We’re gearing up for a busy Q4—kickstarted by the news that Adobe has purchased Marketo for $4.75 billion—as the brave new world of ABM continues to explore new frontiers. This week, we have sales tips for both your digital and in-person personas, what you should be looking for in your ABM platforms, and how important it is to personalize the customer experience.
Dazzling Subject Lines that Work: From Example to Explanation (Uberflip)
If you’re anything like us, you spend many precious, valuable minutes fussing over the perfect email subject line to get the attention of the intended recipient. We all know that it’s much a science as anything else in sales, but which ones are truly effective? The folks at Uberflip looked at their own inboxes and found twelve fantastic examples of catchy subject lines that actually prompted them to open and read the email—and why exactly they were compelled to do so. Though it’s essential to understand your brand’s voice before attempting some of these strategies, learning how to turn your clever puns into curiosity-piquing subject lines to improve your open rates is a great way to arm yourself with another arrow in your sales quiver.
The 3 Kinds of LinkedIn Messages That Are Unlikely to Get a Response (The Muse)
And you’ve also probably spent a lot of time crafting the perfect LinkedIn message to your leads, only to hit dead end after dead end. What are you doing wrong? LinkedIn can be a powerful networking tool when it’s in the right hands, but if you’re not putting any thought at all into your messages, you run a very high risk of radio silence. Fortunately, though, with a little effort, sincerity, and research, it’s possible to create responsive LinkedIn messages that will engage your prospects enough to respond, and The Muse shows us how. They don’t always directly apply to sales, but the template examples they provide are excellent, genuinely useful, and can certainly be re-crafted for your next outreach efforts.
Sales Isn’t About Emotional Intelligence Anymore (Inc.)
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is something that we should all obviously strive to have, but Inc. tells us how other qualities—like inspirational intelligence—are becoming more important in sales. A modern approach requires a lot of personalization to capture today’s discerning customer, who are not very impressed that you happen to know someone they once went to school with. They may even be almost as knowledgeable about your product as you are. There’s a new level of personalization that your future clients will expect, and that means there are a lot of parallels to ABM to take away from here. How much value would you be truly providing your potential clients?
6 Criteria to Look for in an Account-Based Marketing Platform (Business 2 Community)
There’s been a gold rush of early adopters to ABM, and in our excitement to head west, some of us have been buying inefficient tools (or merely using them inefficiently) with results that haven’t always panned out as well as we’d hope. This piece talks about six features that B2B teams should be looking for in their ABM platforms, including the certain kinds of data and analytics that will help inform future decisions. It’s also a very good overview of what you can out of a robust ABM strategy; the tools that best suit your organizational needs will lead to a smoother workflow process—leaving more time for prospectors to mine for prospects.
Do These 4 Things to Appear Authentic in Your Presentation (FastCompany)
Salespeople are part showmen, certainly when it comes to giving presentations. Not only do you need to know your stuff, you also need to have control of an audience and be able to shift the conversation on a dime. But if you’re too rehearsed, you risk coming off as unauthentic—the last thing a salesperson wants to be accused of. Fortunately, there are simple, actionable things you can do (like embracing those awkward hand gestures of yours) that will appear much more natural and genuine when you’re presenting. In a perfect world, your improvisational skills would be as transitionally smooth as Charlie Parker’s or as quick-witted as Amy Poehler’s, but incorporating these simple tips into your next sales pitch will make you much more appealing to clients.
