The JF Guest Author Spot

Steve Martinez   

The Deer Hunter

Imagine it is deer hunting season and the hunter wanders through the forest for the annual prized deer, he is careful not to leave traces of his existence along the deer path. He has been cautious not to use any man made scent that will alert his prey. His camouflage clothing conceals him from their sight. He walks the trail slowly, deliberately and aware of all the surroundings looking for clues on the trail. He is focused, listening and looking for signs that will lead to an opportunity, a prime opportunity he can seize at the right moment.

The Sales Hunter

Now place yourself on a quest for new and profitable prospects. You will find that there are similarities between hunting for deer and hunting for new sales. For example, when out hunting for new sales, we initially, don’t want the business to know we are looking for them. We may conceal our identity as a salesperson to gather more information. Just as the deer hunter doesn’t run through the woods yelling, “here deer, here nice deer”. We won’t do the same to announce our presence either. Instead, we will quietly look for signs of a profitable prospect through networking, using the internet or through questions we ask of a receptionist or contact to confirm a matching business prospect.

Looking for footprints of prospects

 Since we don’t have footprints to examine, wait a minute, we do have footprints don’t we. Yes, just like when we examine the footprints of an animal, we can tell what size they are and we can tell if they were running or limping. The same is true with businesses, although it might be information published about their size, their mission statements, internet resources or just asking the receptionist about the company. Some businesses make available large footprints of information on themselves.

We have to know what we are looking for if we are to be efficient hunters. So, we must do our homework and learn what the profile of a profitable prospect is. In many cases our existing customer files determine our best client profiles. If this is not available, we can ask our peers and friendly competitors who are in the same business as us and ask them, “who are your best clients?” We ask this seemingly odd question because if a good client in one sector of the country requires a peers services then someone just like them in our neck of the woods will probably need similar services in our area too. These profiles are great ways for industry peers to share prospect hunting information.

Validate and verify prospects

To begin this exercise in our own business we should run a list of our top clients and examine them closely to determine what makes them different from similar businesses in their industry. What makes them unique? We must identify items we can measure. Measurable items are really the only types we can use.

For example;
• How many employees do they have?
• What is their annual sales volume?
• How many members or customers do they service?
• Is there a specialty they are involved with?

You can probably think of a few more questions that are specific to the industry.

Once we have this list of profile measurable items, we can use this to filter our suspects from our prospects. Some of this will be done over the internet. Whatever remains on the list, we are left with asking a few questions over the telephone. One of the best sources for this is to speak with a salesperson for the company, you know that they often love to talk and brag about their company.

Once we have validated and verified our list to a short one, we can target them more directly for business and we won’t be wasting our time. We will graduate to the efficient prospect hunters, who sell more and achieve more profitable sales.

Steve Martinez is the author of Sales Impactivator a sales e-publication for success oriented individuals. As the President of Selling Magic, his company teaches business professionals how to automate the selling process, preventing sales people and business owners from experiencing the hard lessons in selling. Steve has consulted with businesses around the country sharing his 25 years of sales and marketing experience to eliminate sales failure. Steve uses his experience as a National Sales Manager and National Account Executive to share the real-world lessons in sales. www.sellingmagic.com

 
Today’s News: The next episode of “Double Your Sales In 2009″ is now available from SalesNexus

“How many sales management books have you read? I’m sure each of your sales reps has a couple of sales guru books that they keep on their desk.

Have you invested in sales training for you team?

A lot of time and money have gone into refining the skills of your sales team.

But somehow, you have a feeling in your gut that when they hit the streets and start pressing the flesh, they fall back on instinct more often than not.

In the first 3 installments of our “Double Your Sales in 2009″, we’ve covered setting the “qualification bar” high enough that sales time is focused on the highest value customers and knowing the return on your investment in sales time and expense at each step in your process.  Click here to start with “Qualify Early and Often”, the first installment.”

You can grab your FREE copy here

Tomorrow: “How To Plan, Prepare, & Deliver A Compelling Presentation” It’s that time of the week for me to give away yet another FREE ebook.

“This small book will hopefully guide you through each stage of a professional presentation, from understanding what audiences want, preparing your presentation, the delivery stage (including
structure, verbal and physical delivery plus the question and answer session) and finally how to handle and harness anxiety.”  Be sure to join me tomorrow.

