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David vs all the Goliaths

 

I’m speaking of King David, of course. But I (regular David) have had my share of Goliaths to deal with.

On a recent trip to Israel, I stood on the very site King David himself stood and had his biblical battle with the giant.

It was a dream of mine to visit this site. I envisioned what it might look like and I was blown away seeing that it looked exactly as I’d always pictured.

I was so moved by the experience and the energy of the history that surrounded It was my last stop on my trip and I took the moment to take it all in.

The story of David and Goliath is one we’re all familiar with and is used as a metaphor across so many platforms in our lives. In sports, education, politics, and in business.

Against all odds, with little means of protection, armed with very little…the little guy defeats the big guy.

But as I stood there among the stone and ruins (some of which were only uncovered by archeologists 30 years ago) I was reminded of some lesser-known pieces of the biblical tale.

Did you know the King refused to wear the armor offered to him and, despite all Insistence declined to carry a sword to this battle? He felt he’d be encumbered by the weight of them, and went only with his slingshot to fight this powerful adversary.

 

 

In our modern-day businesses, we often feel the pressure to do things the way others do.  To run our business the ‘right’ way as opposed to what might be the ‘best’ way for our own business.

Sometimes, we do feel encumbered by the myriad suggestions or the insistences of outside forces and we lose sight of what makes the most sense for ourselves.

I do my best to fight against those forces and rather find the strengths and advantages I gain from being my truest self. And I believe that separates me from the proverbial pack.

I hope you too can find the kind of power you gain from your individuality and a strong sense of self.

Defeating giants is no simple task. King David got off a perfect shot with that little, smooth stone.  That took focus, practice, confidence, and a little bit of luck. 

There is no shortage of giants in the business world that we are all competing with.

Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Tesla…The list goes on and on.

It’s easy to see how a small company might feel helpless, trying to compete with such Goliaths.  

So what do you do?  Give in? Give up?

Or do you take a lesson from King David?

Ignore the voices telling you that you can’t achieve your dreams.  That includes the voice inside you that causes doubt or rationalizes you out of putting in the work that you know you’re capable of doing.

If you think about it, Goliath doesn’t always mean the giant (companies) that you feel might be standing in your way.  

Goliath, to me, is the giant I place in my own way.  

I know that I can face my giant, unencumbered by negative thinking. Armed only with what I have at my disposal at any given moment.

And I believe I, like King David, will walk away successful and victorious. And I know that you can do the same.

To your success, 

David 

 

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Aligning Sales & Marketing

Do you ever feel like your sales and marketing teams are on opposing sides? 

It’s been a constant battle for decades for many business owners. These two “sides” always seem to be chirping at each other… 

“These leads aren’t good.”  

“You don’t use our content properly to sell.”

Tell me something…Is this representative of your sales and marketing teams? 

WATCH THIS FUNNY VIDEO 

However, the real question is… 

Does it actually matter if your sales and marketing teams are aligned? 

Will that really help you SCALE your business?

I can simplify those answers for you in a few bullet points:

• You absolutely need sales.
• You absolutely need marketing.
• You ABSOLUTELY need them on the same page.
• Period. 

Sure, you’re selling. Revenue is there. But it’s just OK. 

Just OK is NOT how you are going to scale your business. 

At this point you might say, “Well look, if I’m selling, I’m selling. Marketing does their thing, sales does theirs.” 

And I’d agree, that works to a certain point. Say, up to about  $2M/year. Beyond that? 

No. 

Why does the alignment matter? Because sales people need the right assets to start and then continue conversations to build relationships…

Cohesion is needed on all fronts: branding, messaging, and especially offers. Remember, when a prospective client senses any type of inconsistency, trust is BROKEN. 

A great example is a pretty big insurance company a few years back. The sales team were ignoring everything the marketing team was creating–in fact, they were creating their own assets. Nothing was brand aligned, nothing was on-message with what the company’s marketing conveyed. 

Basically, everyone was selling from a different playbook. 

It worked for a while, but it crashed and burned. Buyers talked. People were getting different info, angles, and deals from different salespeople. 

Nothing was consistent. What eventually happened? 

People ended contracts. Eventually the brand was sold for pennies on the dollar to an apex player. 

