NerdBrand Podcast
The NerdBrand Podcast is at the intersection of nerd culture, branding, and advertising. Nerd culture is no longer an isolated subculture; it’s THE culture of the day and makes its way into our daily lives through the entertainment we seek and the technology we rely upon. Listen as we discuss our views on visual design, branding, and advertising for movies, comics and novels, video games, technology, and other nerdy passions.
NerdBrand Podcast
How to calculate your potential for a closed sale
Unlock the secrets to transforming your sales game amidst a backdrop of global chaos. Ever wondered how to identify your true target market and align your brand voice with them? This episode of the Nerd Brand Podcast promises to equip you with the insights to master these essential skills, ensuring your message resonates with your audience even in the most tumultuous times. We kick off with a captivating discussion on recent international events, including the assassination of a CEO and a major telecom hack, before diving into the heart of effective sales strategies.
We dissect the art of researching leads and crafting an omni-channel marketing strategy that avoids the pitfalls demonstrated by blunders like Jaguar's recent rebrand. Discover how to truly understand your audience and refine your pitch to meet their needs, using insights gathered from real-time conversations. Listening is not just polite; it's a vital tool for staying ahead, and we explore how adapting your approach based on what you hear can prevent common sales missteps. Evaluating your product's value proposition is not just a tick-box exercise but a necessity to ensure that it genuinely addresses client needs, setting you apart in a crowded market.
Our episode crescendos with expert advice on engaging high-level clients, where communication is key. Learn how eliminating filler words and listening attentively can convey confidence and competence in enterprise settings. We offer practical tips for tracking interactions through CRM systems or informal networking, proving that regular, meaningful engagement keeps your brand’s visibility intact. As we round off, enjoy a light-hearted discussion about our team dynamics and the interactions that keep our Nerd Brand community vibrant. Join us, share your thoughts, and remember to keep your "nerve branch" strong.
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um, so uh-oh, it's another episode. This week we've had more wars break out and assassination of a ceo and a major telecom hack from the chinese. But hey, let's talk about sales, jacob whoo, sales, yay, up next on this episode of the nerd brand podcast. Oh man, what a week. So we've had another war breakout in Syria. We've had an assassination yesterday of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, yep, and a major telecom hack this morning from the Chinese, and so if you have a mobile device, the Chinese are in there and listening. So keep that in mind, yep. So fun stuff.
Speaker 2:That CEO assassination, which is pretty interesting because, with my wife working at Humana, she's just like I'm wondering what he's doing and I'm taking some precautions.
Speaker 2:A lot of them, I believe, are, I think, right now. To be honest, if they were to be smart, get out ahead of it, be like hey, I'm going to. Hey, I do little donations because the whole idea is that the guy was really unfair. Yeah, want to. Hey, I do little donations because the whole idea is that the guy was really unfair. Yeah, to his whole, to everyone. And like they're not really a big fan or that he's so rich and wealthy that you know they're like hey, we're getting denied, while this guy's got stupid money for no reason yeah, they made a billion, eight billion and a quarter yeah, that's, that's ridiculous that's some denying of claims in my opinion, but that's just my opinion.
Speaker 1:I'm not a legal expert or analyst on that.
Speaker 2:But that's a lot of money in three months, in three months, in a society right now, where it's actually like cold weather and people are sick. Economy's kind of flat and layoffs are happening in business, professionals, industry services and hospitality.
Speaker 1:It's a little interesting, yeah.
Speaker 2:so I think that would be the time to be like hey, we're doing a charity event or we're doing big donations or something.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody's going to do anything right now. That was a warning shot. Well, it's not a warning shot because the guy's dead, but it's definitely like the other health care conglomerates if you're going to call them that are now probably reconsidering their security.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, they ain't going to do anything. They're going to do none of this right now until they figure out why this happened. Because they said the guy wrote words on the casings. You know the shell casings had deny, depose and something else. They had words that were written on a shell casing. So he's sending a message. It wasn't and he had a silencer on the gun. Yeah, so he, he had that surprise. He had a suppressor on the gun. So that was something that was definitely sticks out.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, it sticks out on the video. Suppressors are typically pretty high watched and I think they're pretty hard to get for an average person Like you have to have.
Speaker 1:The guy went to Starbucks. He was on the phone, I mean, he waited on the corner all day. This is a guy that was like, yeah, come, try to find me.
Speaker 2:So so he was. So they have recordings of where the guy was.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, they got 10 minutes of him walking on the phone. He was in a Starbucks getting a coffee, just like, so they know what he looks like for the most part. No, no, he's got his face covered the whole time and his outfit and everything. They don't have any idea of identity right now, which is wild. So you know they're like, oh, it's not a professional hit. And I'm like man, this is reading like a Jack Ryan novel.
