5 factors to consider taking decision on an enterprise backup and recovery solution

Human failure, human error, software corruption, theft, computer viruses and hardware destruction are the primary cause for the data loss. In order to safeguard your data you need to have a disaster recovery plan for your environment. A major part of that disaster recovery plan is protecting your data. A good backup  is much more than mere data protection: Backup must manage data, not just protect it.

Servers, systems, and data are the lifeblood of your business. There are often hundreds of servers or sub-components that can fail, and many ways that both environmental and human factors can trigger such failures.  It is impossible to predict in which manner the next failure might occur.  However, it can be surprisingly straightforward to implement appropriate protections that will limit the occurrences and the impact of the inevitable failures.

Some of the statistics are as follows:

• The consequences of data loss are dire; here is a sampling of just a few statistics related to the impact of data loss on business:
• 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster, filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster(National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
• 77% of those companies who do test their tape backups found backup failures. (Boston Computing Network, Data Loss Statistics)
• 50% of all tape backups fail to restore. (Gartner)
• 25% of all PC users suffer from data loss each year (Gartner)

Here are some of the insights for you to review the backup and recovery solutions.

1. Anatomy of a backup solution

The first thing that’s needed to make sure backups are completed is an integrated management and monitoring system designed with a simple, single-pane of glass dashboard so that you can tell the status of your backups and your vaulting (disaster recovery) operations at a glance.  Operating systems and applications must be integrated with the solution. Bare-metal recovery, disasters, and compliance must be considered. The top three areas with respect to data protection that cause the most wasted time include making sure that all backups are completed, squeezing out that last bit of performance and dealing with the agile data center.

2. Importance of RPO & RTO

RPO (The amount of work that can be lost and will need to be redone in the event of data loss) and RTO (The amount of time it will take before employees can start working after a data loss event). One thing that many people take for granted is the fact that your RPO and RTO should be measured against all of your IT assets (such as laptops, workstations, etc) distributed throughout your company– not just those within your data center.  It’s wonderful to talk about lowering your RPO and RTO, but if you haven’t included all of the IT assets, then you’re just kidding yourself in terms of what your overall protection levels are.

3. Power of BareMetal Recovery

Disk-to-disk backup systems with “bare metal” capability provide much faster backups and reduce the backup time window enough that all critical information can be protected. Bare metal technology takes a full snapshot of the operating system and all applications and allows them to be fully restored to a new, “bare metal” server in a matter of one or two hours, instead of several days.

More sophisticated systems provide this bare metal capability across multiple operating systems, so organizations that are running Windows, Linux, and other OS’s can continue to use a single, integrated backup solution. Regardless of the operating environment, it’s critical to remember that everything needs protection—not just user data.

 

4. Instant Recovery

A more recent advance in data protection is virtualization failover, which is more often termed by a derivation of the term “instant recovery.” There are two forms of virtualization failover: on-host and off-host virtualization failover. In on-host virtualization failover, a backup is executed as a virtual machine entirely using the resources associated with the server and storage upon which the backup software executes. Off-host virtualization failover is similar, except the backup is executed as a virtual machine using primarily the resources of a second server (not the server upon which the backup software executes.)

Most vendors support off-host virtualization failover; few vendors support on-host virtualization failover – Unitrends is the only company currently supporting both

5. Recovery testing and assurance

77% of those companies who do test their tape backups found backup failures (Boston Computing Network, Data Loss Statistics).The basic concept recovery assurance is about the continuous verification of RPO and RTO for crucial system, applications and business services. Just like backup alone is worthless without the ability to recover data, disaster recover (DR) implementations are marginalized without the ability to guarantee, or assure, that DR will take place successfully when needed. Combining backup, recovery and replication with disaster recovery assurance ensure end-to-end data protection and compliance at significantly lower cost than existing approaches.

In the case of DR – it is also worthless unless you absolutely – positively know that you can recover from a disaster – within the SLAs you have established. Disaster recovery assurance provides IT execs with 100% ironclad assurance recovery will occur within stated RPOs and RTO

Top 10 reasons for decision makers to recommend Network Infrastructure Security management (NISM) Solution

Network Infrastucture Security Management solutions (NISM) can continuously provide network vizualisation and identify critical attack risks and non compliance in the complex security infrastructure. It provides security, risk and network teams with a firm understanding of where security is working, where investment is needed and where the greatest cyber attack lies.