The lack of cohesion killed them. 

What else can you do to better align your sales and marketing?

Two things. 

Incentives & Culture. 

Incentives are often overlooked by business owners. As a company scales, the folks at the top are generally the first to be taken care of – so they don’t always remember to create an incentive structure for the rest of the team that are in “the trenches”. 

It’s important that this incentive is one that motivates everyone to work together to reach both the short and long term goals of the company.  

Truthfully, sales and marketing have different incentive structures by nature. Sales is much more trackable. You sold A and B, or you didn’t. You sold them within this quarter, or you didn’t. Your pipeline is XYZ, or it’s not. 

Marketing is much harder to track. We have more marketing analytics than ever before in human history, but we don’t use them as well as we could. (A topic for another newsletter.) We’re not always sure whether A-piece of content or B-video or C-infographic or D-banner at the trade show drove those prospects into the funnel. 

We think we know, and we claim to know, but it’s not always as obvious as we want to believe.

Business loves “what’s measured is what matters.” So we focus more on sales, especially when there’s pressure from investors or the market. 

When we focus too much on sales metrics (and ignore marketing), and a strong company culture doesn't exist, it results in a few negative off-shoots. 

A lot of times in a company where revenue generation is seemingly the one and only metric goal, all the other important aspects of a business – customer satisfaction, employee connection to the mission (and eventual employee turnover) – fall by the wayside. 

Entrepreneurs can become overly-focused on immediate success instead of what long-term success would look like, and as a result, they might not even be a company in 8-10 years. 

Specifically at the sales and marketing levels, we see some flare-ups too:

• Sales starts treating marketing like their admins (example: “Schedule these calls for me.”)
• Marketing gets laid off because their ROI can’t be proven in tight, stressful windows. (And honestly, many Entrepreneurs we’ve worked with don’t even set up their analytics properly. They can’t prove ROI on anything outside of sales. That’s a bigger topic, again for a different newsletter, but–it’s definitely a problem.)

It’s a race to the bottom.

I’ve seen Entrepreneurs do pretty creative stuff around incentives…

 Extra days off, beer gardens, taco trucks, KPI-tied bonus structures. Those all work. But always remember, we can always go a step further… 

All of us want to belong to something. It’s a core principle in the hierarchy of needs. 

Oftentimes, the simplest incentive is respect and recognition and acknowledgement of a job superbly done. 

A few years ago we integrated something called “snaps” (and I can’t take credit for this idea, it all goes to Chris Tuff, author of The Millennial Whisperer). 

He says rewards and recognition are essential in any organization. They don’t have to be financial either. Chris calls out his team members in meetings, and gives them “snaps” for the good things they are doing in the company.

We took it a step further…

We encouraged each team member to give “snaps” to other team members when they do something worthy of recognition. 

We then added a quarterly award for the team member who got the most “snaps”. 

9 plus years of doing this, I can see the enormous impact that positive accountability has created within our team around our culture. 

Going above and beyond had become “THE” standard amongst the team. Performance soared. The team was happier than they’d ever been. 

Everything was just BETTER. 

It’s all about Culture. 

Companies miss on culture because it’s a poorly-defined word, almost amorphous in many organizations, and Entrepreneurs are often product people or idea people – they don’t always know how to corral the fluid energy associated with culture. 

When you are missing culture, chances are you also have high turn-over, which makes it nearly impossible to align sales and marketing. 

Here are some things to think about regarding both pieces of this puzzle…

Consider these questions on the incentives piece:

• Is your head of sales meeting with your head of marketing at least once a week to discuss wins and pain points? (If this role is the same person, are they meeting with people from each team once per week?)
• How can those in marketing earn more as the company scales?
• What is sales’ biggest win and biggest complaint about marketing?
• What is marketing’s biggest win and biggest complaint about sales?
• How often do the two sides meet and discuss their goals, individually and collectively?
• How transparent are the metrics everyone is being evaluated on?

Consider these questions on the culture side:

• What is your culture? Can you define it?
• Do you have core values?
• Can people on your team recite those core values without checking your website? 
• What activities, remote and in-person, shape your company culture?
• How often are you talking with and involved with all your team members?
• What’s the most fun thing about working with you, and your company? 
• What do they tell their friends at happy hour about working in your company?
• How often do you revisit this idea of culture and reshape it?