Speaker 2:I'm on chapter four.
Speaker 1:I want to know what happens next. I guess because you know this is weird it's Midtown, which is a very high profile area of New York, in Manhattan, you know. So, yeah, some stuff's going down. Yeah, it's definitely craziness. Yeah, so anyways, on top of all that, this episode assumes that you have a basic understanding of sales and marketing principles. If you need additional resources or guidance, just let us know, because we're going to get into some details here to guide you through the process of calculating your potential for a closed sale and determining your likelihood of a successful sale on various factors and metrics, and so one of the first steps is identify your target market.
Speaker 1:I know everybody's like I heard this before is identify your target market. I know everybody's like. I heard this before. Yeah, but for crying out loud, you can't go fishing for bass in a lake that's full of carp. Yeah, there, I used the sports analogy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember correctly carp, though typically are in rivers rivers, but yeah, that's a different story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's still a good point. Oh, no, but yeah, versus river.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, yeah, that is exactly. It's still the same concept of like. Yeah, you still need to identify, like your audience. I mean why? I mean we bring it up all the time, but it's that importance that staple, it's that importance that staples. That it's the why, why. Why are you doing what you're doing? Because of this? People right here want this product or this service. Like that's, what are you supplying them? Like, why, why do they need to use you?
Speaker 1:well, yeah, that's your audience, that's who you need to hit well, and and two is like for the, for the kind of. The first bullet point I have is it's demographics. Yeah, it's age, income, type of business, like you said. You know, like, why do you want to help xyz do something? You know um brand voice and tone. I mean, maybe y'all and ain't isn't the words that you want to use in a meeting or pitch setting, unless if you're in florence, correct? Uh, however, you know you want to be aware of where you are geographically and and the language, the, the, um, I don't know what's it called, it's it's.
Speaker 1:I just lost. It was in my head and I hit a pothole. Um, like, like things. You say that euphemisms or something like that you, you know you want to kind of know those colloquially yeah.
Speaker 2:Colloquially. Thank you, colloquium.
Speaker 1:Thank you See, this is why there's another host on the show.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm. I'm probably saying it wrong as well, so well yeah, at least you're there.
Speaker 1:Pain points, like you said yeah, these are your services align. Yeah, like, are you solving that problem? Are you helping them out? Like, why are they needing to use you or need to contact you for that closed sale? I mean, it's like I can usually tell if people can't afford what we offer, or you know, you just kind of have to learn to read the room, and so the primary thing of that pain point is probably going to say this a lot during this but listen, yeah, shut up, listen. Anyhow, buying habits Are they even in the market to afford your services? Like, like I said, this is something that you can kind of tell. Uh, it sounds very judgmental, but how they're dressed, how they act, how they carry themselves the sophistication of the business.
Speaker 1:How old it is kind of gives you some initial blush indicators yeah, good example.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's good to relative at this point. But uh, from the movie I love you, man, where paul rudd meets jason zedekas and or not zedekas, um, whatever his last name is basically and uh, they're just talking and the guy's showcasing lou fergno's house, all right, you know, which is obviously a ridiculously million dollar house. And the guy one guy's in there, he's a snappy dresser with a cute girl, you know, he's just trying to show off for the girl and the guy calls him guy's in there, he's a snappy dresser with a cute girl, you know, and he's just trying to show off for the girl. And the guy calls him out and he's like, hey, he drove in an Audi. All right, well, this is like a few million dollar house. That's a, you know, $50,000 car. If someone was buying that and driving that, I'm not going to afford this house. Like, yeah, audis are nice, you know it's, they're not the buyer. The guy looks nice, but he's here with a date, he's just trying to look cool.
Speaker 1:He can't afford it. There's just some things. There's just some instincts you have to have. But when you add your instincts to actually researching your leads, the one thing that I always find in sales with salespeople and their biggest weaknesses they don't do any research before they talk to people and I've tried to beat that out of you with a big stick because it's like geez, you can't walk up and try to sell Snickers bars if they're a diabetic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know they're going to slap you. Or if they are allergic to peanuts, yeah, yeah you know, or if they are allergic to peanuts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's enough. Yeah, so no. No, aside of knowing your audience, like you literally know the persons, that people you're speaking with, like you know, how can you do and then figure out a way to differentiate yourself? Because I was in a talking with a colleague in another industry and she was like, yeah, trying, it's hard to sell people, hard to close. I'm like, well, you're saying the same thing, everybody else is. Nobody understands what the hell you're saying in the first place. So marketing kind of falls prey to that as well. I mean, because marketing is a conglomerate of you know specialties, and what specialty do you require? And you're probably going to require more than one, because it's omni-channel strategy. But at the end of the day, it's like you gotta sit and talk, yep, um. So research your leads and ahead of time, because you can use tools online, you can figure out revenue I mean, yeah, ballpark it, at least get an idea.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean you're. Well, you don't even have to ballpark it.
