2010 February «

Archive for February, 2010

5 Tips for Killer Presentations

Published February 26, 2010 Presentation skills 2 Comments

Sorry, dear readers, but this Friday I’m on a bit of a rant. If I see one more boring PowerPoint presentation, I’m going to vomit!

Let’s keep this really simple. What should be in a PowerPoint presentation?

Few words — if you have more than 8 words on your slide — kill it.
Pictures — people love images. Use them to convey your ideas. iStockPhoto is a great and inexpensive source of images.
Story — people respond to stories. Tell a story in your presentation.
Simple — less is more. Few slides. Less words.
Convey ideas — Speed could be a donkey vs. a racehorse. 23% tilted up to the right conveys an increase without another word.

There’s a lot of great presenters out there, but the King of Presentations is Steve Jobs of Apple.

Watch Steve present here.

Learn from the best. Your audience will thank you. And I can keep down my food.

What do you think? We love our readers, appreciate your comments and provide buttons for you to share with social friends.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the ebook, Prospect Driven Marketing. Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.

In addition, Jeff’s hosting a great free webinar on content marketing with Joe Pullizi (Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers on March 11th at noon ET. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/536492297.

Surprise – powerful way to engage prospective buyers

In an earlier article this week, we discussed how doing the unexpected is a great way to engage the minds of prospective buyers. This is so important, we should look at other examples.

Let’s look at an illustration from the book Made to Stick.

The television commercial for the new Enclave minivan opens in a familiar way — sitting in front of a park. A young boy with a football helmet climbs in, followed by his younger sisters. Dad’s driving and Mom’s in the passenger seat. It looks very comfortable — with cup-holders everywhere. ”Introducing the all-new Enclave” begins a woman’s voice-over.

Dad pulls away from the curb “It’s a minivan to the max.” They begin cruising through quiet, tree-lined streets. ”With features like remote-controlled sliding doors, 150 cable channels, a sky-view roof, temperature controlled cup-holders, and a six point navigation system…it’s a minivan for families on the go.”

The minivan stops at an intersection and the camera zooms in on the face of the young boy — staring out the window at leafy trees. The picture of serenity. Dad pull into the intersection.

That’s when it happens. A speeding car barrels into the intersection and slams into the side of the minivan. There’s a terrible crash with smashing glass and buckling metal.

The screen fades to black. A message appears. ”Didn’t see that coming?“

The message fades and a new one appears:

“No one ever does.“

With the sound of a stuck horn blaring, a final message appears on the screen. ”Buckle up….always.“

What’s going on here?

There is no Enclave minivan. The ad was created by The Ad Council, a government agency founded in 1942.

This technique, of doing the unexpected, is a powerful marketing concept and a key element in getting attention.

How can you duplicate this? How can you do something unexpected with your products and services? Find a quiet place and think.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the ebook, Prospect Driven Marketing. Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.

In addition, Jeff’s hosting a great free webinar on content marketing with Joe Pulizzi (Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers on March 11th at noon ET. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/536492297.

Assess lead generation with just 8 questions

Published February 24, 2010 Demand Generation , Lead Nurturing , Management best practices , Marketing , Remarkable content , Sales knowledge , inbound marketing , lead generation , marketing campaigns , marketing funnel , sales challenges , sales funnel , sales process Leave a Comment

If you attended the recent webinar with Jim Dickie of CSO Insights and Gerhard Gschwandtner of Selling Power (If you missed it, you can click the link to see the recorded session), you know just how ugly the situation of sales is today.

Achievement is way down
quotas are up, and
sales support is dwindling.

What I find really disturbing is how many CEOs, board and business owners know little about demand generation. It’s the single most important factor in your success, but it is foreign to most of you.

How can you quickly assess your knowledge of this important topic? I believe the answer is a personalized assessment. I created a very simple survey — just eight questions. Takes only 3-4 minutes or so, and it is 100% free.

By answering those eight, we can compile a personalized recommendation for you.

Click here to take survey and get personalized assessment

In addition, Jeff’s hosting a great free webinar on Content Marketing with Joe Pulizzi (Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers on March 11th at noon ET. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/536492297.

The sorry state of sales today – from Jim Dickie of CSO Insights

Published February 23, 2010 Demand Generation , Sales knowledge , sales challenges , sales funnel , sales leadership , sales process Leave a Comment

Attended Selling Power Webinar: 2010 Sales Performance Challenges; Jim Dickie and Gerhard Gschwandtner recently and heard one of my favorite presenters, Jim, present a litany of sorry statistics from the beginning of 2009 (undoubtedly worse today), which I share with my readers:

59% — the percentage of salespeople who exceeded quota (the lowest ever measured)
86% – the percentage of companies that raised quotas (with poor performance, how can they expect to make quota?)
67% — the percentage of companies that froze or reduced lead generation budgets (fewer leads means lower performance)
13% — the percentage of companies that invested in sales training (no training. no improvement)
Under 25% — the percentage of companies that invested in sales tools (no tools. no improvement)

The conclusion is clear. The world of sales is badly broken.The techniques and approaches of the past no longer work.

