The New Rules of Sales and Service How to Use Agile Selling, Real-Time Customer Engagement, Big Data, Content, and Storytelling to Grow Your Business

Sales and service are being radically redefined by the biggest communications revolution in human history. Today buyers are in charge! There is no more 'selling'?there is only buying. When potential customers have near perfect information on the web, it means salespeople must transform from authority to consultant, product narratives must tell a story, and businesses must be agile enough to respond before opportunity is lost.

The New Rules of Sales and Service demystifies the new digital commercial landscape and shows you how to stay ahead of the pack. Companies large and small are revolutionizing the way business gets done, and this book takes you inside the new methods and strategies that are critical to success in the modern market. Real-world examples illustrate the new marketplace in action, and demonstrate the brilliant utility of taking a new look at your customer and your business. This new edition has been updated to reflect the current reality of this rapidly-evolving sphere, with fresh strategies, new tools, and new stories. Whether you're an independent contractor, a multi-national corporation, a start-up, or a nonprofit, this book is your essential guide to navigating the new digital marketplace.

 David Meerman Scott provides up-to-the-minute analysis of the current state of the digital commercial landscape, plus expert guidance toward the concepts, strategies, and tools that every business needs now.

Among the topics covered in detail:

• Why the old rules of sales and service no longer work in an always-on world
• The new sales cycle and how informative Web content drives the buying process
• Providing agile, real-time sales and service 24/7 without letting it rule your life
• The importance of defining and understanding the buyer personas
• How agile customer service retains existing clients and expands new business
• Why content-rich websites motivate interest, establish authority, and drive sales
• How social media is transforming the role of salesperson into valued consultant

Because buyers are better informed, and come armed with more choices and opportunities than ever before, everything about sales has changed. Salespeople must adapt because the digital economy has turned the old model on its head, and those who don't keep up will be left behind. The New Rules of Sales and Service is required reading for anyone wanting to stay ahead of the game and grow business now.

Introduction 1

The Time is NOW 6

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

Updates to This Revised Edition 17

Learning from Examples: How the Successes of Others Can Provide Ideas and Options for Your Own Organization 18

1 The Old World of Sales and Service 21

The Old Sales Model: “Dialing for Dollars” 21

The Voice of Authority: When the Salesperson Was the Expert 22

The Salesperson Expert versus the Web-Educated Buyer 24

“These Sales Leads Stink!” 26

Tell the Truth: The Power of Authenticity 26

Customer Disservice: The Little Things That Drive Us Crazy 29

“Please Take a Moment to Complete Our Survey”: All Take and No Give 30

“There’s a Robocall on Line One. It Says It’s Urgent.” 32

Receiving an Email Address is Not an Invitation to Spam 34

Adding Social Media to Old School Sales and Support is Still Old School 35

The Old Rules of Sales and Service 36

2 The New Rules of Sales and Service 39

Setting Down the Rules 39

Living Up to Their Name: OPEN Communications to Customers 42

The Communications Revolution That Wasn’t Televised 47

Time to Join the Revolution 50

An Invaluable Sales and Service Asset: Your Employees 51

Big Data. Rich Data. 52

An Underground Business Cooks Up Innovative Sales and Service to Discover a Menu for Success 54

Navigating Your Sales and Service Plan 57

3 Your Story 59

Storytelling 59

“Let Me Tell You a Little Bit about Me”: The Story Customers Tell Themselves 60

Call Larry: How One Entrepreneur’s Story Defines a Company 61

The New Model: The Salesperson as Consultant 62

Mastering the Art of Effective Storytelling for Any Organization 66

The Health Club That Tells Its Story by Exercising an Attitude 68

“What Happens Next?”: How a Compelling Narrative Builds a Following 71

A Story That Sells 74

4 Integrating Marketing and Sales with Buyer Personas 77

Creating Magic by Adding Context to Content 77

The Power of Content That Provides Exactly What You Need 79

The Nobis Hotel Sells to David Meerman Scott 80

Making Stuff Up 82

Annoying Three out of Four Customers 82

Egocentric Nonsense 84

Buyer Personas 84

No Red Alfa Romeo? 86

Multiple Personality Order 87

The Buyer Persona Interview 89

Uncover New and Valuable Information with Buyer Persona Research 91

GoPro Keeps Its Buyer Personas in Focus and Sells Millions of Cameras 92

Close the Gap between Sales and Marketing 94

Becoming the Buyer Expert in Your Company 97

The Buyer Persona Profile 98

How Buyer Personas and Journey Mapping Integrate Marketing and Sales 101

Midnight Oil 105

Sales and Marketing Working Together 106

People Reaching People 107

5 The Sales Cycle is Now the Buying Cycle 109

We’re Buying. So Stop Selling. 109

The End of the High Pressure Zone 112

Mingling with Buyers at the Learning Party 114

Educate and Inform 115

The Buyers’ Journey 117

Driving People into the Buying Process 117

The Collective Intelligence of a Million Mechanical Engineers Creates a Unique Marketplace . . . and More 118