Speaker 1:There's actually apps. I've sent you one um it will tell you what their annual revenue was last year what they're on projected to be for this year, this quarter. It doesn't break down. You know, for larger companies it doesn't like break down departments because they don't really have them.
Speaker 2:I mean, once something you could even use this, even as I know it's going to sound weird is almost indeed, indeed, has their whole breakdown, just hey. Well, what jobs are they hiring? Why are they hiring what? Why are they hiring what? What are the? What's the? What's the? Their whole community like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always laugh at like the a hundred thousand dollar hiring of a marketing director and that's it. There's. There's no marketing department. They just want a marketing director to do everything for a hundred grand a year and I'm like that person will sleep at the desk and pee in a bottle Like it's never going to stop for them. I know, I've been there. You should probably hire an agency to support your marketing director, because that's how it's supposed to work.
Speaker 2:They're the ones who know the needs and then just say, hey, can you guys take care of this for me?
Speaker 1:You need a good project manager type person still a marketing director but that can work with an agency and their people to accomplish it. Focus on marketing campaigns and advertising campaigns. Don't stop the widgets of. I just need to post a bunch of stuff to social. That doesn't work. You need an actual campaign. You need something that's going to move people. At this point I'm going to bring up Jaguar. They revealed their car. It's ugly.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I looked at that car I was like this looks like a Tesla, I expect that from Tesla, Not Jaguar. A lot of people a lot of companies have been seeing that they're trying to copy that whole stream of lights around the edge there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very plain, very polygonal.
Speaker 1:Mitch has an official statement on the Jaguar rebrand. It sucks. That's what he sent me. It's like thanks, mitch, thanks, he did elaborate it. They tried to hit a new target audience. They failed and they missed it miserably. So anyways, sideline on that, yeah, that's something to kind of do is to like you know, when people are trying to rebrand might be a good time to talk to them. For somebody like us, obviously, but also too, like they're in a growth spurt, like that probably means that they've got something going on and you know, you just ask them. Don't try to like be a car salesman and be like hey, you know don't fonzie it, but there's probably something going on with the company.
Speaker 1:You probably, you know, do some research, find it and then talk.
Speaker 2:I mean that's where even like, yeah, you want to research beforehand, but even you can research during the conversation by just listening, like you said earlier. I mean, if you just listen to most people, they want to talk about their company. Typically they want to say, all right, yeah, this you know, ask the right questions and just listen. I mean that's like a 70-30 split there. You ask the right questions, probe it and be like, hey, yeah, you're researching on them, understanding, quantifying them right there on the spot.
Speaker 1:I've had weird conversations where they were interested in one thing you know, and I didn't ask them cause I doesn't. I just I was like I don't know if they'll know the answer, but I was just like what, how does that help what you're doing, you know? Cause they had a concern about something else. You know what I mean. I've run across that and I'm like that doesn't, that's not going to help you. Um it, a lot of the things I think is like to get to the next point is assess your product or services. So the proposition value, the, the, what is that you know in presenting it? Cause I've had people ask, like a public speaking and, and I had a conversation with three ladies about that briefly, and and I shared like a resource or technique that it could be used that helps. But I walked away thinking like well, how does that help any of them make sales?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you helps but I walked away thinking like well, how does that help any of them make sales? Yeah, you know, if they don't understand the product they're selling, if they're not confident you know because I don't think they are.
Speaker 1:I think a couple of maybe, but I just, it's just something, it's a problem that I'm seeing. It's. It's just, uh, one of the things I got written up there. Don't um and ah, because it means you haven't thought about what you're going to say. That's the perception, you know. So if you want to talk to enterprise C-suite level clients like really big cats, you, you can't do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're just wasting their time at that point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're thinking very quickly and they got something else to do and you're kind of like, okay, this guy doesn't know what he's saying, he's just trying to do something and make a sale. I'm already bored. Please go away, yep. That's what happens. So know the product you're selling, know the language, know what you're doing. Don't um and ah, because it shows a sign of not confident, which means you're just not going to make a sale. So be concise, don't babble. And then the big point. Like you said, listen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because if you just keep talking, just rambling, especially if you catch yourself feeling like you're saying one word a lot in particular, that should be your immediate red flag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just ask in the middle of that, before you catch yourself doing that. Just ask them like is anything I'm saying, like you know, sound familiar?
