The Bacon Podcast with Brian Basilico | CURE Your Sales & Marketing with Ideas That Make It SIZZLE!

Dog daycares have to vet their potential customers before they can become customers.

First, they are required to have the right vaccinations to prevent doggie flu, kennel cough, and more. Next, they have to pass a temperament test. They put your dog in the play area with one to two other dogs that have been singled out because they play well and understand the boundaries of play. If your dog passes, then they can join a large group and are monitored to make sure they are not too timid or aggressive.

Is that something you could or should do with your business?

Adding people to your email list is a way of vetting if they are real people and possible prospects. If you email weekly (52 times or more per year) versus once a month (12 times per year), you can see if the email bounces or the contact unsubscribes.

In this dog-eat-dog world (hopefully figuratively, not literally) it makes sense to invest time in people who have invested time in you and your website!

.In this episode… We will discuss how to vet your prospects who visit your website to increase sales faster..

Brynne Tillman is the LinkedIn Whisperer and CEO of Social Sales Link. For over a decade she has been teaching Entrepreneurs, sales teams and business leaders how to leverage LinkedIn for social selling.

As a former sales trainer and personal producer, Brynne adopted all of the traditional sales techniques and adapted them to the new digital world. She guides professionals to establish a thought leader and subject matter expert brand, find and engage the right targeted market, and leverage clients and networking partners for warm introductions into qualified buyers.

If you are on LinkedIn, I am sure you have fallen victim to the connect and pitch. Chances are they got your name using Sales Navigator, a tool like ZoomInfo, or by looking at their connections and simply reaching out to their connections.

You know how it works. Someone connects with you and says, “I am not trying to sell you anything”, and then keeps messaging you to act like they wanna be your friend.

I had one guy the other day (who is a fitness coach) hit me up with a list of seventeen fitness challenges in the guise of doing research. You know where that will go if you take the bait. I replied, “Nice pitch to find out how to sell to the pain, Marketing 101! Good Luck!” to which he replied, “I am not trying to sell you anything!” Sure bro, SURE!

Blog posts like this are perfect content to share in an email or social media. That generally comes in a short form teaser. The hope is that people click back to read the full article. That article should have a call to action in the form of a banner ad or popup to get them to give you their information if and when they are interested.

That is how a contact marketing system works. It funnels real leads that have an interest in your products and service. That also gives your sales team mostly qualified leads to start and build better sales relationships. Which I am sure they will find more pleasant and productive than making cold calls all day!

.In this episode… We will discuss how what’s a lead and why it should matter to your sales.

On October 21st, 2023. Mark SA Smith passed on. He was a friend and an inspiration to me and this podcast. He was an educator and entrepreneur who gave his knowledge and time to help others.

Fly on Friend

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Mark S. A. Smith designs and implements customer acquisition systems that find and recruit customers for disruptive products. He speaks at entrepreneurial events delivering pragmatic ideas to grow and succeed.

He is an electrical engineer, media technologist, computer programmer, hardware salesman, a software marketer, and business owner who works with leaders who must develop the best way to bring in the right customers, fast!

Mark wrote 13 books and sales guides targeting government, educational, healthcare and the private sector, including three with Guerrilla Marketing author, Jay Conrad Levinson. He has authored more than 400 magazine articles.

With his engineering, sales, and business background, he can teach information in a way that customers, sales people, and management understand so that they can clearly communicate with their customers.

Creates powerful and innovative sales channel tools, combining product knowledge with proven sales skills. Creates custom white papers and books to sell technology to top management. Delivered thousands of speeches on selling.

The phrase, “can’t see the forest for the trees,” means that someone is so focused on small details or individual parts of a situation that they fail to see or understand the larger picture or the overall context. In other words, it suggests that a person is too preoccupied with minor, irrelevant, or unimportant aspects of a situation and, as a result, misses the broader and more critical perspective.

But in the case of marketing, you want people to see your tree in the forest of cold calls, unwanted direct outreach messages, and random targeted pixel ads.

Content marketing is a strategic approach that can share the unique attributes of your products, services, competitive advantages, and people.

It has two components. First, you have to create that unique content. It has to be written in a way that attracts and interests your intended audience. Secondly, you have to market. That means distributing it in a way that people take notice.

The main goal of content marketing is to create sales. B2B sales take time and trust. In most cases, it takes multiple visits to your website, to generate enough interest to want to have a conversation with your company or sales team.

.In this episode… We will discuss how content marketing is like noticing a colorful tree in a first of green.

Michelle’s primary focus is helping leaders and employees achieve high-performance and measurable results that encompass engagement, productivity, well-trained individuals and effective teams. Michelle brings a vigorous customer-focused approach with client engagements. She is accomplished with diverse and multi-cultural audiences and is a certified Personified Leadership facilitator. Michelle’s body of work spans the following practice areas: Instructional Design, Facilitation, Executive Coaching and Performance Consulting

We live in a complex world of chaos. The difference today is that the amount and speed of data we have access to and consume, in the form of audio, video, text, and voice, can be overwhelming. We often tend to self-sanitize by consuming stories and narratives that affirm our worldview and values. That leads to compartmentalized communication.

So what can we do? We can start by listening to and understanding people who agree and disagree with our worldview. We need to invest in getting to know and relate to people in a more analog form.

There is no turning back. Digital communications are here to stay. But just like we have seen a resurgence in vinyl record stores and sales, there is a time, place, and desire for a mix of analog and digital business communications.

Some of the bias and comfort level is generational. I am sure you have seen sales teams that range from Gen Z to Boomers. Younger generations have grown up only knowing digital technologies while boomers started out 100% analog.

Being a Chief Relationship Optimizer, I embrace technology and its repeatable and time-saving benefits. I also embrace the power of sitting down for a coffee, meeting for a meal, and attending networking events and conferences to enhance interpersonal relationships.

.In this episode… We will discuss the differences between analog and digital communication styles, and how they can and should coexist!.

Ultimate Catalyst for personal transformation. Creator of the ultimate life formula. Author of 13 books and “your ultimate life“ podcast. 30-year executive experience in the energy industry. Survived a near-death experience and committed to those ending addiction to average.

Coming through decades of depression, addictions, life-threatening illness and a near-death experience, Kellan has become the ultimate catalyst to help motivated people melt barriers, move mountains and mobilize superpowers to achieve their true desires. As a coach and keynote speaker, Kellan’s masterful approach helps people get past old stories, change beliefs and create a life context to reach even goals that seemed impossible.

We recently watched a documentary about the Webb Space Telescope. If you are unfamiliar, the Hubble Space Telescope increased the range we could see into space versus land-based observatories. It has circled the earth at 360 miles up since 1990. The Webb Space Telescope was conceived in 1996 and launched on December 25, 2021. It orbits the sun at over 1 million miles and has a 5-layer sun shield to increase its ability to see deeper into space.

Okay, I am sure at this point you are saying “Cool. But what does this have to do with marketing my business?” Well, I’m glad you asked!

I believe that good business marketing has three legs like a stool: current, past, and future customers. Look at these three as different audiences, who get and respond to different messages, and what and how you can measure with different expectations.

Our current customers are our present. Past customers show us an evolution of our business that we can use to predict what motivates and excites future customers.

It all comes down to tagging and segmenting people and businesses, and developing distribution messages that promote quality business relationships.

The main goal of a business card is to be remembered and have your interaction continued and acted upon. So why not make it as easy and actionable as possible?

.In this episode… We will discuss how segmenting your marketing can use your past to build new business in the future!