The JF Guest Author Spot

Nancy Bleeke    

Prior proper planning prevents poor performance!  Our productivity is greatly increased when we make the time to prepare.  Notice I didn’t say ‘find” time.  (Though, wouldn’t that be great to pick up some time we found on the sidewalk?)  Preparation is a discipline and successful professionals make the time.

Preparation is even more important in a changing economy.  We need to change our preparation strategy during this time.  What worked yesterday may not work today.

For each contact do your homework and prepare for:

1.  Who you are meeting with.  In the overall sale, is this person the only person you should be meeting with?  Are there others within this organization that should be included in the discussion?  For this person, what is happening with them today?  How is the economy affecting them personally?  As you consider how to approach them identify a question or two that is just about them!

2.  The industry they are in.  Conduct research to find out what is happening specifically in this industry today.  Are lines of credit to this industry lessened?  Does the global implication matter to them?  What is happening with the workforce?  These are good starting places for research.

3.  The company.  Have they had layoffs?  Are they hiring?  What is happening with their stock (if applicable)?  What is their competition doing?  There are many companies who have found a way to capitalize on the financial situation in the US.

4.  Review notes from past contacts.  What level of discussion have you had?  Has it been strategic – tied into increasing results, decreasing costs or lessening risks?  Or tactical – focused on one specific piece of information that is tied directly to what you offer?  Prepare to broaden your discussion to strategy and help them solve business problems or create opportunities.

5.  Communicate with them the way THEY want to be communicated with.  Every person has a “language” they speak. Some speak facts and figures, others talk about people.  Some are “quick” communicators – they like bullet points, not a lot of detail and get right to the main points.  Others like to hear stories, need a ton of detail and won’t be rushed.  You can get an idea of their language through any communication you have had with them in the past – emails, telephone calls, voicemail messages tell a lot. 

If you can find them on any of the social networking tools like LinkedIn or Twitter, you can learn a lot about how they communicate.  Prepare to adjust your communication to “talk their language” and the level of trust will be stronger and the information flow smoother. 

To make your preparation efficient, a few tools to use:

1. Google alerts.  Use these to receive an email when a specific industry, company, or person is in the news.  Go to http://www.google.com/alerts to set your alerts.

2. Use your in-house CRM system – Garbage in, garbage out.  If you have input good information, now is the time to use it!  If you haven’t, set aside 30 minutes a day to populate your system.

3. Put pen to paper!  Writing your call objective, questions you will ask, benefits you can create and problems you can solve will help you retain focus during the discussion.

The biggest obstacle to preparation I hear is the “not enough” excuse.  Not enough time, not enough information, “not enough” value in doing it.  In our control studies, the sales professionals that prepared were 17-25% more effective than those that didn’t. 

How would those sales increases impact you?

Sales expert Nancy Bleeke, The SalesProInsider (http://www.salesproinsider.com/index.htm ), helps organizations set aggressive sales goals and achieve them while boosting profitability by hiring, training and retaining the best employees.

Companies can increase sales 5-25% in six weeks using Nancy’s tools and skill training for sales (http://www.salesproinsider.com/SkillDevt/sales.htm ) and coaching.   She shares her expertise with the Timely Tips ezine and her blog (http://www.salesproductivityinsider.com/ )

For information on sales training, contact Nancy at 414.422.1689 or Nancy@salesproinsider.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  For tips on how to sell in a down economy, download the free eBook on 10 Timely Tips to Recession Proof Your Sales at www.salesproinsider.com.

Today’s News: You have a real treat in store today! My colleague Maureen Blandford is in conversation with Clayton Shold over at Salesopedia - anyone else thinks she sounds like Ruby Wax? I told her that, but she had never heard of the amazing Ruby!

“Maureen Blandford bumps up against corporate marketers as she advocates for sales teams everywhere. She discusses challenges faced by many sales teams that feel they are not getting the marketing support to be effective on the ground. She declares corporate America needs to stop whittling away at training budgets and shift some marketing dollars in that direction. She believes a better alignment is possible which will leverage sales motion. Maureen makes a compelling case many Presidents and CEO’s would be wise to consider.”    Just click on the banner below to listen in.

