Sales Sherpas Hires Director of Business Development

David Quigley has joined Sales Sherpas, a marketing and sales strategy firm, as the Director of Business Development.

Quigley will complement the growth the company has seen over the last two years by pursuing new markets. He most recently performed similar duties at Linkergy LLC in Chicago, where his tenacity and industry foresight resulted in substantial revenue growth and client retention.

According to CEO Dave Gee, "David easily wins my respect, both on paper and off. His numerous years of business development success and industry knowledge are complemented by his likeable, confident, and professional demeanor. The extra time we spent researching candidates was worth the effort."

Welcome to the Sales Sherpas team Dave!

Dave Gee
www.salessherpas.com

CMOs spend little time on Social Media

 Twitter may be booming, Facebook stratospheric, but leading chief marketing officers are apparently yet to send the dollars wildly chasing the traffic. A new study shows nearly 85% of CMOs spend less than 10% of their budgets on social media, and what's described as "non-traditional communications channels." The research from Hill & Knowlton and peer networking group, the CMO Club, further found that 55% spend 5% or less in the emerging arenas. The figures come in light of Pew & American Life Internet Project research showing that in 2008, 35% of adult Internet users had profiles on social networks -- up from 8% in 2005.

Pete Krainik, the former marketing chief at Avaya and DoubleClick CMO, who is now leading the CMO Club, states using new-media marketing is critical as the former push approach in marketing has switched to more of a pull dynamic. "Marketing used to be a linear process, with a discussion flowing from the CMO to the target audience," he states. "In today's digital age, communication has evolved into a new model that requires active listening and engaging in numerous conversations."

The CMO Club has 800 members and 124 were surveyed for the study between Sept 15 and Oct. 15.
One hurdle: Club members indicated some companies are grappling with putting together social-media marketing policies internally. 31% report their companies are developing a policy -- and an additional 30% say they have one. A policy can be crucial in deciding how much to enlist bloggers as evangelists.
MaryLee Sachs, a top Hill & Knowlton executive, states: "Everyone is an influencer in today's marketplace. Building advocacy by engaging all audiences can lend a tremendous amount of credibility to any marketing program. A holistic approach helps forge new paths to customers, generating brand loyalty and building critical relationships."

All the best-

Dave
www.salessherpas.com

Who is the average LinkedIn User?

Some interesting statistics on the average LinkedIn user:

Average Age: 41
Household Income: $109,703
Gender: 64% Male
Own Smartphone/PDA: 34%
College Graduate/Post Graduate: 80.1%
Business Decision Maker: 49%
EVP/SVP/VP: 6.5%
Have Portfolio of over $250k: 24%
Job Titles:
C-Level Executives: 7.8%
EVP/SVP: 6.5%
Senior Management: 16%
Middle Management: 18%

Credit to: Nathan Kievman

Dave
www.salessherpas.com

Increase Revenue and Decrease Churn with Bungee

Businesses are challenged more than ever before to increase revenue per customer, increase customer loyalty and decrease churn. After years of research and thousands of hours development Sales Sherpas has launched "Bungee."

Bungee is a robust online customer loyalty and retention program available today. Until now businesses needed a six-figure budget and months or even years of planning and programming to create an effective online loyalty program. However, Bungee is built on a SAAS(Software As A Service) model. So you only pay a small up-front fee and an on-going license fee.

If you would like to take a first hand test drive please join us for an upcoming Webinar. Simply register with an email to: bungee@salessherpas.com. Provide attendee names, company name, desired session and email address and you will receive an email confirmation.

Upcoming times: (all times CST)
October 16 - 10am-11am and 3pm-4pm
October 21 - 9am-10am and 1pm-2pm
October 29 - 11am-noon and 2pm-3pm

If you are not available for the webinar please contact us at bungee@salesherpas.com and provide us details of your needs, name, company name, email address and phone number.

Bungee...Keep 'em coming back...

All the best-

Dave Gee
CEO & Founder
Sales Sherpas
www.bungeeloyaltyprograms.com

Sales Sherpas Hires DOMO

Carol Scharfenorth has joined Sales Sherpas as the company's Director of Marketing Operations.
Scharfenorth will assist with strategic account development, manage client marketing
projects and campaigns, and supervise business partner activities. She brings eight years of
telecommunications marketing experience to Sales Sherpas, an important skill set as it
directly enhances the company's primary niche’.

According to CEO Dave Gee, "Carol is dialed in to the future of the telecom industry, but
more importantly, she has strong marketing aptitude combined with boundless energy and
the ability to efficiently and effectively manage projects. Her talents will unquestionably
enhance our ability to provide strong sales growth for our clients.”
Previously, Scharfenorth was a marketing manager at TDS Telecom, a subsidiary of
Telephone and Data Systems.

