Aligning Sales and Marketing Efforts for Business Success with Sami Bedell Mulhern

Aligning Sales and Marketing Efforts for Business Success with Sami Bedell Mulhern

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[00:00:00] Sami Bedell Mulhern: I think as we kind of put sales and marketing together, right. That's always kind of the, been the hard part piece for organizations. How can we get our sales teams and our marketing teams to work together? And I think that that has become. Even more synonymous in the digital space

[00:00:16] Marker

[00:00:16] Are you looking to improve your sales skills without compromising your values? Welcome to Sales Made Easy, a podcast or Business and Personal Growth.

[00:00:27] Now, here's your host, Harry.

[00:00:29] Harry: Sammy Bedell Mulhern founded the first click to support small to medium sized businesses and nonprofits make more money online.

[00:00:40] Harry: We'd like that. She also teaches digital marketing strategies that build connections to allow you to find more of the right customer and retain them once you do. Sammy, welcome to the sales made easy podcast. What's the good word. Thanks for having me..[00:01:00] Sammy, tell me a little bit about how you're helping small to medium sized businesses and nonprofits in the digital marketing space.

[00:01:09] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah, I think as we kind of put sales and marketing together, right. That's always kind of the, been the hard part piece for organizations. How can we get our sales teams and our marketing teams to work together? And I think that that has become. Even more synonymous in the digital space. So sales are happening now with you not even having to talk to somebody.

[00:01:32] Sami Bedell Mulhern: But people are also researching things online. So the way that we communicate really needs to be in tandem with each other. My passion is really just helping organizations make sure that they have. This website that is going to support them in their sales efforts. So however, they choose to go out and get their business.

[00:01:53] Sami Bedell Mulhern: They've got clear messaging that talks to the right people and that they can get more done online [00:02:00] without kind of wanting to pull their hair out because digital marketing tends to. Make people want to run away screaming.

[00:02:07] Harry: Yeah. I mean, there's digital marketing covers such a wide area that, you know, sometimes we just think of it as social media marketing and, , you think of your website, you think of emails, there, there's a lot going on in your world.

[00:02:24] Harry: And I think we've got it pretty easy in the sales side of things, because all we have to do is talk to people. But, we were talking earlier about the consistency. that you can have or not have in a business with your website and your messaging and so forth. So what is like a challenge that some small businesses or nonprofits might have regarding that as far as the consistency and messaging?

[00:02:48] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Well, I think we think every time we're going to put something new out, we have to start new. So we go to write a sales flyer, or we go to write an email to somebody, or, you know, we're writing social media [00:03:00] posts and we think we, it all has to be unique. Different, and we have to write it all from scratch.

[00:03:04] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So we spend all this time and effort kind of putting all these things together. Whereas if we just create kind of one master hub of all the information, which is your website, now all we're doing is pulling information from that when and where we need it. So we can all much more easily speak the same language whoever's on your team, because it's all right there for you, and then you know you have that consistency with how you're talking about your brand, your product, your service.

[00:03:31] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Whatever, but people don't put the time and effort into making sure that they have a website that communicates where they are, or maybe they did it five years ago and they haven't just since and so things have changed. And so it doesn't match the stories that you're sharing with your audience.

[00:03:47] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah.

[00:03:47] Harry: I mean, five years goes by pretty quickly. You can build something and say, well, I just did that five years ago. So time does fly and a lot changes. Just, just speak to that as to [00:04:00] what's happened over a few years that people might want to revisit their website because.

[00:04:05] Harry: You know, things have changed. What, what comes to mind for you for that?

[00:04:08] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah. So we have like a monthly checklist that we like people to do.. And what we're looking for there is, is your header image really clearly defining or sharing the, the information that's most important to you, right?

[00:04:20] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Sales often works in cycle. Goals or your products might work in cycles. And so we want people to land on your website and see what is the most important thing for them to see in that moment. We don't want them to have to hunt and peck around for it. We also want to be taking a look at our about pages.

[00:04:37] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So we know hiring is a big issue right now for a lot of different industries, but we also know that people are connecting with brands. The people behind the brands, not just, okay, we like this product or we like the service, we're going to buy it. We want to be in community with the companies that we work with.

