The New Rules of Sales and Service

Introduction 1 The Time Is NOW 5 Living in the Past: The Old School of Sales and Service 7 First Marketing and PR, Now Sales and Service 8 The New Rules of Marketing and PR Are Now Widely Adopted 9 Living Real-Time and Mobile Has Changed Everything We Do 10 Why Sales and Service Are Experiencing a Revolutionary Transformation 11 Restoring the Human Touch: The Compelling Power of Authenticity 12 The Importance of Story 13 Social Media Is All about Connecting and Sharing 13 Content Drives Sales and Service 14 We're All in Sales and Service Now 14 Online Content That Informs, Entertains . . . and Sells Insurance 15 Learning from Examples: How the Successes of Others Can Provide Ideas and Options for Your Own Organization 17 1 The Old World of Sales and Service 19 The Old Sales Model: "Dialing for Dollars" 19 The Voice of Authority: When the Salesperson Was the Expert 20 The Salesperson Expert versus the Web-Educated Buyer 22 "These Sales Leads Stink!" 24 Tell the Truth: The Power of Authenticity 24 Customer Disservice: The Little Things That Drive Us Crazy 27 "Please Take a Moment to Complete Our Survey": All Take and No Give 28 "There's a Robocall on Line One. It Says It's Urgent." 30 Receiving an Email Address Is Not an Invitation to Spam 32 Adding Social Media to Old School Sales and Support Is Still Old School 33 The Old Rules of Sales and Service 34 2 The New Rules of Sales and Service 37 Setting Down the Rules 37 Living Up to Their Name: OPEN Communications to Customers 40 The Communications Revolution That Wasn't Televised 45 Time to Join the Revolution 48 An Invaluable Sales and Service Asset: Your Employees 49 Big Data. Rich Data. 50 An Underground Business Cooks Up Innovative Sales and Service to Discover a Menu for Success 52 Navigating Your Sales and Service Plan 55 3 Your Story 57 Storytelling 57 "Let Me Tell You a Little Bit about Me": The Story Customers Tell Themselves 58 Call Larry: How One Entrepreneur's Story Defines a Company 59 The New Model: The Salesperson as Consultant 60 Mastering the Art of Effective Storytelling for Any Organization 64 The Health Club That Tells Its Story by Exercising an Attitude 66 "What Happens Next?": How a Compelling Narrative Builds a Following 69 4 Integrating Marketing and Sales with Buyer Personas 73 Creating Magic by Adding Context to Content 73 The Power of Content That Provides Exactly What You Need 75 The Nobis Hotel Sells to David Meerman Scott 76 Making Stuff Up 78 Annoying Three out of Four Customers 78 Egocentric Nonsense 80 Buyer Personas 80 No Red Alfa Romeo? 82 Multiple Personality Order 83 The Buyer Persona Interview 84 GoPro Keeps Its Buyer Personas in Focus and Sells Millions of Cameras 88 Close the Gap between Sales and Marketing 90 Buyer Persona Interview 92 Buyer Persona Profile 94 Midnight Oil 96 Sales and Marketing Working Together 97 People Reaching People 98 5 The Sales Cycle Is Now the Buying Cycle 99 We're Buying. So Stop Selling. 99 The End of the High Pressure Zone 102 Mingling with Buyers at the Learning Party 103 Educate and Inform 105 The Buyers' Journey 106 Driving People into the Buying Process 107 The Collective Intelligence of a Million Mechanical Engineers Creates a Unique Marketplace . . . and More 108 Now Raise Your Hand (Please) 109 Got Square Footage? 110 The Merging of Sales and Content to Facilitate the Close 111 A Customer for Life 113 Lead Generation Calculus 113 Growing Business in a Shrinking Industry . . . without Leads 115 Please Don't Squeeze the Buyers 117 Can I Have Your Phone Number? 117 Lessons from the Grateful Dead 118 The Hybrid Lead Generation Model 120 Defining Your Business in the Marketplace 121 Are You Watching Your Direct Competition or Your Customers? 123 Learning from Outside Your Comfort Zone 124 Do You Even Need Salespeople? 125 The Product That Virtually Sells Itself 127 Good for You, but What about the Rest of Us? 129 6 Agile, Real-Time Social Sales 131 The Quickest Wins My Business 131 The Ideal: Agile Sales 132 The Decisive Advantage: Speed 134 Context: The Key to Unlock Every Buyer 136 Newsjacking to Find Buyers 137 Ronnie Dunn's Real-Time Disruption 138 The Art and Science of Newsjacking to Reach Buyers and Create Real-Time Sales Opportunities 139 Newsjacking: One Lawyer Considers the Legal Implications 142 Automation Runs Amok 143 When Real-Time Sales Put You at the Front of the Line 146 Who Is Selling Whom? 147 Agile Sales Require a Real-Time Mind-Set 148 Agile Sales Mean Going Off Script 150 Big Data Plus Real-Time Technology Drives Sales 150 Predictive Analytics 152 Social Selling and Your Customer Relationship Management 157 Brawn or Brains? 160 Buying Signals! 162 7 The New Service Imperative 163 Busted Dishwasher. Great Service. 163 What Is Customer Service Anyway? 165 The Elements of Customer Service 166 Customer Service and Corporate Culture 167 Content Creation 167 Great Customer Service Drives Sales 168 Getting Sales and Service into Alignment 168 Poor Customer Service Is the Norm 169 Teaching Customers to Wait for a Sale 171 A Clear Picture of How Great Service Generates Additional Leads 172 A Nonprofit Changes the Rules of Charitable Reporting While Also Changing the World 173 "I Hope Everyone Who Works for Your Company Burns in Hell" 176 Great Customer Service Starts in Person 179 Customer Service "Wow!" 180 First, Educate and Inform Your Customers 181 Surveys: Your Opportunity to Gather Real Data 182 Using Customer Feedback to Grow Revenue 186 How to Conduct a Survey That Helps Grow Revenue 187 8 Agile, Real-Time Social Service 191 Embracing Change 191 The Real-Time Customer Engagement Mind-Set 192 How Boeing Used Real-Time Communications during the 787 Dreamliner Crisis 193 Putting Your Customers First 196 Customer Service Using Social Media 197 Vodafone Egypt Proves Social Customer Service Works Worldwide 200 People Want to Do Business with Other People 202 Lost in Clinical Gobbledygook 203 Terrible Healthcare Customer Service 204 Healthier Patients through Video Customer Service in Healthcare 205 Making Clients Feel More Connected 208 Making Healthcare Personal 209 Customers and Business Growth 212 Implementing Agile Customer Service 213 9 The Social You 215 When the World's Attention Turns to Your Expertise 216 Getting Social 219 Why Social Networking Is like Exercise 220 People You Know 221 You're Already Online 221 Building a Fan Base One Download at a Time 222 Don't Hide in the Shadows 223 You Are Not a Cat 225 Building a Following 226 Tweeting Yourself into a Job 227 Inbound Job Search 229 Achieving Your Dreams 230 10 Your Social Company 235 Building the Social Selling Process into a Large Organization 235 Hiring for Social Success 239 Sales Managers Must Adapt, Too 241 Training for Social Success 242 A New Kind of Company 244 Your Sales and Service Ecosystem 246 Your Turn 247 Acknowledgments 249 About the Author 250 Index 251 Have David Meerman Scott Speak at Your Next Event! 260