Welcome aboard Carol!

Dave
www.salessherpas.com

Job Seekers...Censor Your Social Media

So your aggressively seeking out that next job...following all the proper tactics...networking......building your LinkedIn...etc...

Meanwhile you are also sharing some of your frustrations on your Twitter, Facebook or other social media app and perhaps trashing your old boss or sharing some questionable content.

It is the recruiter's job to make sure you are the best fit possible for that open position. So they will naturally use every tool possible to ensure that fit. Including searching social media. Check out the attached link for some fascinating data.

Continue the search with zeal that next job is just around the corner!

Dave

Is Blogging Dead?

Our attention spans are shrinking by the day. I now respond to emails (with my team)frequently with 1 letter responses "Y" "N" "K" [Y=Yes, N=No, K=OK]. I am now even drinking the Twitter Kool-Aid. The speed at which we want information is now measured in seconds not minutes....one sentence may suffice...So are the days of blogging dead? Since I have begun using Twitter I have neglected my blog and other previously frequent bloggers are telling me the same thing....They don't have the time to blog but do have the time to Tweet.....What are your thoughts?

Dave
www.salessherpas.com
800.287.7198

Increase Sales Without Lowering Your Prices

In turbulent times when competitive threats are stronger, customers have reduced budgets, and you have unused capacity the easy move is to lower your price. Your rationale: "We have extra capacity, available salespeople, excess inventory and so on."

What are the long-term impacts? When business bounces back (it will eventually) try going back to your customers and raising your prices. You can call your customers and announce your "post-recession price increase celebration." Perhaps you could include your competition's website and toll free number in your email announcement too.

Sometimes we need to lower prices but it should be your last resort. If you are the low-cost leader in your industry and price is your only competitive advantage you should stop reading immediately.

Before we move into ways to increase your sales without lowering prices it should be stated that the customer needs to be well-qualified. If the customer does not need your services and you have not qualified them many times you will get into a bidding war with your competition. However, if you have a well-qualified customer that needs your services and you have competitive advantage there are additional ways to win the business WITHOUT lower your price.

Ways To Increase Sales Without Lowering Prices:
1) Provide value added services
2) Extend payment terms
3) Offer a longer contract with a "no price increase guarantee"
4) Create promotional offers with related products
5) Incorporate a sweepstakes
6) Make product improvements with no price increase


If you would like to brainstorm other ideas feel free to call and discuss at 800.287.7198.

Sincerely-

Dave
www.salessherpas.com

Trade Shows in a Down Economy

In these times of budget cut backs trade shows are frequently one of the first marketing efforts to face the chopping block. The common logic is that large fixed costs are always incurred and the sales cycle is too long. Frankly this was my "misconception" until a couple of years ago too. We are now generating roughly 20% of our business via trade shows.

Although creating massive entire trade show "environments" may no longer be financially feasible, eliminating trade shows from your marketing mix entirely is generally not prudent....

10 Tips to Maximize your Trade Show ROI:

1) Select those shows that have the historical highest ROI. Explore new more cost effective shows.

2) Set-up specific trade show goals.
Examples: Set 5 prospect appointments, Close 1 pending sale, Solidify relationship with 2 clients (take to dinner/golf)

3) Ask your business partners if you can co-brand at their exhibit/booth.

4) Select spaces with the best traffic patterns. Avoid being located near competition.

5) Promote your presence through other conference sponsorships (e.g. golf hole sponsorships).

6) Get selected as a guest speaker at conference.

7) Determine trade show must have's vs. nice to have's (budget accordingly).

8) Develop an attractive and engaging presence (e.g. Monitors, Interactive experiences).

9) Provide high value, low cost, long life, promotional items (e.g. flash drives with link to company website-these are a great alternative to expensive sales collateral).

10) Develop an electronic method to collect leads and follow-up within 1 week of show.

Seeking an excellent trade show exhibit partner? Contact Mike Willemin at 3D Exhibits in Chicago - they created the Cardinal Health "environment" above.

If you would like other trade show tips please contact us at 800.287.7198 or inquiry@salessherpas.com.

Happy Selling!

Dave
www.salessherpas.com

To PPC or Not PPC that is the Question

A friend mine(let's call him Ted) who owns an IT firm recently decided to get into web development and SEO. Obviously, he thought it was as easy as "just add water" and instantly he would become a web dev and SEO guru.