Knowing the network, knowing the assets, knowing the security, mapping the topology, prioritize and fixing, continuous monitoring, change management and workflow build are the steps companies must take to provide an adequate network security.

Here are some useful top of mind recall areas for decision makers to go for NISM solution.

1. Visualize the network infrastructure

A. Shows network access and vulnerability paths, determine connectivity, view device details and evaluate any path
B. Visibility solves problems and can prevent thousands of cyber threats.

2. Control

A. Prioritize the vulnerabilities. The bank has say 100,000 vulnerabilities; this system will prioritize to say 100 or 200 for your attention. Over a period this exercise will optimize the security posture.
B. Highlight issues on your network path, quickly spot trouble areas and drill down to identify specific issues
C. Ensure all the access controls are correctly configured

3. Prevent

A. Proactively prevent next attack
B. Integrates knowledge of your own network, evaluates all paths to and from your critical data so you can prevent attacks and significantly reduce risk to your business.

4. Compliance

A. Solution gives you information regarding network security standards and implementations so that you can verify you are in compliance.
B. You can prove that your network follows applicable regulations and maintains those standards at all times during the time period in question.

5. Security is about systems
A. Help you to understand the interaction between the devices
B. It’s not enough to understand each element in isolation; what’s important is how these elements work together as one system.

6. Network complexities exceeds human ability to analyses

A. You need automation to properly assess the complex and quick-moving changes in your network, because you can’t handle it otherwise
B. Attackers use automation to find the holes, so you must need an automation tool as response
C. Even a 1-percent error rate in your security implementation can lead to problems affecting hundreds of changes, so using automation helps you pick out the errors and make your fixes as soon as possible.
D. Multiple points of access mean multiple opportunities for threats. You can use automation to close these holes.

7. Inconsistent IT implementations

A. Ensuring each and every access point uses the most effective and appropriate rules and regulations.
B. Even a large and attentive IT team can face an overwhelming challenge in trying to identify all security needs and provide a good remedy for each problem

8. Automation

A. No matter how many security people you have (or how skilled they are), your network security plans must include automation. Automation is simply better and faster at testing than humans can ever be.

9. Testing

A. NISM solutions can typically run over 100 basic tests for each device. Such tests include testing for whether the vendor-supplier default password is in use, whether insecure management protocols or services are enabled, and similar industry-wide best practice checks. These tests are oriented towards individual devices.
B. System test tells how the system works under the normal condition as well as when fault occurs and will verify connectivity between network zones, such as DMZ or cardholder data

10. Metrics

A. With the meaningful metrics with trending data, you can have meaningful discussions about attack risk with senior management in your organization
B. Metrics will be able to answer questions including: Where is security working, and where is additional investment needed? Where are the security holes? Are we as compliant today as we were when we passed the audit? How does our security posture compare to a month ago? A year ago?

3 ways to use influencers better in the sales management process

Role of influencers in the sales process can be categorized from people who understand the solutions and they will influence the decision maker to implement solution / product. Another influencers set would only be act upon if the top management instruct them so and there are people who focuses aspects like brand, sales person, price, legacy etc. to take a decision. The initial mapping of the sales influencers with respect your portfolio is important in any sales process.
I am trying to plot some thoughts on How to utilize the influencers in a more productive manner which can reduce the sales cycle time and results in repeat business

1. Empowering with the solution / product
As sales people we have knowledge on the industry we serve. Any product / solution has minimum 50 features, attributes and benefits to talk about. We will prioritize the critical information and will communicate same message to the influencer and the decision maker. Usually we will be able to render only the important points to the decision maker but each and every product information can be communicated to influencer without fail and the strategic importance of the each can be narrated as he will have enough time to hear this from you compared to the decision maker.
Certain features which were overlooked by the sales would strike him and he will take up those points to the decision maker during their internal decision making meeting. This will also give us an edge against the competition. In short the product / solution, its implications, case studies, awards and other relevant information should be well presented to the influencer as this will helps in positioning yourself better and influencer is loaded with information to act as a positive influencer for your package.