Speaker 2:Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Anyhow, don't introduce new problems either. Stick to the original need.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that is another issue. People pull up because they're like well, then, what about this? And then they're like oh wait, I didn't even think about that. Well, all right, now you just got them on a whole nother tangent. I mean yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's a little different. Like you and I were talking earlier. When you were talking to somebody, they were like they were giving you the vibes like everything's good, Everything's fine. I that thinks you need to get to the marketing part of your business later. You're doing it wrong, Yep.
Speaker 2:You should be running a runway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need a long runway. You should already be doing it and, honestly, if you're at a networking event trying to give people your business card, you're doing marketing. So you need to expand that strategy. But you were talking to somebody and it was like there's verticals in a business and they should have more than one. So we just jump to the next one, don't try to sell them and convince them they're wrong, because you're not going to Find out the other ones and that's a better way of going about that. But that's not introducing a new problem. That's just kind of pointing out and kind of probing, like you said.
Speaker 2:Right Well. I mean, that's leading to the close of the sale because you're finding that problem. Yeah, You're kind of researching in the moment, talking about it and figuring out hey, you don't have any other growth in these other areas that can help you grow overall. I mean, plants need more than just water to truly grow.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah. The other thing is track leads and opportunities. Keep detailed records of all the leads and opportunities. You should have a CRM. Include your engagement level and your stages. Have a pipeline set up. How many interactions you're having in a week should be tracked and there's a very important reason why coming up in the next point later but you should be tracking them.
Speaker 2:So what are some interactions, sometimes intangible, but go ahead yeah, I've had a few interactions, had one or two last night. Uh, one was just, uh, I was actually talking to someone just you know, regular conversation and then someone else came over and kind of just brought up oh well, what do you do? Kind of just right away, and then, all right, well, that's kind of what I do and hey, do you focus kind of more in this area? Or you know, I kind of sat and listened and was hearing what they were interested about and actually were like, hey, I might actually have someone I can throw your way, introduce you to. You know, and I was just sitting and talking with them. I didn't get too many specifics on the actual business they're wanting to talk about, but they're just saying, yeah, there's someone I do know that might be interested.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's sort of like a interaction, like just in a networking event or another kind of engagement event, another interaction is just an email. It could be a phone call. Phone calls are better. I know a lot of people your age don't want to talk to people on the phone but be an adult. Call, it works. And then you know there's interactions that maybe you're just out and you see them at a coffee shop. Just say hey, that's an interaction you can count that oh yeah, anytime your face and brand is in front of them.
Speaker 1:That's an interaction, no matter what it is.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, especially. You know, one spot in our area here is that Heine Bros off of right by the Flash Cube building that Heine Bros. Almost every other time I go in there I see someone I've met, walked by, saw even just Facebook posts, you know, liking someone's, you know post or comment on Facebook or LinkedIn. Obviously it's more professional side of there. Those are other ways that it's easy. You know, kind of keeping that touch and keeping in front of them, being like.
Speaker 1:Hey, of them being like, hey, we're still here and that's all it is, it's a touch. And so if you track those so you can calculate a conversion rate. And so how that works is you take the divided the number of closed deals by the total number of leads or opportunities to determine your closed rate, and if it's low, then you need to talk to your manager or marketing team. Don't yell at them, but first do kind of maybe an internal review of yourself and your methods before you just go yelling at your sales manager.
Speaker 1:You can't just say like I'm not making sales.
Speaker 2:Your sales manager is going to be like and yeah, and it's one of those things that's usually something also trickles down. I mean not saying it's exactly always the high subs fault or their issue, you know, but there could be always yeah go, go to like for you get.
Speaker 1:You know, you're getting kind of into the end of the year. It's don't stop. Stop the networking groups now I mean, because I mean we got three weeks for christmas, so you know you're kind of floating around in that arena now because it's december. But yeah, just stop, just no, you know, just don't. There's other places to to go. But if you have 50 conversions from a thousand interactions, your conversion rate is 5%. So plug in on a spreadsheet, your brain, however you want to do it how many interactions are you having in a week? How many of those interactions are converting? There's your conversion rate. Your sales manager will love you for tracking that. Hint, jacob, hint, hint Um and so that. But that's a really clean way of doing it, uh, and and gives you kind of like a personal benchmark goal If you're you know, for those listening, if you're that kind of person where you're like a go-getter and you want to. You know, we know a few of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, people, those high energy, they got a lot of energy and they just focus into that level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but that's the formula. So it's a very simple formula. How many conversions you know? If you have 50 from a thousand interactions, your conversion rate is 5%. That's the formula. Or you can just ask Google. I'm being serious. Just ask Google how to calculate a conversion rate. It'll tell you and then there you go. I mean, that's the basic way to do it, but your CRM is probably going to report that it's going to be more trustworthy. Yeah, you're already going to see that straight away.