Tomorrow: “Will 2009 Sound The Death Knell For Sales Training As We Know It?”

The JF Guest Author Spot

Nancy D Solomon

Although it may seem to be counterintuitive to those stepping up the leadership ladder, your managers want you to take more risks. That’s right—risks. In the past eighteen years, I’ve yet to meet with a senior executive who’s said, “Gee, I wish my talent would play it safe and keep things status quo.”

What kind of risk are they talking about? And why do they encourage their people to take more of them? The word ‘risk’ usually implies exposure to danger and the possibility that something unwelcome or unsafe is imminent. The concerns about risk in corporate America revolve around managers wanting their talent not so much to step away from safe decisions, but to move toward innovative thinking.

These leaders are cultivating their talent’s willingness and courage to drill down deep within themselves to access the confidence it takes to think differently: This next generation of leaders must trust themselves enough to take risks. These managers are successful themselves, so it’s likely they hired you because of your unique skill set and they want you to use it.

The willingness to take risks is particularly critical during tough economic times. There is a cultural tendency to want to play it safe when times are uncertain. However, if we examine historical precedent, we’ll find that it was those who threw the dice in an exciting and new direction who were most successful at making the changes that the times demanded.

What makes employees reluctant to take risks at work? In a word: FEAR.

Fear that:

You’re not smart enough
You’re not educated enough
You’ll look stupid
You’ll be wrong
You can’t trust your gut instincts
Things will change. You hate change.
You                                                     fill in the blank

These things don’t have to be real; they just have to be perceived that way. To be sure, there is nothing that will prevent or halt forward movement (and, therefore, risk-taking behavior) quicker than the prospect of your ego getting bruised or annihilated in the process.

What does a great manager want you to do?

Trust yourself
Have confidence in who you are and what you do
Follow your gut instincts
Don’t rely on “It’s always been done that way”
Be willing to be wrong
Think uniquely
Take the initiative

Next time you’re facing a situation that requires you to step out of your safety zone, ask yourself these questions:

Is the risk perceived or real?  Do the facts or evidence overwhelmingly stack against your position, or are you simply afraid of the unknown?
Are you taking this risk to prove who you are (your ego) or to demonstrate it?
Are you taking a bold stand because you know, in your bones, that this is the right course, or are you trying to prove that you’re smart and competent?
Is the timing right? Sometimes your idea with be simply brilliant: Just not now.
What is the best possible outcome of taking this risk? In an ideal world, what’s the outcome? What are the wins?
What’s the worst possible outcome? Think disaster: Do you have a back-up plan? Will anything be beyond repair?
If you ‘failed,’ how would you recover? This is called Plan B. Have you fully prepared a plan for the possibility that you might not be able to go back to the way things were before you took this risk?
If you ’failed’ what might you be able to learn? You’ve failed before. You will fail again. What wisdom have you gleaned from this event? If you got a “do over” what, if anything, would you do differently?

So what’s the risk of not taking risks? When you don’t take risks things stay the same, and same is NOT necessarily why you were recruited. Same may mean no new opportunities. Same may mean little growth. Same may mean the project never gets launched. Same may mean you’re passed over for that promotion. Same may mean you end up feeling under utilized or devalued. Save one letter, same and safe are spelled, well, the same.

NANCY D. SOLOMON, M.A., is a relationship expert nationally known for her quick wit, her direct style, and her keen ability to help people achieve a greater vision of themselves and their world. By turning people’s focus on their passions and their natural gifts and talents, Nancy helps them create powerful choices leading to fulfilling results. Through her innovative and provocative speaking, coaching, and training, Nancy has inspired thousands of individuals and groups to remove the barriers to personal and professional success and to turn their potential into performance.

Her first book is due out in stores Fall 2009. Visit Nancy ‘s website: www.nancydsolomon.com

Today’s News: Just received a message from my good friend Craig Klein:

Jonathan,

I thought you’d like to know that Part 2 of Double Your Sales in 2009, “Timing is Everything” has been released on our blog.  Read it here.

At absolutely no cost, readers get “Double Your Sales in 2009″ first as a series of blog posts each Monday.

Then get the entire series as an e-Book at the end of February, free of charge!

