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For many, this weekend marked the end of summer. This magical switch is flipped in our collective consciousness, and we immediately return to business mode, right? For years I’ve tried to condition my clients to keep pushing their sales and marketing efforts throughout the summer, yet every year we hit September and it’s the mad rush to get things back up and running! Maybe that’s just part of being human

Give this song by the Killers a listen with me as we see what the experts are saying this week.

Humanizing Lead Gen

Almost every step of the sales funnel can be automated to a certain degree, from adding prospects to the funnel, through a closed deal. But according to Heinz Marketing, this lack of human connection can be harmful, especially in the B2B landscape. Although we’ve seen an increase in lead gen efforts, we’re also seeing a decrease in personalization efforts, with some thinking that it is not necessary at all.

I’ve seen it with my clients. They always did the best they could with automated processes, spending countless resource hours building ‘sequences’ for sales outreach, but ignoring the human touch points. In B2B – and especially in a complex sale – you can’t ignore the importance of a bi-directional conversation with a prospect. Keeping the human connection alive is a fundamental part of the buyer’s journey, and both digital and human interactions need to be integrated in the overall process.

Humanizing Musical Education

You may know that I helped to bring the ‘School of Rock’ business to Canada years ago. I’ve always been a strong believer in music as a tool for education and therapy – and at any age. Music can bring people together, build community, and improve mental health.

Today outlines some steps for raising a musical kid. I would take these same tenets and apply them to people of ALL ages – including co-workers!

  1. Start early
  2. Add music to routines
  3. Make it playful
  4. Share the experience
  5. Give life a soundtrack
  6. Get creative
  7. Find the right kind of lessons

How does this impact B2B? I’ve seen the power of music when used at the corporate level, helping to build employee engagement, etc… and it can make for a fun weekly newsletter!

Try it yourself! See how you can leverage music at work and what kind of results you can get. You’ve gotta let me know how it goes!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat