Here goes my attempt at sharing my latest observation with you by just getting to the point.

Social media is the best business development tool that has ever come down the pike. It’s simple (when you let it be), it’s relational and it’s informational. These are the most effective elements of taking someone who knows nothing about you and your product / service and helping them to decide, on their own, if you are good fit or at lest worthy of a real conversation. It builds trust which builds business.

Simple – If your message is simple people smile because you took the onus off of them to have to figure out what the heck you are saying.

Relational – If you let someone see who you really are, not your business persona, you are way down the road of seeing if there may be a chance to do business. Actual, honest to goodness, well-intentioned, win / win business.

Informational – If you give someone great information and expect nothing in return you are valuable. You are allowing people to make up their mind based on good information. Information you provided. When it’s time to buy you will have an inherently higher position in someone’s pecking order of possible vendors. You are a trusted source. That’s good.

Keep it simple. Build a relationship through giving valuable information. Build trust. Now you are truly developing business and not just a transaction. That’s cool.

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For the company who employs desperate search sales people, there is very quick response of “Well, we need the revenue.” This is a slippery slope that will ultimately lead to a series of bad deals and bad blood. I have seen this happen, and no one wins here. In addition to the sales that are generated by one rogue, there will now be a culture created that other sales team members can follow. Sales people are the worst sheep in the sense that they are quick to say “If it’s OK for him/her, then it’s OK for me.” You would be surprised at how many good people who work in sales will chuck their personal ethics out the window and justify bad sales practices because “the other person did it.”

For the company who is a prospect of a desperate sales person, the trouble occurs on many tiers. How this all concludes depends on how the company representative deals with sales people. I am always amazed at how many people on the prospect side simply don’t know how to say no.

Rather than say no and look like the heavy, many people will simply stay neutral and allow the desperate sales person to cling to the hope that the deal will happen. Then there are the numerous follow-up calls and e-mails that turn into a nightmare on the prospect’s side.

You see, desperate people are like a bear trap. If they feel they have you, there will be blood. The way to avoid the trap is to say no definitively and with good solid reasoning (by the way, budget IS NOT an acceptable reason for not doing something online, especially if you are advertising elsewhere) then there is no confusion. If you play the wishy-washy “I haven’t heard back from so and so” or “We’re still looking at our options,” the desperate sales person will believe that they can turn the screws and somehow close the deal. If you are being closed then you are being sold, and if you are being sold then you are in trouble.

So what happens when the desperate sales person wins and has closed or manipulated a sale? Sometimes it works. Most times, however, the engagement is doomed from the start. The footing is so bad when there has been a “square peg in a round hole” decision made that the customer will always look to get more than what they paid for. It’s a form of revenge.

Even worse, the customer will discover that the sales person (who may or may not still be at the company) has embellished in order to convince the customer to sign. In search marketing you then have a service delivery team that is resentful of the sales people who supposedly make all the money but have to do none of the work. It can get ugly fast.

So how do you avoid this? One way is to take your search marketing in-house. Sure there are risks but in the end you will have a much better shot at identifying why a program is or is not working because it will be right there under your nose. There will be no agency account managers looking to “make a save.”

All in all. going in-house an option that I am beginning to think every business should at least seriously consider. At the end of the day, do you want your fate in the hands of an agency that you really have no idea how they are doing your work, or with a group that you can sit down with daily and develop? I think it would be irresponsible to not at least look at this option no matter what size shop you have.

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Consistently I encounter business owners, CMO’s and high level marketing professionals who are either ignorant of Internet marketing’s options or naive to the impact that Internet marketing will have on their organization. I still find it hard to believe but it happens with great regularity. I wonder how this is possible but then I move to the more important question: How can this organization get through, around or past this knowledge gap at the top to experience the real opportunity that Internet marketing offers to them?

If you are experiencing this there are a few things you can do to break through quickly.

• Educate yourself – This has an impact on two fronts. Either you become the Internet marketing champion in your organization and lead the charge past the executive level ignorance OR you prepare yourself to look better in the job market. If your company is not getting on board with Internet marketing then you are hurting your chances in the job market by not being current.

• Prepare a competitive analysis – Nothing makes the board room jump faster and higher than evidence that one of your competitors is cleaning your clock. Research the latest information on what people do and how they buy using the Internet then apply it to your industry. Then turn it into a final line item that shows money lost by not being in the game. Again, if this doesn’t work at least you are helping yourself

• Bring in fresh minds – Warning. This is written by a consultant so you may find it skewed. Regardless, I just find it smart. Find the money to have a professional assess the past, present and future of the Internet for your company and industry as a whole. You will be better for it.

• Assess the task – If it looks like you are fighting a losing battle and there is little hope to get through to the powers that be then seriously consider if you should be working where you are working. Your career could follow the same path that the company is taking if there is not any move to the future. Study up and find ways to be current despite your company’s condition.

FT Takeaway: if the highest levels of your company are not on board with Internet marketing in a real sense then you need to make a decision. Either you stay and fight the good fight to get them on board or you educate yourself and prepare the resume.

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