[00:04:53] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So your about page is also really important. So if I have a conversation with the salesperson, and then I go to the about page to see [00:05:00] a little bit more about them, and they're not even listed there, but everybody else is, I'm going to be like, okay, well, you know, maybe... What's going on here? Like why is this person not listed?

[00:05:09] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Is this not somebody that I should be trusting from this company? Are they too new? It can kind of just raise some questions that you don't want to be raised. It's also a great place to share how you give back to the community if that's part of your organization. The things about you that people are going to connect with.

[00:05:25] Sami Bedell Mulhern: That are going to separate you from your competition. Your about page is great for that. Needs to be updated regularly because things change all the time. And then really just your contact form and making sure that things are working. If you've got a website that's been built a while ago that hasn't been tested for a while, who knows where those contact forms are going?

[00:05:44] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Are they still getting to the right person? Do we need to update information for how people can connect with us? Is the way that we're connecting with people changing? So those are kind of three. Simple things that we like people to just check on the regular and then on an annual basis, [00:06:00] it's really diving through every single page to make sure all the integrations are working, to make sure the content you're creating is still relevant and just to make sure that information is still being shared in the way that you're talking about it when you're face to face with people.

[00:06:17] Harry: Wow. Yeah. Interesting. Would you say, like, you're doing this. You said like periodically and then you have an annually, you're doing it annually as well. There's a process there for you. If someone's listening to this for the first time and they're just thinking, I wonder what my website's doing right now.

[00:06:40] Harry: Well, I mean, is that a reasonable question? And I mean, would they say, well, I just had it built like in the past couple of years. I mean, could things change that quickly? I mean,

[00:06:51] Sami Bedell Mulhern: yes and no. So I think largely salespeople will say, well, I'm not in marketing, so I don't need to worry about the website. But the salespeople are the ones [00:07:00] having the conversation.

[00:07:01] Sami Bedell Mulhern: They're boots on the ground. They're real time, whether it's in an in person or digital space, right? They're the ones getting the customer service calls or the questions. They're the ones that are getting the pain points and the frustrations. And also the excitement from why people are choosing or not choosing a workplace.

[00:07:17] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Marketing people are not, and so that information is critical for people in the marketing world to know so that they can better support the messaging that's happening. So that's why we love to have the whole team take a look at the website because we're all going to look at it from a different lens and have different needs from what we're doing there.

[00:07:37] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So it's a great opportunity for you as a salesperson to just look at the website and say, Is this how my customers are talking to me? Is this language that they're using? Is this words that they're repeating back to me? Does this, copy automatically help kind of, you know, share reasons for, you know, their objections?

[00:07:58] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Are we, are we acknowledging those here on the [00:08:00] website in a way that makes them understand how we're here to support them? And a salesperson can have better... a better view of that. So I do think it's important just to look through it and just see if it makes sense. I mean, you don't have to spend too much time and effort on it, but if you're reading it and you're like, yes, this is totally how we talk, then you're good to go.

[00:08:19] Sami Bedell Mulhern: And if not, then it's time to take a look at that language. And then the second thing is really, just finding out your analytics of your website. How is your website performing? Is it helping you reach your goals and goals? Not tied to traffic. We don't care about how many people are hitting your website.

[00:08:35] Sami Bedell Mulhern: We care about our people taking action on the things we want them to. Are they purchasing things directly from the website? Are they filling up the contact form? Are they joining your email list? Are they connecting with you in a way that allows you to then move that to a more meaningful conversation?

[00:08:49] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Those are the data points we want to check. And if you look at just those two things, then you'll kind of know how and what you need to do to move forward.

[00:08:58] Harry: So you touched on a [00:09:00] couple of things there. So I was thinking about the latter when I asked a question, but you brought in the whole sales and marketing thing, which is perfect because I mean, sales can be talking about one thing and then people go back to, you know, the salesperson leaves, someone checks out the website and says, this doesn't jive.

[00:09:16] Harry: Or salesperson can get a meeting. Even I've seen this. And then the meeting gets canceled. And the suspicion is they checked out what was on the website and saw something different than what the salesperson might have been talking about. So I think there's a lot of product led, you know, salespeople just lead with product and then probably marketers are trying to tell the story.