Now Raise Your Hand (Please) 119

Got Square Footage? 120

The Merging of Sales and Content to Facilitate the Close 121

A Customer for Life 123

How the New Rules of Selling Contributed to a Math Education Program’s Success 124

Lead Generation Calculus 127

Growing Business in a Shrinking Industry . . . without Leads 128

Please Don’t Squeeze the Buyers 130

Can I Have Your Phone Number? 131

Lessons from the Grateful Dead 132

The Hybrid Lead Generation Model 134

Defining Your Business in the Marketplace 135

Are You Watching Your Direct Competition or Your Customers? 137

Learning from Outside Your Comfort Zone 138

Do You Even Need Salespeople? 139

The Product That Virtually Sells Itself 140

Good for You, but What about the Rest of Us? 142

6 Agile, Real-Time Social Sales 145

The Quickest Wins My Business 145

The Ideal: Agile Sales 146

The Decisive Advantage: Speed 149

Context: The Key to Unlock Every Buyer 150

Newsjacking to Find Buyers 151

Ronnie Dunn’s Real-Time Disruption 152

The Art and Science of Newsjacking to Reach Buyers and Create Real-Time Sales Opportunities 153

Newsjacking: One Lawyer Considers the Legal Implications 156

Live Stream Your Take on the News with Periscope 157

Automation Runs Amok 159

When Real-Time Sales Put You at the Front of the Line 161

Who is Selling Whom? 163

Agile Sales Require a Real-Time Mind-Set 163

Agile Sales Mean Going Off Script 165

Big Data Plus Real-Time Technology Drives Sales 166

Predictive Analytics 167

Social Selling and Your Customer Relationship Management 172

Obsessing over Sales Forecasts Does Nothing for Your Buyers 176

Brawn or Brains? 177

Buying Signals! 178

7 The New Service Imperative 181

Busted Dishwasher. Great Service 181

What is Customer Service Anyway? 183

The Elements of Customer Service 184

Customer Service and Corporate Culture 185

Content Creation 185

Great Customer Service Drives Sales 186

Getting Sales and Service into Alignment 186

Poor Customer Service is the Norm 187

Teaching Customers to Wait for a Sale 189

A Clear Picture of How Great Service Generates Additional Leads 190

A Nonprofit Changes the Rules of Charitable Reporting While Also Changing the World 192

“I Hope Everyone Who Works for Your Company Burns in Hell” 194

Great Customer Service Starts in Person 196

Customer Service “Wow!” 197

First, Educate and Inform Your Customers 198

Surveys: Your Opportunity to Gather Real Data 199

Using Customer Feedback to Grow Revenue 204

How to Conduct a Survey That Helps Grow Revenue 206

8 Agile, Real-Time Social Service 209

Embracing Change 209

The Real-Time Customer Engagement Mind-Set 210

How Boeing Used Real-Time Communications during the 787

Dreamliner Crisis 211

Putting Your Customers First 214

Customer Service Using Social Media 216

Vodafone Egypt Proves Social Customer Service Works Worldwide 218

People Want to Do Business with Other People 220

The Value of Personal Communications 221

Lost in Clinical Gobbledygook 223

Terrible Healthcare Customer Service 223

Healthier Patients through Video Customer Service in Healthcare 224

Making Clients Feel More Connected 228

Making Healthcare Personal 228

Customers and Business Growth 231

Implementing Agile Customer Service 232

9 The Social You 235

When the World’s Attention Turns to Your Expertise 236

Getting Social 239

Why Social Networking is Like Exercise 240

People You Know 241

You’re Already Online 241

The Sharing More Than Selling Rule 242

Building a Fan Base One Download at a Time 244

Don’t Hide in the Shadows 244

You Are Not a Cat 247

Building a Following 248

Tweeting Yourself into a Job 249

Inbound Job Search 251

Achieving Your Dreams 252

Manage Your Fear 255

What a World We Live In! 256

10 Your Social Company 259

Building the Social Selling Process into a Large Organization 259

Hiring for Social Success 262

Sales Managers Must Adapt, Too 265

Training for Social Success 266

A New Kind of Company 268

Your Sales and Service Ecosystem 269

Your Turn 271

Acknowledgments 273

About the Author 275

Index 277

Master Newsjacking: The Online Course 289

Have David Meerman Scott Speak at Your Next Event! 291

DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT is the author of ten books including The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, and Newsjacking. His books open people's eyes to the new realities of sales, marketing, and public relations. David's popular blog, advisory work with fast-growing companies, and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are reaching buyers directly and in real time.