Category Archives: Sales

Marketing, Sales

Voicemail or eMail?…The Answer is Yes!


Let’s face it.  Most of us are in meetings (even if some are virtual – phone/web) most of the day. 

Reaching someone live between the hours of 8am-5pm in today’s business world has become a near impossibility.

Just for fun let’s say you do get someone to pick up the phone.  Odds are, you have just distracted that person from a task they believe to  be a priority over whatever it is that you have called about.  Just think of your own experience.  How long does it take you to pick up an inbound call when you do not recognize the caller ID?  Don’t hold your breath, right?

It is for this reason I now almost always leave BOTH a voicemail and email message when contacting a client or partner, particularly if this subject is important to them.

Try for a live discussion via phone first, of course.  When you get their voicemail, leave a brief message and tell them that you will also send an email if that is a more convenient mode of communication for them.  Then, send the email with “My Voicemail” included in the subject.

But don’t take my word for it.  Marketing firm CCSI has this to say in their recent blog post…”Lead generation strategies that put e-mail and direct mail before telemarketing may be putting the cart before the horse and missing out on the optimal impact of each vehicle….”  The gist of their post?  Leave a voicemail before sending email.

Doing both has increased my response ratio significantly.

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Sales

Friday Strategy: Make it a 10-Point Day


It’s the end of the week.  Depending on how yours went, you either have 20 pounds of sand and a 10 pound bag and you’re wondering how your going to get it done, or maybe you are at the end of a long week and wondering if you have the steam to keep going and finish strong. 

Either way, here’s an idea:  Make it a 10-point day.

Give yourself a weighted value for key activities accomplished.  Specifics may vary here, just make it a stretch.  For example: 5 points for a contract, 3 points for an executive meeting, 2 points for an executive phone conversation, 1 point for any buyer touch-point like a nice email/voicemail combo.  Now, try to  reach or beat a total of 10 points today.

Hope you need a calculator!

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Sales

Sales Lessons from The Blackhawks? You Bet!


For Chicagoans,  last night’s Stanley Cup victory by the Blackhawks was an incredible end to an incredible season. When you win your first championship since JFK was in office – it’s a big deal.  We’ll be celebrating for a while here.  But can you take away any sales lessons from this team?  You bet…

1. You can’t score if you don’t come out shooting.  These guys were firing at the net the entire game, and the entire season for that matter.  You have to be playing offense, always focused on the next play, or your competitors will take the momentum.

2. Defend your goal.  Antti Niemi was awesome this year.  He made some incredible stops (as a rookie!) . Without him shutting down the opponents, the wins would not have come.  Are you protecting your existing clients as ferociously? 

3. It’s a contact sport.  If you’re playing it right, you may even lose some teeth!  You need to know your strengths and play them hard to give your clients outstanding service – bump the competitors out of play.

4. The refs don’t always see it your way.  There were a few tough calls on Chicago last night (goaltender interference? – I don’t think so!),  but you have to roll with it and play with the calls delivered.  There is no such thing as reality – only your clients’ perception counts!  You can think you’re doing great.  What do the refs (your clients) think?

5. You’ve got to win the home and away games.  The Blackhawks had an awesome record on the road.  Hockey is a tough game to win when you’re not on your home ice.  Remember, to win over the long-term, you need to win with existing clients (home) and net new clients (away) as well!

6. The cup is worth the fight!  It sometimes seems like the sales battle is getting the best of you.  But if you give it all you have – and then give some more, truly serving your clients and stunning them with results, then you may get to kiss the 118 year-old trophy!

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Sales

Folks, This is a “Pens-Down Moment”


I’ve had it with people who don’t take notes in client meetings.  In fact, unless you have a miraculous photographic memory or a tape recorder, if you’re not taking notes in a client meeting, you should probably not be having one.

Note-taking is a lost art.  I had a CEO in a prior life who was minted at Xerox.  He understood this principle and tried to pound it into our heads.  During critical meetings with staffers, he was famous for calling people on the carpet and literally saying, “Folks, this is pens-down moment!”  Translation:  “You idiots, you should be taking notes.  Otherwise, I have no idea that you are understanding the importance of what I’m saying.”

If you are sitting through critical client/prospect meetings taking no notes, isn’t this what your clients are thinking too?  Will you really remember all the action items, much less the owners or due dates without notes?  What if you learn some key information about the alma mater of that key executive, or how many kids they have, or their pet (and budgeted) project coming up in 6 months?  Will you remember the critical details?  I don’t think so.

You’ll never catch me without my Moleskine notebook and a nice pen ready to jot some key take-aways.  I can still hear Paul, “…Folks, this is a pens-down moment…”

Take copious notes in client meetings!

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Sales

Yeah, It’s a Number Game Too…


Like success in any professional career, there are many ingredients to success in selling.  Accurate opportunity targeting – as my friends at Selling To Zebras will tell you, is a critical one.  Chase the right prey and your hunt will be more successful.  

