There are two fundamental laws I live buy when it comes to selling:
1. Nothing happens until somebody sells something. I’ve never been a fan of the “build it and they will come” philosophy of selling. With all due respect to the brilliant people who design and build products, few products sell themselves.
2. People buy from people. One thing I have observed about successful salespeople is that they don’t rely on the brand or company to do their selling. They rely on themselves, and build their own brand by serving their customers and helping them make smart choices.
Why Email Marketing is Vital for Selling
There’s a great article by Jim Meyer, in today’s desinationCRM.com titled, 7 Ways to Accelerate Sales in a Down Economy. Jim is Vice President at eTrigue Corporation, and has a ton of experience in selling. If you’re serious about getting more juice for squeeze from your selling efforts, I suggest you read it.
Meyer is a strong proponent of email marketing, and one of his recommendations for effective email marketing is to send email on-behalf of the sales rep in charge of the account. “Generic messages,” says Meyer, “come across as junk mail, preventing viable prospects from taking the next step. Automated demand-generation systems will personalize emails and ensure proper addresses and accurate delivery.”
ExactTarget’s Enterprise Edition is used by leading marketers like Genworth Financial and Thomson Reuters to send email on behalf of the sales executive or account manager. This personalized approach provides a response lift of 12 – 15 percentage points. And when you integrate email technology with CRM systems like Salesforce.com or Microsift Dynamics CRM, you can set up automated email campaigns for lead nurturing, customer service, and re-purchase.