If you’d like to link to this exciting series, here are the links:

Registration to receive free e-book – http://www.salesnexus.com/lp/lp-double-your-sales.php

Link to the second installment – http://sellsellsell.salesnexus.com/2009/02/02/time-is-everything-double-your-sales-in-2009-part-2/

Thank you for your support!

Over at Salesopedia, Clayton Shold is in conversation with Nancy Bleeke:

“Nancy Bleeke is face-to-face with companies and individuals daily who are out there pushing back against the recession.  With her focus on helping her clients drive revenue improvements anywhere between 5 – 25% I wanted to understand what she is advocating. This podcasts looks at a number of practical tips that you can put into play without too much difficulty. Nancy shares her favorite personal suggestion of one idea that can bring results in any economy and any industry.” Just click on the banner below to listen in.

Tomorrow: The “Coaching versus Traditional Development” debate continues, so be sure to join me.

Drew Stevens PhD

The largest single issue with selling in a difficult economy is change. There is change in buying power, change in budgets, even change in decision criteria. However, what is not changed are goals, annual commitments, and a desire to excel.

I am willing to bet that you believe that the economy is holding you back from quota. I am willing to believe that stress is increasing. How bad do you think the economy really is? Do you believe the economy is why you cannot sell anything? Well, here is some interesting information for you.

• Halloween spending last year was $6 billion.
• Christmas spending on the Internet will increased by 22%
• Review your interstates and local roads; notice all the new automobiles.
• American football stadiums are still selling to capacity crowds.
• Fast food and restaurant capacity has decreased only marginally; people still go out to eat!
• Beer and liquor products are holding up well.
• Seven of every ten firms held an annual holiday party!

So, if the economy is down, why is there so much spending? While I do not suggest you ignore the
issues, media outlets seeking viewers contrive much of the news. You need to ignore these unnecessary
distractions and simply get back to business. Stop getting distracted and stop listening to the negative.
You must find methods that provide the inside track and get your sales into fifth gear.

This report seeks to provide some of our timetested methods based on over 5000 organizations and 27 years of research. Our hope is for your firm to standardize these practices to become more strategic, more efficient, and more profitable. Download here

Blessings!
Drew Stevens

Drew Stevens PhD is known as the Sales Strategist. Drew assists organizations to dramatically accelerate business growth. He is the author of seven books including Split Second Selling and Split Second Customer Service and Little Book of Hope and is frequently called on the media for his expertise. Drew was recently nominated as one of 50 Top Sales Experts. Download a FREE copy of Drew’s White Paper on “Selling Effectiveness” or “Business Building” e-book at www.drewstevensconsulting.com/freestuff <http://www.drewstevensconsulting.com/freestuff>

Today’s News: Here is an early heads up on an upcoming webinar being presented by a fellow Top Sales Expert, Barry Siskind:

Thursday, February 5, 2009, at 10:00am Eastern Time
Turn Your Tradeshow Booth Into an Experimental Environment
Presented By: Barry Siskind

Studies have shown that your customers will remember an experience long after they have forgotten the details. Your booth hardware is brought to life when you add the experience. During this webinar you will learn: – The three elements to create a booth experience: Memorability, Connectivity and Interest. – How to incorporate … read more

Here is a blog post by Dave Stein that I think you will enjoy – he asks “Sales 2.0: Does It Enable Effective Selling Or Is It Yet Another Decoy?”

Tomorrow: It is more years than I care to remember since I first read “Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People” from Covey and tomorrow, I am giving you the opportunity to download my synopsis in eBook format FREE

The JF Guest Author Spot

Kevin Eikenberry

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to be more productive. We buy time management books, go to courses, try new software, read blogs dedicated to productivity and search for the best system to help us get more done in the time we have.

Of course increasing productivity makes sense because, even if we don’t always act like it, we only have a limited amount of time with a huge variety of things we would like to do with this limited resource.
This article isn’t about a system or some super-special techniques.

Nothing you are going to read below is going to surprise you, and yet most of us don’t do these things well, or do them so inconsistently that they lose their value. They aren’t sexy, don’t have a related website, and they won’t cost you anything except a decision and some discipline.

The good news is they’re so effective that once you develop the discipline you will have productivity gains for the rest of your life.

The Productivity Enhancers

Here are the four choices you can make to extend and enhance your productivity in any and every area of your life.

