DVMs, RMs, Presidents, and Sales Support Colleagues:
Spiderman and Matrix are about to be released in theatres.
The New England Patriots are the #1 seed in the AFC.
Maybe I’ll bust out the old Nintendo and complete the nostalgia high.
UpUpDownDownLeftRightLeftRi… .. .
First Time Readers - CLICK HERE!
66% read-thru rate last week. We have a new season 1 champion.
Fast takeaways — issue 9 review:
“Holiday help” NO. “Flexible around the holidays” YES.
“WORK FROM HOME!” NO. “Openings in Liberty Lake” YES.
“Apply now” NO. “First come first serve” YES.
“Success! We have reserved your spot!” YES.
Low-converting verbiage is death by a thousand papercuts.
But at least with papercuts — you know you’re bleeding.
New IG phrase: just in time for WBW
Magally Cepeda and Hailey Baldwin are investigating cold message recruiting on Instagram. The #1 question they’ve been asking:
How do we get LESS people ignoring us and MORE people into conversations?
Summer 2021 saw all-time conversation rate lows. Obviously ‘twas more than verbiage.
But their efforts have led to something interesting. 👏
Direct message previews
If your notifications are on, your iPhone will preview direct messages.
It looks like this:
[AOL voice] You’ve got mail!
Not another Matrix reference. She used number sets to count characters.
On Magally’s phone (above), the first 57 characters are visible.
Want your DM to get read? Those 57 better be good.
Better previews = better read-thru rates
In an uphill recruiting environment, every detail counts. DM previews aren’t created equal.
How can we inspire (benign) interruption?
Aka, stop what you’re doing. And pay attention to ME ME ME for a moment.
Such is the silver bullet of every smart marketer.
M&H have tested a variety of different openers:
Traditional: “Hey NAME…” “I know this is random…” “Hope you’re having a good week so far…” — the usual
Audio messages: awesome tool. But ignored as the initial reach out due to lame, uninspiring previews
Compliments: “I just started following you” — great for pre-message relationship building. More coming in Jumpstart. 👍
But a little creativity yielded (what-appears-to-be) a win.
Curiosity gets the message read
The human brain needs closure. It’s like a drug. And so:
Interruption marketing at its finest.
“Quick question. I want to get your thoughts on something that might interest you.” Followed by the rest of your message.
(The climactic question, of course: ‘know anyone looking for winter break work?’)
Not hard to understand why the teaser preview works.
Think about mailers. Thousands-upon-thousands of dollars have gone into testing just envelope presentation. The goal is to get the letter opened and read.
Same idea here.
Consider implementing ASAP
I recommend for all cold messages. Haven’t tried this with SMRAs yet. But if their convo % is poor (you’re counting this, right?) — maybe add.
Even if it only nets a 10% lift. Doesn’t sound thrilling. But scale it.
Ten extra people engaging per thousand messages. Zero extra work.
Thus proving WAYWO readers work smarter, not harder.
[pops cork on sparkly apple-juice]
Does your program feel stale?
If you want the rest of our messaging funnel (including our follow-up audios), email Magally: mmarchena@cutco.com. Or text me — 509-202-3387.
Audios are human. And invisible to ai scans.
We’re dealing with small numbers. So not 1000% ready to publish authoritatively (“this is THE way!”) — hopefully by Jumpstart season.
But if your program is garnering less attention than a moth at a fireworks festival? Inject change.
Social messaging still works.
Do-it-yourself. Hire Schneider to do-it-for-you. But let’s git er done.
AUTHOR: Mike Monroe, Fred Glaeser,
ESTIMATED READ TIME: 12 minutes. I’m sorry. But trust me.
TL;DR: TikToks & IG story-links require seamless transfer to maximize profit
Replies to last issue’s WAYWO — regarding Google sites — had a common theme:
I know corporate has links and landing pages, but I hesitate to give up control of how these applications are handled.
This makes sense to me. Honest. And well said. Thank you, friends.
A valuable skill-for-life
Deep within our company ethos lies an ability/desire/belief to control our results.
It vastly serves us to think this way. Otherwise?
We’d be blaming customers, territories, and Thomas Lamb (for some reason).
As a sales support guy (Monroe writing this) — I think the same way.
I have this bullish belief that —from some creative session, Jeff Kunkel conversation, or 3am-wakeup-and-can’t-turn-off-brain— a silver bullet will emerge.
That feeling of alpha-confidence, despite being illusionary, is exhilarating. It keeps us enthusiastically entrenched in (relatively mundane) Google Docs.
Working ON the business. Building systems. Seeking wins.
Control is an intoxicating motivator.
Does too much control have a downside?
With everybody pissed off over politics, identities, vaccinations, and Josh Allen’s lack of fantasy points — I’ve started asking myself a more Earl Kelly-esque question:
What’s the best argument for the opposite of what I currently believe?
