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What keeps you up at night? Do you ever wake with your heart racing, thinking about that big presentation, that customer meeting, or hitting your sales or marketing targets? It’s not a great feeling – you feel like they’re gonna eat you alive.

Give this great tune by Metric a listen as we read on and see what the experts are saying this week:

May HubSpot Data

It’s time for our usual recap of the HubSpot Benchmark Data, updated with May’s statistics:

  • Deals Created in May dropped from 27% to 16% over benchmark,
  • But Deals Closed stayed the same as April – 8% over.
  • Sales Emails Sent hit 100% over benchmark!
  • Sales Calls were 81% over benchmark – the highest yet!
  • Contact Growth was 15% over – the lowest since January this year…
  • Sales Conversations increased 24% (also highest since this all started).

So what does the updated data tell us? Two things: ACTIVITY levels are definitely high – sales emails, sales calls and sales conversations increased significantly. But the RESULTS weren’t stellar. Conversions were low, contact growth was abysmal, and deals created and closed decreased.

Could this simply be the usual May results? Not if we look back at May 2020. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here, but let’s see how June looks and if any trends appear. One thing I DO know – as sales and marketing leaders, it feels like May was a bit of a ‘stumble’ – can you hear my heart beating like a hammer? The pressure is on in June!

The Music Biz in the Internet Age

Have you seen the episode of HBO’s Generation Hustle on scam rap? Teejayx6 can’t rap on the beat, his music is terrible, and yet he scams his way into a big deal with Atlantic Records. Why? Because of the data!

Back in the day, record labels would work to develop talent. They would find talented people, nurture, record and promote them. Lather, rinse, repeat until the act either broke through or didn’t and was dropped. But, as we know, that’s not the way things work today!

According to Bob Lefsetz, in today’s world of streaming music, the song itself is irrelevant… it’s all about the DATA! The business changed twenty years ago, with the advent of the internet. Suddenly, all talent was available to all people. You couldn’t find someone no one else was aware of. Then it became about signing talent, rather than nurturing it. It became about the best deal, the enthusiasm. And now the actual music is irrelevant!

Social media is the name of the game now – if you get some traction on TikTok or Instagram, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got other places for people to spend their time. Send them to YouTube, where you’ve posted the full song. And once again, it’s all about the runaway data train – the song itself is irrelevant. Record companies don’t care what they release, just as long as it makes money.

How does this impact B2B? Getting traction on social channels is important – so is building an audience. Converting that into business is the trick – it can be the difference between getting wherever you’re going and getting whatever you need!

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