Lately, our blog has seen a significant uptick in views, and traffic (up 182% from Q4 to Q1). No sooner did we finish our happy dance then we started to discuss the reason for these results.
We came to the conclusion that our new-found success was due, in part, to feeling increasingly inspired and connected as a team. We had started e-mailing each other constructive articles, sending each other funny memes, sharing inside jokes, and taking “field trips” together. On one of our field trips we went to lunch with the Marketo content team to pick their brains and learn from the best. Marketo is known for having one of the most successful marketing teams in the country, with thousands of shares per post and over 80,000 Twitter followers, so we were thrilled to sit down with the women behind the wildly successful content. We got to speak with Dayna Rothman, a recently published author and Sr. Content Marketing Manager at Marketo as well as Maggie Jones, Content Marketing Specialist at Marketo. We learned so much from them we thought we would share the love with you. In this post, we dive deeper, and share how you can apply what we learned to build and improve your team, sales tactics, communication, and content.
Whether you want to have better sales calls, build an awesome sales operational backend, create compelling incentive programs, or even write better content for your website, these four tips can help you get there:
Treat professionals like people: Does your sales collateral sound like it was written by a human? Or some sort of sales collateral-writing robot? What about your conversations with prospects and customers, or the sales team, if you’re in sales ops or are a comp admin? Business speak bores everybody, so make sure your communications are helpful, but also sassy and fun.
Invest in team chemistry: When someone on our team shared a video or a blog post and gave a reason why they thought it was motivating or particularly effective, we all took the time to read it and discuss it. During our working lunches and team building dinners, we had time to really bond, and the effects showed up in our content and our team’s effectiveness.
Ditch the jargon!: Silicon Valley is already known for its relaxed work culture. It’s all about t-shirts and jeans in the office and Bring Your Dog to Work (every) Day. There’s no need to talk one way at work and another on the weekends – this is true whether you’re selling software or developing a B2B content marketing campaign. What do your peers, your boss, and your customers have in common? They’re all people who don’t respond to jargon! So ditch it, stat.
All, not some, like it hot: There’s a reason why we sprinkle topical humor into our blog, and why our Founder & CEO Chris Cabrera talked about his love of Tesla at CompCloud: Cultural references are always interesting and appreciated, particularly in the workplace.
Here’s what this means for you …
… If you’re a Sales Rep. Think of your best sales calls – How important is personality and humor? At CompCloud, the audience cracked up when Chris showed Xactly’s dashboard on his Tesla dashboard. Bring this same entertaining approach to your sales conversations, and you’ll create an emotional connection with buyers that inspires them to invest in learning about and eventually purchasing your product.
… If you’re in Sales Ops. Instead of telling one of the sales guys about the Neodymium Crystal Mainframe Cold Call Optimizer you just bought, spend a few minutes chatting with them about their life outside the office. Get to know your sales team personally, and we bet they’ll care a whole lot more about your promise that the crazy new tech you’re rolling out will improve their office life, which will improve their weekends, too. Weekends rule.
… If You’re a Comp Admin.
It’s common knowledge that most salespeople spend a ton of time tracking their commissions on the side, and that’s time wasted that they could be selling. Instead of being the guy down the hall who sales reps pester to get paid, be a person they love — by making sure they get paid accurately and on time. Obviously, this is one advantage of incentive compensation tools: They’ll help salespeople stop checking your math.
What inspires you to have fun with your team? When was the last time you learned more about a customer’s personality? Let us know on social!
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