Matt Heinz
How to pick the right social channels for you
The volume of social media channels available to engage with is exhausting. And they keep coming. As an individual or a business, there's no way you can keep up with them all. And the good news is, you don't have to. Take a step back,…
Why aren’t you asking prospects for referrals?
Referrals are awesome. They're the best kind of lead, the warmest possible sales opportunity. Someone who likes you has told someone else they should like you too. It's instant credibility by association. We all covet it (and more of it). Most companies, however, put together…
Your product isn’t enough (how a new restaurant can survive & succeed)
It's entirely possible, if not likely, that your product will be great but your business will still fail. This won't come as a surprise to most. The variables involved in helping to make a business work long term are many, including several that are well...
What if you spent your marketing budget on your customers?
I bet most of your marketing budget goes to media. Or trade shows. Or consultants. Or any of a number of additional channels. All fine and good. But how much of your budget are you spending on your customers, directly? How actively are you courting,...
How to blog more (five tips)
I've written about where to find blog post inspiration, but continue to get good questions about how to actually get more blogging done.Some of this has to do with simply setting aside and being disciplined about the time required to create good content. But...
Your prospects are working on Sunday
A few weeks ago we ran a test with a client's email campaign. We came up with a strong message and offer, then divided the list into seven parts. Over the subsequent week, we sent to one-seventh of the list every day at the...
Should your sales managers still have a quota?
One of the reasons I think hiring a VP of Sales as your first sales hire is a bad idea is because he/she hasn't actively sold in quite awhile. You're hiring them into a leadership position because they understand sales, and know how to manage...
Improve sales forecast accuracy with these 7 steps
A consistent weak point across sales organizations is their sales forecast. Yes, it's difficult to predict which sales will close. But your forecast drives numerous decisions across the organization. And when forecasts are wrong, the implications go well beyond commission checks. To improve the quality…
Six next steps when your sales prospect goes dark
They got busy. Or less interested. Or went on vacation and didn't tell you. Or got slowed down by an internal approval process. Prospects go dark for a number of reasons. But that doesn't mean you have no control over getting them back above water...
Seven biggest mistakes companies make with social media (Vaynerchuk style)
Gary Vaynerchuk's communication style is infectious. Read his books, watch his podcasts, or see him in person and you get the real deal - passionate, opinionated, but usually spot on. His latest, The Thank You Economy, is worth the fast read. My copy is dog-eared...
10 proven sources of blog post inspiration
Few people argue with the value of creating regular content- more prospects, more Web traffic, more thought leadership and a better-educated set of prospects are just a few of the benefits regular bloggers enjoy. A primary hurdle I hear from many would-be bloggers is content...
Five sources of sales resistance (and how to overcome them)
The three best books about influence I've found thus far were written by Dale Carnegie, Robert Cialdini and Guy Kawasaki. The latest, Enchantment by Kawasaki, isn't about sales. But its lessons can help both sales and marketing professionals improve their ability to create and leverage...
Why the sales team doesn’t use your collateral
Ever have that happen? The marketing team creates beautiful sales collateral, and it doesn't get used. The reps don't send it out. It sits in a box, the PDF stays safely in the online folder. Unused. The messaging may be right. The screen shots might...
How often should sales and marketing meet?
With all the talk these days about sales & marketing alignment, a good tactical question appeared this weekend on Focus.com - how often should B2B sales & marketing teams meet? The answer, of course, starts well before scheduling meeting rooms. It starts with alignment around...
4 fundamental Twitter best practices
We get a lot of questions about Twitter - how to get started, how to use it, how to get more readers and followers. The answer usually varies - depending on your audience, objective and focus. That said, here are four pieces of advice we...
How to give every employee a customer point of view
It's difficult to have a true customer point of view if you haven't heard it directly. Sure, you can read summaries of focus groups. You can hear other people talk about the customer. But most of us don't truly internalize it, don't start to really...
Three best practices to shorten your sales cycle
Your prospects will always control how quickly they buy. You cannot artificially accelerate their path to conversion without creating undue friction or adding customers who aren't committed and are more likely to churn at a high rate. That doesn't mean, however, that you can't accelerate...
Why agile development isn’t always customer-focused
Agile development has become an increasingly popular means of building product, and for good reason. It's more of an iterative process, typically allows for faster time to market, and is far more flexible in making mid-project changes based on new insights into customer or...
The five sales mistakes most startups make
To emerge from the early stages of building a new business, start-ups need to stay focused on two things: building & selling. The first is by far the most important. You can't sell what you don't ship, and if it's not built specifically with...
How to market a last place baseball team
Sales and marketing for a professional sports organization is far easier when you're winning. But each season, only a handful of teams enjoy that opportunity. The objectives for every team, however – good or bad – remain the same: sell tickets, drive associated revenue, make...