2. Enhancing industry knowledge
Every employee would be curious to know about the major event happening in the competition especially what his counterpart does. This is a very tricky exercise as we are not supposed to reveal about other customers of ours with the outside world. During the first meeting we shall make sure to give the important players that we work alone, but from then try not to mention any competition in the further discussion. When talking about best practices, you can mention the word ‘ industry’.
Updated industry knowledge is the biggest armor any salesperson can use during the sales pitch. Current trends, the forecasted industry shape, updates in the industry review articles are to be shared to the influencers. Hence he will consider you as a knowledge resource center, a strategic position created in his mind about the sales person which is a differentiator compared to your competitors.

3. Endorse
Every employee would love to hear ‘good’, communicated to his manager. There are instances like defining the scope, where the inputs given by the influencer can be mentioned during the meeting. While communicating through the mail, mentioning the influencer in the right context will work and influencers should get the feeling that he gets his share of credit.
During the wrapping up of the sales process, which would be signing off presentation or an email, a brief note on the influencer’s contribution on identifying challenges and the solution needs to be stated. This will help him in his KPI’s and also an excellent tool to get into his good book.

Four tips to handle gatekeepers to reach the decision maker

Sales people should be essentially the agents of charity. Charity means charity of empowering the customers with the right information and insight over the solution. In our journey for meeting decision makers (DM), gatekeepers are the people who the first contacts are prior reaching DM.
Gatekeepers are mostly viewed as the problem creators in any sales process. Satisfying their egos, convincing them to connect, matching their moods and creating impressions are major issue associated with. Here are four ideas that have helped me to get through many gatekeepers to present my points to decision makers as the first step.
1. Sharing the objective
In most of the cases the sales people approach gatekeepers as a problem child. In fact convincing a gatekeeper to reach the decision maker involves a sales process. One of the strategies which worked with me is to being straight with them introducing who you are, the reason to meet up with the decision maker and briefing about the company. This will help you in positioning with the customer.
2. Tone
“ Its not what you say but How you say it.” An authoritative tone will mostly work with gatekeepers as the tone should reflect such that the person calling has an authority, possessing a passion on the subject and mirroring an image as if he has every right to speak to the decision maker. Elements of the tones like voice projection, pitch, definitive statement and pacing the words will play huge role in converting the gatekeeper to pass the call. Right tone will arose the interest to engage the gatekeeper and they starts listening to you thinking you as a senior person.
3. Conveying the value proposition
It is highly recommended to convey the value proposition along with the objective of the meeting. The value proposition could be the factors like cost saving, reducing the turnaround time, citing an example of how you have helped the competition to gain productivity, saving bottom line, focusing on the value added activities and so on. Many times gatekeeper connects you in this scenario as they would love to see their company thriving in the market and smiling face of their boss. Using of the right adjectives and the management jargon in the communication would support your efforts.
4. Drawing cues
Having set your tone, established your objectives, value proposition in place and the gatekeeper didn’t turn up as you expect. What is the next step?
Cues! Sales person should ensure that he is probing gatekeeper to fetch more information on the decision makers. The questioning techniques has to build in such a way that you are getting the information on the recently implemented solutions and the challenges solved, pitch using references of decision maker from other verticals whom you have already networked with, timing of the office etc.
Cues will helps you with reasons to get back to the person again. Also try making tele calls in the early part of the day or the late part of the work time as this the essential time (where the gatekeepers who would not have joined/ left by that time) to circumvent gatekeepers.

99 CAN DO’s of Microsoft SharePoint

99 CAN DOs of SharePoint

Vision of a SharePoint Implementation Decision maker

“We wanted one work-force platform to pull our global company closer together, enable complex collaboration, automate business processes, provide BI, and facilitate innovation,”

Nancy Blankenship, Vice President of IT at First Data.