What can YOU do about it?

Here’s what I recommend.

Go buy the book Inbound Marketing buy Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah and read it at least twice.
Then read eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale by Ardath Albee.
Then take what you learned and get to work.

Please talk to us if you need help.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the ebook, Prospect Driven Marketing. Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.

In addition, Jeff’s hosting a great free webinar on content marketing with Joe Pulizi (Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers on March 11th at noon ET. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/536492297.

Unexpected – how a fresh and innovative approach can engage prospective buyers

Published February 22, 2010 Lead Nurturing , Management best practices , Marketing , lead generation , marketing campaigns , marketing sales Leave a Comment

How many times have you boarded a plane and been forced to listen to the safety announcement from a crew member?

Chance are you didn’t play close attention. After all, you’ve heard it so many times before. It’s boring. Your mind wanders.

But what if you heard something completely different?

“If I could have your attention for a few moments, we sure would love to point out these safety features. If you haven’t been in an automobile since 1965, the proper way to fasten your seatbelt is to put the flat end in the buckle.To unfasten, lift up on the buckle and release.

And as the song goes, there may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but only six ways to leave this aircraft: two forward exit doors, two over-wing exits, and two aft doors. The location of each exit is clearly marked with signs overhead, as well as red and white disco lights on the floor of the aisle.

Made ya look!”

These words, said by Karen Wood on a flight from Dallas to San Diego (and recounted on pages 63 and 64 of Made to Stick) were greeted with applause. How can something as deadly dull as a safety announcement garner applause?

It was different.

The key point is that the most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern. Our brains notice change.

What does this mean for marketers? Think outside the box and devise fresh and innovative ideas to get attention. Don’t be gimmicky, but rather find creative and unusual ways to illustrate your ideas. You’ll get attention.

After all, isn’t that what we marketers want?

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers, “Lead Generation Made Simple” Find New Customers helps businesses develop remarkable content and processes to attract prospective buyers to a company’s products and services.

Improve lead generation with great marketing content

Published February 19, 2010 Lead Nurturing , lead generation , marketing campaigns , marketing funnel , sales challenges 2 Comments

In this day and age, when it is harder than ever to get attention, let’s look at the concepts from the book, Made to Stick.

According to the research done by Chip and Dan Heath, great content exhibits these characteristics:

Simple — it’s quick and easy. Take a proverb like “A Bird in the Hand.” What does your Brand stand for? (Also, check out Brand-Telling for more info on how to craft your message.)
Unexpected — a great way to get attention is to do something unexpected. The loud bang of bb’s being dropped into a metal bucket is a great unexpected result.
Concrete — it’s got to be specific, clear and easy to understand.
Credible — is it believable?
Emotional — do I really care?
Stories — people relate to stories. Does it tell one?

In order to ensure that your marketing messages resonate with your audience, keep in mind that you want your audience to:

Pay attention
Understand and remember
Agree/believe
Care
Act on it

One key to watch out for is the Curse of Knowledge. When an informed person asks “Will they understand my idea?” they answer “Of course, they will.” But only because the expert understands. Often the expert is shocked when the audience fails to exhibit the passion they do.

Take each of your marketing messages and measure them up against these. You’ll find them much more effective.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” He’s also the author of the highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers, considered by many to be the Bible of demand generation. He’s also the author of the new “Definitive Guide to Making Quota,” as well as “Prospect-Driven Marketing.” He welcomes comments and can be reached at jogden at findnewcustomers.net.

The Curse of Knowledge

Published February 18, 2010 Business relationships , Lead Nurturing , Management best practices , Marketing , Sales knowledge , lead generation , marketing campaigns , marketing sales , sales leadership , sales process 1 Comment

This concept, which I have witnessed over and over, especially in the technology industry, was illustrated wonderfully in the book, Made to Stick. It was also in a great eBook by David Meerman Scott called the Gobbledygook Manifesto, which you can obtain at Find New Customers in the eBook section.

The concept of Curse of Knowledge was illustrated by the “Tapping Game,” which I share with my readers.

Elizabeth Newton earned her Ph. D. in psychology from Stanford in 1990 by studying a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles:

Tappers
Listeners

Tappers received a list of twenty five well-known songs, such as “Happy Birthday to You” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” Each tapper was asked to choose a song from the list and tap out the rhythm to the listener (by knocking on the table). The listener’s job was to guess the song based on the rhythm being tapped.

Before the tapping started, the tappers were asked to predict what percentage of listeners would correctly guess the song title. The odds predicted were 50%.