• Believing in Yourself and Your Success. While this is certainly true at the highest level – your self esteem is an important component of your success – in this case I am thinking about something more pragmatic.

Have you ever had a situation where the task becomes so daunting that you aren’t sure how you will ever figure it out or know if you can get it all done at all? When you are this unclear, your focus naturally moves to these negative thoughts and your confusion, frustration and overwhelm gets in the way of getting anything done; let alone large amounts of high quality work. Thankfully, the other three enhancers can help solve this one!

• Creating a Clear Purpose. As with belief, there is a big picture component to clarity of purpose. When you are clear on your life’s purpose everything in your life will get better, but for now we are talking about clarity on the current situation. Do you clearly understand the problem you are facing? Do you clearly know the goal you are trying to achieve? When you get more clear, you get more focused, and as you get more focused you can get more of the right things done.

• Maintaining a Refreshed State. Have you ever noticed that stress can negatively impact your productivity? Have you ever noticed how much more effective you are after a good night’s sleep or a healthy meal? In every one of these cases lies a key to greater productivity. To be more productive you must take better care of yourself. Get ample rest, eat better and exercise. All of these things will help you reduce your stress and remain refreshed and ready to tackle the work in front of you.

• Investing in Quiet Time. There are a number of forms and functions for your quiet time. You can reflect; you can pray or meditate; you can plan. Perhaps most of all, when you create quiet space in your life you can think. Thinking is something we do far too little of! When you give yourself time, space and permission to think about the things you’re working on, you will generate new ideas, approaches and connections. In addition, thinking time helps you stay more refreshed and alert as well.

The Paradox

As you read these four ideas you may be thinking – these things don’t give me more time – they take time.

This is so true.

Just as you must invest money to earn a return, you must also invest in yourself and your process in order to glean the best possible results. As counter-intuitive as it might sound, when you begin to invest in these activities, the resulting performance improvements will be incredible.

The Ultimate Benefits

These ideas can be applied, thinking of greater productivity in any area of life, but the best news of all is that when we decide and discipline ourselves to develop these habits, the benefits accrue in every area of our life – not just the area we were focused on when we started!

Potential Pointer: The greatest productivity improvements come from within and are a commitment to being more successful. That commitment starts with investing time in yourself, even when you think you are “too busy” to do those things.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. You can learn more about him  here

Today’s News: This has become Clayton Shold’s regular piece of weekly real estate, because I am a big fan of Salesopedia.

It is a “clean” site that looks good, feels good and has excellent content. It appeals to serious sales professionals; it is devoid of gimmicks; it is populated by the very best sales gurus; it is unpretentious; it does what it says on the label – it is for “grown-ups”

When I talk to any of my friends and colleagues, Salesopedia is always the #1 choice, when it comes to getting work published.

Is it the most visited? Who knows – different people use different statistics to suit themselves.

Yesterday, my friend Jeb Blount of Sales Gravy suggested I use a site called Compete.com – so, open-minded as ever I logged in: It told me that for December, Sales Gravy got 60k unique visitors; Salesopedia got less than 10k; my blog got minus 50k and Jill Konrath’s blog got 2.5 million – credibility shot to pieces with just one search.

Anyway, this week Clayton is interviewing Mike Shultz: (Another member of the “Global Follicle(y) – there is no such word, in case you are wondering - Challenged Society”

“Mike Schultz is the Publisher of RainToday.com which is the premiere online source for insight, advice and tools for business rainmakers, marketers, and leaders. It seems everyone today is talking about the economy, but Mike and his associate, John Doerr do more than just talk. They recently released their research on “How Clients Buy.” Their findings are very interesting and instructive on what you can do in this economy to positively impact your sales results. Find out what Mike says “the guy down the street” isn’t doing that you can do to win the business.”

As ever, simply click on the banner below to listen in.

Tomorrow: “Six Beliefs That Can Have A Positive Impact On Your Performance” – we are talking sales performance here!

The JF Guest Author Spot

Craig Klein

“You’ve got to hear 5 no’s to hear 1 yes.” is a common saying in the sales game. It’s also held up as one of the most challenging aspects of sales. Some people just can’t handle that kind of rejection day in and day out…

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way!

