Dan Galante

I attended EdSurge ImmersionNYC this past Friday. The event was designed for EdTech startups that are looking for Advice in the areas of Marketing, K-12 Sales, Scaling Up and Exiting. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from leaders at Various Education organizations ranging from CEOs, Founders, School Superintendents, and Venture Capitalists.

I enjoyed the presentation provided by Brett van Zuiden of Clever. In his presentation, he reminds us to think of users when designing products versus the way we would use a product.

He reinforced the idea that great product design cannot happen without truly understanding our customers.

There were also great lessons shared by Betsy Corcoran of EdSurge, Joe Holland of Teachers Pay Teachers and Charles Best of DonorsChoose.Org.

Attendees had the opportunity to take three Clinics led by experts in Sales, Marketing, Scaling up and Exiting. I enjoyed the clinics because they were customized and led by experts.

The clinics that were most relevant to me, were two clinics on Marketing and one on Selling to K-12 school districts. I was able to meet and connect with many great entrepreneurs in the clinics. We received advice that was customized and actionable.

There were also many opportunities to network throughout the event.

EdSurge also announced the upcoming launch of its new service called EdSurgeIntelligence.

The services will apply a fresh approach to market intelligence and learning for investors and executives. EdSurgeIntelligence will allow users to analyze trends from early childhood through higher ed, the workforce and more.

I want to thank the Edsurge Team for having me at Edsurge ImmersionNYC.

It was a great event.

Social Networks are places where people congregate; making them great sources of Market Research and Revenue. As a result, Social networks are looking for new revenue streams. The latest revenue channel for them is E-commerce.

Facebook is partnering with Shopify to launch Facebook shops. The social network is the latest to get in on the E-Commerce business.

Last year at SMX East, Google and YouTube shared how they are allowing people to shop online for products. Google also shared people’s buying behavior. I have included parts of the article below.

In Google’s Keynote, I learned how businesses can get an edge during the holidays. I also learned of Google’s plan to use Google Images and YouTube for E-Commerce. Google is also allowing businesses to use location-based Ads in Google Maps.

The key insights of the presentation were:

1. According to Google most shopping visits start online.

2. When diners search for a great place to eat the searches are probably happening on a smartphone.

3. When people are online in cars, more than half of them are searching for information on a mobile device making localization and targeting important.

4. 2/3’s of shoppers say that online video has given them insight and inspiration to make purchases.

5. Shoppers use at least 3 channels or more when shopping.

6. Brands need to provide an omnichannel channel experience all year, especially during the holidays.

7. Sales are happening online and offline. As a result of this shift, Brands need to serve customers on the channels of their choice.

Would you shop on a Social Network? Share your thoughts.

Sales processes include the following: customer development,   prospecting, discovery calls, closing deals, cross-selling, upselling, post-sales implementation, customer experience, obtaining referrals, and testimonials.

What is the hardest part of the sales process?

I surveyed my LinkedIn audience to find out.

Survey Results

Of those surveyed, 53 % said closing deals was the hardest part of the Sales Process, followed by understanding market fit at 22%, Calling on buyers, and knowing their needs at 19% with the lowest being cross-selling, referrals, testimonials, or other reasons at 6%.

Based on these findings, I have included nine ways to enable sales teams to close more deals.

9 Strategies to Empower and Enable Sales Teams to Make more Sales

1.Have Sales and Marketing Management discuss Sales Cycle mapping out Sales, Marketing, and the Customer Journey.

2. Have Marketing go with Sales on calls to observe customer interactions regularly.

3. Take notes from Sales calls to develop answers to customer objections.

4. Role play with the Sales to get better at objection handling.

5. Develop an on-demand LMS for Sales including Decks, Videos, Sales Training materials, Product training materials, Scripts, and FAQs.

6. Use feedback from Sales calls and objections to improve Sales and Marketing Collateral.

7. Assign readings on sales strategy and techniques.

8. Conduct market research to show how is your products and services are better than the competitor. Present market research creating a chart that Sales can refer to when dealing with customers.

9. Develop buyer personas to understand customer buying motives. Share the buyer personas with Sales.

What is the hardest part of the sales process?

How did you fix your sales process?

Share your thoughts.