For example: what would be the best argument that using Google docs on social media (and scheduling those touches ourselves) actually hurt us?
What would have to be true to say: “can’t someone else do it?”
Four possible arguments
My focus here is strictly social media. Not PRs.
Let’s explore how Google docs could be hurting our social recruiting.
-1- Feelings aren’t facts. What if the system of [IG+Gform+me] caused worse results than [send-and-forget]?
It doesn’t feel like this is true. The sheer act of front-end manager involvement creates skin-in-the-game. Engagement and focus. I get that. But what if?
Outside of “this is what the top people do,” has either side proved superior efficiency? And even if someone did — PSH! When has DATA ever won an argument?!?
(Vaxxers and anti-vaxxers nod simultaneously.)
-2- Google forms expose us. Covered extensively last issue. Moving along.
-3- Control is an early stage infatuation. Pick the profession. As experience increases, detail-fascination often decreases. This is normal. Often times positive.
The entrepreneurial brain goes from tactical to strategic. Small picture to big. Skill compensates. However…
The danger occurs when high-level leaders don’t interrogate reality. Don’t evolve with marketplace trends. Or stay anchored in limiting, family-of-origin habits.
That probably sounded more preachy than I wanted it to.
So humble confession. In a glorious act of self-sabotage, I’ve done all three.
Some are more obvious than others. But all are injurious.
-4- Opportunity cost. The best or worst argument, depending on your perspective.
We can’t be good at everything.
Resources in one area means sacrifice in another area.
Every hour spent scheduling is one less on performance.
Every dollar spent on schedulers is one less on messaging.
If you want to observe a leader’s belief system, look at their office calendar.
It’s possible that —for many SMRA programs this summer— we over-scheduled and under-managed.
Curveball: transferring out-of-areas
Perhaps the best opportunity cost argument? Income loss.
Google forms fail to maximize profit.
For example, my AM uses TikTok to send people to my Google form. We collect 2,000 leads from all over the nation (as one DVM reading this did)…
I have the following options:
Schedule my locals, send the rest to TTS.
This assumes I collected locations — if I did not, then what?
This also assumes applicants delineated location properly. Not all do.
Profit lost: conversion decreases with slow reach-out; hot leads “melt.”
Contact everyone and schedule them for the appropriate office.
This is completely impractical. I think. Right?
If you are somehow accomplishing this, please teach me how.
Profit lost: paying people for non-localized, low-revenue schedules.
Recruit them all, worry about locality after launch.
This results in rep transfers. Which can result in death when reps are unwillingly moved to a new office. (“I want to work with you, Mike!”)
Option B: do something against company policy.
Profit lost: transfer costs, reduction of overrides, and/or loss of management opportunity.
My pre-marital mentor used this analogy when describing how affairs happen: “Mike, if you don’t want to drive over the edge, don’t park near the cliff.”
My interpretation: avoid habits that create compromising positions.
I asked for a report on commissions earned for automatic out-of-area transfers:
This is the top 20 for all of 2021. PRs? Social? Both? Dunno.
All regions were represented, albeit disproportionately.
Seeing as how this was a $$$ report (rather than CPO), I vacillated between publishing names or not. I opted for naught.
Though I did read them aloud at my dinner table. And now my children have “passive income” at the top of their Santa lists. And dad does too.
Nice PPR. How do we interpret that?
My questions for us as a team:
People who AREN’T making $2K+ passive transfer income — why? Because they aren’t generating leads? Or because they’re systematically wasting them?
Are these outliers? Or, in a virtual world with global social platforms, should we be expecting more from ourselves?
What am I missing? What is the foot-in-mouth, obvious thing that I’m screwing-up here?
I’d love your thoughts. Because I don’t know the answers.
But all that to say: a good system maximizes profit while balancing resources.
And I’m just not seeing how Google forms do that.
Concession: what I DO love about Google forms
They explain the position.
If someone lands knowing nothing, the form equips them.
WorkForStudents.com requires knowing something when you arrive. Perfect for campus, mailers, etc where applicants get offline info.
But rapid-fire social content —TT, IG story, Snap blast— applicants need details.
Company guy, coming in hot
Hey y’all! Ya consider using Get Student Work (GSW) sites…? [slaps knee]
Hear me out. Nothing in it for me. But maybe for you.
GSW sites accomplish the following:
Provide more information (like a Google form)
Send applicants to the text center, for immediate scheduling
Are cousins of high-converting forms (the PR pages)
I say “cousins” because we haven’t spent the $ame dollar$ te$ting these as our higher-traffic sites. They don’t get enough usage for statistical significance. Yet.
IMPORTANT: do NOT simply go to: GetStudentWork.com (!!) That simply mirrors WorkForStudents.com. You have to put extra verbiage in the URL.