Value Proposition to organizations

Organize, Discover, Build & Manage

SharePoint Benefits

Manage Cost

Manage Risk

Manage Time

100 CAN DO’s of Microsoft SharePoint

1. Automation of the workflow process
2. Can get your employees on board to discuss their views & valuable feedbacks
3. Develop your corporate website
4. Social collaboration through internal site like uploading personal information, news headlines and insights
5. Setting up the internal communication unit to filter the right information
6. No need to send large attachments to congest emails as these can be easily downloaded from the site
7. Different Departments can be engaged in to make sure that the solution is answered to all queries
8. Custom applications can be created catering specific needs
9. Departments can have libraries where docs are stored and people can access those information as quickly as possible
10. Partner extranet, contract management and human resource self-service processes can initiate
11. Supports manager resource review and product explorer
12. The solution delivers an IT command center and innovation-management tools
13. Works as a global-learning university
14. Works as an opportunity management and product development processes
15. Gives access to advanced tools like Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, business intelligence software and SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services.
16. Facilitate complex collaboration
17. Facilitate internal business intelligence reporting
18. Shared service application platform
19. Adhere Compliance
20. Creating dynamic sites
21. Community building
22. Mobile Access
23. Blogs
24. Yammer
25. Role Based Security Rights
26. Multilingual SharePoint tools
27. Improves corporate identity
28. Single entry point
29. Connecting Microsoft Dynamics CRM system with SharePoint adds another opportunity to improve company-wide productivity.
30. Can surface Line-of-Business (LOB) data through SharePoint 2013
31. Functionality included transformation of records, notifications, approvals and on demand archiving.
32. Capability to avoid redundancy of multiple documents with the same information and multiple data entry.
33. Audit readiness can be significantly improved. Use of technology to manage, store and search for records and their related content.   Retention requirements will be proven and related content to samples will be available on demand for a period of 10 years.
34. Contract Management Business App is available for SharePoint
35. Optimization of the strategic processes  like Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) practices
36. SharePoint dashboards on self-service basis
37. SharePoint with LOB connection: Provides a positive user experience with reduced amount of data entry, more accurate data results throughout the processes and a faster return on investment (ROI)
38. SharePoint Designer: A free, client-side customization and configuration tool for SharePoint. With SharePoint Designer, you can create data-rich Web pages, build powerful workflow-enabled solutions, and design the look and feel of your site. The sites you create can range from small project management team sites to dashboard-driven portal solutions for large enterprises.
39. Office Web apps: Web-based, online, cross-browser compatible versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote. These integrate directly into SharePoint’s document management functionality.
40. Project Server: An extension to SharePoint providing integration with Microsoft Project and other features such as Enterprise Content Management, business intelligence, enterprise search, personal sites and Newsfeed.
41. Excel Services: A server technology included in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2007 that enables users to load, calculate, and display excel 2010 workbooks on SharePoint Server 2010
42. Team foundation server: A free download of core SharePoint functionality, without all of the Server functionality Microsoft Office Access, Visio, Excel & InfoPath Forms services
43. Power Pivot: It extends the capabilities of the PivotTable data summarization and cross-tabulation feature with new features such as expanded data capacity, advanced calculations, ability to import data from multiple sources, and the ability to publish the workbooks as interactive web applications.
44. Performance Point Server – business intelligence software: PerformancePoint Server also provided a planning and budgeting component directly integrated with Excel.
45. Audience Targeting
46. Governance Tools
47. Enterprise Wikis
48. Organization Hierarchy Browser
49. Managed Metadata
50. OS Search integration
51. Extranet Portal
52. Used to provide password-protected, web-facing access to people outside an organization
53. Information from any part of the organization can be surfaced inside useful contexts, providing information that can improve effectiveness.
54. App Catalog
55. PowerView
56. A new visualization experience, easy to use dash boarding tool that allows self-service business intelligence.
57. Business Continuity Services
58. Access Services
59. Helps you to create deskstop databases. Has easy to use tools for quickly creating the browser based database application that help you to run your business.
60. Visio Services
61. Enables you to load, display, and interact programmatically with Visio .vsdx, .vsdm files and Visio Web Drawings (.vdw)
62. eDiscovery
63. Topic Pages
64. Cross Site Publishing
65. Language Translation
66. Custom design for internet
67. Custom Development
68. Multiple Domains
69. Discovery & Risk Assessment
70. Audit and contol management ( ACM) automates discovery and risk assessment for business critical excel and Access database
71. Distributed Cache Services
72. Shredded Storage
73. Translation services
74. Minimal download
75. New Navigation Framework
76. Information Management policies
77. Granular Control
78. Secure Delegation
79. Request Management
80. Systems Status Notifications
81. Cross device experience
82. Integrated cross platform Data portability made easy
83. Site Mail boxes
84. Drill Down
85. Browser Editing
86. Socialized Insight
87. Structured view of request details
88. Cross servers & applications
89. PowerShell & central administration
90. Simplified & remote
91. Cross Premise synchronization
92. Windows server 2012 Active Directory
93. Data Safety Services
94. Secure Updates
95. Developer App Model fully compatible with Office 365
96. No licenses required for external users
97. Free External users for online SKUs
98. One Drive for Business Folder Sync: A desktop program that you can use to sync an offline version of a team site or OneDrive for Business library to a folder on your computer.
99. SharePoint Work Space: A desktop program that you can use to take SharePoint site content offline and collaborate on the content with others while you are disconnected from the network.

