The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Crazy. Brave. Passionate. Confident. These are the words I would use to describe Drew Manning, the personal trainer who embarked on a journey to go from fit to fat to fit again all in a year’s time. Drew spent the last six months gaining nearly 80 pounds, and on Monday, he will begin the process of taking it off. I just heard about Drew yesterday, so I’m a little behind. However, I’m fascinated by this story, and the social networking and professional branding takeaways.

The people on our Digital Team at The Center for Sales Strategy are often asked if social media is worth the time and effort it takes. After all, it's work to create content, engage followers and develop a community. The answer is... YES! Social media, if part of an integrated marketing solution, is ABSOLUTELY worth it! Here's the social media super tool your sales organization can use to make your product (or that of your clients and customers) come to life:

I loved this post on the Elm Street Economics blog today in which Mike Anderson says, "Walk through your store, office, lobby or dealership with a smile today.  Big enough that people stop and ask you, 'What are you smiling so big about?'  Then, just tell them it was nice to have some great economic news today."

It's not often that you will see us post someone else's work on our blog but this one we could not pass up…. our good friend Dana VanDen Heuval has written a sensational article that is certainly worth sharing. In his post, Dana says, "We’re often advised to ‘work on our elevator pitch’ for the business, yet I can’t recall ever making a purchase decision, or purchasing anything from anyone where their elevator pitch actually had an impact on me. Now, I’m not saying that having a concise and descriptive phrase to explain your business in a few seconds isn’t worth having, it absolutely is, but in a world abound with perceived commoditization around every corner, it’s critical to establish as many points of differentiation as possible to set you apart in a field of sameness."

When a client does not want to renew a campaign due to lack of results, it usually comes down to a single issue: the seller did not properly set expectations prior to the campaign launch. Some of the things you will want to discuss ahead of time:

Every day last week, I received at least two flyers on my door and another two telemarketing calls from roofers trying to cash in on the hail damage claims in the Kansas City area. One of the vendors caught me outside and engaged me in this conversation, which made me think about The Budget Question when it comes to the sales process.

In Part One, we talked about some mainstream uses of Twitter. And, that’s all swell, but what everyone really wants to know is  how do you MAKE MONEY with Twitter?

When I talk to salespeople, there is a lot of resistance to using Twitter. Twitter is noise, a waste of time. You might be surprised to know... I agree! Twitter is a waste of time—until you know how to use it effectively.

Everyone has a Great Aunt Martha who safeguards her secret family recipe. She makes a special item— perhaps an out-of-this-world cookie—and brings it to every family gathering, causing relatives to rave. She goes on and on about the “secret ingredient” and years later, when the recipe is finally handed down, the family discovers there was no secret ingredient. Great Aunt Martha’s “secret” recipe was available to everyone all along: It was a recipe taken from the back of the chocolate chip package. The same is true with selling digital advertising.

We've spent the last month giving you reasons to join us as we live Tweet our reactions to the Super Bowl ads. We sincerely hope you’ll share your insights during the CSS Ad Bowl. Besides playing with the cool kids, honing your social media skills and picking up new ideas to discuss with clients, you’ll also contribute to a great cause.