The JF Guest Author Spot

Rochelle Togo-Figa

Even with everything we’ve been hearing about the economy, people are still spending money. I stood in line to buy my chai latte at Starbucks…people were buying expensive coffee! I stood in line at the supermarket waiting to buy my groceries…people’s carriages were filled to the top with food! And, when I went to Mall, the parking lot was full and the stores were packed with people buying clothes, shoes, and accessories…especially iPods at the Apple Computer Store!

Even with all the changes going on, people are still willing to pay for services that help them solve their pain and make them feel good.

No matter what’s going on around you, you still have a say in how your business is going to grow. During this period, more than ever before, you can thrive in your business. You see people need your services and will still pay for a solution.

The choice is yours. You can believe everything you’re hearing on the news, pull in your reins and stop being proactive, or you can find creative ways to grow your business and get out there and meet with new prospects.

I recently spoke to a client. Although her business is growing and she desperately needs to hire someone to install blinds, she was going to pull back. She said with everything she’s been hearing about the economy, she was afraid to spend any money. I could hear in her speaking that she was choosing to survive rather than thrive. And, when you come from a place of survival, you’ve put a lid on growing. How sad that she believed everything she heard.

As the Laws of Attraction states, “Like attracts like, and you attract what you think you deserve.”  This means that what you are focused on and the emotions behind those thoughts, draws more of the same to you. If you focus on “not enough money,” what are you drawing to you?  The answer is simple, “not enough money.”  So if that is true, focus more on attracting “more money, more business, more opportunities, more clients, more sales!”

If you chose to focus on “more of” rather than “lack of,” here’s another way to look at the situation. With the slowing down of home sales, more homeowners are planning to stay put and fix up their homes. Sounds to me like a great opportunity for businesses that provide home services like window design professionals, interior decorators, painters, etc.

Now take a look at your business and ask yourself, “how can I create new opportunities to grow my business?”

Here are some mindset and sales/marketing tips I’ve put together to help you thrive during these times.

Mindset tips:

• Stop listening to the doom and gloom. Remember the media has one intention and that is to grab your attention.

• Limit your time spent with those who feed on the drama, negativity, and fear going on.

• Connect with and support like-minded people with empowering and positive thoughts. Make it a point to reach out to at least one person a day.

• Fill your head up with inspirational and spiritual information. You can read books, listen to tapes, or attend seminars.

• Practice, daily, focusing on attracting more of what you want by saying to yourself and writing statements that includes words such as “more money, more business, more clients, and more sales are coming my
way!”

• Let’s visualize the world transforming. When we come together as a collective force, we can change the world!

Sales and marketing tips:

• Create new low-end products that are affordable to more people.

• Create online information products.

• Offer special themed discounts on your services or products.

• Offer payment plans to make it easier to do business with you.

• Touch base with people who expressed interest in your services.

• Reach out and meet with current clients to see how they’re doing and to let them know you’re there for them.

• Get out of the office and network! Just connecting and being with people will improve your morale and energize you.

• During these times, more than ever, invest in yourself and your business, so when the tide changes, and it will, you’ll be at the top instead of the bottom!

If you like what you read in this article and want to learn more sales strategies that will increase your sales immediately, then I’m ready to walk you through my proven step-by-step sales and mindset breakthrough system at the Inner Game of Sales Breakthrough Workshop. 

For 3 incredible days in June I will teach you everything you need to close more sales and shift the way you think about sales.  Now is the time to master your sales and mindset so that this is your best year ever! The Inner Game of Sales Workshop will change the way YOU think about sales and selling FOREVER!

Go to www.tinyurl.com/igsfabienne to read all the details about the Workshop.

Today’s News:

Craig Klein of SalesNexus has just released Chapter Three of his great new ebook:

Lead Nurturing – Automate The Process While You Sell More
The Secret – Build Personal Relationships While Reaching Out To Prospects via Email

This is the third installment in our “Email Marketing – The Only Bailout Your Business Needs” e-Book.

In the previous two chapters, we’ve discussed the blocking and tackling of email marketing.  How to stay on the right side of the law, how to create emails that won’t annoy your customers, how to provide valuable information to your contacts via on-going emails.  Click here to read the 1st and 2nd chapters.

Now comes the big pay off!  In this chapter, we’re going to show you how to create an automatic cash machine with a mind blowing ROI.  That’s because you really already have all the pieces you need!  We’re going to show you how to leverage the assets you have and increase sales and the bottom line! Read on

A very belated thank you for all the birthday wishes I received over the w/e – I am really grateful to have so many wonderful friends and colleagues. Here is my favourite “card” from that magician and rascal Bill Jeckells.