 

Network infrastructure security management solution – A holistic approach in Network Security

Network Infrastructure Security Management Solution can continuously provide network visualisation and identify critical attack risk. It provide security network and risk team with a firm understanding of Where the investment is needed, and Where greatest cyber attack risks lie. This understanding enable organizations to allocate resources and take prioritized actions

<div style=”margin-bottom:5px”> <strong> <a href=”https://www.slideshare.net/TwinkleSebastian/network-infrastructure-security-management-solution-a-holistic-approach-in-network-security&#8221; title=”Network infrastructure security management solution – A holistic approach in Network Security” target=”_blank”>Network infrastructure security management solution – A holistic approach in Network Security</a> </strong> from <strong><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/TwinkleSebastian&#8221; target=”_blank”>Twinkle Sebastian</a></strong> </div>

 

4 reasons to Implement Managed File Transfer solution in Orgnaisation

Managed File transfer (MFT) is an integral part of the bank’s operational framework. The solution is essential for banks and financial institutions to protect sensitive data and meet compliance regulations. File transfers requirement ranges from sending files within the organization, interacting with the vendors, other stakeholders, uploading data to the website and sending critical reports to Central bank. There are cases where manual file transfer proved to be  inefficient which can lead to potential data loss, sending the wrong files and time consumption during the transit and the least, not sure about the delivery and accuracy of the send files Below are the listed reasons for the IT decision makers to evaluate in implementing a managed file transfer system in banks.

1. Use of easily available file sharing system like dropbox

IPSwitch data protection survey reveals that 53% of the respondents admit to sending sensitive files over unsecured email. Employees tend to use the system which is convenient to them. In the case of file transfer file sharing, systems like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Apple iCloud and Amazon Cloud Drive and other systems are widely used.  According to a recent survey of 1300 business users, one in five are using Dropbox to transfer corporate files, effectively circumventing any safeguards their IT departments have put in place with respect to file transfers.  The reasons  for such shortcuts are generally  due to growing file sizes and pressure to get job done quickly. Managed file transfer can centralize the entire system of file transfer that enable features like control of the file, LDAP authentication, robust password policies, rules for IP / user lockout and many more.

2. Poor visibility of the file over the file transfer system

The Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), Sarbanes-Oxley 404 and 409 (SOX), and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act all require banks to have clearly outlined internal procedures that define how the integrity and security of private data will be maintained, including when data files are in transit. Every file transfer needs to be visible in order to understand what  document was sent, where was it sent, was it received, and when and how did it get there? And right now, this very minute, what is the real-time status?  Essentially a tool to monitor, manage and audit transfer trial of files across the enterprise will enable in time saving and opportunity cost.

