Welcome to San Francisco—the City by the Bay! S.F.O., cable cars, hilly streets and beautiful vistas—a great place to live— an even greater place to live it up. To help you find some of the city’s finest in dining and entertainment, we’ve put this guide together and cut through the clutter to let you know about the best places to eat, drink and then eat some more.
We asked our Bay Area friends for their recommendations on where to sample the local cuisine. The result is a list of those secret locales only the locals know about. After all, at Sonnhalter, we not only like to get our hands dirty…we like to get them gooey too! When you’re not busy with business, be sure to head up—or down—the street to sample some of the many hangouts and hideaways. And make it a point to check out the famous landmarks, but most of all, enjoy…there’s no place like San Francisco!
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
To keep our sanity in trying to keep up with and engage potential customers, it makes sense to use some sort of marketing automation tools to help the process. And there are plenty of options out there: Marketo and Hubspot being two of the better known.
We all know nurturing improves lead quality and moves them through the famous sales funnel. The problem is most sales funnels aren’t simple straight lines.
Here’s the reality – the typical sales funnel isn’t as straight forward as we’d like to think especially in the B-to-B world. The Forrester graphic below is probably more accurate.
The challenge for me is determining messaging for each level to get them to the next step. We need to make them as personal and to the point as possible, but you can’t have 20 different e-mails.
Depending on what you’re selling (engineered product), the selling cycle is longer, and in many cases, there are multiple decision makers, all of which have different hot buttons. How do you handle them? Ideally you want to send leads to sales that are sales ready.
Here are some tips:
Try to identify where they are in the sales funnel so you don’t lose them on messages that are already past.
Give them something to download that will help them in their job (i.e. calculator, configurator, relevant case study).
Make them aware that CAD files are available for downloading.
Try to initiate a question that will want them to talk with one of your application engineers.
What are you doing to better qualify leads before sending them to sales?
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
Are we living up to our customers expectations? As consumers, we know that through the improvements in technology that most of us want fast, cost-effective and personalized levels of experience. And most are getting it, but at what cost?
Is this any different for the manufacturing world and your customers? Have your distributors and contractors become more demanding? My guess is yes, because remember, they are consumers too and they expect the same from their business dealings.
I read an interesting article in eMarketer recently that companies in general are having trouble meeting customer expectations. 93% of business leaders worldwide said technology has changed the customer experience in the last 10 years.
How does that stack up with what you’re experiencing?
What are your biggest challenges? Are they in this chart?
What are you doing about it?
Customer service. We all say we have it, but what is it? Where does it start?
Unless you are offering something you can’t get anywhere else, then you’re going to have competition from someone. So what makes your customers or potentials want to do business with you instead of them?
Assuming you have a good product, then I’d say the customer experience would be the major deal sealer or breaker. Customer service starts the moment someone from your company answers the phone, through the sales process and follow-up with your customer service department if a question or problem arises.
I guess what I’m trying to say is your company’s customer service should start with every employee. Those that are on the front line (be it a CS or delivery man), they have the one-on-one contact with the customer and can sway future purchases by their actions or inactions. We all build our business around repeat sales so everyone in the company needs to be goodwill ambassadors. The challenge for all of us is to find the friction in our process and smooth it out.
Do you know what a customer is worth to you? Think beyond this quarter or even this year. Think about the last 5 years. How much stuff have you sold them? More importantly, if you come out with something new, where are your best chances of selling it? To someone new, or to someone who knows, likes and trusts you?
Here are some insights on how we can make the customer experience better, resulting in better loyalty and ultimately more sales:
Deliver outstanding quality – from a great quality product to courteous customer service and user-friendly literature.
Understand what your customers want – don’t assume to know what they want – ask them.
Connect with them – direct relationships are the most important and the most challenging. Always think WIIFT (What’s In It For Them). Be sincere and upfront with them. When communicating with them, don’t always be selling. Try to help solve a problem even though it might not, in the short-term, result in a sale to you.