Speaker 1:Yeah your CRM will calculate like month over month and all that stuff. We are a certified HubSpot partner and we were able to get that wired up for people to see that because that's helpful and then just adjust your shell strategy on your analysis. I mean you have to. I mean your strategy cannot be the same for three months straight. Your strategy is going to change, probably biweekly, it's that fast.
Speaker 2:I mean I know ours changed really quick with ours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has to. You know we're in the economy. Poke your head outside and look. If you're trying to make strategies and develop plans in a boardroom. Get out of the boardroom. That's the wrong place for it.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of the I think we've kind of changed our strategy at least three or four different times this year, just on both the season, the quarter quarter, and what we were seeing, what people were doing, what people weren't doing, what was working.
Speaker 1:Well, you know you have to meet people. You got to meet new people, so you start going to networking groups and you start meeting the same people every week, twice or three times a week. You're not meeting new people. So go to one of the groups and then don't go to the other ones. Find someplace else to go. You just have to. That's just. I know I sound like a butthole, but you know, it's the truth.
Speaker 1:You know you're in the business of what you're doing. You cannot. That's a social. You're just developing a social club. So stop doing that That'll help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just a hangout. Yeah, it's a drinking group with a networking problem group with a networking problem?
Speaker 1:yeah, it is. It's kind of funny put it that way, uh. But yeah, you should do about two contacts a day on one of those touches. You should be doing it on social media, email, and for you as well, you know. I mean two, two a day is reasonable and uh, you know what? What comes out of that?
Speaker 1:you keep following up with them so that contact counts again as another touch, you know. So, a new, a new contact is a new contact, but then you also have a reoccurring. Or you know it's like website visitors. You have new visitors and you have return. You want the return because the return will likely convert the new ones they just showed up. It's like it's like trying out a restaurant. You know, depending on how their experience goes, they may come back. They may not. If they do, they'll bring a friend.
Speaker 2:You better be paying attention on all of them yeah, because then that's that's where it makes the most sense and that's where you're collecting your good data. You know in your audience what they liked, what they ordered last time, what do they enjoy?
Speaker 1:they enjoy this cool yeah, so it's one of those things where you know if you're in sales and you're trying to increase your conversions. Well, take a look at how many interactions are you having in a month or in a week, if it makes it easier, and then do the math.
Speaker 1:The math will help you, especially if you get called to the carpet on your sales manager and you're like well, I've had this many interactions, where are you going? Okay, well, help me find other places to go. Okay, well, help me find other places to go. Um, yeah, there's, there's just a lot of things out there that and I think are not um, throwing a person into a market and saying go, do, good luck, let me know it's not a strategy no, I mean that's, that's uh, let's say, throw someone in the water and just all right swim spaghetti on the wall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with a person. Oh, that's got to hurt. Yeah, it's like thwack. Do I get a commission? I don't know. Did you break your arm? Yeah Well, I guess not Too bad. Don't file a claim. You don't have insurance.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Salespeople aren't covered under workers' comp. They are if you pay them salary. Anyway, next episode is how to close a sale. If you're paying attention, that's the short title. I should probably read it. It's hard to do but easy if you're paying attention. A lot of that is getting into listening to what the needs are, but again, you've got to know your products. You got to know what you're offering.
Speaker 1:If you're selling cars like. I have one lady I don't know if you're listening out there, but she's like, sells commercial vehicles and I'm like, well, I don't know if going to networking groups is like you're literally, you're doing more. She needs to do more online prospecting. Like one of our clients could have used her, but he's already got commercial vehicles now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's already got it squared away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got it squared away. So you also have the time of year you have to think about when do people buy those particular vehicles? And then just do that online. A lot of times you just do straight online sales and prospecting. I mean it happens Sometimes it's a better way of doing it than going to an event. Yeah, anyways, if you enjoyed this episode of the NerdBrand Podcast, you know where to find us at nerdbrandagencycom slash podcast. If you've got any comments, well, I don't know I might read them, but you know, it's kind of one of those things. It's social media. If you see Jacob out in public, tell him you like this episode and you appreciated his comments and you hated the other guy on the show and whatever it is and all that, and he'll you know, nod and laugh and be like well, that's my boss, I can't tell him so.
Speaker 1:Anyhow, we'll see you next week. Keep your nerve branch strong.
