You can attribute a lot of great relationships to perfect timing. When you connect with the right person at the right time, everything seems to just fit. This is especially true for sales. Connecting with your lead too early means they won’t be ready to buy. But if you wait too long, they may have moved on to a competitor. Unfortunately, finding the perfect time to connect with a customer is complicated. It’s not like you can set a timer that will ding when they’re ready to connect. Instead, you need to qualify your leads yourself. It’s always important to connect with your leads to figure out where they’re at in the buying process. Asking questions, getting feedback, and building a relationship can set you on the right path for being available when they’re ready to buy. To help you qualify your sales prospects, here are 25 questions you should be asking. Establishing the relationship The relationship is the most important part of closing a … [Read more...] about 25 Sales Questions to Qualify Your Leads Faster
4 things plants need to grow
Cultivating Local Needs For Business Profit
At this time of year, every year, an accountant in my town has his young son dress up as the statue of liberty and stand in front of the office, waving a large tax preparation services sign. While I'm not sure what this may be doing for the growing boy's psyche, it's pretty easy to guess the message this is sending to the community: it's tax time, and I know you need an accountant, and I'm right here! The accountant has recognized a clear local need and is making a special effort to let the public know that he is the answer to that need. Taxpayers everywhere are getting this kind of attentive treatment right now, because everyone knows it's tax season, but what about all of the other real local, region-specific needs that would only require some observation to perceive and fulfill? Take farmers, for example. Where I live, the local town is surrounded by miles of farmland being worked by families and small commercial enterprises. It's more rural than urban here, and as this is the … [Read more...] about Cultivating Local Needs For Business Profit
4 Tools (And 1 E-Book) I’m Loving For Content Creation And Link Development
If someone writes a post that contains a big list of tools they’re using, I’m going to read it almost every time, even if I keep running into the same information. I’m always on the lookout for new ways to help our clients develop better content and build better links; so, the more creative platforms out there, the better, in my opinion. My main purpose as far as link generation goes is pretty simple: I need some new ideas for discovering relevant link partners and for creating link-worthy content. I use tools primarily to give me ideas that I can build on, whether it’s for creating content, working with PPC, deciding on internal anchor text, or identifying link partners. I tend to fall back on the same old handful of tools, so during the past couple of weeks, I decided to rely more on some I hadn’t used before. Thus far, I am loving the following sources of inspiration. Tools For Generating Content Ideas The following three tools are all free (which is … [Read more...] about 4 Tools (And 1 E-Book) I’m Loving For Content Creation And Link Development
How to Create Winning Promoted Pins on Pinterest
Without a doubt, converting users into buyers in 2016 is an art form. If you're a business and looking for customers to buy your product, you know where the scene is. It's on Pinterest. (Unless you've made it onto Shark Tank, in which case, bravo.) Whether you've spent a bajillion dollars or zero, promoting pins on Pinterest can be a tricky little business. There's such a rich variety of Pinterest Promoted Pin options to choose from-where do you even begin? While there's no official handbook or rule guide, most Promoted Pin strategies operate more or less the same way. You create an ad, chose a campaign goal, and decide on a budget. Before that's in place you can commence Pinterest-stalking to learn more about your competitors-at least, that's what I do. I'm here to help you with this process: Figuring out how to use Promoted Pins while not wasting your time and money. There's no reason you should have to do all that legwork when I can do it for you. Ready to start? Are Promoted Pins … [Read more...] about How to Create Winning Promoted Pins on Pinterest
How to Write Social Media Updates People Love
Very few writers really know what they are doing until they've done it. - Anne Lamott This quote from Anne Lamott resonates with me quite a bit. I seldom know what I'm doing until I've done it. I also seldom know what other writers are doing either. I recognize what I enjoy reading … aaaaand I've little idea why I enjoy it. That's what makes the topic of linguistics and language so fascinating to me because it helps explain all the whys behind the writing I love, the tweets I read, the updates I favorite, and the copy I crave. There's an art and a science to writing that sits just below the surface, and I'd love to share with you what I've learned about how to reveal it and incorporate it into your marketing messages-and how to write copy that people love! Linguistics, Microstyle, and the Beauty of Small Writing Simplicity is not a given. It is an achievement, a human invention, a discovery, a beloved belief. - William H. Gass, Finding a Form When I look at a format like Twitter, … [Read more...] about How to Write Social Media Updates People Love