Under promise and over deliver – exceed your customers’ expectations, then do it again!
Don’t sit on your laurels – yes, you have some neat products, but instead of sitting there and just doing the same old same o, innovate. If you don’t, someone else will.
Now these points probably aren’t a revelation to you, but when was the last time you focused on your customers and said THANK YOU!
Do you use a creative brief to guide your marketing plan?
In the most recent Marketing Minute video from Sonnhalter, Matt explains what this useful marketing tool is and the 11 elements that Sonnhalter’s creative briefs include.
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
I’m amazed by the stats that more than half of those on social media don’t have a plan to respond to negative social media posts. Social media isn’t new, isn’t going away, and if you’ve followed or read anything about this space, you know there have been numerous posts about the subject.
Customer service departments are usually the place where traditional issues are handled. But when it comes to social media, most don’t know how to find complaints and have a process of responding in a timely manner. Customers especially on the internet want a response and want it now (42% want to be responded to in an hour or less).
I recently read a great article by Jay Baer from Convince and Convert on Why You Need a Customer Service Response Road Map that highlights ways to identify, prioritize, assign responsibility and set deadlines that’s well worth reading.
Negative issues need to be addressed and what better way to hear about issues than on social platforms. Don’t you want to know what customers are saying about you? You’d better be monitoring them and jump in with a plan to respond. There are several monitoring options out there that will help you. Here are some free ones: Social Mention, Google Alerts, Hootsuite and TweetDeck.
I recently had an experience with a major faucet manufacturer about a replacement. We had to get a new tub at home and my wife wanted to update the faucets, which we did. The manufacturer sent the wrong spout and it took our plumber almost 2 months to get the replacement for it. They weren’t good at customer service, just making excuses. I made mention (by brand name) on a tweet what my frustration was, and true to form, heard nothing back.
In the short run, ignoring me may not be a big deal to them since I had already purchased the tub set, but in the long run, my wife is planning to replace all the faucets in our 3 bathrooms. Guess who isn’t going to be considered for that purchase?
In a world where we have alternative plans for everything, don’t overlook social responses to negative posts. It’s better to address them straight on or they will fester and come back to bite you when you least expect it. Have a plan in place as negative reviews will affect your SEO.
Unless you are offering something you can’t get anywhere else, then you’re going to have competition from someone. So what makes your customers or potentials want to do business with you instead of them?
Assuming you have a good product, then I’d say the customer experience would be the major deal sealer or breaker. Customer service starts the moment someone from your company answers the phone through the sales process and follow-up with your customer service department if a question or problem arises.
I guess what I’m trying to say is your company’s customer service should start with every employee. Those that are on the front line (be it a CS or delivery man), they have the one-on-one contact with the customer and can sway future purchases by their actions or inactions. We all build our business around repeat sales, so everyone in the company needs to be good will ambassadors. The challenge for all of us is to find the friction in our process and smooth it out.
Here’s a good test. Make a complaint on social media about one of your products (under a name they won’t recognize) and see what kind of response you get.
By John Sonnhalter, Rainmaker Journeyman at Sonnhalter
In today’s world, trust is a more important marketing asset than the product or service you’re trying to sell. Think about that for a minute. Would you buy something off of someone you don’t trust? Chances are, the answer is no.
Trust is something that’s earned and it’s always been important. But in today’s world, you can’t BS your way through it. People want to see proof. With the internet and social media, the potential customer has several options to gain access to you and how you’re actually performing in the market.
That’s why building trust should be a long-term goal.
What do others say about you – These third-party comments say a lot about how you really do business. Customer reviews impact SEO.
Who are you connected with – Who do you hang out with, how do you add value, who do you collaborate with? All help shed a light on who you really are.
How do you react – How do you react to questions or negative comments? People are watching.
Are you easy to do business with – Convenience has become a value proposition. Actually go through your own process to see how easy it is to really do business with you.