It’s only taken me fifty years to get into the Man Utd squad!!

Tomorrow: I am going to be highlighting the need to take the “P”

It seems that most of the hype surrounding Sales 2.0 has been generated first by software vendors/social media evangelists and now by salespeople – but what do customers make of it all, has anyone stopped to tell them what’s in it for them?
 
Of course all of these tools (not necessarily new tools by the way) will help us find new opportunities, but will they really help us manage our existing client base, after all, CRM in one guise or another has been around since…well let’s just say Michael Jackson was far less pale in those days.

We all know that a vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts, to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relationship gap” and is due entirely to complacency. I happen to believe that “complacency levels” are increasing alarmingly, and this goes some way to explaining declining levels of sales achievement.

Another major issue is that too often the salesperson fails to expand his “contact base” as this next survey proves, which results in vulnerability and exposure to competitive activity

Periodically, the Financial Times conducts a survey of British industry to establish how companies go about their purchasing. The survey is very comprehensive, broken down into many kinds of products and services – and I have no reason to suppose that results are exclusive to the UK or Europe.

From a Sales Director’s perspective, these are very worrying statistics

Customer size (Number of employees): Less than 200
Average number of buying influencers: 3.43
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.72

Customer size (Number of employees): 200 – 400
Average number of buying influencers: 4.85
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.75

Customer size (Number of employees): 401 – 1000
Average number of buying influencers: 5.81
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.90

Customer size (Number of employees): 1001 +
Average number of buying influencers: 6.50
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.65

In essence, without a sustained approach to ongoing servicing and support activities, customers that took months to win are ultimately lost because there was a lack of interest from their supplier.

To-days clients/customers are looking for vendors who can be business-partners, who are willing and able to share risks and who are able to properly manage the entire sales process.

They are also looking for business partners who will sell to them how they wish to be sold to – and that may not include via a Sales 2.0 approach.

Fact: It now costs fifteen times as much to locate and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one

“Dear Vendor, You probably will not see me on Twitter – now what?”

Today’s News: We now know that we cannot trust our polticians with our economy; it is doubtful that we can trust them with our health; looking more and more like we cannot trust them with our children’s education, neither can we trust them with our safety. And here in the UK, we now know that we cannot even trust them to claim their expenses honestly (Thanks to the Daily Telegraph) – I do hope Charles Green picks up that story – it will keep him in “Trust” posts for the rest of the year!

So do you think we can trust them with our planet? Erm!! You probably will not need too long to answer that question. But maybe, just maybe, we can help them to make some right decisions – this appeal in my mailbox this weekend.

“Here’s the link to Yann Arthus Bertrand’s site – there is a very important petition on there that we should all sign to add more weight to the Copenhagen Climate Conference at the end of this year – perhaps you could pass it on to a lot of your contacts - could you??

The more people sign, the more pressure there will be on all our governments to act and make the big changes necessary to start saving our planet – the environmnent and humanity. This event will be THE major turn – governments have to act seriously NOW if we are to stop further damage that would change irrevocably our planet forever…. Signing the petition only takes a few seconds and it will make all the difference…..”

I have signed – will you please sign too? Not for me, not for you – but for our children and their children and if we are in time, all the children that will come after them – thank you.

Just simply click on the banner below.

Tomorrow: Finally, I am pleased to tell you that Rochelle Togo-Figa will be guesting – you really do not want to miss her.

And finally, finally, just ten FREE places left for Tuesday’s very special TSE Masterclass with Linda Richardson and I – details and registration here

As I have said often enough here on this Blog, and also in recent live discussions, the single most common mistake that organizations make is promoting their number one salesperson into the role of sales manager, thereby depriving themselves in a single stroke of their best producer and hamstringing their sales force with an ineffective manager.

The skills required for managing, mentoring and developing a sales team are totally different from those required for selling. As a result, it’s not uncommon to find newly promoted sales managers who regret having taken a management position and may even leave to get back into sales.

When a salesperson gains promotion to management the first thing they have to do is to quickly acquaint themselves with a new set of working relationships – and a new set of rules.

The salesperson’s primary working relationships are with customers. However the sales manager’s is with the sales force i.e. his subordinates.

