The Super Bowl-Style Sales and Marketing Strategies Canadian Firms Should Steal

Although lots of sports analysts and commentators are making big predictions about what will happen when the New England Patriots face the Seattle Seahawks at Super Bowl 2015 this Sunday, there’s only one sure winner: the companies who capitalize on the sales and marketing opportunities it presents to them.

Of course, the Super Bowl is nearly as well known for its TV commercials as the game itself, but the chance to reach customers isn’t just limited to those watching at home. In fact, Salesforce has often leveraged its social analytics technology Radian6 to track some of the most common names and topics mentioned during the big game across channels such as Twitter. The numbers can be huge: In 2013, for example, there were 1.5 million posts about Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, and seven million posts about a performance by Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child during the half-time performance. Last year, while the Seahawks ruled the scoreboard, the Broncos fared better from a social media perspective with 6,384,933 total mentions (vs 4,563,177 for Seattle).

The point is, Super Bowl Sunday represents one of the most focused, engaged audiences of the entire year, and smart companies market and sell to them accordingly. That being said, there are similar opportunities presented to Canadian small and medium-sized businesses every day. Perhaps you can seize them using some football-style thinking. Keep this in mind the next time you have your customer’s rapt attention:

Don’t get on the field without a game plan: The coaches who determine what the Seahawks and Patriots do on Sunday never walk in blindly. Much like the die-hard fans watching at home, they collect as many relevant stats as possible, but they use those stats to make important strategic decisions. Fortunately, SMBs now have a similar collection of useful data that is more accessible than ever. Advanced analytics can help them sift through what’s important and make smarter plays all year long.

Always look for a touchdown: Playing at the Super Bowl is exciting, but once the game begins the best athletes tune out the noise and focus on what’s most important: scoring. For SMBs, that translates into winning a sale from customers. That’s a lot easier to do when you have a CRM platform that helps you identify where the goal posts are, and what it will take to get you closer.

Escape the pileups: Everyone gets tackled in football, but winners get good at moving as quickly as possible to avoid the worst skirmishes. SMBs get tackled too, sometimes — by unexpected problems back at the office, last-minute customer requests and business needs that crop up after hours. That’s where mobile apps become critically important, because they mean SMBs can be just as agile while on the road as they would be back in the office.

The other major thing those playing at Super Bowl 2015 share with SMBs, of course, is a reliance on teamwork to achieve the results they want. We’ll leave football to the experts, but to learn how you can get on the field with a game plan in 2015, download the Salesforce free e-book, Start Your Year Off Right: Transform Your Business in 2015.

Photo by Elvert Barnes