[00:09:43] Harry: So, you know, there's should be some consistency. So if you're marketing, people are trying to tell these stories and salespeople. Should own some of these stories. If it's not your story in particular, but you should own it as in the collective, we, [00:10:00] what's your thought there?

[00:10:01] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah, I agree because they know people that are boots on the ground know what's going on.

[00:10:06] Sami Bedell Mulhern: And I think that we as marketers

[00:10:09] Sami Bedell Mulhern: asking for specific questions, asking specific questions. We should be asking. To our teams, hey, could you provide me a testimonial from a customer about this product? Maybe somebody who is, you know, and like, bring in the, you know, the persona, the buyer persona that you've attached to that product.

[00:10:27] Sami Bedell Mulhern: We as marketers need to be a little bit more specific because often we'll say to people, hey, I need some testimonials. And when you hear that, you're like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:10:35] Sami Bedell Mulhern: A memory or an experience with somebody that you think would be a perfect fit. And so if you as a salesperson are hearing that from your marketing people, ask for specifics. What exactly do you need? How many words do you need? Do you want video? Like, you know, don't be afraid to ask them for those questions so that you can provide better information.

[00:10:56] Sami Bedell Mulhern: And, you know, just say, I'm not a marketer. I'm here to help you, but how can I actually. [00:11:00] Like, what is it exactly that you need? Because the brain, you're right. The brains are very different about how a marketer works and how a salesperson works. Rightly so. So I think never be afraid to share your stories and your experiences.

[00:11:14] Sami Bedell Mulhern: They'll use it or they won't, but they can't share personal experiences if you are not giving that to them and the marketers aren't hearing it on the front line.

[00:11:22] Harry: Yeah, that's a really good, so just having that meeting would be a suggestion and maybe it's not every week, obviously, but maybe it's once a month or it's once a quarter, you bring marketing and sales together, maybe break bread, even for goodness sakes.

[00:11:40] Harry: I know that's scary, but there will not be food fights, getting these two departments to work together and share ideas. I mean, that is. Yeah. That's huge these days, I think.

[00:11:54] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah, and I think the nice thing about digital marketing is we can be more nimble. So we're here to help you [00:12:00] hit your goals. So like, let's say you're coming to the end of the month, and you're missing your target on a specific thing, or you have extra inventory, or enrollment isn't quite hitting the mark on certain things.

[00:12:09] Sami Bedell Mulhern: That's information your marketing team needs to know. Now we shift and maybe add a few more, A few more emails that are going to go out to our targeted list, or we send a few more social media posts, right? We can add some more support to kind of foster what you're doing to try to hit those goals. We can't if we don't know.

[00:12:27] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So a couple really easy things, I don't, depending on how you do like staff meetings, if you do whole company meetings, or if you just have small we have a client that just has on the agenda every single week. Can't miss moments. And it's not just for people to, it's not for people to share, but it's for us to remember, okay, what can't miss moments do you have coming up this week?

[00:12:48] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Who, who are you meeting with that's super exciting? What stories can you grab from people that you're meeting with? So it's just a reminder for everybody on the team to snap some photos, take some captions so that you're thinking about it all the [00:13:00] time. So that's one. And then the second is really making sure that you have a space for people to put stuff.

[00:13:06] Sami Bedell Mulhern: We got to remove that, that friction. So if you have a great story that you know exactly, you know who to tag, you know who the person is. So that communication is really critical and making it easy for it to kind of flow both ways.

[00:13:20] Harry: Yeah, the can't miss moments is so good. I just kicking myself over missed opportunities over the years.

[00:13:27] Harry: But yeah, because you think about like, one of the things I encourage is for salespeople to follow their largest, the best clients, not necessarily the largest, right, to follow their clients and follow their top 10 prospects. And. Like their posts and or react to their posts, not just like, and then comment on the posts.

[00:13:51] Harry: I mean, I think this is a hugely missed opportunity is that salespeople say, well, I'm not looking for a job. I don't have time for [00:14:00] LinkedIn. And in the meantime, you could have a CEO of a company that's completely engaged in the community, has 20, 000 followers. And it has no salespeople from your company commenting on their posts.