(Known in the industry as a ‘slug.’ Eww.) 🐌
Here’s the URL formula….
www.getstudentwork.com/####__
Where #### is your office number. And __ is a two-letter, lowercase code:
id — Influencer Driven (for SMRAs)
ln — Linkedin
sc, Snapchat & ig, Instagram — same form, sourced differently in Vlive
So “getstudentwork.com/2099id” will get you Kate Vasey’s influencer form. Which her SMRA team could use, for instance, as links-in-stories.
(Mimi covered how to do that in a previous issue).
These forms ask for zip code later in the form.
All applicants outside-50-miles-radius get transferred.
And 5% goes to the manager whose #### appeared in the slug.
“How do we connect launches to messengers?”
For NOW? It takes some detective work. Step 1 is auditing your launch log. Noticing the above source. Then working backwards.
Fred (& team) is currently working on:
SMRA VectorLive accounts — no videos, no need to launch as reps
The SMRA to be mentioned in the commission statement
Ie, Mike Monroe sales rep overrides $50 — referred by SMRA Magally Cepeda
Google form applicants don’t always fill out “who referred you?” either.
It’s likely more tracking mechanisms are necessary for GSW to be the ultimate social media solution. Let’s work together and figure it out.
Social media has no territories. Seamless transfer gets the bag. 💰
For now, consider switching to GSW IF…
Your lead-transfer system isn’t yielding passive income.
You have experienced a red-screen-of-death.
You have multiple domain forwards: different URLs, different sources.
Your scheduling efforts are slow. Gentle reminder — text center responds to new leads in 5-minutes or less, 24/7-365. 366 days on leap years. 🤯
Your scheduling system isn’t dialed in, division-wide. And the effort is consuming resources better spent elsewhere.
💸 Takeaway:
Self audit: in regards to social media Google forms — what do you believe? And why do you believe it?
I’m a control freak, too. Self-awareness is step 1.
At least that’s what my therapist says. LOL
This above chart was life-changing in the VDS department.
AUTHOR: Susie Paine
ESTIMATED READ TIME: 3 minutes
TL;DR: New Google layout makes reviews even MORE important.
Google is now showing reviews for pages in the search results:
It used to be — you’d have to click on a business profile.
And then click “reviews” to see reviews. Two clicks.
But now? When you search for a Vector Marketing location, it pulls up 3 random reviews to show in the front-page of search results.
This office: loving the new search layout!
This office: NOT loving new search layout
This could help improve, local brand, reputation, and interview show %.
Or it could hurt an office if they aren’t asking for new reviews (54 sec video).
Prompts for writing great reviews
Here are some brainstorming prompts for review givers:
How long have you worked for Vector?
What do/did you enjoy MOST about working here?
What do you think of the team?
What did you learn / how are you growing by working here?
What feedback do you have for ME/district manager (by name)?
Some examples:
Name dropping = building the company, building you.
Yes, I go through and leave reviews on random pages almost every week. 😊
I write similar things in most reviews, but written in different ways. I don’t leave reviews back-to-back or do multiple offices. I want to avoid ghosting.
Most I’ve done is 3 back to back. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Just has to be done.
💸 Takeaway:
Fresh, systematic Google reviews have been important forever.
And now they’re even more important than they were 2 months ago.
Polish up your Google reviews by March 1st. Contact spaine@cutco.com for help.
READ MORE STUFF:
How to stabilize your income when working for yourself. I caught a thread in BM/DM on the draw program. I would add everything in this article.
CLSK - Amir Habash on finding your edge. Drops a nugget at 28:42 on working with incredibly talented people who are… under-performing. Awesome coaching line.
Being true to yourself in a world full of frauds. Ayo is the Dan Campbell of TVI writers. He could get me to run thru a wall, no matter what the scoreboard says.
WEB PDI Updates. Yes yes yes! Courtesy of Stephen Rhyne and Fred G.
Special shout-out to all DVMs who poured energy and effort into providing feedback.
W5. We Win When We Work-together. Collaboration is a cultural advantage.
💸 Takeaway:
It’s all about motivation. And his name is Marshall. 🐾
Leaving the last word of season 1 to my friend, Wes:
“I think hope and belief that the future will be better than the present gives us more incentive to double down on our businesses. We want to be in a great position to take advantage of upcoming innovation.”
I… yes. YES. So much yes. To whatever degree this is possible?
It gets me really excited for a season 2.
Thank you, my friends. Season 1 recap coming next week.
Always, please — PYITS.
Mike Monroe
Digital Strategy Manager
Questions about this post? Want to go deeper? Please reach out to the appropriate sales support author. Or Mike Monroe (mmonroe@cutco.com) to direct you.
© 2021 Vector Marketing Corporation Unsubscribe
1116 East State Street; Olean NY 14760