Introduction 1
The Time is NOW 6
Living in the Past: The Old School of Sales and Service 7
First Marketing and PR, Now Sales and Service 8
The New Rules of Marketing and PR Are Now Widely Adopted 9
Living Real Time and Mobile Has Changed Everything We Do 10
Why Sales and Service Are Experiencing a Revolutionary Transformation 11
Restoring the Human Touch: The Compelling Power of Authenticity 12
The Importance of Story 13
Social Media is All about Connecting and Sharing 13
Content Drives Sales and Service 14
We're All in Sales and Service Now 14
Online Content That Informs, Entertains . . . and Sells Insurance 15
Updates to This Revised Edition 17
Learning from Examples: How the Successes of Others Can Provide Ideas and Options for Your Own Organization 18
1 The Old World of Sales and Service 21
The Old Sales Model: "Dialing for Dollars" 21
The Voice of Authority: When the Salesperson Was the Expert 22
The Salesperson Expert versus the Web-Educated Buyer 24
"These Sales Leads Stink!" 26
Tell the Truth: The Power of Authenticity 26
Customer Disservice: The Little Things That Drive Us Crazy 29
"Please Take a Moment to Complete Our Survey": All Take and No Give 30
"There's a Robocall on Line One. It Says It's Urgent." 32
Receiving an Email Address is Not an Invitation to Spam 34
Adding Social Media to Old School Sales and Support is Still Old School 35
The Old Rules of Sales and Service 36
2 The New Rules of Sales and Service 39
Setting Down the Rules 39
Living Up to Their Name: OPEN Communications to Customers 42
The Communications Revolution That Wasn't Televised 47
Time to Join the Revolution 50
An Invaluable Sales and Service Asset: Your Employees 51
Big Data. Rich Data. 52
An Underground Business Cooks Up Innovative Sales and Service to Discover a Menu for Success 54
Navigating Your Sales and Service Plan 57
3 Your Story 59
Storytelling 59
"Let Me Tell You a Little Bit about Me": The Story Customers Tell Themselves 60
Call Larry: How One Entrepreneur's Story Defines a Company 61
The New Model: The Salesperson as Consultant 62
Mastering the Art of Effective Storytelling for Any Organization 66
The Health Club That Tells Its Story by Exercising an Attitude 68
"What Happens Next?": How a Compelling Narrative Builds a Following 71
A Story That Sells 74
4 Integrating Marketing and Sales with Buyer Personas 77
Creating Magic by Adding Context to Content 77
The Power of Content That Provides Exactly What You Need 79
The Nobis Hotel Sells to David Meerman Scott 80
Making Stuff Up 82
Annoying Three out of Four Customers 82
Egocentric Nonsense 84
Buyer Personas 84
No Red Alfa Romeo? 86
Multiple Personality Order 87
The Buyer Persona Interview 89
Uncover New and Valuable Information with Buyer Persona Research 91
GoPro Keeps Its Buyer Personas in Focus and Sells Millions of Cameras 92
Close the Gap between Sales and Marketing 94
Becoming the Buyer Expert in Your Company 97
The Buyer Persona Profile 98
How Buyer Personas and Journey Mapping Integrate Marketing and Sales 101
Midnight Oil 105
Sales and Marketing Working Together 106
People Reaching People 107
5 The Sales Cycle is Now the Buying Cycle 109
We're Buying. So Stop Selling. 109
The End of the High Pressure Zone 112
Mingling with Buyers at the Learning Party 114
Educate and Inform 115
The Buyers' Journey 117
Driving People into the Buying Process 117
The Collective Intelligence of a Million Mechanical Engineers Creates a Unique Marketplace . . . and More 118
Now Raise Your Hand (Please) 119
Got Square Footage? 120
The Merging of Sales and Content to Facilitate the Close 121
A Customer for Life 123
How the New Rules of Selling Contributed to a Math Education Program's Success 124
Lead Generation Calculus 127
Growing Business in a Shrinking Industry . . . without Leads 128