Another key element is using a solid framework (pick a methodology that fits your situation) for high-gain conversations with prospects to elicit their needs and to link your solutions in meaningful ways.  

Also important are elements like pre-call planning, lead-nurturing, compelling proposal creation, Ferocious Follow-up – the list is too long to discuss in one post.

One inescapable success factor is activity.  A wise sales mentor once told me that activity yields opportunity which yields results.  Sometimes hearing that sales is a “numbers game” is a turn off.  It makes the sales process seem cheesy or pushy in some way.  But the fact that you need to produce quantity as well as target quality is not a contradiction.  It takes both. You can have the best targets in the world, but unless you are acting on them daily, all you have is a glorified list.  Go ahead – put up some numbers today!

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Sales

Is Your Follow Up Ferocious?


We’ve just crawled out of one of the toughest patches in business that any of us can remember.  Thankfully, things seem to be stabilizing and even slowly beginning to grow again.  However, every opportunity will be harder fought – tougher to find, tougher to close. 

Yet, I see the cardinal sin being committed –  A lack of priority follow-up on business leads.

In this fragile recovery, you must execute strong follow-up – no – Ferocious follow-up.

In his fantastic sales blog, Sales and Sales Management, I recently discovered this post from Paul McCord in which he explains that he has experienced the same.  He says, “…A quality lead has a very short shelf-life—whether we’re talking about the retail situations above or a long sales cycle, sophisticated product or service.  Someone–you or your company–has paid good money to get the phone to ring, to get a lead card mailed back, or get a form filled out on the internet.  Every minute you wait to contact a prospect is a minute you’re giving the competition to close the deal before you even get there…”

Get Ferocious.  You competitors are!

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Sales

“10 By 10”


I am a relentless for citing authors of great ideas.   I picked this one up from a blog post in the past few days, but for the life of me, I can not find where I picked it up.  So my apologies to the author (I’ll keep looking and give you your kudos soon) – but the idea is too AWESOME not to share… 

Challenge yourself to complete 10 outbound client touches toward advancing the deals in your funnel by 10am each day.

Sounds easy, right? 

Try it for a week and get back to me when you hit 8 for the first time!

Enjoy.

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Marketing, Sales

Handouts, All But Worthless? —– I Think So…


In a blog post yesterday by HR Specialist Rebecca Masin in allbusiness.com, the author makes a great case that handouts are no longer worth it for a myriad of reasons including cost, economic impact, and efficacy. 
 
Her favorite reason, from a book called “Saving the World at Work” is that “Over the course of the last few decades, we’ve gotten into a habit: We print, then think. Instead, we should think first and only then print-maybe.”
 
I agree with Rebecca’s rationale – AND, I would add a sales and marketing twist to the list of reasons not to use handouts – handouts don’t work.  If you’re deal comes down to handing out (or mailing) a piece of paper to get your point across, you need to seek a fresher alternative.
 
I rely on social media, email, and voicemail combinations to get critical points across.  In rare instances, a customized slide show (not printed but distributed via email or USB drive) does the trick. 
 
For more information, please request a handout of this blog post at tim@salesandmarketingmashup.com KIDDING!
 
What are your thoughts on handouts?
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Sales

Focus on Your Clients


A mentor once told me that “Sick companies are internally focused – Healthy ones are focused on their customers.”  Wise words from a wise man.  Thanks, Larry. 

With the economy slowly crawling out of the funk, where are the leaders in your company focused?  It’s easy to become entranced with YOURSELF.  Think about it.  Do you spend a disproportionate amount of time and energy looking at your own company’s Operations?  Alliance Relationships? Cost Containment/Reduction?  Organizational Structure?  Market Segmentation? Inventories? Corporate Branding?  If so – STOP!

These are all necessary concerns.  But they are also a very  – dangerous – distraction from your most vital area of  focus in this moment –           The Client! 

If you take your eyes off the client right now, you run the risk of buying your stock high and selling it low.  How so?  You burned a lot of calories keeping clients during the downturn (never worked so hard for so little myself).  If you focus internally now, you may have burned them in vain – only to have a competitor snatch the client away from you as you focus inward and miss the first signs of the recovery.

Instead…Spend as much of your time as possible with clients.  Have progress report meetings to brag about all that you did for them in the past year, hold peer-to-peer executive lunches with them, bookmark web articles of interest and share them with clients, make twice the cold calls than you did last month, do a speaking engagement, double your contacts at a given account this week…

…However you want to…

…FOCUS ON THE CLIENT right now!

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Sales

The NEW NORMAL…Buying Power Has Changed


In their great white paper, Selling in the New Normal, Jeffrey and Chad Koser (authors of Selling to Zebras) cite Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, coining the term a “New Normal” to focus and re-engage GE  in the economy we’re dealing with for the foreseeable future.  More on this white paper in future posts, but for now…

One of their more interesting points is that post Great Recession, the people you sell to don’t have the decision-making power they once had.  It’s dangerous for your sales if you don’t realize that.  What’s worse is, sometimes even they don’t know it.  “A decision that once required director-level approval now goes to the CFO.  Previous CFO-level decisions go to the CEO or board.”  