These are big questions and they take time, and they look different at different growth stages. A company with five employees and $2M has a different culture and incentive structure than a company with 200 employees and $3B. 

You may prattle on about “the DNA” of your culture, but the jump from $2M to $3B changes virtually everything, and it’s best to lean into that reality as you go.

So where do we come in? Well, the good news for you is, we’ve been doing all this stuff for decades now, collectively. We maximize sales and marketing output all the time, and work with teams on culture (and even now hiring) daily. 

We put much of this under the umbrella of strategy, but we can also help with the nitty-gritty around Leads on Demand and more.

If you want to build an Infinite Business that people enjoy growing with and yet still make money hand over fist for your own family’s legacy to prosper, you need the right people, incentives, and culture. That’s what we do, so let us know if you want our help to get you there. 

Simply reply to this article and we’ll set up a time to chat. 

To your success, 

David 

P.S. Recruitment and Hiring is the #1 Entrepreneurial Blind Spot which is why most avoid it like the plague… 

Let’s face it, the entire process can be utterly frustrating & time consuming, AND often results in attracting and hiring the WRONG talent for your team and/or business. 

But what if ALL the heavy-lifting was done for you, and you were only handed the highest qualified candidates that checked every box you were looking for? 

Head to this link to see if Nitrogen Hiring Network™ could be your talent recruitment solution. 

P.P.S. Not sure how to find and attract more of your ideal clients? If you have a proven high ticket offer, we know EXACTLY how to fill your pipeline with a constant stream of qualified and highly-motivated leads through our exclusive Leads on Demand™ program.

Simply click this link for more details.

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Funnel Fallacy #2 | Compelling copy

In the last newsletter we covered the WHO and HOW (Component #1) when it comes to creating a massively successful lead generation funnel. 

After gaining a crystal clear picture of WHO your ideal client is, it will be easier to nail down the second component…

Writing compelling copy for your funnel that resonates at a high level with your target audience. 

Resonates? 

Resonating is the feeling that develops when someone trusts, believes, and connects with who you are, what you stand for, and what you offer (you or your company). 

This piece is extremely important to mention, as it sets the tone, theme, and positioning when writing each copy element for your funnel. 

In other words, when your copy resonates at a high level with your ideal prospects, you can ultimately increase your conversion rate. 

So yes, this is important!

If you want to resonate with your audience, you must first become crystal clear on what it is you are selling AND how exactly it benefits your audience. 

First, let’s get clear on what the problem is. Only then can you get clear on how you, your product or your service solves that problem. 

So what is the PROBLEM you SOLVE? 

One clear sentence is all it takes. 

Next you want to identify the pain(s) that are caused by that problem. 

I want to make sure I clearly differentiate pain from problem, as oftentimes these are readily interchanged, and they shouldn’t be. 

Problem and Pain Example: 

Problem: My car keeps breaking down

Pain Points: 

• I’ve been late to work 7 times this month
• Every time it breaks down I have to tow it
• I don’t feel safe in my car

Make sense? 

The pain points are the supporting elements that help you demonstrate that you truly understand (and empathetic in most cases) to your prospect’s problem. When someone feels understood, they start to resonate with your message and lean in to find out more.   

Jay Abraham said, “The more accurately you can describe your prospect’s problem in terms they can relate to, the more they instinctively feel that you must have an answer to that problem.” 

A Few Vital Copy Elements…

Your Headline 

You’ve got about two seconds to grab your prospect’s attention with your headline at the top of your funnel page. 

That’s it…

About two seconds for someone to decide whether they are going to keep reading or not.  If your headline doesn’t grab their attention within those first couple seconds, it doesn’t matter how compelling your copy is that follows…They won’t even see it because they will be gone. 

The ONE job of your headline is to get your prospect to continue reading. 

If you really want to be effective with your headline, always START with what your target audience wants or doesn’t want. Always be thinking what’s most important to them. 

People are always thinking “What’s in it for me?” They really don’t care about you, your product, or your service, however, they DO CARE about what your product or service is going to do for them. 

