Who cares about Web 2.0? Sales training & business development tips for the uninitiated

What is the best way to bring in and attract new business? How can companies ensure that they have a constant stream of new business opportunities? Why is it that one company has loads of leads and opportunities whilst another struggles to generate enough new prospects?

Great questions all.

One of the things that I have noticed on my travels as a motivational speaker and sales training expert is how stuck people seem to get in the way that they do things. Once someone starts to do something one way then they assume that it is the only way to operate their sales and marketing efforts. Whole companies operate “one-trick pony” sales and marketing strategies because “it’s the way that they’ve always done it”!

It reminds me of one of the first personal development stories that I ever heard…

A newly married couple have invited some friends around for Sunday lunch and they had decided to have a roast. The wife, wanting to impress her new husband (see I told you it was an old story!), is focused on doing everything perfectly. Just before she puts the beef in the oven she cuts it in half and puts each half in two separate roasting trays.

Seeing this, her new husband asks why she did this. She replies that that’s what you do for it to cook the best. Confused, the husband asks why the meat cooks better this way and the wife replies that she would have to ask her Mum as she taught her how to cook.

A few days later at the mother’s house, the husband asks his wife’s mother if she cuts her beef in half. “Yes” she replies, telling him that it helps it to cook better. He again asks why the meat cooks better and she says that her mother taught her!

A few days on the husband is visiting his wife’s grandmother and he asks her if she used to cut the roast in half. “Yes” she also replies. So he asks her why. Her answer, “Because our over is not big enough to take a full roast so we have to cut it in half for it to fit!”

Sales training moral: Just because something has always been done one way does not mean that it is the best way to do it!

I have been met companies that only cold call to win new business… I have met companies that never cold call for business. The first might say, “Cold calling is the only viable way to bring in new business in our industry, it’s just so competitive.” The second might say, “Cold calling just doesn’t work in our industry, it’s just so competitive.”

Hmmm… so far, so confusing.

I don’t believe that either of these stances are correct or that either are wrong. They’re just different opinions and there are always different opinions in every market and every conversation! If, like me, you want to increase your sales, grow your business and get great results then right and wrong are not half as important as what actually works…

My sales training take on this is that I want to take the best from all sales philosophies and get the best possible results.

In my opinions there are only two correct and right answers. Your sales development activities need to:-

1. Create enough new prospects and leads for you to hit your sales targets &
2. Your lead generation needs to be sustainable in volatile markets.

The first question is easy enough to answer and the answer, once you’ve worked out your sales statistics, is an easy “yes” or “no”. Adjusting this answer by doing more lead generation activities is simple as long as you are committed to getting results (sales training aside: the problem being of course that many people aren’t committed enough to getting results… but more of that another day!).

The second point is perhaps the lesser asked question and it’s too easy to ignore when things are going well…

Let’s say that you only do one or two marketing activities and they both work really well bringing in enough prospects and leads for you to make oodles of sales. The temptation is to keep doing these and ignore all other lead generation and marketing activities.

This might work well for a while but there is always a danger that the market conditions might change and you will run short of leads. Now if you have the sales skills and resources to rapidly open up other routes to market then that’s fine but if you don’t… this could spell trouble. (Running short of lead generation ideas? Check out my article 98 lead generation strategies…).

At this moment in time a lot of “real world” business are ignoring so called Web 2.0 strategies.

Indeed, and on mentioning the phrase, many of them have never even heard of Web 2.0. I guess that’s not all that surprising as the world of online marketing is a difficult one to pin down and one could fill up a life time of research sifting through the online sales and marketing strategies, tactics and sales approaches to work out what does and what does not work!

So first of I suppose we should answer the question, “What is Web 2.0?”

Well there’s another nonsense question… If you search Google the first search result says “A term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform …”

Righto!

But what does that mean to you?

Web 2.0, in my mind, is the transition of moving the web from something static to something where people get involved and voice their own opinions… think blogs, social networking and video posting sites and you’re on the right track.

Perhaps 10 years ago, websites were all about putting your brochure online and getting people to look at it. Most companies couldn’t get people to look at their brochures. Even if they could they were similar to their “real” brochures so not that exciting. Most companies bombed and failed to sell successfully online. Not surprising really as people quickly realised that any idiot could put up a website and say anything about themselves or their business!

So what is Web 2.0 really?

• Web 2.0 is the maturing of the web and the utilisation of the technology to create meaningful conversations with your prospects and customers so that they can interact with you on their terms.
• Web 2.0 is the opportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise and to leverage the power of he web to reach and talk with your potential (and actual) client base.
• Web 2.0 provides the chance for you to get your customers onto your website and keep them there.
• Web 2.0 is an opportunity for you to answer customer queries and problems.
• Web 2.0 encourages your customers to refer you to their friends, colleagues and business partners.

So what is Web 2.0 not?

• Web 2.0 is not some magical sales lead generation elixir. Don’t listen to the hype. Great results online come from hard work and effort – exactly the same as offline.
• Web 2.0 is not a replacement for your offline activities. If you are a “real world” business Web 2.0 should form a part of your sales and lead generation strategy but not your whole lead generation strategy!
• Web 2.0 is not easy. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of approaches, hundreds of gurus and hundreds of “axes to grind”. Sorting out the wheat from the chaff is a full time job.
• Web 2.0 is not the only way. Remember… a one trick pony is a one trick pony! Even if you are setting up a purely online business offline activities will increase your results. Many of the top internet marketers use offline strategies for collecting names, gaining PR, leveraging the media, getting to know their prospects and customers better…

So where does all of this leave us?

Web 2.0 is an important arm of any new business development plan. Web 2.0 can help you to make stronger and better contacts with your customers and prospects. Web 2.0 can leverage the power of technology to reach more people, more easily than ever before…

So how do I avoid the pitfalls and generate more leads and powerful interactions with my clients using web 2.0?

Great question…. And that’s for another article coming soon…