3. IT team is not getting larger

IT department has the responsibility of file transfer where it carries operational risks such as control access, ensure accuracy, reduce complexity and manage costs. According to a recent Aberdeen study, the volume of file transfers is increasing, on a yearly average, by 11%.; the size of files by 7% , and the number of users transferring files by 6-9%. All while IT hiring goes up by a paltry 2%. The average is all across the industries.  As the operations expanded, the number of file transfers completed each day had grown by a multiple of 100 on a YOY basis. IT pros views the manual approach to the file transfer similar to sitting in traffic. The company is growing and so are the business partners. The file transfer must keep up with the increasing demands around volume, performance, reliability and security.

4. Tool to respond to security incidents

4 out of every 100 file transfer results in error exceptions or problems.  Security and compliance incidence in file transfers increased about 4% YOY. Do you have right tools to respond if your file transfer system interrupts during the peak data volumes? Does the file transfer system respond to events in real time? 65% of the Managed file transfer purchase has cited productivity as the primary reason to nod for the solution where MFT has tools to respond to events in real time and features like Encryption and anti-virus support are critical for managed file transfer system. Above all managed file transfer provide visibility of the file during transportation and rest to IT.

Fill Your Sales Pipeline: 3 ways to attract more sign ups to your website

61% of people feel better about a company that delivers custom content and are more likely to buy from that company. (Custom content council) Attracting the customer and capturing his information is the first level of prospect conversion. Customer should like the ‘website’ and they need to ‘like’ the content to drop his information through sign up. Here are we discuss on how we can attract and sign up the customer

Segment your target audience

Hardly customer directly visits site. In order to get audience informed on your offers, we need to define the segment to be targeted. List out prominent customer needs and create content around the needs and solutions where the inbound marketing team publicize it through the relevant channel.  Accessing the current digital trends in the market will also be an added advantage.

Personalization of the content

90% of consumers find custom content useful. (Custom Content council) Customers have grown to get the specific answers than the generic one and plugging person’s name in the email is not worth enough.

The major characteristic of personalized content is its focus on people who matter to your business and understand the entire interaction history of everyone who visits the site. This customer intelligence can be implemented through various social tools like Hubspot Social Inbox. Also we have tools like Smart Content and Gravity to get content personalization up and running.

There are three major considerations for planning and mapping while crafting personalized inbound marketing. Channel based personalization (personalization in email, social media, on page and mobile), Persona based personalization (attributes and behavior) and Buyer journey (person’s position in the marketing and the sales funnel).

Call To Action (Landing page optimization)

Best tool available to convert the viewers is the implementation of the compelling landing page. Earning the customer trust is the key.  Highlighting benefits and meaningful headlines articulation attract people towards the landing page.

Align the landing page with your goal,  be crisp and get the message to the point, emotional connect, benefit of the campaign to be highlighted than its features, use action inducing language, writing in second person, include images, adding testimonials and  lead capture form fill up should be minimal. Above all, the design prowess in the landing page influences large in CTA.

5 Free Ways To Draw Visitors To Your Website

Drawing traffic to the website is viewed as herculean task to most of the small and medium enterprise. Primary strategy of any marketer would be to draw as many viewers to his website.  78% of chief marketing officers think custom content is the future of marketing (Hanley-Wood Business Media). Insightful product information is continued to make viewers to engage and convert to leads. Here are the tips to draw authentic crowd to your site which pay long term results.

 Content creation

Content creation is the symbol of authenticity. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not blog. (Social Media B2B) Great content is current, talks about the issues and the solutions, amplify firm’s competency and above all it is a great weapon to get introduced to a client.

The advantage of content creation is that it eases the relationship building, check-ins, gather feedback, new customer requirements, referral selling and importantly lead generation. Always contextualize the content. 70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles rather than ads. (Source: Content Plus) Understand the customer need and create content around the need to provide solution. The aim of the content is not selling but attracting the crowd with your solution to his problems.

Content Release

Content publishing should be regular and often. Experts recommend three content for a week, but I suggest content per day for beginners as they have numerous view points for solutions. Marketers with more than 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. (Hubspot) 

Great content produces exponential results and could win number of followers and readers for you but do not wait for a month to produce content for your readers. There are chances that content may not be well received all the time. Rebuilding or reorganizing the thoughts in a different context and publish the same content is also possible. The more content you publish, the more people are attracted and followed.