The history of selling, which I’ll save for another time, is such that prospects and sales people are trained to follow a certain dance. It’s one in which the prospect is “leading” and the sales rep is “following”. This puts the sales person at the mercy of the prospect’s whims and leads to lots of disappointment and rejection.
So, how does a sales person take control of the dance and find success in a more fulfilling way? Well, it’s not as hard as you think…

It’s really about knowing what makes someone need and want to pay for your product or service and making sure the prospects you invest your time in fit the bill. There are entire books and sales methodologies built around this concept – “Solution Selling”, “Find the Prospect’s Pain”, “Questioning Techniques” are all common phrases used within these methodologies.

More good news! You don’t really need to spend a week in sales training to get good at it!

Here’s a simple road map -
1.    Write down 3 to 10 things you need to know about a prospect before you know if you’re likely to do business with them. Imagine that you’re talking with a life long friend and he says he knows someone who may need your product or service. In that comfortable setting, with no risk of offending anyone, what would you ask your friend about his friend to be sure it’s a fit?

2.    Spend a little time working on scripting out ways to ask these questions that will be appropriate for your prospects. Keep it short, simple and to the point.

3.    Create a call sheet where you can record the answers to these questions for each prospect you talk with. A simple spreadsheet with each prospect listed on one row and the answers to your questions in columns will work. If you’re using a contact manager or CRM, create fields in the system for these answers.

4.    Now, test the questions by trying to answer them for all the prospects that are already into your sales pipeline. Try to fill in the blanks when you have further questions with these prospects. You’ll find it’s uncomfortable if you’re asking the right questions because these questions are much easier to ask at the beginning of the relationship.

5.    With every new prospect, take control up front using your questions. Take the role of the expert. When the prospect starts asking you the typical questions about your company and services, they’re taking over and you’re losing control. Stop them by saying something like “Our product/service is designed specifically for certain types of companies/customers/etc. Let me briefly ask you a few questions to see if we’re likely to be a fit for you. If so, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.” If handled properly, the prospect will see that this is in his best interests as he won’t be wasting his time if it’s not a fit.

6.    Now, the hard part – when you hear answers you don’t want to hear, recognize that you have an opportunity to do yourself and the prospect a huge favor. You can save yourselves a lot of time by saying “based on what you’ve told me, I don’t think that our offering is going to fit your needs.” You may even want to point them to other solutions that do fit.

I know, this sounds totally counterintuitive. Just try it. You’ll find that you establish tremendous creditability with the prospect and often, they’ll try to convince you that they DO need your product! …and that’s what we’re after!

Now you’re in control.
Now price won’t be such an issue.
Now you have more time to spend on the prospects that DO fit the bill!

If you’re having trouble making this concept work for you, you may be talking to the wrong people. More to come on finding the right prospects…

Craig Klein is CEO and Founder of SalesNexus.com, a leading online contact management system for small business sales teams.  Craig’s a sales process guy.  His passion is helping small businesses hire, train, measure and manage sales people through their sales process.  Craig’s blog, Sell, Sell, Sell! has become a valued resource for business owners and sales executives.

Today’s News:

   Here is a gig you really should not miss!! Presented by my good friend from NY,NY – the irrepressible Keith Rosen.

The Art of Enrollment – Turn More Conversations into Clients

Mark your Calendar! January 28. 2009

Attend this event as our guest for free.

“People don’t want to be sold. They want to be enrolled.”

If you’re a coach, trainer, consultant, or non-selling professional, this is one tele-workshop you can’t afford to miss on the evolution of selling.

How effective are you at converting conversations into clients? Do you find yourself struggling to find more clients? What do you do to be unique and make an impact in the very first conversation you have with a prospect? Masterful coaches and speakers leave not only a lasting impression – they also create one.
It’s no secret that most coaches, speakers and non-selling professionals don’t like to sell. The income of most coaches reflects that. As such, they unknowingly use ineffective selling strategies rather than develop healthy, winning relationships with clients. Relying on price as a competitive differentiator dilutes your true value offering.

Coaching and training is not something you “pitch and sell.” The next evolution in how you engage clients is through the Art of Enrollment. What has been initially perceived as an inherent ability in certain leaders, coaches and top achievers is now a documented, step by step process that allows anyone, especially non-selling professionals, to convert more prospects into clients. You can do so in a natural, conversational way that honors your personal strengths, talents, integrity, values and style of communicating.