Please Don't Squeeze the Buyers 130
Can I Have Your Phone Number? 131
Lessons from the Grateful Dead 132
The Hybrid Lead Generation Model 134
Defining Your Business in the Marketplace 135
Are You Watching Your Direct Competition or Your Customers? 137
Learning from Outside Your Comfort Zone 138
Do You Even Need Salespeople? 139
The Product That Virtually Sells Itself 140
Good for You, but What about the Rest of Us? 142
6 Agile, Real-Time Social Sales 145
The Quickest Wins My Business 145
The Ideal: Agile Sales 146
The Decisive Advantage: Speed 149
Context: The Key to Unlock Every Buyer 150
Newsjacking to Find Buyers 151
Ronnie Dunn's Real-Time Disruption 152
The Art and Science of Newsjacking to Reach Buyers and Create Real-Time Sales Opportunities 153
Newsjacking: One Lawyer Considers the Legal Implications 156
Live Stream Your Take on the News with Periscope 157
Automation Runs Amok 159
When Real-Time Sales Put You at the Front of the Line 161
Who is Selling Whom? 163
Agile Sales Require a Real-Time Mind-Set 163
Agile Sales Mean Going Off Script 165
Big Data Plus Real-Time Technology Drives Sales 166
Predictive Analytics 167
Social Selling and Your Customer Relationship Management 172
Obsessing over Sales Forecasts Does Nothing for Your Buyers 176
Brawn or Brains? 177
Buying Signals! 178
7 The New Service Imperative 181
Busted Dishwasher. Great Service 181
What is Customer Service Anyway? 183
The Elements of Customer Service 184
Customer Service and Corporate Culture 185
Content Creation 185
Great Customer Service Drives Sales 186
Getting Sales and Service into Alignment 186
Poor Customer Service is the Norm 187
Teaching Customers to Wait for a Sale 189
A Clear Picture of How Great Service Generates Additional Leads 190
A Nonprofit Changes the Rules of Charitable Reporting While Also Changing the World 192
"I Hope Everyone Who Works for Your Company Burns in Hell" 194
Great Customer Service Starts in Person 196
Customer Service "Wow!" 197
First, Educate and Inform Your Customers 198
Surveys: Your Opportunity to Gather Real Data 199
Using Customer Feedback to Grow Revenue 204
How to Conduct a Survey That Helps Grow Revenue 206
8 Agile, Real-Time Social Service 209
Embracing Change 209
The Real-Time Customer Engagement Mind-Set 210
How Boeing Used Real-Time Communications during the 787
Dreamliner Crisis 211
Putting Your Customers First 214
Customer Service Using Social Media 216
Vodafone Egypt Proves Social Customer Service Works Worldwide 218
People Want to Do Business with Other People 220
The Value of Personal Communications 221
Lost in Clinical Gobbledygook 223
Terrible Healthcare Customer Service 223
Healthier Patients through Video Customer Service in Healthcare 224
Making Clients Feel More Connected 228
Making Healthcare Personal 228
Customers and Business Growth 231
Implementing Agile Customer Service 232
9 The Social You 235
When the World's Attention Turns to Your Expertise 236
Getting Social 239
Why Social Networking is Like Exercise 240
People You Know 241
You're Already Online 241
The Sharing More Than Selling Rule 242
Building a Fan Base One Download at a Time 244
Don't Hide in the Shadows 244
You Are Not a Cat 247
Building a Following 248
Tweeting Yourself into a Job 249
Inbound Job Search 251
Achieving Your Dreams 252
Manage Your Fear 255
What a World We Live In! 256
10 Your Social Company 259
Building the Social Selling Process into a Large Organization 259
Hiring for Social Success 262
Sales Managers Must Adapt, Too 265
Training for Social Success 266
A New Kind of Company 268
Your Sales and Service Ecosystem 269
Your Turn 271
Acknowledgments 273
About the Author 275
Index 277
Master Newsjacking: The Online Course 289
Have David Meerman Scott Speak at Your Next Event! 291
