Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today

Do Sales People Need to Double as Product Marketing Managers for their offerings?

Do Sales people need to double as Product Marketing Managers for their offerings?

When it comes to knowing who their customers are along with their needs; they do.

Previously, I spoke about prospecting and identifying your target market. I will cover this topic in more detail in this post. I stated that it is important to know who would be a good fit for your offering. For example if you were selling Dental equipment like I was, you would look for Dental professionals in your sales territory, you would not call on other medical professionals and offices that do not have a need. When I was selling Dental equipment, I sold devices that any Dental professional could use. However, I also sold items that only specialized Dentists could use. As a result, I had to do research to distinguish between my offerings. For example, I would not present…

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Say Thank You on Thanksgiving!

It’s easy to lose sight of the things that are important. We can easily be consumed by the things we want and don’t have. Left unchecked, this could lead to a life of unhappiness.

Thanksgiving is upon us and I want to pause and reflect on the things that I am thankful for. I am thankful for my family and friends. They are very supportive of me. I am also thankful for the good fortune that I have in my life. Sure we have our ups and downs but it’s important to remember the good that we have in our lives. Many people have less than we do!

As my blog turns two this year, I want to thank my followers on this blog and social media as a whole for all of the support they have given me. Your support has been invaluable to me. You have enriched my life in so many ways.

Remember to say thank you on Thanksgiving and count your blessings.

Remember what matters.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What are you thankful for?

Dan

5 Things Sales has Taught Me

Sales has taught me many things.

Below is a list of what I learned from selling:

1.To go after what I want in life. Ask for the order if you will.

2. To stand tall in the face of rejection and negativity.

3 To look at rejection as a learning experience instead of a defeat.

4 To persist through obstacles and not to quit!

5 To examine how a business operates.
Every person should try selling products at least once in their lives. It is a valuable learning experience.

I worked in New York City as a Retail Sales Rep during my college recess.

After graduation, I worked as an Outside Sales Rep in the Dental Industry in Manhattan.

Both jobs have taught me so much about myself.

Feel free to share your sales story here!

What did selling teach you?

Increase Credibility: In-Person Customer Testimonials Hit the Spot at 2013 NY Auto Show

Last year, I wrote an article about what the auto show could teach us about trade show marketing. This year I had the honor of covering the show as a member of the press once again. I really enjoyed attending the show. All of the manufacturers had great presentations and unveils of their cars. Each company presented their vehicles with a great presentation.

However, Hyundai made one of the best presentations of the show. They dared to be different. Instead of the traditional press conference, where journalists sit, take in the information and ask questions post conference, Hyundai included a Q & A session right into the presentation. The conference was not a conference at all; it was a town hall. John Krafcik, CEO of Hyundai Motor America, used the opportunity to roll out Connected Care. This is a service that allows drivers to get help in case of emergencies. The service also updates owners on the health of their vehicle.

To back up their claims, they had customers provide in-person testimonials of how their lives were saved. One of their customers survived a head on collision thanks to the service. Unable to contact his family the service notified them of the customer’s condition. Now that’s a testimonial.

If you want to attend the auto show there is a few hours left. Still not convinced? Check out my mobile uploads on Facebook.

Build your Brand with a Blog

Blogging is a great way to build your brand and market your products to the masses. Writing a blog allows you to demonstrate your expertise through writing. Blogging helps to provide prospects and customers with valuable information. Providing valuable information helps to position you as an expert and a resource.

Popular blog posts formats are: How to’s, book reviews, interviews, analysis of trends in your industry and best of’s. I was approached by many people as a result of my blog. Now you are asking the question, “How did you get the idea to blog?”

I decided to write a blog while working on an assignment in the education field. This assignment required me get other people to work on their writing. One of the prompts I used asked the question, “What do you know a lot about?”

Make a list of topics, choose one and write a research paper on this topic.

This writing prompt made me think about the topics that I knew a lot about. The topics were Sales, Marketing, and Social Media. As a result, I decided to put my thoughts on these topics in writing. I launched Dan Galante’s Sales and Marketing blog in November 2011.

A blog is very easy to set up. The major blogging platforms are WordPress and tumblr. Both sites allow users to register for free. If you want to choose a custom domain name there is a fee. WordPress directly offers domain names for sale on their site. With tumblr, you will need to go to an outside provider and redirect the site to tumblr.

The WordPress and tumblr platforms have many features of Facebook and Twitter. You can re-blog an article. Re-blogging is sharing someone else’s content on your blog; similar to a retweet. Your fellow bloggers can also like your post and comment on it, similar to Facebook. These features are great for engagement. Articles can be tagged with relevant terms. You can then search out these terms to see all posts on that topic. This is similar to a hashtag on Twitter or SEO.

WordPress and tumblr allows bloggers to share articles on various social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest. You can use badges and plugins from your social networks to build a following and community. I have used this method to expand readership.

Guest blogging and syndication is another way to share your content. I am now syndicated on The Strategic HR blog.

Once you decide to start blogging, stick with it and publish quality content. Try to set up a writing schedule to maintain consistency. I shoot for once a week.

Blogging is a great way to get your message out. This is how you can build your brand with a blog.

Market Your Expertise with Paper.li

Blogging is a great way to establish and market yourself as an expert. However, there is only so much you can write on a topic in a time period. This is where content curation comes into play. Besides writing, experts share articles and opinion of others in their field. This can come in the form of a retweet on Twitter, like on Facebook, +1 on Google plus and various other forms of re-sharing. However, if you want to curate content from multiple sources, an online newspaper comes in handy. This is where Paper. li comes in.