Ted called me with a problem last week. He had developed a website for an office supply company and incorporated some sound SEO techniques, but after 3 weeks the website wasn't generating any traffic. The client was livid, they had spent a large sum on a new website [with the "build it and they will come" mentality] and it was not generating any ROI.

I first shared with Ted that unless the product is incredibly unique and has broad market awareness, plan on a minimum of 6 months to start seeing results from his SEO efforts. I then asked Ted about what kind of paid search(pay-per-click) initiatives they had incorporated. Ted stated "Pay-Per-Click doesn't work and it is too expensive." My first response was "Ted how do you think Google stays in business...it's not from offering free web searches." Then I asked him to do some basic math with me.

For the office supply company let's say the average profit is $40 per sale. Let's estimate the conversion rate is 5%. So 1 out of 20 clicks will turn into sales. Therefore, the office supply company will break-even at $2/click ($40 profit per sale/20 clicks to generate 1 sale). Suddenly the light bulb went on for Ted.

Paid search (Pay-Per-Click) generates immediate traffic to your website to rollout a new website, promote a new product or service, or simply increase sales. It also can be highly targeted by buyer behavior, geography etc. and is therefore can be a very efficient and effective marketing tool.

There is a science behind creating an effective paid search campaign and should complement on-going SEO initiatives. The research and on-going testing and management are critical to its success. If you would like to discuss how to generate a higher volume of qualified leads to your website via paid search please contact us at 800.287.7198 or inquiry@salessherpas.com.

Thanks,

Dave
www.salessherpas.com

Marketing Research On A Budget

So your marketing budget has been trimmed down. You know that your customers needs are changing. You know that your prospects needs are changing. You know you cannot make develop new marketing strategies and tactics on anecdotal information from the field or customer service.

Marketing research is the logical solution...but you have no budget you say? There are a plethora of services now available online for less than $25/month. Services including: iContact, Constant Contact, Survey Monkey and more.

Words of Caution:
1) Define your actionable goals in advance
2) Have a professional researcher develop the questions
4) Email marketing has inherent biases (difficult to make blind with a representative sample)
5) Have a copywriter review the questions (poorly worded questions will kill your credibility)
6) Don't take immediate action on a small sample (example: we got responses within minutes on a recent survey we conducted but after 2 days our results had shifted dramatically).

If you have questions on marketing research please contact us. We have experience with all forms of marketing research: Email, In-Person, Focus Groups, Telephone, Mail and Online Immersion.

Dave
800.287.7198
david.gee@salessherpas.com
www.salessherpas.com

Recession Humor

Well the sun is shining brightly here in Wisconsin and I thought it was the perfect time to pop-off a quick note to lighten your day......... before I cut out early.










Top 10 things you don't want to be asked during a recession:
1) How's business?
2) Could you take on this "little" project?
3) Are you guys hiring?
4) How big was your bonus check?
5) Did you get that raise you were counting on?
6) How is your job these days?
7) What do you think of my new BMW?
8) You guys going to Hawaii again this year?
9) Did you hear the Miami trade show got cancelled?
10) Do you know when we get our severance checks?

Here is some perspective on this recession from a 75 year-old friend of mine named Joe......"Any day above ground is a good day."

Dave

If you have any ideas for our blog(or think we are just plain insensitive) feel free to call us at 800.287.7198 or contact us via our website at www.salessherpas.com.

Creating An Experience?

It is easy for marketers to get stuck in a creative rut and keep cranking out the same old tired material. The assignment is handed to the creative team: Here is the promotion, here are the target markets, here are the products that we need to promote......Before you know it VOILA!... you have the same old campaign simply "dressed-up in new clothing."

People don't want to just purchase products and services, they want an experience. Many of you are familiar with the "Mad Men" series that chronicles the events at a Madison Avenue agency during the 1960s. I was recently watching the show and found a clip that struck a chord with me. The agency is pitching the "new" Kodak Slide Carousel.

Are you simply promoting a product or conveying a new customer experience?

All the best,

Dave

Union Telephone Website Goes Live!

Sales Sherpas is excited to announce the launch of the new Union Telephone Company website. The website creates a strong online presence for Union Telephone and also functions as a powerful sales tool. The new database-driven website provides product availability for each specific customer address. The website also provides local resources such as movie listings, school information and more.

Search engine optimization was also provided which has moved the website to the top tier rankings in Google and Yahoo.

"The new website generated sales within a few hours of going online." - Reed Warner General Manager - Union Telephone Company.

www.uniontel.net

If you are looking to increase your sales through a new website or other search engine marketing please contact us at 800.287.7198 email us at info@salessherpas.com. If you would like to learn more please visit us at: www.salessherpas.com

Dave