[00:14:19] Harry: And every time you comment, folks, you've got your little, your little identifier that says, Hey, this is me. And this is how I serve. So when your comment shows up, the CEO and whoever is in the marketing department and in the social media department, and whoever's following that company gets to see you.

[00:14:42] Harry: Then as a supporter, I mean, hello, this is like free marketing. Am I missing

[00:14:47] Sami Bedell Mulhern: something there? Well, no. And I think it's also just going back to, you know, the beginning, we do business with people that we have a personal connection to, so it's just staying top of mind. It's staying [00:15:00] relevant and it's showing that you're built.

[00:15:03] Sami Bedell Mulhern: It's just building trust. You're not gonna, you're not gonna miss out. I like what you said. It's not 100, 000 people that you're trying to do this with. If you, if you just same with website maintenance, if you just make it part of your regular schedule, it'll take you maybe 5 minutes a day and you can do exactly what you just said.

[00:15:19] Sami Bedell Mulhern: But you never know what's going to come out of that conversation, but you know what will happen if you don't absolutely nothing.

[00:15:26] Harry: Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. And so this, this topic here of sales and marketing working together. Have you seen this where it's just chaotic and doesn't work at all?

[00:15:42] Sami Bedell Mulhern: absolutely. I think in most places it doesn't work well because people I would say in larger organizations, people tend to work in their silos.

[00:15:52] Sami Bedell Mulhern: We have our goals. They have their. goals. Marketing wants to blame sales for not getting the information. Sales wants to blame marketing for not doing their [00:16:00] job. So that's why they didn't hit their quota or what have you, right? It's like this, this thing. And I think it's getting better. I mean, I work with a lot of really small shops and so.

[00:16:10] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Especially in the nonprofit space, you'll see marketing is housed in development a lot of times, which which helps as well, but nonprofits have the opposite problem and that they don't think of themselves as a business. So they don't think of fundraising as sales. So, I mean, that's a whole another can of worms for them to work through, and donor management.

[00:16:30] Sami Bedell Mulhern: But I think, Where marketing can really help sales is in that retention of customers, helping them ensure that their, their customers are still being touched. So if you can stay in touch with those best customers and your best leads and marketing can help you stay in touch with these customers at a larger scale, you're just increasing your chances of retaining more and more of those folks.

[00:16:54] Sami Bedell Mulhern: You spend all that time and effort acquiring them. You don't want to lose them. Because that communication stopped. So [00:17:00] how you as a, as a team can really determine what does that experience look like from before we acquire a customer to once they're a customer to becoming a repeat customer, that experience needs to be a company culture.

[00:17:14] Sami Bedell Mulhern: And that's where sales and marketing can really come together to divvy out. Who's handling which parts of that process and with which, which types of clients. Because I think the other thing too, is once you land a big fish, you know, I think salespeople tend to be very protective of that relationship instead of saying, how can we work together to make sure that this customer, is loved on and gets everything they need without worrying about somebody.

[00:17:40] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Taking them from me, right? Yeah. I've never in there. Cause you're

[00:17:44] Harry: laughing. I've never heard a salesperson say that that's my account. Never. Right. They become very possessive of the big wind, right? They're selling the company and they're selling the product services, selling [00:18:00] support, but it's their account.

[00:18:02] Harry: So yeah, I get, I get the fact that they do that, but to have, to recognize that this is a team, people want to do businesses with a team anyway. Right. They're not looking for one person. It's like gone are the days that Harry's my guy for everything. Harry can not do anything. Right. So you've got to have a team and selling the benefit of a team behind you folks shows that you're all in alignment, that this, we, we are investing in your success.

[00:18:34] Harry: As our team, isn't that way better than I'm the one person here for you? I mean, it's, it's common sense, but I mean, some some folks in sales need to get with the times I think a little bit more, but yeah, you just struck a chord with me. That's why I chuckle.

[00:18:50] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Well, and you see this in the SaaS space. This is very, this is very common in the SaaS space, software as a service, where you get reached out to buy a salesperson, [00:19:00] they walk you through the whole process, they get you all signed up and ready to go.

