Professional Services Marketing & Selling

Studies show that 60% of companies don't follow up with leads. They may not trust the leads, or they may not have a process for following up with leads. Whatever the reason is, that lack of follow-up causes businesses to lose money, says Andy Paul, author of Zero-Time Selling. In this interview, Paul discusses how one firm achieved 100% follow-up on leads and as a result saw sales increase25% to 35%.

You know how to use automated email to generate leads and nurture leads. But have you thought about using transactional email, such as order confirmations or even out-of-office messages, to engage with buyers? If not, you're missing out on an opportunity to provide value-added content that can lead to sales. Listen as Matt Heinz discusses how to how to get better use out of transactional emails, mistakes that cause email campaigns to fail, and tactics to capture prospects' attention.

No matter how good a salesperson looks on paper, you can't drop that person into a new company and expect him to start generating revenue immediately. You need an onboarding program that helps new-hire salespeople fully understand the value the company offers and how to sell that value, says sales management strategist Lee Salz. Without one, you lose money on salesperson turnover or if they stay, they make less-than-optimal sales.

Often companies make mistakes with their websites that cause them to leave money on the table. Potential buyers visit their site but don't take any actionable steps or they leave immediately.  And the website owners have no idea that it's happening or why. Listen as Philippa Gamse, author of 42 Rules for a Web Presence that Wins, discusses the biggest website mistakes that cause companies to lose leads and how to improve your website so that you generate more leads and more revenue.

The online world is continually evolving. Buyers' behaviors change, which means your lead generation and marketing strategies must also evolve. To help you, several tools are available to identify leads, target your messaging toward them, and develop relationships with them. Listen as Jeff Quipp, CEO of Search Engine People, discusses some of those tools, as well as online marketing strategies firms must focus on.

For most service professionals, finding time to both sell and provide their services is an issue. That's why it's important that they qualify their prospects to make sure the potential buyer is worth giving their time to. You don't want to waste time on prospects who will never buy from you. Listen as RAIN Group Co-President John Doerr explains the best way to qualify prospects when it's a complex sale.

When you receive a generic prospecting email, what's your first reaction? To delete it? Your buyers feel the same way. If you want them to respond, you must personalize it. Listen as prospecting and lead generation expert Kendra Lee explains how to personalize prospecting emails—even when your list has hundreds of prospects, two things you must never include in prospecting emails, and the importance of follow-up email.

Thanks to the Internet, it's never been easier to build relationships with reporters and get quoted in their publications. Journalists from all types of media outlets, including The New York Times, are always looking for sources for their articles. And if you can capture their attention, they will turn to you. Listen as Dan Janal, author of Reporters Are Looking for You! Get the Publicity You Need to Build Your Business, explains how to get on journalists' radar and respond to their queries so that they use your quotes in articles.

The road to becoming a trusted advisor to clients is paved with good intentions. However, when service professionals head out with all the best goals often things trip them up. In this podcast, Andrea Howe, co-author of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, explains what those stumbling blocks are and how to develop your trust skills so that you have trustworthy client relationships.

When you make cold calls or send prospecting emails, should you try to sell the person on the value of your services—of what you have to offer? If you answered yes, you are wrong. Listen as RAIN Group Co-President John Doerr explains what you should do, as well as how to sell your services based on value so that you generate new business at higher prices.