New Rules of Sales and Service

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.

• Introduction 1The Time is NOW 6Living in the Past: The Old School of Sales and Service 7First Marketing and PR, Now Sales and Service 8The New Rules of Marketing and PR Are Now Widely Adopted 9Living Real Time and Mobile Has Changed Everything We Do 10Why Sales and Service Are Experiencing a Revolutionary Transformation 11Restoring the Human Touch: The Compelling Power of Authenticity 12The Importance of Story 13Social Media is All about Connecting and Sharing 13Content Drives Sales and Service 14We’re All in Sales and Service Now 14Online Content That Informs, Entertains . . . and Sells Insurance 15Updates to This Revised Edition 17Learning from Examples: How the Successes of Others Can Provide Ideas and Options for Your Own Organization 181 The Old World of Sales and Service 21The Old Sales Model: “Dialing for Dollars” 21The Voice of Authority: When the Salesperson Was the Expert 22The Salesperson Expert versus the Web-Educated Buyer 24“These Sales Leads Stink!” 26Tell the Truth: The Power of Authenticity 26Customer 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.” 32Receiving an Email Address is Not an Invitation to Spam 34Adding Social Media to Old School Sales and Support is Still Old School 35The Old Rules of Sales and Service 362 The New Rules of Sales and Service 39Setting Down the Rules 39Living Up to Their Name: OPEN Communications to Customers 42The Communications Revolution That Wasn’t Televised 47Time to Join the Revolution 50An Invaluable Sales and Service Asset: Your Employees 51Big Data. Rich Data. 52An Underground Business Cooks Up Innovative Sales and Service to Discover a Menu for Success 54Navigating Your Sales and Service Plan 573 Your Story 59Storytelling 59“Let Me Tell You a Little Bit about Me”: The Story Customers Tell Themselves 60Call Larry: How One Entrepreneur’s Story Defines a Company 61The New Model: The Salesperson as Consultant 62Mastering the Art of Effective Storytelling for Any Organization 66The Health Club That Tells Its Story by Exercising an Attitude 68“What Happens Next?”: How a Compelling Narrative Builds a Following 71A Story That Sells 744 Integrating Marketing and Sales with Buyer Personas 77Creating Magic by Adding Context to Content 77The Power of Content That Provides Exactly What You Need 79The Nobis Hotel Sells to David Meerman Scott 80Making Stuff Up 82Annoying Three out of Four Customers 82Egocentric Nonsense 84Buyer Personas 84No Red Alfa Romeo? 86Multiple Personality Order 87The Buyer Persona Interview 89Uncover New and Valuable Information with Buyer Persona Research 91GoPro Keeps Its Buyer Personas in Focus and Sells Millions of Cameras 92Close the Gap between Sales and Marketing 94Becoming the Buyer Expert in Your Company 97The Buyer Persona Profile 98How Buyer Personas and Journey Mapping Integrate Marketing and Sales 101Midnight Oil 105Sales and Marketing Working Together 106People Reaching People 1075 The Sales Cycle is Now the Buying Cycle 109We’re Buying. So Stop Selling. 109The End of the High Pressure Zone 112Mingling with Buyers at the Learning Party 114Educate and Inform 115The Buyers’ Journey 117Driving People into the Buying Process 117The Collective Intelligence of a Million Mechanical Engineers Creates a Unique Marketplace . . . and More 118Now Raise Your Hand (Please) 119Got Square Footage? 120The Merging of Sales and Content to Facilitate the Close 121A Customer for Life 123How the New Rules of Selling Contributed to a Math Education Program’s Success 124Lead Generation Calculus 127Growing Business in a Shrinking Industry . . . without Leads 128Please Don’t Squeeze the Buyers 130Can I Have Your Phone Number? 131Lessons from the Grateful Dead 132The Hybrid Lead Generation Model 134Defining Your Business in the Marketplace 135Are You Watching Your Direct Competition or Your Customers? 137Learning from Outside Your Comfort Zone 138Do You Even Need Salespeople? 139The Product That Virtually Sells Itself 140Good for You, but What about the Rest of Us? 1426 Agile, Real-Time Social Sales 145The Quickest Wins My Business 145The Ideal: Agile Sales 146The Decisive Advantage: Speed 149Context: The Key to Unlock Every Buyer 150Newsjacking to Find Buyers 151Ronnie Dunn’s Real-Time Disruption 152The Art and Science of Newsjacking to Reach Buyers and Create Real-Time Sales Opportunities 153Newsjacking: One Lawyer Considers the Legal Implications 156Live Stream Your Take on the News with Periscope 157Automation Runs Amok 159When Real-Time Sales Put You at the Front of the Line 161Who is Selling Whom? 163Agile Sales Require a Real-Time Mind-Set 163Agile Sales Mean Going Off Script 165Big Data Plus Real-Time Technology Drives Sales 166Predictive Analytics 167Social Selling and Your Customer Relationship Management 172Obsessing over Sales Forecasts Does Nothing for Your Buyers 176Brawn or Brains? 177Buying Signals! 1787 The New Service Imperative 181Busted Dishwasher. Great Service 181What is Customer Service Anyway? 183The Elements of Customer Service 184Customer Service and Corporate Culture 185Content Creation 185Great Customer Service Drives Sales 186Getting Sales and Service into Alignment 186Poor Customer Service is the Norm 187Teaching Customers to Wait for a Sale 189A Clear Picture of How Great Service Generates Additional Leads 190A Nonprofit Changes the Rules of Charitable Reporting While Also Changing the World 192“I Hope Everyone Who Works for Your Company Burns in Hell” 194Great Customer Service Starts in Person 196Customer Service “Wow!” 197First, Educate and Inform Your Customers 198Surveys: Your Opportunity to Gather Real Data 199Using Customer Feedback to Grow Revenue 204How to Conduct a Survey That Helps Grow Revenue 2068 Agile, Real-Time Social Service 209Embracing Change 209The Real-Time Customer Engagement Mind-Set 210How Boeing Used Real-Time Communications during the 787Dreamliner Crisis 211Putting Your Customers First 214Customer Service Using Social Media 216Vodafone Egypt Proves Social Customer Service Works Worldwide 218People Want to Do Business with Other People 220The Value of Personal Communications 221Lost in Clinical Gobbledygook 223Terrible Healthcare Customer Service 223Healthier Patients through Video Customer Service in Healthcare 224Making Clients Feel More Connected 228Making Healthcare Personal 228Customers and Business Growth 231Implementing Agile Customer Service 2329 The Social You 235When the World’s Attention Turns to Your Expertise 236Getting Social 239Why Social Networking is Like Exercise 240People You Know 241You’re Already Online 241The Sharing More Than Selling Rule 242Building a Fan Base One Download at a Time 244Don’t Hide in the Shadows 244You Are Not a Cat 247Building a Following 248Tweeting Yourself into a Job 249Inbound Job Search 251Achieving Your Dreams 252Manage Your Fear 255What a World We Live In! 25610 Your Social Company 259Building the Social Selling Process into a Large Organization 259Hiring for Social Success 262Sales Managers Must Adapt, Too 265Training for Social Success 266A New Kind of Company 268Your Sales and Service Ecosystem 269Your Turn 271Acknowledgments 273About the Author 275Index 277Master Newsjacking: The Online Course 289Have David Meerman Scott Speak at Your Next Event! 291