[00:19:04] Sami Bedell Mulhern: And then the initial meeting is with you in a, in a client manager. Then they pass you off to that client manager who handles the demo and is the one person who you go to with any tech support needs that you have. But then they might also pass you off to a customer service person who handles all of your.

[00:19:18] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Actual onboarding, right? And you still have that one person that you can go to, but the SAS space runs you through a line of people. And if they have their company culture done well, and they have a certain set of standards for how people are treated, that's just the way that it flows. So, I mean, that's a really interesting test case that I think, now, you know, maybe you'll pay attention that the next time you kind of run through a software onboarding for your own company, but they definitely, they stay in their lane. This is what I do. And this is how I serve the customer in my space.

[00:19:54] Harry: Yeah, that's really good. And I, you know, the horror stories are coming to mind over the years, having been in [00:20:00] sales for, you know, 25 plus years, I think of.

[00:20:04] Harry: technical support say, what did the salesperson promise you? The left hand clearly doesn't know what the right hand is saying throughout the chain as there's onboarding going on. So I think you just struck a, you know, this is an added benefit of this conversation right here is that the business owner should really.

[00:20:29] Harry: Take a deeper dive into what's going on and each step of the process, because I mean, you can have a disgruntled person really at the in the wrong place and they can say things like what I just described and that's not going to go over well with a client who's, you know, viewed everything that the salesperson said as gospel and now you're just basically exposing the person as Less than gospel.

[00:20:57] Harry: What's your thought on? Yeah,

[00:20:59] Sami Bedell Mulhern: I have not [00:21:00] been a quote unquote salesperson for a long time. My brain doesn't work that way. It's hard for me. I like more fluffy marketing side of things and telling the stories and whatnot. But I think at the end of the day, it really. It comes down to processes and how we as a team determine we want this experience to look like because from the beginning when the salesperson is starting these conversations, there's emails that are crafted that are going out, right?

[00:21:25] Sami Bedell Mulhern: There's scripts that have probably been written. Your marketing and your communications team is probably helping you with that. Then. To the onboarding side of things. That's also okay. Well, here's, here's what you have the flexibility to do. And what here are the parameters like you want to give your team the opportunity to be able to kind of wiggle a little bit, right?

[00:21:42] Sami Bedell Mulhern: We need to be able to make some decisions in the fly. But what are those parameters that you're allowing? And what are the materials that we have to kind of support that so that we can make sure that everything is clear. We want to be able to back up our teams and back up our employees. So I think it's really that user experience.

[00:21:58] Sami Bedell Mulhern: What are the emails they're [00:22:00] getting in as part of their onboarding? What does it look like? What does it feel like really understanding? That whole process from start to finish is, is important. And then I think it's data tracking, right? How many people are we closing? Why what's the, what's, what's the pain point there.

[00:22:17] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So if we're not closing as many people, is it the, the experience and then continuing to move through that all the way to how long are we retaining our customers? Is it, and when they're leaving us, what is it? Is it the experience? Is it the product? Is it the so I think you just have to stay on top of that all the time.

[00:22:36] Sami Bedell Mulhern: And the digital space definitely allows you to do that. We can do a lot of that tracking with website analytics as well to see where people are converting, where people are falling off I just think, unfortunately, with as in tune as we are on community and doing business with people we like it just makes the process a lot more.

[00:22:56] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Personal even in the digital space, and we have to pay attention to all of those numbers, [00:23:00] which kind of contradicts personal, but you know what I'm saying?

[00:23:03] Harry: Yeah, I do. 100%. I mean, it's it. There's numbers, but there's people, right? You can't just look at the numbers. You got to eventually look, you got to look somewhere what the numbers mean, which is the people behind it.

[00:23:14] Harry: So completely understand. You raised a question or a thought and it had to do with the amount of content that your clients are receiving. So this is all over the map, right? Where some people are sending out stuff, in my opinion, way too frequently. And it makes me want to block the sender with email, follow up, marketing, newsletters.

[00:23:46] Harry: It seems like there's just way too much. And then others will say, well. You want to be everywhere. You want to be top of mind. So the more people see you, the better it is for you. So what's your thought on the [00:24:00] balance here?

[00:24:01] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So, you know, the traditional marketing answer is you got to test it and see what your audience likes and what they don't like.