Social media

Content creation should be treated as your product to be sold in the market. Blog is the integral part of your strategy, now the content needs to be marketed to the targeted class. For example Tumblr attracts a younger/Millennial audience.  56% of Tumblr visitors are under 34 ( Mark Coatney Tumblr). 83% of Pinterest users are females between 18 and 34. 63% of Google+ users are men, who tend to post about technology. Two of the biggest user groups on Google+ are college students and software developers ( Capture hits marketing group). Understand the customer’s Four Square and use the social media tools to attack the pockets.

Apart from the Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, Slideshare is one of the major social media I recommend for any business.  Although time consuming compared to the blog, innovative pictorial brilliance will make your presentation featured in their home page which will attract thousands of viewers and followers to your brand at free of cost.

Fitting content to targeted social media

As we develop content we can restructure the same content and apply to other social media. For example: a blog’s idea can be reproduced in WordPress and blogger, can restructure to include photographs, attractive fonts, color schemes to use for slideshare.net, summarize the content to publish it in Tumblr, collate the whole idea in Pinterest to make it an image and an interesting infographics to produce it to Facebook and Linkedin.

Community building

As we discussed the various platforms of Social media, every time we produce content we are adding followers to our site. The growing community is the asset of any social media marketing success. Engaging the community and taking the feedback is very crucial for you to grow them even more.

Content is to be treated as a seed of a tree and all the activities are initiated from the seed. Yes, content is the key for your brand success.

5 Ways To Increase Your Customers With Appointment Setting Leads

The ability to assess and qualify opportunities accurately is a critical skill for any salesperson. Sales team use to spend 60% of their selling time for prospecting.

In the era of tablet enabled business selling, sales people are armed with advanced sales tools and chatter. 70% of the buying process is now complete by the time a prospect is ready to engage with sales. (Source: SiriusDecisions).  Such scenario aim of the sales person is only on closing the leads not prospecting.

Here are the four tips to double the sales using leads generated through appointment setting.

 1. Presentation to qualified leads

Aim to quadruple your appointment setting against your target, leveraging the service of a professional appointment setting firm. An instant jump in the number of presentations will help sales people to focus more on solutions and closing of business. Gain the trust and credibility of the customer by infusing relevant information and industry specific solutions. Implement Customer relationship management (CRM) for managing your company’s interactions with current and future customers. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support. It will help sales rep be productive by 32% more. ( Source: Salesforce)

 2. Faster revenue and quick growth

Appointment setting lead generation is a fast process of converting prospects. All other lead generation tactics  like inbound marketing will take months to produce results. This strategy will be extremely useful for the industries targeting firms having recurrent purchases and the unorganized sectors. Other industries include software, IT consulting & service, insurance, real estate and finance.

 3. Automate your research

Automate your search using the tools in the web which provide you with the latest news and alerts on your targeted clients. RSS reader, Google Alerts, Twitter private lists, LinkedIn company follow and free social tools like newsle, job change alerts and nutshellMail App are latest tools available. The latest information on the target not only help you to be proactive, but will make sales a lot easier. Information on key changes in the industry creates need, hence contact and close the sales earliest to give the competition no chance.

4. Invite prospect to follow your updates

After the official meeting, online account activation need to be established like follow the company, inviting to your network and feedback on your latest blog. Every company is interested to associate with industry experts. Ensure the blogs are regular and it is the best way to promote your intellectual capital, solutions, case studies to build trust and confidence of the prospect.

 5. Focus on needs and solutions not selling

70% of prospects will purchase in 12 to 18 months. (Source: TAS Group) As Early bird catches the prey, establish yourself as a trusted source early enough to get the advantage over your competitor. The content should always aim on the needs and solutions. Appointment setting lead generation may not result in an immediate sale but helps you to manage your future clients better. Channelize your efforts to attract targets to your service and offers.

The ultimate aim of lead generation through appointment setting is to grab as many clients as possible with the limited resources in the short time. Make short your sales cycle.