Use Dan Kennedy’s Great Headline Test if you want to see if your headline is strong enough for your ad…

Simply take the headline you wrote and and add a call to action to the end of it. Then ask yourself, “If I ran this headline alone with nothing else but a call to action as a classified ad, would anyone respond to it?”

If NO, you’ve got more work to do on your headline. If YES, make that your “control” and create one or two more that pass the same test, and split-test them until you determine a clear winner. 

If you want to study great headlines, simply pick up a few tabloids or magazines in the check out aisle in your local grocery store…If you can get your hands on a few National Enquirer issues, you have all you need to learn how to write effective headlines. 

Bullet Points

Bullet points in copy are used for a reason. They work. They are easy to read, they’re short, and your prospect can gather a lot of information just from scanning them. 

People never read everything at first. They are going to see your headline and determine if they are interested enough to skim and scroll the rest of your copy. Their eyes will scan for anything that interests them. Bullet points create the curiosity you want your prospect to feel which entices them to want to know more. 

Social Proof

Another vital element to incorporate in your funnel to support your compelling copy is social proof. 

Testimonials lower the resistance of your prospect, as they provide third-party validation that your solution really does what it claims to do in solving their problem. 

Testimonials will increase your credibility, as well as enhance believability of your product or service. And the more, the better!

Videos are the best forms of testimonials, however, written testimonials can also be super effective, as long as you include a picture of the person and at least their first name and last name initial. 

The power of using testimonials in your marketing in your copy is absolutely priceless, and not just for your funnel. Testimonials can be leveraged in so many ways…

If you haven’t been asking your clients to give you testimonials, start NOW! And start by asking your best clients.  

In the next edition I’ll cover another “ASK” (but to your prospects instead) as I reveal Component #3 to creating a massively successful lead generation funnel.   

Stay tuned! 

David

P.S. Recruitment and Hiring is the #1 Entrepreneurial Blind Spot which is why most avoid it like the plague… 

Let’s face it, the entire process can be utterly frustrating & time consuming, AND often results in attracting and hiring the WRONG talent for your team and/or business. 

But what if ALL the heavy-lifting was done for you, and you were only handed the highest qualified candidates that checked every box you were looking for? 

Head to this link to see if Nitrogen Hiring Network™ could be your talent recruitment solution. 

P.P.S. Not sure how to find and attract more of your ideal clients? If you have a proven high ticket offer, we know EXACTLY how to fill your pipeline with a constant stream of qualified and highly-motivated leads through our exclusive Leads on Demand™ program.

Simply click this link for more details.

Digital Marketing Expert

Does Your Lead Magnet Check These Boxes?

The last two components I’ve outlined definitely pave the way to reach your ideal clients, but how do you successfully use your lead generation funnel as a vehicle that ultimately leads to a sale?

(Notice how I emphasized "ultimately"? I will explain this a bit later).

My answer is always the same when it comes to any lead generation activity.

It begins with Value Creation. When you lead with VALUE, you can never lose.

Leading with value means doing what you can to add value to someone’s life before money ever exchanges hands.

When you lead with value, your results are more consistent, predictable, and you create a bigger impact.

Value creation allows you to successfully differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You know as well as I do, your prospects have many options. Our world these days offers endless access to such a vast array of products and services (especially online). And the more choices we have, the harder it is to make a decision.

Where does that leave you trying to sell your product or service in such a fierce and competitive marketplace?

It leaves you with a BIG opportunity.

An opportunity to capture your market and make your company, product, or service the only choice in your prospect’s mind.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the term lead magnet. Lead magnets are used in lead generation funnels, and when done right, they can make or break the success of your funnel. Your lead magnet has more than one job when it comes to your funnel.

A lead magnet is nothing more than a value creator that incentivizes a prospect to give you their personal information in exchange for providing them something of value in return.

But not just any prospect… Your lead magnet’s first job is to identify the most qualified leads and get them to raise their hand. When you lead with value in your lead magnet, you’ll get more consistent and predictable lead flow of the right ideal prospects…

The second job of your lead magnet is to CREATE VALUE for your prospect. In most cases, your lead magnet will be something that educates your prospect on a topic that directly relates to the product or service you have to offer.

We call this education based marketing.

Education based marketing is a huge competitive differentiator in the marketplace, no matter what product or service you offer.

