Neil Patel, Global SEO Guru just released data today saying that SEO is not dead. In fact, with search everywhere optimization, he is seeing growth on all fronts with leads coming in from AI overviews, ChatGPT, Social Media platforms, etc. Our studies and test echo the same sentiments as Neil’s team and we are convinced that businesses that adapt to these changing times from Search Engine Optimization to Search Everywhere Optimization are winning in more ways than one.

In my last article (here) I discussed how door-knocking in person is dead. Let me give you some reasons why:

1. Robocalls are rampant and people don’t answer their phones – in fact, they block you
2. Main doors or side doors are locked with heightened security in all office buildings
3. Trust is not like it was before, everyone has become a skeptic with new faces and new pitches
4. Let’s face it, with smartphones, people have lost the art of building face-to-face interpersonal skills

The Defeated Sales Person

A good salesperson will be driven to hunt, gather, and close deals. They aren’t going to sit around and wait. If the boss is in favor of siloed teams, door knocking, anti-digital marketing with a finite mindset (extracted from The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek) will create sales teams who will:

1. Leave and work for a business that is focused on being visible online on all key relevant platforms
2. Ask for a pay rise because they aren’t able to make commissions or bonuses
3. Come to work flat and demotivated and become a source of negativity in the workplace

Are You Setting The Sales Team Up For Failure?

CEO’s and Business Leaders this section is for you. Stop setting your sales teams up for failure. What does this mean?

1. If you have a salesperson who is not making calls, or trying to hunt down new contacts as part of their daily habit, you have hired the wrong person.
2. If there is a conflict between marketing and sales, delayed project deadlines that derail your sales goals, the organizational structure is flawed with siloed teams which will demotivate sales teams.
3. If you are investing in digital marketing, getting leads, and not following up with the sales team, you have the wrong skillset on the sales team.
4. If your call center or receptionist has no interest or training in receiving inbound calls, answering them as the Director of First Impressions – expect failure all around for inbound calls to go to the sales team for follow-up.

Diversity of Thoughts – Embrace The Changing Times

It is tough to keep up with AI and technology changes. Not only is it time-consuming, but change is happening very fast and technology with AI is getting smarter each day. However, CEOs and Business Leaders who don’t adapt will kill business opportunities. Creating a market focused organization, dare I say it a sales organization is absolutely essential. Marketing teams stubborn enough not to understand the market, the clients, and competitors need to be fired. As a marketer, try pitching and closing, walk in the shoes of the salesperson. Diversity of thought here begins with user, the prospective client, and how they think through selecting what to purchase.

Red Flags Of Dysfunctional Sales and Marketing Teams

1. Marketing is leading sales, with no understanding of actual sales in the front line
2. Sales teams who have no tech or digital marketing understanding, this is a REAL problem
3. Project delays due to interdepartmental conflict
4. Marketing is deaf to changes that are happening in the marketplace and feedback from the sales team
5. Marketing isn’t keeping up with technology advances in search everywhere optimization with LLM technology and generational buyer behavior
6. Declining sales, low-profit sales, time-wasting leads, and declining health of the business – the Profit and Loss statement shows a sick business!
7. Fractional business coaches and sales consultants have a limited understanding of digital marketing – they will derail your productivity and sales results

How To Adapt To Changing Times in Search Everywhere Optimization

1. Get 100% buy-in at the C-Suite level that the organization has to pivot and get more market focused, where teams facing the clients, have to provide feedback in real time to marketing, engineering, or management on how the market is changing, how people are searching and what is working and not working at a weekly cadence.
2. End the door-knocking strategy, and implement SEO2Sales^TM within your sales and marketing teams but make sure the sales team is made up of closers not just talkers.
3. Broaden your scope on how to get paid as well! Watch the rise of cryptocurrency and support around integrating this into the sales and marketing ecosystem.
4. Training, training, training! Get help and bring trainers in to break traditions and reset your competitive advantage.

What is SEO2Sales^TM?

Remember Professor Phillip Kotler who wrote Marketing 101? Well, SEO2Sales^TM is an expansion of his work, by Hema Dey who has layered in technology advancements in sharpening the marketing planning process. It combines strategies to enable companies to embrace the culture of the market first a.k.a. a sales organization. Book Hema’s workshops to begin your journey in diversifying thoughts, becoming market-focused, and setting a competitive advantage. Connect with us today, HERE