#bizdev

At least, if you follow the rules Valve has set for developers.

See, did you know you're not allowed to ask within the game for steam reviews? You're also not allowed to give incentives for your users to leave reviews, and the only 'official' way steam gives you to entice reviewers is filled with games collectors who will just take a steam key and not even play the game, much less review it, despite that being the entire purpose of the platform.

But as a small indie, who can get less than a thousand players in the best of times, how are you supposed to get reviews? You aren't. Without the backing of a larger brand who can blacklist, a fanbase who can hypetrain, or a dedicated PR person who markets the game and helps get those reviews, you're left with just asking people. And people don't care about you, and they don't care about your games.

When I launched Death Game, I collected a small group who helped me test the game, and an even smaller group who promised to help me by wishlisting and reviewing the game come launch. I had 10 people who promised to review, and even after I explained to them that reviews would dictate the result of my last 4-5 months of work, to date, I have received 4 english reviews of Death Game+. Of those, only one of those reviews wasn't a steam key review (steam keys are ignored for review analytics, and dont help sell the game), and the ONLY store customer review was just a copy paste of a friend's review, one I didn't even ask to review, but as a fellow developer, understood its importance.

In other words, of the 10 people I asked to review, 0 did. In fact, all of the negative reviews are people who either paid less than $0.12 for the game, or got it for free. This is a larger discussion about perceived value, which I've already written a post on, so I'll move on.

I tried curator connect, giving out over 30 copies of the game. Of those copies, one returned a review, and it's not ideal anyway, since curator reviews are almost exclusively shown to their group, and I don't know anyone who is active in a curator group.

Sales reps can only be as good as the product and message they represent. Before companies can hire Sales reps, they need a great product with messaging that conveys the benefits to customers. Sales reps need support from marketing in the cross functional organization of tomorrow. The messaging should be able to prevent customer objections. Unfortunately, this is where many Marketing departments fall short.

Many people that get hired in marketing, lack a sales background and have no idea on how to handle customer objections.

In addition, many people in Marketing lack the background and understanding of how people learn. Teachers and psychologists have this training. Understanding how people learn can make product messaging more effective because it can be presented in multiple formats. Many people in marketing lack practitioner experience and as a result marketing is not as effective as it could be. Practitioners are especially under represented in the Marketing function of many EdTech companies and this needs to change. Now I will make a case for hiring Sales Reps, Teachers and Industry practitioners in marketing.

Case for hiring ex Sales Reps

Knows how to handle objections which can be applied to message

Experience dealing with customers, knows customer pain points

Sees how end-user uses the product

Can increase sales using Sales expertise to make messaging customer centric

Can assist with Sales and Marketing Alignment as companies need to work cross functionally

Understands the issues Sales Reps face and has the credibility of being a Rep when collaborating with Sales Teams

Experienced obtaining , qualifying and converting leads to Sales ie Lead gen/demand gen

Hiring Industry practice experts

They are the customers and understand the pain points better than any market research -should be in leadership roles

Healthcare does this with Doctors, Dentists

Tech does this with programmers and engineers.

Why not EdTech!

Can increase Sales because they are the customer and understand the pain points because they have experienced them in the job

This is the best market research/ buyer persona there is!

Case For hiring ex Teachers

understands how people learned

skilled at tailoring content for understanding based on learning needs

Today’s marketing is about educating customer and earning the right to market to them as they can educate customers

Why it is not Good enough to just place them in Sales

People in Sales are not involved in the creative process and cannot change their cards and company messaging.

They cannot address weaknesses in messaging and product.

The Marketer of Tomorrow

Has all of the above in their background or at least a Sales background at a minimum.

My Unique Value Proposition to Companies

I would be an excellent fit for a Marketing role due to the following:

Former Outside Sales Rep which allows me to create messaging to preemptively stop most sales objections

Can help with Sales Enablement/coaching/go on selected sales calls to improve the sales process

Experienced Marketer

Can build a better talent brand by building out your career site with employee stories

Create and establish new markets along with helping to create new product offerings that complement existing ones

Experienced online audience builder

I have built up a large audience with 19, 000+ followers on WordPress

24,000+ followers on LinkedIn along with a following of 6000+ on my Twitter handle @DanGalante

Are you ready to increase Sales by improving Marketing? Your sales teams deserve better!

Change today!

How have you increased Sales by improving messaging? Comment and share below.

Here are the slides.

Additional Resources 

Sales, Marketing & Social Media Strategies for Organic Growth

https://tmblr.co/ZTyq4v2VDX-Mx

https://tmblr.co/ZTyq4v2YTqK2h

http://dangalante.me/2016/10/18/how-businesses-will-increase-sales-by-improving-how-they-hire-marketing-staff/

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.

He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to 24,000+ followers on LinkedIn and 19,000+ on WordPress.