[00:24:07] Sami Bedell Mulhern: But what I will say is I think it's, again, the way that these email and these outreach points come across is going to share with that person how they're going to be treated in the future. So, if you're sending spammy emails, they're like, oh, I can get you 100, 000 in the next 6 weeks, like, let's chat.

[00:24:25] Sami Bedell Mulhern: You know, some people might like that. Most people are probably not gonna, gonna be excited about that. There's a lot of tactics that are out there with subject lines saying, like, you know, RE, semicolon, people are getting used to all of these kind of sales emails that are going out. I think for me, my advice to people is always to take it just back to basics and, and be a human.

[00:24:46] Sami Bedell Mulhern: We don't need to trick people into doing business with us. I think if we can just be real and be human and the people that take that extra step to put per actual personal things in emails is great. It takes more [00:25:00] time, but you people can tell the difference and you're much more likely to have. And to start and have a conversation as far as how often, I mean, there's people that send emails daily and I agree with you.

[00:25:12] Sami Bedell Mulhern: I think it's a little bit overkill. I think that's going to depend on the size of your list. The size of your audience. Obviously, if you have an audience of like 100, 000 people sending daily emails is probably not as, cumbersome or not cumbersome, but not as aggressive as if you only have a list of 100 people, if you're sending 100 people an email every single day, right?

[00:25:32] Sami Bedell Mulhern: They're going to feel it a lot more because. They're probably seeing it much more percentage wise than the 100, 000 people on that list. So you're playing a numbers game. So I would think about just your sales funnel. How many conversations do I need to have in order to hit my goal? And think about then, okay, well, I'm going to, you know, maybe your process is a phone call and an email and a letter, whatever that might be.

[00:25:54] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So just think about how many of those conversations you need to have and start testing how many [00:26:00] times you reach out to them before they convert, because it's, it's going to be a little bit different for each person. That was a very long winded answer, but. No,

[00:26:07] Harry: it's yeah. I mean, it's, there's no, you're telling me that you've got to kind of know what each situation might be, is that if you got to know your clients, number one, you got to know, you learn, right.

[00:26:21] Harry: You see how many people are unsubscribing. That might be a clue. Yeah, so I just, I think knowing people and just trying, I think, you know, the balance is. Are you providing value or are you just turning into spam? You know, and it's just, right,

[00:26:36] Sami Bedell Mulhern: that's. Well, I think it depends on the price point of your product too.

[00:26:40] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah. Oh yeah. Retail can, retail can send you an email every day with a new special or offer. That's different if you're selling it. 20, 000 coaching program and you're emailing me daily. Like that's a, that's a lot. Have

[00:26:53] Harry: you read my emails I'm just kidding. I have not flooded Sammy with emails, but yes.

[00:26:59] Harry: Yeah. Good [00:27:00] point. Cool. What's what else is top of mind for you on this topic? What am I missing here, Sammy?

[00:27:06] Sami Bedell Mulhern: I mean, I would just say that we want to be like clear and simple with the way that we talk, especially in the digital space. So when you're sending emails or you're working on your website copy, don't use a ton of jargon.

[00:27:20] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Speak from the speak in the way that your customers speak. Remember that they don't live and breathe what you do all day. They don't know exactly. All of the ins and outs. And so right as if, you know, there's somebody that's kind of newer in the space. Now, again, that's going to be different depending on kind of where you're who your target audience is, but really pay attention to who your target audience is and write to that specific person because we want to make sure that they can consume our content quickly.

[00:27:47] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Cause we're scrolling, we're getting tons of stuff. So if I get an email and you open it, or if I send an email and you open it, I want you to be. Be able to, like, get the gist of it and make a decision within seconds. So, try not to make it [00:28:00] too long. Try not to make it too jargony. Don't use jargon. Try not to make it too hard to read.

[00:28:06] Sami Bedell Mulhern: We always say in the in this case, we're usually writing at a 4th and 5th grade level. Not because people are at a fourth or fifth grade level, but because they, they're getting so many messages, we want them to take in everything we're doing as quickly as possible.

[00:28:20] Harry: Yeah, I'm not offended, but yes, I like to speak in the third, third grade level.