Let’s look at that a little more closely:

Essential Attributes – Successful Salesperson:

• Personal drive (ego)
• Needs to win battles (Individual sales)
• Able to work alone
• Persuades customers to see his/her point
• Needs selling skills, personal skills and knowledge
• Able to work away from the office
• Works well with people and numbers
• Good at implementing sales tactics

Essential Attributes  – Successful Sales Manager:

• Submission of personal needs to the goals of the Company (Corporate drive)
• Needs to win the war (Meet corporate goals)
• Able to work with others
• Persuades the sales team to see the Company’s point
• Needs management skills and marketing knowledge
• Needs to work at the office
• Works well with people, numbers, paperwork and the corporate hierarchy
• Good at developing sales and marketing strategies

Completely different set of skills!

The most common danger in having sales managers who are basically super salespeople is that “relations with subordinates” including the critical tasks of development and supervision may deteriorate.

Even when they do recognize the importance of developing their salespeople, many sales managers find that they lack the skills and resources to do it effectively. It then becomes easier not to bother.

The majority of sales managers – new and experienced alike – say they do not have sufficient time to train and develop their sales teams. They are so focused on sales results – and so accustomed to achieving success through their personal pursuit of those results – that they overlook their greatest potential source of power, the power to increase sales performance by developing their people.

To make things worse, most sales teams consist of a number of individuals with differing levels of experience and ability, so the whole issue of team development becomes too daunting for the overwhelmed manager to contemplate.

Sadly, this is a common scenario, and goes some way to explaining why levels of sales achievement are declining so alarmingly.

Today’s News: Ok, for the best part of this week, I have been promoting my chums and lots of other worthwhile initiatives, but now it is time for some blatant and unabashed self-promotion – it’s “Me Day”

Next Tuesday, Linda Richardson (Founder & President of Richardson Training) and I are presenting a TSE Masterclass – “How The Most Successful Companies Develop Their Sales Teams” and I know you will not want to miss out, so I have twenty FREE places for you. (Normally $59.50) You can click on the banner below to check out the details, and then go here to register, with my compliments

Over at Salesopedia, Clayton Shold is in conversation with fellow Top Sales Expert, Tim Wackell…….

“The Art of Effective Follow-up”

“Tim Wackel is big believer that you have to follow-up or you will fail. Once you hear the statistics he presents you will be compelled to listen to the full podcast. He suggests the “why” you need to follow-up is more the science; the “how” of follow-up is more the art. Tim who goes on to paint a picture of what you need to do and provides a number of suggestions to help you become more effective at following up.”

Just click on the banner to listen in, as usual

Tomorrow: Well, on Sunday, I am “Birthday Boy” so maybe a couple of hours off if I am really lucky! Have a great w/e and I’ll see you back here on Monday, when I will be another year wiser – JF

The JF Guest Author Spot

Paul McCord

 
“There’s nothing in this world more important in sales than being liked by your prospect.”

“A prospect won’t listen to you unless they like you, so if you can’t get them on your side, you can’t create a sale.”

“If they like you, they may listen to you.  If they’ll listen to you, you may be able to get them to trust you.  If they trust you, they just might buy from you . . . .  Everything positive in the sale starts with them liking you, everything negative starts with them not liking you.”

These three statements about being liked were made by three top sales trainers.  Being liked must be the lynchpin to success in selling, right?

I’ve attended numerous sales workshops and seminars, listened to a great many CD’s, and read dozens of books that all emphasize the critical nature of being liked by prospects and clients.

On the positive side it is claimed that being liked:

-Opens doors

-Lowers prospect’s defenses

-Makes them want to say yes to please you

-Allows them to trust you

On the negative side they claim that if you aren’t liked prospects:

-Won’t believe you

-Will be suspect of your intentions

-Won’t give you full cooperation

Sounds like being liked really is the key to sales success.

Except it isn’t.

Certainly, being liked is a great asset and by all means we should do all within reason to be liked by our prospects and clients.

But being liked takes a backseat to being trusted and respected.

I suspect that you, like me, have heard many comments such as: “He drives me crazy and is one of the hardest people I know to get along with, but I wouldn’t trust my money to anyone else,” or, “I have to have my assistant deal with him because I just can’t deal with him.  I’d really love to find someone I can work with, but by gosh when he says something I can take it to the bank, and that’s worth a whole lot more than having to put up with him.”

I’ve seen thousands of situations where the salesperson and client weren’t friendly, much less friends; where the client didn’t like the salesperson but was eager to do business with them because they had earned the prospect’s trust.