Keith Rosen has taken his twenty years of coaching and million dollar enrollment process that catapulted his business to one of the most successful coaching practices in the country and is now sharing his system with you in his latest innovation, The Art of Enrollment; a proven process to build a highly profitable, rewarding and sustainable business.

Specifically designed for coaches, consultants and trainers to learn how to:

•  Conduct an initial coaching conversation that will allow you to convert more people into high paying clients in less than 60 minutes.

•  Ask better questions and stay away from the ones that actually sabotage your enrollment efforts.

•  Build enough value where you can easily double – if not triple your current fees so that you can start making a healthy six – seven figure salary.

•  Quickly defuse and eliminate any concerns that prevent people from hiring you.

•  Avoid the toxic clients.

•  Eliminate costly assumptions and toxic thinking that actually prevents you from building your practice.

Date: January 28. 2009
Duration: 90 Minutes
Time: 12pm EST
Location: Your Phone
Cost: Free! Please attend as our guest. Full details here

Sponsored by: The International Coach Federation

Over at Top 10 Sales Articles this week, there is a particularly fine selection of nominees, so do pop over and take a look.

Tomorrow: It’s time for me to give away yet another FREE ebook: This week, the topic is “Handling Objections” – everything you will ever need to know about breaking down resistance and getting to “Yes, I’ll Buy”

The JF Guest Author Spot

Kevin Dwyer

How well does your compensation method match the needs of your organisation? Does your compensation method create unintended consequences that deliver an observed strategy and set of tactics that differ greatly and negatively from the intended strategy and tactics?

If your answers are; “Not very well” and “Yes”, you are normal. If you answered “Very well”, and “No”, you work in a rare organisation or you are potentially blissfully unaware.

Most organisations operate with a salary only, or salary plus bonus (for the individual) scheme. Sales organisations and sales departments of large organisations often operate with a salary plus commission or a commission only compensation system. Another option not often used is the salary plus pool system. Salary and the pool may remain fixed with revenue, or float with revenue.

Which is the best compensation method? The question, unfortunately, only begs other questions. “How do you want your staff to behave?” is the first question one should ask of oneself when designing a compensation system.

Other considerations include what level of risk one wants employees to take, what degree of teamwork is required to be successful and how closely the organisation’s financial performance is tied to staff performance. For example, a retail sales organisation’s financial success is highly geared towards the salesperson’s success. A research laboratory’s success is highly geared towards individual risk taking (ideas) and team collaboration.

Salary, with or without salary sacrifice, is a good compensation system where individual risk taking need not be rewarded-other than through improvements in salary with career progression. Its other pros include: stable cost of doing business; easy to change accountabilities and roles; easy to administer; and high income security for the employees. Its major con is that it does not quickly reward successful short term risk taking.

Salary with a bonus is the most popular compensation system and yet it is one of the less beneficial compensation systems for most organisations.

The first con is that the bonus is usually tied to a budget number, operational quota or other target that has little relevance to the employee. The employee cannot see clearly how they may influence the performance to realise the bonus. Examples include an operations employee whose bonus is tied to profit and a local employee whose bonus is tied to the performance of a large geographical area.

For instance, consider a Chilean employee whose bonus is tied to the $US performance of the “South American” region. The payment of the bonus can easily depend on sovereign risk levels of Argentina and Brasil. What impact does that bonus arrangement have on the employee’s work? The answer is very little other than disappointment when the bonus does not materialise and joy akin to winning a lottery when it does. The bonus is equated to luck rather than personal or team performance.

When it is clear that either a bonus will or will not be paid a couple of months before the calculation period ends, there is often a tendency for effort and intensity of performance to drop off.

Other cons include that they are often difficult to administer, are poorly understood by employees, and create difficulty in changing roles and responsibilities during the period of time that the bonus is calculated.
The pros of such systems is that they provide a better balance of income security and income at risk for performance and allow for a design that incentivises individual or team performance and short term risk taking.

Commission structures, usually constructed for sales teams, consist of two generic types: commission only and salary plus commission. The pros of commission only and to a lesser extent salary plus commission, are that they provide a high degree of flexibility tying remuneration to revenue and are easy to administer and understand.