[00:28:23] Harry: So, I hate it when people use big words as multiple syllables. It's just, I'm just kidding. It's too much.

[00:28:31] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah. Well, and, and acronyms. We, you know, we think that people always know what all the acronyms are because they're, you're used to them. I'm. Got slapped my hand slapped several times for always saying SEO.

[00:28:40] Sami Bedell Mulhern: I'm like, well, everybody knows what SEO is. People don't know what SEO is. So, you know, we have to remember that we need to speak to the problem that they have or that they perceive they have not to the solution. Always. We, you know, we want to start with they have this problem. We know we have the solution, but we want to make [00:29:00] sure that they understand it.

[00:29:01] Sami Bedell Mulhern: That we know that they're in pain.

[00:29:03] Harry: Yeah, it's great. And all right. I love it. And in fact, I picked up earlier when you said SAS and then you clarified what Oh, I know. I'm sorry. I did that. No, no, it's great. I mean, it's a proof and action right there. All right. This is super helpful. I've got one last question here.

[00:29:20] Harry: I'm just curious about the length. You said these emails short, you know, fourth or fifth grader, have you ever gotten these emails that are like. Like nine miles long. I don't know if I'm exaggerating, but the scroll and scroll, and it seems like they want to hit every topic. And I think the philosophy is the more that's in here and the longer you read there's a chance that you're going to do business with me.

[00:29:42] Harry: Is that still a current thought process?

[00:29:45] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So, look, there's different types of emails, right? So if I'm sending out cold emails to a list of potential clients, and it's coming from me, and it's a one on one kind of situation, short and sweet to the point my weekly newsletter that [00:30:00] goes out is fairly long.

[00:30:02] Sami Bedell Mulhern: It does have quite a few different things in it, from my podcast to my blog to, like, it always starts with a little personal letter from me. The bottom has like all of my free workshops that I have, but it's but there's no real sales happening in there. It's just a weekly touch point to say, Hey, here's some stuff that might be helpful to you and your organization to stay top of mind, all of that good stuff.

[00:30:20] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So I think it depends on the purpose of what that email is for. You know, and at some point you might have emails that are very long to potential customers because of the nature of your business. You may have, once you've gotten a certain way down the funnel, there is more important or technical information.

[00:30:36] Sami Bedell Mulhern: I've seen a lot of people do fun things where, some company was running a contest where if you found the little crowns that they hit, in all of their emails for the month, they were giving away like a MacBook pro or something crazy. So you just had to submit that you found all 4 and where they were.

[00:30:52] Sami Bedell Mulhern: So if you have longer emails, there's people that do kind of fun things like that. I know of companies that put typos intentionally into their longer [00:31:00] emails because they find that that triggers a response from some people that wouldn't respond. Otherwise. So I, I would just take it back to what is the purpose of the email that you're sending and making kind of targeting that goal.

[00:31:11] Harry: That makes perfect sense. So there's a lot of, it depends on the situation, but testing and so forth. But these are all really good answers. And there's really, I mean, you got to look at each situation. That's why having an expert, a strategist like Sammy Bedell Mulhern on, in your corner is super helpful.

[00:31:33] Harry: So Sammy, where can people find more of you? And thank you so much for all of the insight you provided today.

[00:31:40] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Yeah we're at thefirstclick. net. That's where you can find all of our information, including how to find our podcast, which Harry, you were a guest on as well. So that was fun. But we, yeah, you can find us there or on LinkedIn, Sammy Bedell Mulhern, that's where I'm most [00:32:00] active and always happy to have a conversation.

[00:32:02] Sami Bedell Mulhern: Awesome.

[00:32:02] Harry: Yes. Follow her connect. Good things will happen. She's a brilliant young lady and lots of insight here. Super valuable today. So thank you so much for joining us and we will see you around the corner. Talk to you soon, Sammy. Thanks for having me.

[00:32:18] Thank you for listening to Sales Made Easy. If you found value in our conversations, please subscribe and leave a review. Our goal is to provide practical strategies for growing your business while staying true to your values. Remember, six. Success in sales is about serving your clients. Serve first and the selling will follow.

[00:32:40] We'll be back soon with more insights and inspiration. Until then, keep serving and providing value