Most businesses focus strictly on the end result… The sales transaction itself. Not necessarily the prospect, their needs, and their timeline.

Education based marketing provides immediate value (your prospects learn something they didn’t know before), and therefore gives them the confidence to make a more informed, intelligent decision.

When you build someone’s confidence by leading with value, trust is developed.

TRUST established with your potential clients and current clients is vital to the sustainability and growth your business. Trust me on that.

Education based marketing also allows you to establish yourself as an authority and builds your credibility as the "Expert" in your field.

Educational based lead magnets come in many different forms:

1. Guides and reports

2. Ebooks

3. Courses

4. Case Studies

5. Tools or Resources

Here’s an example of one of our lead magnets:

This lead magnet is a downloadable book, designed to educate the business owner that is currently running traffic and may not be satisfied with their ROAS or lead conversion.

You tell me… Does it check all the boxes?

Does it allow a specific target audience to identify themselves and raise their hand?

Does it offer that audience something of value–and teach them something they might have not known before, giving them more confidence?

Is it absolutely FREE?

Does it build trust and credibility, and establish us as an authority?

First, we are targeting a specific audience…People who need help optimizing their ads. First box, check.

In this book, they will learn some of the biggest and costliest mistakes businesses make with their ads and how to rectify them. Some business owners have have saved thousands of dollars just rectifying one of these mistakes so we know it’s worth its weight in gold for prospects. Creating value, check.

It’s free. Check. Lead magnets are free for a reason. Free is hard to resist IF your lead magnet is valuable enough in the eyes of your prospect.

Free lowers the resistance of our prospect, and then reciprocity kicks in.

Most times we feel inclined to give something back to someone who has given us something. When your lead magnet creates value and is something that helps your prospect, they will have no objection in giving their name and email address to get it.

Lastly, because we’ve educated our prospect, they are now more confident and can even apply what they’ve learned to optimize their ad spend and either make more money, save more money, or both (positioning us as experts and building our credibility). Check.

But it doesn’t end with the lead magnet….It only begins there.

Remember at the start when I mentioned how to use your lead generation funnel as a vehicle that ultimately leads to a sale?

After your prospect gets your lead magnet, this next part is the pivotal component YOU CANNOT skip (like so many others try to shortcut).

Bottom Line: Your buyers will buy when THEY are ready, NOT when you are ready.

Did you know that 30-50% of leads are not ready to buy when they first inquire about your product or service?

They are in the "gathering information" phase.

Three quarters of those leads will become "sales ready" within 12-18 months.

Lead magnets give you the opportunity to open the door, but nurturing the prospect to establish even more trust, and build rapport is how to develop a relationship with a prospect. It’s how to play the long game and be the only one that picks up those sales when all of your other competitors have given up.

Think of your lead magnet as the stepping stone to building relationships with future clients.

Relationships lead to sales.

Relationship building starts with ongoing communication and value creation with your future clients.

Simple follow up sequences or subscriptions to newsletters are often used to continue building that relationship with that prospect and letting them know you are always there WHEN they are ready.

By continually moving your prospects up the value ladder you’ve designed, you also indirectly create a more confident buyer. These confident and educated buyers are exactly the type of clients you want.

Building a lead generation funnel is hard work and it takes a lot of commitment and strategic thinking and implementation to make it massively successful.

Building and optimizing funnels is just one thing we help our clients with at Business Nitrogen. If you are curious how it works, let me know and we’ll set up a time to chat.

Talk soon,

David

P.S. Recruitment and Hiring is the #1 Entrepreneurial Blind Spot which is why most avoid it like the plague…

Let’s face it, the entire process can be utterly frustrating & time consuming, AND often results in attracting and hiring the WRONG talent for your team and/or business.

But what if ALL the heavy-lifting was done for you, and you were only handed the highest qualified candidates that checked every box you were looking for?

Head to this link to see if Nitrogen Hiring Network™ could be your talent recruitment solution.

P.P.S. Not sure how to find and attract more of your ideal clients? If you have a proven high ticket offer, we know EXACTLY how to fill your pipeline with a constant stream of qualified and highly-motivated leads through our exclusive Leads on Demand™ program.

Simply click this link for more details.