Apples to Apples: How to Stand Out from Your Competition by Dan Paulson - a book review

Posted by Jeff Ogden on October 20, 2011

4 1/2 stars out of 5.

I’m honored that Dan Paulson invited me, as President of the B2B lead generation company Find New Customers to review his new book. This book held particular interest for me because I believe that commoditization is a huge problem for most businesses. Prospective buyers are unable to spot meaningful differences.

With buyers unable to see real differences between company offerings, companies face pressure on margins and have lowered win rates. Think of a bushel basket filled with red apples. They all look the same. But one golden apple would stand out. This is also the concept in Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow. And why when I was asked for the marketing take-away of the week on HubspotTV, I said “Think Different.”

Dan Paulson of InVision Business Development and Marketing LLC is experienced at helping companies overcome this dilemma. This book walks the reader through a process to help them uncover true differentiation.

One of the key things I look for in book reviews is where the book fits in the existing arena of books. Some books, like on social media and demand generation (not to mention the Civil War) are well-covered. But books that break new ground are of greater value I think. (We give half a star for this.) Dan’s book blazes new trails I think. This is a key topic for business leaders.

Dan introduces the topic by explaining that price differentiation is inadequate. He goes on to explain that change requires deep self-examination and that change must go deep. He emphasizes that your people are your brand. Dan introduces the Five Tasks of the Golden Apple in the book.

Direction - your vision, mission and values
Path - your strategy and innovation
People - leadership, talent and culture
Process - balancing standardization and flexibility with cultural alignment
Measures - using data for diagnosis and predictions

I also like his “Know This” and “Do This” tips scattered throughout the book.

We give Apples to Apples 4 1/2 stars.

What do you think? We love comments and those who share.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is the President of the B2B lead generation consultancy Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the way they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

Last Chance: Entrepreneurial Selling Enrollment Closing Tomorrow

Posted by Jeff Ogden on October 20, 2011

Entrepreneurial Selling enrollment closes tomorrow.

Last week, the good folks at RAIN Group opened enrollment to their new, online sales training program, Entrepreneurial Selling and I introduced you to their incredible charter member deal. The response and excitement about the new program has been tremendous. Given all the buzz, I didn’t want you to get left out. The doors are closing tomorrow (Friday) night at 9:00 p.m. EDT and won’t be open again until sometime in 2012.

Check out the details and enroll today!

“If you are an entrepreneur and want to improve your sales skills, then Entrepreneurial Selling by RAIN Group is the program for you.”
- Marshall Goldsmith, world-renowned Executive Business Coach and bestselling author of MOJO! and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“I’ve known the program leaders, Mike Schultz and John Doerr, for a number of years now and I’ve found them unfailingly to be professional and comprehensive in all their dealings. If you engage them in an issue about sales, you’re going to get soup to nuts, A to Z, and it’s all going to be top quality. This program is exactly the same. You can expect great things from it and you will not be disappointed. I do recommend it to you.”
- Charlie Green, CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates, author of Trust-based Selling, and co-author of The Trusted Advisor

Entrepreneurial Selling is designed specifically for entrepreneurs and those selling in an entrepreneurial environment. It addresses all of the unique challenges you face and will walk you step by step through the proven RAIN Selling methodology that’s worked for thousands of entrepreneurs to help them sell more and grow their businesses.

In the program you’ll learn everything you need to bring in more new leads, close more deals, and grow your business. You can view the entire curriculum at www.entselling.com. And if you have any questions about the program, just click the CHAT WITH A TEAM MEMBER LIVE button to get all the answers you’re looking for.

But you must act fast because enrollment is closing tomorrow. Check out the details at www.EntSelling.com.

“Being in the sales training industry, I recognize quality when I see it, and Entrepreneurial Selling by RAIN Group is top-notch. Do yourself a favor and enroll in the program. It’s a tremendous value.”
- Tom Ziglar, Proud son of Zig Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar Inc., and Professional Speaker

Why the Urgency?

The doors to Entrepreneurial Selling close tomorrow. Plus, they’ve put together a fabulous charter member offer for you including significantly reduced pricing. This is your chance to get:

27 training lessons: This is an online self-study program. A new lesson will be released every week over the course of 4 months walking you through the 7 core modules. Lessons are designed to give you every last piece of the puzzle you need to fill the pipeline with qualified leads, win more new deals, and grow your business.
Access to members-only forums. You’re not going through this alone. Entrepreneurial Selling is a community of like-minded entrepreneurs so you can connect with others who are facing the same challenges as you, network, and get feedback from instructors.
Monthly Q&A coaching calls where the instructors of Entrepreneurial Selling will dig deep into the issues you face and provide specific feedback and suggestions for your situation.
Worksheets, templates, tools, and checklists you can use to apply the lessons to your own sales practices immediately.
Discounted charter member price: When enrollment opens again it will likely be at a much higher price – after all most programs like this cost thousands of dollars and don’t provide a fraction of the value. You can get in today as a charter member at a low monthly fee.