In reality, 120 songs were tapped out and only 3 were guessed correctly, a whopping 2.5%! Tappers were successful 1 time in 40, but they predicted 1 time in 2. Why?

When a tapper taps, she is hearing the song in her head. Try it. It’s virtually impossible NOT to hear the song in your head. But to the listener, all they hear is a bunch of taps.

What’s going on here?

The crux of the problem is that the tappers have been given knowledge that makes it impossible to imagine what it like to lack that knowledge.

This is the same problem that happens in business. A small software firm, for instance, may have so much experience with their CRM and ERP offerings that they find it impossible to imagine what it is like to not have that knowledge. This makes it nearly impossible for them to craft marketing messages that stick. (Or for that matter, to embrace ideas from smart marketing people on how to make sticky messages.)

In fact, they worsen the Curse of Knowledge when they decide they need a marketing person with industry experience. They take the hole of Curse of Knowledge and dig it deeper and deeper. (This person is very glad to be out of that loser situation.)

The only way to deal with the Curse of Knowledge is to take your ideas and transform them with 6 principles found in the book:

Simplicity
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotions
Stories

These are the six principles of successful ideas. Learn them, embrace them, and defeat the Curse of Knowledge.

P.S. We’ve got the #1 expert in content marketing for a webinar on March 11th at noon. Please visit Find New Customers to learn more.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” He’s also the author of the highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers, as well as The Definitive Guide to Making Quota and Prospect-Driven Marketing. Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.

Sign me up for Insiders (free)

Once we receive your Insider signup, we’ll send you an invitation to the event with Joe.

Jeff Ogden is the President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple.” He’s also the author of the highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers as well as the soon-to-be-released The Definitive Guide to Making Quota. He’s also the co-author of the eBook, Prospect-Driven Marketing along with Arthur Germain of The Communication Strategy Group.

Marketo’s Secret Sauce (for Lead Generation) and a great guest for March

Published February 16, 2010 Demand Generation , Insiders , Lead Nurturing , lead generation Leave a Comment

Thanks to Jon Miller, VP Marketing at Marketo for presenting to our Insiders at Find New Customers. We hold monthly events with great guest speakers like Jon on the first Thursday of every month at 2:00pm ET.

(However, our March event is rescheduled to March 11th at 12 noon ET and features the #1 expert in Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi. Joe’s co-author of the best selling book, Get Content, Get Customers and his company, Junta42 is considered the leading authority on content marketing. This is one event you won’t want to miss.)

To join Insiders (free) go to Sign Me Up for Insiders.

Marketo is one of the fastest growing companies in history and Jon’s insights on their unique lead generation programs are invaluable to any business leader looking for improved results. If you need marketing automation software, Marketo should be on your short list.

You can watch this on demand by clicking on

Marketo’s Secret Sauce

Jeff recently returned to Find New Customers, his business that specializes in simple lead generation – demand generation using inbound marketing. Interestingly, while Jeff was distracted with a software firm, his personal “watering hole” continued to perform, as businesses continued to flock and consume content, especially the highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers.

Jeff can be reached at jogden at findnewcustomers.net.

We also welcome your comments and input. We respond quickly to every one. Thank you.

The right way to hire salespeople

Published February 15, 2010 Action Items sales , Sales 2.0 , Sales knowledge , sales challenges , sales leadership , sales leadership selecting salespeople , sales process 6 Comments

In writing my new white paper, the Definitive Guide to Making Quota, I had the good fortune to interview five of top sales experts:

1. Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies
2. Kendra Lee of The KLA Group
3. Kevin Temple of Enterprise Selling
4. Jim Dickie of CSO Insights
5. Dave Stein of ES Research

One conclusion became clear from my research. Companies are doing a terrible job of selecting salespeople — as quota achievement continues to plummet. Let’s examine why.

More and more companies look for people with industry experience and vertical knowledge. But as the book, Made to Stick, points out, this leads to the Curse of Knowledge — you know the subject so well, that you cannot imagine what it’s like not to have the knowledge. As a result, salespeople do not talk in the customer’s language and the Company loses product differentiation.

In reality, great salespeople are great story-tellers. They are great listeners. They take a complex topic and relate it in simple, customer-centric language.

Do businesses look for great story-tellers, great listeners and the ability to make the complex simple? No, they don’t. So we have massive turnover and poor results.

It’s time folks. Find the great story-tellers, the passionate ones, and the ability to make the complex simple. You’ll be glad you did.

P.S. We’ve lined up the very top expert in Content Marketing for a webinar on March 11th at Find New Customers. Go and sign up.

What do you think? What’s been your experience with hiring salespeople? We love comments and provide easy buttons for sharing.

Jeff is the President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” who has turned the website into the best source of free information on lead generation anywhere. His white paper, How to Find New Customers, has become the Bible of demand generation for many firms.