How do you grow your business with so many obstacles in your way?

If you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, consultant, or solopreneur, I’m just like you. 

I searched for how to grow my business through a seemingly endless number of pitches and digital tools. I even spent $5K to hire a growth marketing coach. The same thing may have happened to you. That’s ok.

Maybe, you also struggled with your confidence. Imposter syndrome is real. It can hold you back from reaching your fullest potential. That was one of my biggest challenges for a long time. Traditional email marketing can exacerbate that problem because there’s not a lot of positive feedback. It’s important to see progress as you’re building, giving your confidence a boost. 

I had these challenges and many others before I started achieving tangible results.

But, here’s the thing. Cash is king. We all need to make sales to grow our businesses.  

So, how do we grow our businesses?

Let’s first consider these major trends.

Conferences and Networking Events - Gone Due to the Pandemic.

Covid-19 has eliminated in-person networking traditionally used in the B2B market to access clients and create conversation opportunities. So long as conferences have the potential to become super spreader events, we can be sure they won’t be back. If you relied on in-person events and conferences to network for new business, you might be feeling at a loss for how to network without them. 

Covid-19 Caused Active Social Media Users to Skyrocket

The number of active social media users increased by 314 million people from July 2019 to July 2020, driven primarily by the pandemic. On average, 43% of internet users aged 16 to 64 reported spending more time on social media due to Covid-19. These are potent trends. The total number of people on social media is increasing, while the amount of time spent on social media is also growing. Simon Kemp’s Latest Report From October 2020 More Than Half of The People On The Earth Now Use Social Media is a great resource. 

B2B Sales is Moving Online

Over the next five years, Gartner Group, the world’s leading research and advisory group, predicts that the number of digital interactions between buyers and suppliers will skyrocket. They expect that this explosive growth will break traditional sales models as face-to-face interactions with customers decline. Our role as B2B suppliers is changing, and so are the skills needed to engage with customers. Virtual selling is at the heart of these changes. Gartner’s recently published report indicates that buyers and sellers will conduct 80% of business-to-business transactions in a digital channel by 2025.

Technology-Enabled Sales Training Is Mission Critical.

Sales training needs to be more engaging at scale. Traditionally, we have used annual conferences to impart information rapidly over a day or two. It was expensive to send even one person with travel, accommodation, and event fees to a meeting just for training. But, networking at the event helped to justify the cost. Trainers have also used masterminds and e-learning. But, Gartner’s research has found that B2B salespeople forget 70% of the information communicated within a week of training, and 87% forget within one month. Sales outcomes are improved when we use technology to create engaging experiences as part of pre-boarding or onboarding and continuous and continuing education. 

Traditional Email Marketing No Longer Works for B2B.

Traditional email marketing is dead. It is no longer practical to access leads or to begin conversations to build a sales pipeline. In the 25 years that email marketing has been around, buyers have changed. Buyers don’t want to be interrupted to hear your sales pitch. They no longer respond to broadcast marketing messages, no matter how superficially customized. Whether the interruption occurs in your email inbox or your LinkedIn messages, it doesn’t work. 

In their recent report, 2020 State of Digital Marketing Report, Hubspot sheds light on the sorry state of traditional email marketing. 

Buyers Don’t Trust Advertising. 

Advertising is among the least effective ways to grow your business. People no longer trust paid advertising. Earlier this year in the pandemic height, Coca-Cola cut brand marketing - “partially to reduce costs and partially because it is skeptical of return on investment.” Paid media no longer has the same effect on buyers. Edelman put it this way in its latest research on brand trust. They said, “[i]n today’s turbulent and, often, frightening world, people are craving human connection and meaningful engagement more than ever --and they bring those expectations to brands.” Therefore, if you want to break through, you must earn trust through active engagement. 

Here’s the truth: You can achieve a 30% increase in your sales pipeline and a 40% reduction in your sales cycle using LinkedIn. However, most entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and solopreneurs do not know how to use LinkedIn properly since virtual networking is a relatively new activity. 

We are the only people dedicated to solving the problem of getting access to decision-makers and driving more conversations by tapping into the human connection and meaningful engagement people are craving. Using traditional email marketing interruption tactics, such as cold messages, on LinkedIn is not adequate. This behavior harms your professional reputation and destroys the value of your network. 

It is possible to achieve a 30% increase in the sales pipeline and a 40% reduction in the sales cycle using virtual selling if you have the right information and follow the right steps in the proper order. Unfortunately, far too many entrepreneurs, small business owners, consultants, and entrepreneurs either don’t understand the steps or the cadence and end up wasting time and money. Our team has dedicated the last few years to solve this problem.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Lenwood Ross. Ten years ago, I decided to switch careers from an Ivy League-trained lawyer to an entrepreneur. After struggling for a while, I could see the trends impacting large and small organizations because of technology. 

I needed to learn more about technology and the changes occurring in the economy to achieve the impact I desired as an entrepreneur. So, I obtained my postgraduate degree in digital business from the Emeritus Institute of Management. Emeritus is a collaboration between Columbia Business Executive Education, Dartmouth, and MIT. 

Now, I spend each day educating people on how they can solve these issues that we've laid out.

What have I missed? What else have you found to be a hurdle in the growth of your company?

If you interested in learning more about what you need to do to win at digital, connect with me on LinkedIn. If you're interested in learning a proven process for boosting your brand, growing your network, generating conversations that lead to sales, reach out to me at [email protected].