It’s that time of year again. Chicken wings, dip, nachos, beer, and 30-second commercials costing an average $4.5 million each. It can only mean one thing—the Super Bowl.
Last year’s NFL Championship game drew in over 112 million viewers, so it’s no big surprise that NBC sold all of their ad space for this year’s game, effectively creating a new revenue record. What won’t companies do to get in front of their prospects?
There are lessons to be learned from the mania that surrounds the Super Bowl. As companies prepare witty, sharp, smart commercials to get in front of prospects, Sales can take a page from their book and apply it to their own sales strategies.
Here are sales prospecting tips from Super Bowl mania that we feel Sales should emulate.
Harness the buzz
The Super Bowl generates buzz in almost every aspect of its’ promotion—from the week leading up to it, commercials during the game, star-studded halftime shows, and for weeks after when we’re still talking about that heartwarming Budweiser commercial. All of these aspects pose opportunities for companies to get in front of their prospects.
You’re probably thinking, “How does this apply to me?” I know, you’re not a brand name purchasing $4.5 million ad space. But you are a brand with a common goal—reaching prospects in an engaging way. That is what the Super Bowl accomplishes. We all remember the commercials, because they are some of the cleverest created.
Take this sales prospecting tip as a lesson: use news, pop culture, industry events, etc. to harness the buzz and generate your own mania. Newsjacking can happen whether you’re a B2C or B2B company; whether you’re in healthcare or home goods. It really doesn’t matter. The point is that clever companies figure out smart ways to make that news their own. They engage their prospects in a clever way, then bring the takeaway message back to their company. That is how so many companies succeed at harnessing the buzz.
Reach the masses
You harness the buzz and make it your own, and then it’s time to reach the masses—aka your target prospects. The most effective way to reach the masses? Social media, of course.
Just as major companies tweet, post, and share during the Super Bowl, so can you and your sales team. In fact, sales leaders today are using the power of Twitter to reach prospects and follow industry news. And of course, we all know the power of LinkedIn for finding and engaging with targeted prospects.
Use every social media outlet possible to engage with your prospects. The more you get in front of them, the more your chances increase of getting through to them. You can’t hope to win prospects over if you aren’t relevant. And you aren’t relevant if you don’t have a presence where they hang out online.
Recreate the hype
The most challenging part of getting in front of your prospects is analyzing what worked and what didn’t. Companies who excel at this use numerous analytics and data gained through technology. Your Sales (and Marketing) team should be no different.
Use marketing automation and CRM software to track the effectiveness of your activities. If your sales team has been working to increase their exposure on Twitter, monitor measures of success like interactions, followers, and click rates, to figure out how well it’s working. If it looks like you’ve gained leads from it, recreate the hype.
Just as companies play their award-winning commercials for weeks after the Super Bowl, sales leaders and marketers are constantly recycling their materials and repurposing them in new ways.
Sales leaders have a lot to gain from watching the hype around the Super Bowl. It takes over on a grand scale. And whether you’re a fan of the teams playing or not (or a football fan at all for that matter), everyone can appreciate the buzz that the Super Bowl creates. Who would have thought that the Super Bowl would lend us with sales prospecting tips?
Are you trying to get in front of prospects with your sales emails, but they just go unopened? Read our eGuide, “Email Tips for the Modern Sales Leader” and learn how to craft emails that engage and convert. Download the guide below.
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