Misc ramblings on a Sunday morning
We’re turning our great new cheat sheet on B2B lead nurturing, 7 Keys to Successful Lead Nurturing into a series.
Here’s what it’s going to look like:
- 7 Keys to Successful Lead Scoring
- 7 Keys to Successful Social Media Marketing
- 7 Keys to Successful Buyer Personas
- 7 Keys to Successful…… and so forth
Each one will look alike and publish every 60 days. The first is done. The next comes out next month. Then June, August, October, December, etc.
Why? Repetition and consistency are critical in marketing. Common themes reinforce messages.
Reading “Poke the Box” by Seth Godin. The message is simple.
Start something. Take initiative.
We started Find New Customers. Playing hoops this morning I spoke to a man working for an IT firm. He wanted to start a business, but never started anything. Why not? Fear of failure. As Seth says, we are programmed in our lizard brain to fear failure. Keep trying and keep failing. If you fail enough times, you become a big success.
We also did a review for an upcoming book on sales. That was fun. But it does not publish till April 19, so I’m sworn to secrecy.
Hiring mistakes
Don’t know how many times I’ve seen this, but it is a problem even with senior executive hires (VP and above)
We look for industry knowledge, leadership experience, impressive results - the resume looks great and he aces the interviews and yet he’s a bust. Happens all the time. (It’s even happened to me. I’ve hired busts off resumes too.) I actually wrote a blog article on a certain football coach (at my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame), who, on paper, looked perfect. BleacherReport.com just named him the second worst college football coach of all-time.
What’s wrong here? Why do we all make so many hiring errors? Not just corporate hiring, but the NFL draft, college recruiting, etc. (e. g. Ryan Leaf was the second player drafted in 1998 and played in only 25 games. Joe Montana was the 82nd player drafted in 1979 and is in the NFL Hall of Fame.)
To examine why experience (resumes, etc) is such a poor predictor of the future, look at the factors which make the best executives successful.
Here’s how Expert Magazine sums up a great leader:
• Ethical: Just, Upright, Honest, Open, Straight Forward, Honorable
• Credible: Forward Looking, Inspiring, Visionary
• Politically Astute: Knowing how to build coalitions and make compromises so that groups with disparate goals will work together toward a common goal
• Competent: Combining education, experience and skills that tell followers that this person knows what they are doing.
• Concerned for Organization vs. Concerned for Self
But do those characteristics that define great leaders show up on resumes? No they don’t.
To gain deeper insights, I suggest you look at recommendations on Linkedin, content they’ve created - like blog articles, eBooks, white papers, YouTube videos, etc. You should also run their websites, blogs and social media profiles through the free tools from Hubspot at www.grader.com. For instance, TwitterGrader will calculate their reach and credibility and assign a score of 1-100, with 100 being the best. (Try it on mine, @fearlesscomp, if you wish.)
Resumes are so unreliable that I strongly encourage businesses to throw in a couple of interesting candidates to the list of usual subjects for interviews. It may cost a bit more and take a bit longer, but you’ll also find some real gems.
For another view, please read Whom Should You Hire at a Startup? (Attitude over Aptitude)
My Fighting Irish defeated Akron in March Madness on Friday. Cool! They play Florida State late tonight. Fingers crossed. My Irish made the Final Four in 1979, my freshman year - the ND high water mark.
Here’s a video I created about our awesome and free white paper on B2B lead generation, How to Find New Customers.
Have a great weekend - at least the last hours of it.
Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, and the President of Find New Customers is a B2B lead generation and social media expert. He’s also a father and husband.