Not talking to C-level executives?  You’re going to need to change your approach.

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Sales

3 Buckets…All That Matter


In his bestselling book, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty, business guru Ram Charan says that during [and after] the world-wide business crisis  “…company executives are categorizing all expenditures into one of three buckets…” 

1. Keeping the lights on
2. Compliance (MORE than ever)
3. Discretionary Spend (LESS than ever)

If your solution doesn’t keep the lights on or help with compliance; you’ve got a fight on your hands for discretionary dollars. 

When is the last time you described your solution in terms of a business case?   

You can’t kick these buckets! 

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Marketing, Sales

Selling and Marketing Services vs. Products


While a great number of companies make and sell products, the past 20 years have seen a revolution in the professional services industry.  So there is a good chance that you are responsible for selling services vs. products.  However, many of  the sales techniques used today still echo a product sell.  A great book on the subject of the difference here is called “Selling the Invisible” by Harry Beckwith.  He’s written some other great books too, but this in my opinion is his best.  Here are a couple of my favorites from this book… 

“The first step in service marketing is your service.” – In other words, do your craft with excellence before thinking up a wiz bang marketing plan.

“One Thing Experts Don’t Know…” – In most professions,  you ARE NOT selling your competence.  Your client can’t evaluate you fully.  They are not the professional – you are.  That’s why they are seeking your help in the first place.  Your competence is assumed.  What you ARE selling is a relationship.  Do you pick up the phone and respond quickly?  Are you a good listener?  Am I important to you? Do you deliver to me with excellence? etc.

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Marketing, Sales

Things May Come to Those Who Wait…


But only the things left by those who HUSTLE! 

This quote sits in my office as a reminder of a person who failed many times over his life, but always worked harder than everyone else and ended up as one of our most famous Americans – Abe Lincoln. 

Imagine if you got up each morning with this at the top of your mind.  How many more calls would you make?  How many more meetings would you have?  How many extra value would you deliver to your clients? 

…AND…

How much more success would you see?

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Sales, Social Media

Ode to LinkedIn


LinkedIn has reached 60,000,000 members!  RT @techcrunch: LinkedIn Now 60 Million Strong – http://j.mp/9vkPWB

Think about that.  60 MILLION members.  It is even more incredible when you think that these are people connecting regarding their public/professional lives vs. the private/casual users of other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. 

This service is one of the most fundamentally game-changing new tools for professionals.  What did we do without it?  

When I imagine what the first half of my career might have been like if I started out with this tool for helping and leveraging my network of relationships as I began in sales, it makes me want to cry.

But we have it now!

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Sales

You Can’t Cut Your Way to a Funnel


Here is a link to today’s Harvard Business Review “Daily Stat.”  Interesting research numbers on firms and their behavior during the recession.  http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/dailystat.php?date=021010.     HBR says “Sales reps get hit with double whammy…”   The gist: 67%. That’s how many companies froze or reduced lead-generation budgets for sales reps last year, at a time when salespeople needed help the most, according to CSO Insights’ survey of more than 2,800 companies worldwide. The percentage of reps making quota in 2009 dropped to 51.8% from 58.8% a year earlier, the survey shows.

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Marketing, Sales

Pipeline 2010 Tune-up


So, you survived the big year-end push and spent some time unhooked from the business world to spend with the family over the holidays.  Recharging the batteries is critical as you suit up to kick off another year.  But now it’s mid-January.  How do you feel about your pipeline?  If your answer was anything but “rock solid,” you should read this brief article from Ilise Benun contributing to RainToday…

via Pipeline Making You Queasy? 8 Tactics for Creating a Focused Marketing Plan – RainToday.

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Sales

There’s No Such Thing As “Selling” Anymore


In my nearly 20 years in business development, many things about sales have changed.  One of the most significant is the slow and steady evolution of the power / authority in a sales process migrating from the “seller” to the “buyer.”  At one time, the seller controlled all.  Manufacturers made things, sellers sold them.  They would arrive at the buyer’s office with a bag filled with collateral which included the sum total of information on that product and its specifications.  The seller was the authority and controlled the transaction.  For reasons to many to list here, including most powerfully the internet, that equation is turned on its head.  Buyers are now in the driver’s seat.  References on this phenomenon are readily available.  Three of my favorites, however, are The New Solution Selling, by Keith M. Eades, Customer-Centric Selling by Michael T. Bosworth and John R. Holland, and The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer.  I could run a blog for months just posting about these approaches, and will be citing them often, but regarding my post today, they have one theme in common.  There is no such thing as “selling” anymore.  It’s about helping your clients win and matching your selling process to their buying process.  Once you accept that fact, your success as a salesperson can really take off.  I highly recommend you check thes books out.

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