Don’t get left out - enrollment closes tomorrow. Sign up now!

Plus, there’s a 30-day, 100% money back guarantee. So you can sign up and if you find it’s not for you, cancel and get your money back! There’s literally no risk involved.

But this charter membership deal is not going to last.

Here’s to your selling and business success,

P.S. When you enroll today, you’ll immediately have access to the first 2 lessons and the Community Forums where you can interact with other members and ask questions to the program leaders. Enroll today: www.entselling.com

P.P.S. Remember, because this is the Charter Launch of Entrepreneurial Selling, there is very low monthly price for the program that you won’t see in subsequent launches. This is your last chance to access the program at this special rate.

Full disclosure: This email contains affiliate links and Find New Customers may receive compensation for anyone that signs up. But we wouldn’t promote anything that we didn’t think was quality and well worth your time to check out.

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“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

How to Prosper Despite a Bad Economy | Insights from How to Find New Customers

Posted by Jeff Ogden on October 20, 2011

B2B Demand Generation | Insights from How to Find New Customers

Every day I hear how bad the economy is. The news is filled with layoffs, store closings, and more and more bad news. It’s all doom and gloom.

Or is it? Life goes on. Business gets done and I’m not known as the Fearless Competitor for nothing. This is why the white paper, How to Find New Customers from Find New Customers plays such an important role.

Businesses today need to learn how to build trust with skeptical, jaded decision makers.

Nigel Edelshain’s (of Sales 2.0) great e-book entitled “Don’t Cold Call. Social Call.” which has the very same idea — build trust and earn credibility by doing research first. In a slumping economy, companies MUST master the art of building trust.

Charlene Begley, President of the Enterprise Services Division of GE said that legendary GE CEO Jack Welch once told her “Go talk to customers, Charlene. They never lie to you.” That’s good advice, Jack.

The classic problem between marketing and sales:

Marketing says Sales does not follow up on leads. They drop the ball.
Sales says Marketing’s leads suck. The ball is not worth carrying.

Problem is.. they are both right. Marketing gives sales lousy leads and sales declines to follow up.

The solution to this problem is an agreed definition of a lead and tracking of prospect behavior, so the right content is shared with the right person at the right time.

Let’s examine some critical insights from How to Find New Customers to see how it works. We start with the single most important factor — the customer buying process - as outlined in this great white paper:

This is the key principle of How to Find New Customers. Marketers simply must develop a strong understanding of their target audience buys in order to be effective.

The real purpose of sales is not what you thought it was — it’s not selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Rather it’s helping the customer solve their problems through buying and implementing your products and/or services. Thus, the better you know how they buy, the more effective you can be.

Let me share an example of sharing the right information at the right time.

iPropect was declared to be a leader in search marketing by Forrester

Undoubtedly a prestigious award typically leads to well-deserved congratulations and flooding the sales team with copies to hand out to prospects.

But there is a critical question that needs an answer. When should we use it?

If we go back to the Customer Buying Process, we see where it fits.

Does it fit in Untroubled/Unaware?
If I don’t know I have a problem, why do I care your company won an award?
Does it fit in Have Problem?
If I have a problem, I’m looking for a fix, not a company.
Does it fit in Need Solution?
I’m looking for an answer, so I may be just beginning to consider products and companies.
Does it fit in Consideration?
It certainly does. Now I’m looking for the best product and company for my needs.

So that great news from Forrester for iProspect should be used only in the Consideration phase of the buying process.

In addition, if you really have a deep understanding and know where they go for information, your marketing can be vastly more effective - as you can use a rifle-shot approach with your marketing dollars (pounds, Euros, etc.)

Now let’s examine another key principle learned by readers of How to Find New Customers — lead scoring. But in order to optimally rate leads, we need to understand and measure on-line behavior.

Review this chart from How to Find New Customers. Sit down with your sales organization and review it carefully. What do they consider a lead? Once we assign value, we need to track the behavior. This is where marketing automation products like Marketo, Act-On, and Eloqua come in. (Act-On is a client of Find New Customers.)

I also recommend you not only focus on search but on landing pages to optimize conversions. A good company/product to consider is ion Interactive and their LiveBall platform.

Here’s some behaviors identified in the white paper, How to Find New Customers, you can use for lead scoring:

Finally, let’s look at a final key principal learned in How to Find New Customers — how to write great content. Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer demonstrated that buyers today look for content at every stage of the buying process.

We hope these insights from How to Find New Customers was helpful. To download the document in its entirety, please click Download How to Find New Customers.