I use Paper.li to share content on sales, marketing and technology. This is a great way for me to engage my followers with the content and opinions of others in my field. People who are included in my papers frequently retweet the paper and mention me on Twitter.

Paper .li is a great site to publish online newspapers on your area of expertise. The site allows you to sign up using your Twitter or Facebook account. Papers are generated from your Facebook or Twitter feed. Setting up is easy. Once you go on the site, you will be asked to login with Facebook or Twitter. When I started, I decided to sign up with my Twitter account. Once I granted Paper.li access to my Twitter account,,

I was prompted to create my newspaper. You will need to create a title and subtitle for the paper along with how often you want your paper published. Paper. li provides publishers with three options: daily, morning +evening and Weekly.

Once you decide on the paper you want to create, you have the options of choosing hashtags from Twitter, RSS feeds, certain Twitter top accounts in the news, business, entertainment, tech and science, sports and leisure categories.Once you create your paper, you can schedule the time you want it to be published to Twitter and Facebook.

Another great feature of Paper. li is the editor’s note. The editor’s note allows you to market your product and services. This feature also let’s you provide background about yourself. I share both text and links to my various websites and blogs.

Another feature that I like is the Twitter feed under the Editor’s note. This a great way for readers to follow and engage with you on Twitter.

You can also search for people and content on the site. Readers who really like your paper can subscribe to your paper by email as well. This is similar to blog subscriptions via email.

Paper.li also offers a premium service where you can publish newsletters.

I recommend that you give Paper. li a try. It’s free!

My Top 5 Articles from 2012

In my last post, I shared my top 10 articles of all time. As today is New Year’s Eve, I wanted to reflect on my top five articles of 2012.

#1 How to Deal with Difficult Customers

In sales, we all have to deal with difficult customers. Today, I am going discuss how to deal with difficult customers. In a previous post, I discussed how to get customers to pay on time. Before I can discuss how to handle difficult customers, the situation needs to be put in context. In other words, why were the customers being difficult? Were they being difficult because you screwed up their order or service call? Are they just miserable people? Does the customer constantly cancel their orders? What kind of relationship do you have with this customer? How important is your customer to your bottom line or monthly quota. …

#2 How to Build Your Business & Brand Using Facebook Pages

In my last post, I discussed about how to build your personal brand on Facebook. Today I am going to discuss how to brand your business using Facebook pages. Remember Facebook is the largest Social networking site which means that your customers and prospects are on the site. Your job as a business and a brand is to engage with fans, prospects and customers. The goal is to convert this engagement (marketing) to product sales. Facebook pages are a great way to do this. …

#3 10 Things a Sales Leader Needs to Do or Have to Be Successful

Deciding to go into sales management is a very big step for a sales person. Recently, I received an offer to serve as a sales trainer or de-facto sales manager; based on my time in field sales and my blog.

What are a VP of Sales, Sales Director and Sales Manager? …

#4 How to Handle the Objection: “call me after the holidays”

The holiday season is upon us. Everyone is in holiday shopping mode from Black Friday, Cyber Monday and many other things. Also, everyone is thinking about going to parties. So the last thing on your customers and prospects mind is to make a year-end purchase; unless they receive a year-end tax advantage. As a sales rep, you are under pressure to close deals so you can earn that bonus. Unless your customer is in a buying mood, you are going to …

#5 How to Generate Leads for Your Business

Lead Generation is an essential building block for businesses to find potential buyers who are interested in their products and services. In previous posts, I discussed how to prospect and identify your target market. In this post, I will discuss how businesses can find leads and what mediums can be used to obtain leads.

Many mediums can be used to obtain leads. These mediums include: Direct mail, Email, Marketing, Surveys, Advertising, Social Media, referrals from current customers, business networking, trade show marketing. …

Happy New Year! Thank you for reading my blog, I appreciate your support. There are more articles to come in the coming weeks. Feel free to send me your comments, questions and suggestions. Have a wonderful 2013.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 9,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 15 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

How to Handle the Objection: “Call me after the holidays.”

The holiday season is upon us. Everyone is in holiday shopping mode from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and many other things. Also, everyone is thinking about going to parties. So the last thing on your customers and prospects’ minds is to make a year-end purchase, unless they receive a year-end tax advantage. As a sales rep, you are under pressure to close deals so you can earn that bonus. Unless your customer is in a buying mood, you are going to hear the objection “call me after the holidays”. If you have done business with this customer, you will have an easier time than if you are making a cold call.

In prior articles, I have written about how to get prospects and customers to buy. However, today’s focus is getting around the customers or prospects objection, “call me after the holidays”. You have to attempt to get around this objection. If your offer is time sensitive or if you can provide a break on pricing or payment through a special promotion, for example, no payments for 3 months, make your customer aware of IT. However, at this time of the year, you will get customers and prospects who just don’t want to deal with you and your offering. As a sales rep, it is your job to be able to tell if the customer or prospect is telling you the truth. In other words, you need to qualify their objections. This means following up with every customer and prospect, even when things look bleak.

Should your customers and prospects insist that you call them after the holidays, I would find out which holiday they mean. Next, I would pin them down to a specific day and time to call back. I recommend sending your customers and prospects a holiday card with a little note reminding them about the appointment, stating how you look forward to speaking with them on the specific date and time. Once this time comes, I will hold them to their promise. Deliver your presentation and ask for the business.

This is how to deal with the objection “call me after the holidays”.

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