In a 1992 film, "Glengarry Glen Ross", Blake, a high-powered, money-driven salesperson character played by actor Alec Baldwin used the phrase, "Always Be Closing".
People then turned the phrase into a sales mantra, "Always Be Closing" (ABC).
Today, it's a motivational phrase you'll hear in sales conferences.
Always Be Closing implies that a salesperson should continuously be looking for new prospects, do frequent follow-ups with clients, and sell often. It requires salespeople to sell whatever it takes and never take no for an answer.
A little old school – and lacking of empathy, if you asked me.
Reframing "ABC"
It's no longer the 1980s.
Purchasing habits are different. Customers have more options and want different things.
So it makes sense to always be collecting, instead of always be closing.
- Collect connections.
- Be a collector of people.
- Be a collector of knowledge.
- Be a collector of experience.
These things are great.
But as a marketer, I've constantly wished that I did one thing sooner: Always Be Collecting Data (ABCD)
Let me explain with two short stories.
#1 - Pitching sponsors to Underdog Con
Every time we organize Underdog Con, we reach out to potential sponsors.
After doing this a few times, I realized one thing. People who sponsored events before will usually ask very different questions than those who haven't.
The newbies usually decide if our event is worth sponsoring based on three things: the number of people attending, how their business will be presented, and whether they'll get a speaking slot.
Ok, quite valid.
But the experienced ones would ask deeper questions. They wanted more data.
Questions like:
- Which industries are your audience from by % breakdown?
- Who has sponsored before?
- What's the # of leads and amount of sales they've gotten back?
- What is their ROI from what they sponsored?
I found myself many times without the data to back what I claimed.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to sell something that didn't work. The problem was I hadn't set up a system to collect data that would be useful in pitches like this.
These days we collect data ferociously.
#2 - Collecting email audiences
Imagine being able to reach thousands of potential customers within a few clicks.
Email marketing works, even today.
We rely on our email list for many things:
- Announcing a new product
- Pre-selling a product
- Asking for feedback
- Asking for referrals or recommendations
The challenge isn't figuring out what emails to send.
The challenge is having a long-term perspective, and start building an audience list early.
Ask anyone with an audience and following. Most of them would tell you they wished they started collecting email addresses earlier.
Always Be Collecting Data (ABCD)
Today, we look at collecting data whenever and wherever we can.
Some examples:
- We use Basecamp – all our work, including our clients, is documented and collected in one place, in writing.
- We have point-of-purchase email surveys, that are automatically sent to clients who buy.
- We send survey forms asking participants after an event or workshop.
- We developed a habit of verbally asking people what brings them to an event, when networking – and then quickly jotting them down later.
- We ferociously use every chance – webinars, lead magnets, workshops, and conferences, to grow our email list.
- Adding specific fields, to collect data about our audience when they sign up for something at Daily CMO.
One thing is true.
ABCD. Always be collecting data.
From "zero leads" to "too many customers"
Have you ever felt stressed about not having enough customers? You're unsure where your next customers will come from and don't have a reliable system in place to generate sales.
It feels like you're just "winging it" and hoping for the best each month.
If that sounds like you, I'm proud to bring you a new sales workshop, The Sales Accelerator in November – designed to help sales teams and business owners with the strategy and tools to get more customers than they can handle.
It's a 2-day workshop conducted by King Quah, founder of an RM18 million business, Saltycustoms, and myself.
You'll learn the exact strategies we use in our business and our clients' businesses. You'll discover what works and what doesn't, plus get access to never-before-seen case studies.
There are 10 pre-sale slots available, but they will close on 17th October.
