Why Iron Maiden Inspires Me In Business...

Iron Maiden is a well known institution in the Heavy Metal world, a band that sold over 90 million albums worldwide and delivered epic songs such as The Number of The Beast, Phantom of The Opera and The Trooper.
The fans are considered as one of the the most loyal out there and the feeling you get when attending one of their shows is that you're really part of a big family!
But how can a band make such an impact on people, besides having amazing songs one would wonder? Well it turns out they have a killer logo, a mascot, a fan membership with incredible content, an excellent understanding of account management and most of all a respect for their fans and their legacy which is unprecedented...
My story with Iron Maiden began back when I was 13 years old! There was a CD lying around in a friend's house and long story short here I am 21 years later, attended seven concerts, bought countless albums, basically I was hooked and became a fan from the very start!

And there is more to this story, Iron Maiden never sold out! They never jeopardized their brand! I'm mentioning this as many companies out there are starting to lose their grips with reality...
I mean, nowadays you are bombarded with marketing emails, harassed with utterly useless advertising on the internet. Does marketing have to be so aggressive? Where is the sense of respecting and strategically winning your customers? What's the point of winning clients so quickly if in the long run they will end up hating your services...
In a time where everyone is looking to sell something and marketing efforts are abundant, sometimes you have to stand out on your own as a brand and give out some space I would say!
Seriously, how many companies out there are truly taking care of their customers like Iron Maiden? They never had any major radio airplay for example and that did not prevent them from winning millions of fans worldwide!

Another factor I see often, the service everyone refers to as Account Management, turns out to be just a 'put out fire situation' rather than a nurturing process to achieve brand loyalty...
For example, let's take the classic scenario of a client that buys a package of a solution and is now transferred from the sales to the account management department.
That client will receive an email from the selected Account Manager written most likely in a 'template' and often contacted again only in case of an urgency! I mean who out there does not get afraid after buying a product online? It's notorious that this is the gray area in doing business...
The truth is majority of the people out there don't care about you after the credit card information has been given!

In my understanding, there should be a different way to deal with marketing so it does not become a pain to people's lives and account management should be taken to a different place, where customers are the number one priority! I'm talking about a complete loyalty program with advantages and community aspects of integration...
And why not calling your customers regularly? Why only emails?
Yes many aspects of a company's marketing and account management efforts are sometimes exaggerated or in many times neglected...

The Art Of Cold Calling

Woke up this morning with a strange desire to share a few tactics I use for cold calling in order to do sales and business development.

How do you call your prospects? Are you calling them with a serious tone of voice and running through the description of your company and products as fast as you can before they hang up? Do you get mad when they hang up and call others with an even greater frustration?
Well chances are due to your managers extreme pressure for results and performance and lack of experience you probably do call people in that manner...
A good example to illustrate this scenario was a call I had just a few days ago. I wanted to buy a domain I thought it was a good investment. I gave up my details and waited for the sales rep to buzz me up.

Eventually he called me, now imagine a very serious tone of voice, a ton of anxiety and frustration that you can feel by the urgency of the call and the lack of space between questions...
"Hello sir, My name is Jason from company X and I would like to speak to you in regards to the domain you are interested in. Well it turns out we have a promotion this week and we could give you a discount of 10% if you make a purchase today. Do you have a few moments to spare in order to go over this?"

Well let's put it this way, right after his plaine and disturbing introduction I was already feeling harassed and did not want to continue on the conversation. I quickly asked if he would do 25% off, he told me it was impossible and rushed the call to an end. I guess the monthly quota demanded him to call one lead after the other as fast as possible...
Ironically, about a week after I got an email proposing me to get the domain for 25% off - How useless of a call was that in the first place?
I mean, nowadays everyone wants to sell something and you have to be different otherwise you're dead! You have to be a pro! You have to innovate...

So here are a few tips:
1) Call people in a good mood and don't ask too much at first.
2) Feel out the state of mind of your prospect before choosing your next words.
3) Tell a story! Make sure you sell a product within a context with examples.
4) Be funny and charismatic, people appreciate that when working in a fast pace environment.
5) Introduce your service as a possibility in the market and not as a one-off solution.
6) Seize the moment as soon as an opportunity appears...
7) Take a deep breath!

How anxious are you to deliver results? Have you ever asked yourself this question? What is my current state of anxiety? How do I sound when I call people? I hope managers out there are doing this kind of evaluation and are not just looking at their numbers and forecasts...
And finally, prepare yourself before a call, know what you have to say and why before you pick up the phone and do not ever say something you do not master.