As standard media has become more and more commoditized, publishers and media sellers have diversified their offerings. Rather than racing to the bottom on prices for banners and pre-roll videos, we've clambered up to the high ground of content creation, video programming, events, social optimization and data engineering. The switch can be a jarring one. The work is harder and more detailed, involves more people (account management, client services, creative, production et al), eats up more time and is far more expensive. The uninformed, unqualified RFPs that used to aggravate us in the banner age are devastating us today. Too many sales teams take the bait and engage in a full-blown idea-fest, spinning out fully-baked programs, proposals and bespoke ideas... great work that ends up going nowhere 80-90 percent of the time. There's a better way.
If I asked most Drift readers what they do for a living, they'd offer up a job title like chief revenue officer, account executive or regional director. If pushed for a more concrete job description, eventually…
Generally speaking, we tend to send badly-structured Emails that are too long, too predictable, to too many people. We use email as a blunt-force instrument, overwhelming our prospects and coworkers with unendurable detail and word counts. What was once a promising chance at immediate connection has jumped the shark and become a burden to all involved. It's time to stop the madness.
Late October will mark the 25th anniversary of advertising on the Web. Having been part of the team that ushered in those first primitive digital ads in 1994, I'll be using this space in the intervening…
Late October will mark the 25th anniversary of advertising on the Web. Having been part of the team that ushered in those first primitive digital ads in 1994, I'll be using this space in the intervening…
Late October will mark the 25th anniversary of advertising on the Web. Having been part of the team that ushered in those first primitive digital ads in 1994, I'll be using this space in the intervening…
Late October will mark the 25th anniversary of advertising on the Web. Having been part of the team that ushered in those first primitive digital ads in 1994, I'll be using this space in the intervening…
We've been talking about the demise of the RFP for over a decade. Yet it survives. And it's become the holding pen for sellers, technologies and ideas that should instead be getting active, urgent consideration. The truth is we are all working harder to get the consideration of buying organizations that are operating short-handed and who don't necessarily have the full confidence and commitment of their clients. Being deferred or shuttled into an RFP process with dozens of competitors is professional quicksand. Accepting its failed promise is the worst strategic decision any of us can make.
I was holding my 91-year-old Mom's hand when she died on Saturday. And today I'm going to use my tiny bit of weekly attention to make her just a little more famous. She deserves that. Of course this has…
If you don't put something urgent and provocative in front of the buyer in the first 90 seconds of your call, your buyer will step into the vacuum and fill it themselves. They'll fill it with rote questions, flawed categorization, indifference, false objections, a recitation of numerical parameters or something worse. I'll leave you with a tip to help you fill the void. Make this the first sentence of your next sales meeting: "We've looked at your business, and there's one big issue we don't think you recognize. And if it's not addressed, you'll be missing a huge opportunity."
You know what we could use more of in digital sales? Cause and effect. Intentionality. Some good old fashioned I did this and then they did that. Instead -- too often -- sellers go through the motions of the capabilities presentation or the big idea pitch and then expect - OK, maybe hope - that an approval or an insertion order materializes somewhere down the line. What's missing are the numbers on the yardstick... the measurable, incremental answers and victories that get us from here to the sale. As a result, sellers assign far too much value (and time and resources) to the presentation and not nearly enough to running a great pipeline.
A sales call or meeting is like a drive on the highway. The two most critical moments - the only ones that matter, really - are the on-ramp and the off-ramp. Survive these and the rest of the trip will take care of itself. The answer is surprisingly simple. Have a plan and practice it. Open your calls quickly and decisively. Close them slowly and thoughtfully. And watch your numbers improve.