a while to get going with the search engines
  • Depending on where visitors come from, it can be hard to track visitors between sites

This last point is important.

If all your deals come show up on Analytic Software as referrals from SITE A, then how are you going to hone your search marketing efforts. The returns available from search marketing often only come after the results have been fed back into the machine a few times, and if you can’t attribute the success, you also won’t be able to turn off the most expensive half of the marketing. Which, by the way, could quadruple the profitability.

How to decide on a mini site

The bottom line is that the more important a particular sub section of the website becomes, then the more likely it should be spun out into a separate website. It will often follow that your organisation will reflect this move and if a complex subject area is important enough to split off your marketing, it will probably be important to focus the sales and operations too.

Alternatively, if there is a very tight focus on one particular goal, and it is a non-complex goal, then it may be good to have people land on a page that takes people directly to the action button.

Filed under: Digital Marketing | 1 Comment

May 19

Telemarketing Company Review

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It would surprise some that I (matt) am a big fan of telemarketing. Given our belief in the internet and it’s capacity for lead generation.

Love that phrase "We make it happen"

But way back in the day, when a previous company was selling Telephone Systems, the only way to generate a constant source of business was to carry out consistent telemarketing.

Having developed a very healthy respect for what it can do, and for the people who can do it well, we know there is a definite and still growing need for quality services. We’ve been looking around.

Why would a search company be interested?

We meet people who are in businesses that can’t use our services. If that’s the case, we tell them.

  1. If you have a niche, and you know where the prospects are, then someone should be picking up the phone.
  2. If there are lots of people looking for what you do, but you don’t know who they are (capital equipment is once every 7 years on average), then we may be able to help.
  3. Even so, a number of our clients benefit from follow up calls to their warm lists, generated from Search Marketing campaigns.
  4. We offer a ‘holistic’ marketing service. If our clients grow, so do their budgets, it’s in all our interests to do the right thing first.

A lot of us ‘ less superhuman people‘ find scheduling telemarketing regularly hard work, and if that includes the dear reader – I would give this advice:

If you don’t like doing something, it is worth paying an expert to do it for you. Otherwise it is likely to stay at the back of the queue, you will feel terrible about yourselves because you know it should be done, in an ‘important not urgent’ kind of way. But you will forget, in favour of something you enjoy more. Human nature gets to us all.

Even if, when the business is small, it is tempting to try and do everything yourself, stop, look in the mirror, and then start asking around for someone to recommend a person they know. It is a false economy, and practically you will find out the limiting factor in progressing the business is YOU. I learnt the hard way when trying to learn how to do book-keeping many years ago. Not a good idea!

Face to face with telemarketers

So trying not to make the same mistakes in other areas, I found myself in the office of a true professional this morning. It was the buzzy smiley office of Xen Consultants in Wolverton Mill, Milton Keynes, and I met with Michaela Graham, the boss.

There’s a reason for blogging about this, and it’s the time Michaela afforded to go through the telesales proposition. I’m always impressed at meeting fantastic sales people, because they achieve things seemingly effortlessly, but you shoud know it takes a massive amount of preparation and thought. I’ve always aspired to being better in face to face sales than I am – it is one of the most valuable things you can do for any company. One of…no wait, it is the most valuable thing.

We choose to generate leads, helping ‘the great’ to generate more business. It is ‘our calling’ – I’ll just wait for that joke to sink in. No Marketing, No Sales, No Business.

Back to the meeting. Michaela was kind enough to show what worked (which was impressive), and to give some crucial advice

  • Never promise more than you can deliver
  • Always share and be as transparent as you possibly can with clients regards results, even on a bad day (who has those?)
  • Have prospective clients speak with existing clients as often as possible (That means having happy customers)
  • Employ people
  • Create good relationships between staff and clients by taking the time to understand each other
  • Making sure it happens – that was a key message for me.

As Conversationware enters a new phase, the advice felt extremely useful.

We’re inspired by the level of Xen Consultants success and growth, the advice is backed up with some evidence (credibility is persuasive). We’ll try to go about things in the same way, and we look forward to our own first campaigns.

If you’re thinking of telemarketing – this might be useful.

Try telemarketing

Try telemarketing

Talk to Michaela and you might find out something, like how many similar businesses to yours have tried telemarketing already.

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