We work in a profession that has a reputation for being less than honest–for being downright dishonest.  Many, if not all, of our prospects have had numerous bad experiences with salespeople.  They’ve been lied to, ripped off, and taken advantage of to the point they not only have erected a protective wall between themselves, they’ve also dug a mote and stocked it with crocodiles.  They try to avoid us if at all possible, and when they do have to deal with us, they expect us to lie, cheat, and try to screw them to the wall.

Your prospects have met the eminently likeable rip-off artist, the oh so likeable liar, the loveable conman; and as far as they know, you’re him, and if you are, well, that’s just par for the course when dealing with salespeople.

Prospects aren’t surprised to find likable salespeople whom they don’t trust.  That’s the norm.  They even buy from them because they can’t find someone they do trust.  And if you’re going to buy from someone you don’t trust, why not buy from the one you like?

No, being liked isn’t the key to sales success.

But if your prospects find likeable salespeople all around them that they don’t trust, what would happen if they found a salesperson they did trust?  They’d probably react in the same way as those quoted above–they’d be overjoyed to deal with them even if they didn’t like them.

Trust (real trust, not the shallow trust salespeople try to create by faking interest in the prospect by asking a couple of personal questions to find–or fake–common ground upon which to build likeability) is difficult to build and once built, easy to wreck.

Although trust is one of the most difficult bridges to build with a client, it is the glue that builds lasting clients.

Charles H. Green has developed an equation for measuring trust.  In the equation, Trust equals Credibility plus Reliability plus Intimacy divided by Self-orientation.  Although all four factors are important, in a sense the self-orientation is the most important.  The salesperson’s focus, whether on the prospect’s interests or on their own self interest, is the key factor in establishing trust.

By all means strive to be liked, but work to establish trust.

Trust establishes clients and brings in business, being liked makes it more enjoyable.

Paul McCord, president of McCord and Associates, a Houston,Texas based sales training, coaching and consulting company, is an internationally recognized authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal marketing. His best-selling book on referral generation,Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), is quickly becoming recognized as the authoritative work on referral selling. His next book, SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar will be released in February, 2008.

Right now, almost every company needs help finding new business opportunities – Paul can give you that help – He may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or through his sales training website at www.powerreferralselling.com

JF: What do I think? Here is an extract from my “Twelve Golden Principles Of Selling”

Principle 12: Be Professional at All Times
The greatest compliment a customer can pay you is to describe you as “professional.” Don’t worry about being liked — be respected. Being professional is not one thing, it is three: It is what you do, what you say, and how you present yourself.

Today’s News: I know you were expecting Rochelle Togo-Figa today, unfortunately we had a bit of a “cock-up” on the communication front, but she will be with us next week. Fortunately, the less glamorous but equally charming Paul McCord stepped in.

Some more good news: Craig Klein of SalesNexus has just released the second instalment of his excellent new ebook:

“If At First You Don’t Succeed, Email, Email, Email Again!” - it really is an excellent read.

Finally, I still have a handful of FREE places to gift you for tonight’s TSE Masterclass featuring Jill Konrath and Nigel Edelshain – you can register here

Tomorrow:”So You Can Sell, But Who Says You Can Manage?”

Many years ago, when I had responsibility for very large sales teams, I first became interested in sales team development and the return on my considerable investment.

I discovered that to begin with, the one off program was supplying a short term motivational buzz and provided my team with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they were back at the “front-line” the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc took over again and the reactive mindset returned.

Then, and it is probably still true today, most – I would estimate at least 80% – training organizations were making the assumption that all delegates were at the same level in terms of experience, expertise and had the same “commercial bandwidth”. This was of course totally unrealistic.

The very best salespeople – the ones that consistently exceed quota – have usually received ongoing skills development from the “emerging” stage all the way through “advanced” right up to “consultative” level if appropriate, but the keyword always has been “ongoing”

Finally, and this is the most significant and blatant error of judgment most sales leaders make- I know I did – is that every member of the team receives the same training, i.e. they are all dispatched off to the same course regardless of whether or not they already have those skills or if indeed they need to have them in their current role.

The point here is that there is far too little planning, assessing and objective setting; as I said earlier, it is much easier to abdicate that responsibility to the training company. The downside to this approach is of course, so much money is wasted.

I quickly realised that the first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach was to accept that training must be based on what the salespeople need and should be tailored to address diagnosed performance gaps.

Using a diagnostic approach – a formal sales team skills audit – saves an organization money and time because there is nothing to be gained from teaching people something that they are already doing well or, conversely, that they don’t need to do in the first place.

So what did I do? I wrote my own programmes and they eventually became the basis of the Vanguard Suite, but more significantly I designed an attitude/skills/process audit tool.

ASP Profile is being used by organizations all around the world to regularly benchmark both the development needs and ongoing performance levels of their sales teams.

The most common feedback I receive? “I cannot believe how much money you are saving us”!

Today’s News: There was so much going on earlier in the week that I forgot to tell you who won the “Top Sales Article Of The Month” award over at Top 10 Sales Articles.

In fact, Nancy Bleeke pipped Keith Rosen by a whisker, so if you missed it, here is is: “The Sign Of A True Pro…”

Meanwhile, the ten nominations for June have been posted, and there are some superb articles amongst them. You can catch them all here - oh, and of course, providing you are a consenting adult, you can also vote!

Good chum and fellow member of the Top Sales Experts Executive Board, writes the popular Sales & Sales Management blog. He has just launched :

Boost Your Sales Summer Series
A summer’s full of great training strategies and techniques.
 
Every week 4 new top sales and management gurus and myself tackle a new topic that will improve you and your sales team’s production.
 
This week we’re dealing with “Using the Phone to Generate Business.”
 
Next week, we deal with “Successful Networking” (Look out for my contribution!)
 
Head over to the Sales and Sales Management Blog–and head over everyday.
 
Better yet, just save it to your RSS reader.
 

Tomorrow: I am absolutely delighted to welcome back Rochelle Togo-Figa onto the JF Guest Author Spot.

My good chum Jill Konrath, has just launched an amazing new initiative, aimed at helping some of the millions of people who now find themselves jobless – through no fault of their own. Here is what she has to say:

Do you have friends who are struggling to find a job? If so, please read …
 
…this post because you can help them. Please spread the word too!

In the past six months, too many good people I know have lost their jobs. They were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, collateral damage in a struggling economy.

To make matters worse, the traditional way (e.g., resumes, info interviews) of finding a job is seriously broken – and most job seekers don’t even know it.

That’s why I decided to launch the Get Back to Work Faster Initiative - a book, website and free webinar series with a FRESH approach that helps job seekers get back to work much faster, in a position they’re excited about that pays them well.

These proactive strategies enable professionals to create opportunities that don’t exist today.

FREE COPY: Get Back to Work Faster

It all starts with my new book, Get Back to Work Faster: The Ultimate Job Seekers Guide for Professionals. It’ll be out in paperback this fall. However, I know people can’t wait! They need jobs now. So … we’re giving it away as a free downloadable PDF file.

Click here to get your pre-publication copy of Get Back to Work Faster now.

In this 170+ page book, job seekers will discover how to:

•Identify and pursue income-producing opportunities.
•Land new positions that play to their strengths.
•Become a “must hire” candidate, without any competitors.
•… and much more!

Best of all, these job creation strategies keep individuals feeling vital, productive and sharp during this challenging time – which is important too!

Help us make a difference. Because of our sincere desire to positively impact as many people as we can, we’re giving away the book. We also have a series of complimentary webinars scheduled, featuring top experts on these job creation strategies.

 So if you could please help us spread the word:

•Forward a copy of this email to your job seeking friends, colleagues & family members.

•If you know of any job hunters’ support groups in your community or church, let them know about GetBacktoWorkFaster.com. Invite them to post it on job boards.

•Write about it on your blog. Tweet about it. Share it with your LinkedIn colleagues. Post info about the free book & webinars on your website. Digg it!

Join us today in helping job seekers “get back to work faster.”

Thanks for your support!

Jill Konrath

JF: Please, please support Jill with this incredibly important initiative – thank you.

Today’s News: Continuing with the “Jill Konrath Day” I have just twenty FREE places on offer for Jill’s TSE Masterclass, which she is co-presenting with Nigel Edelshain:

Sales 2.0 and Selling to Big Companies
Thursday June 4th 2009 1.00 PM EASTERN

Find out how Sales 2.0 is changing the way we can sell to big companies.

This event is for sales people, sales managers and CEOs who want to keep up with how sales is evolving in a Web 2.0 world.  New tools are available, and continue to come-to-market, that give us additional selling approaches.  The speakers believe you need to keep up with these changes or become a “sales dinosaur” — especially during in a recession!

The speakers will cover:

    * What is Sales 2.0?
    * Why should I care?
    * How will Sales 2.0 help me sell to big companies?
    * Is Sales 2.0 something I should bother with during a recession when I am focused on keeping my   job/saving my company?

To claim one of the FREE places with my compliments, simply register HERE

Tomorrow: “In Praise Of A Diagnostic Approach To Sales Training”