The cons of commission schemes, particularly commission only schemes, are that they may lead to aggressive behaviour and provide low income security for employees. Additionally, whilst other compensation systems reduce the cost of sales as a percentage of revenue as revenue increases, commission schemes fix the cost of sales as a percentage of revenue, meaning that from an organisational perspective, higher volumes of sales are no more profitable than lower volumes.

Another issue which clouds the impact of commissions on behaviour is the choice of paying on billings or receipts. The former absolves the salesperson of the responsibility for making appropriate checks on prospects’ abilities to pay. The latter makes it difficult to administer and may lead to aggressive collections behaviour.

A salary plus pool system offers what I think for most organisations is the best compensation system. The system works by creating a pool of funds which may be a proportion of revenue or a proportion of the overall budget or salaries budget. The availability of the pool is triggered by a single metric which the team can influence, for example, sales revenue, production volumes, project expenditure or costs.

The pool is divided amongst a team using a set of metrics which the individual can readily influence.
The metrics for dividing the pool should cover a range of behaviours as well as results. The number of metrics should number no more than four-more than that and individuals find it difficult to keep them top-of-mind. The metrics may change from quarter to quarter or year to year dependent on what is important in the operating environment at the time.

For example, elements to be assessed for a production plant may include three or four of the following:
• Contribution to safety culture
• Production volumes
• Productivity
• Error levels
• Project completion
• Reliability
• Adaptability
• Job knowledge
• Contribution to team ethic

Using a pool system with a defined team makes it more likely that individuals in the team will behave in such a way that the team gets the best result as it is their interest primarily to get the team result “across the line” and secondarily to contribute the most to it.

Another variation of the pool scheme is to have two trigger levels for two pools. One pool may be for an overall geographic region and another for a smaller region within the original geographic region, i.e. a state within a country, a country within a regional group of countries. Another alternative is a division within an organisation. A further alternative is for two sets of metrics within a triple bottom line set of objectives, for example, a pool for financial results and another for community engagement.

Compensation systems must be thought through from first principles to design them to achieve a behavioural objective. Following what competitors do is not enough because it is very likely that their compensation system is flawed in design when it comes to changing the behaviour of people.
©2008 Change Factory

Kevin Dwyer is a pragmatic change management advisor and founder of Change Factory based in Melbourne, Australia. The Change Factory view of what is generally missing in sales development can be summed up by the phrase “Training is not enough” Kevin’s interest in sales is in developing the reinforcing loops of corporate goal, strategy, marketing and sales tactics, KPIs, recruitment, career and competence development, coaching and counselling that influences more customers to move through their buying process with the selling organisation. www.changefactory.com

Today’s News:

One of my “inner circle” (The Global Sales Council) is talking to one of my good friends: Paul McCord is in interview with Clayton Shold over at Salesopedia: “Paul McCord gets results. As an author, consultant and coach he doesn’t make money unless he creates value. This is true for anyone in the sales profession. Every day you are challenged to direct your energies on activities that drive your income. In this podcast Paul distils down to three key words critical to sales success.”  Just click on the image above to listen in.

Tomorrow: “How Roger Bannister Challenged Self-Limiting Beliefs” – and the lessons we can learn from one man’s courage as we strive to deal with the challenges of 2009

The JF Guest Author Spot

Colleen Francis

Every January, no matter where you look—magazines, newspapers, TV—everybody talks about how it’s time dive in and get a “new you” makeover. Reinventing yourself ought to be about more than just getting a new outfit and haircut. Why not start by making changes where it really counts—in your sales results! More sales this year means more commissions…which means you’ll have more money to really spoil yourself later on.

The first step is to know where you stood at the end of last year. Like most sales professionals, it’s likely that you can quickly recite exactly how much you closed and how much you earned last year. But have you stopped to consider just how productive you were? It’s a question worth pondering.

Recently I conducted a poll with my clients—most of whom were in leadership positions—to determine their biggest sales concerns. The overwhelming answer was sales productivity. In other words, how much revenue per period can each team member produce, and how can we make that better.

You can chart your sales productivity daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annually. Given that we have just finished a calendar year, you have a great opportunity right now to take a look at your own productivity or that of your team from last year.

There are two ways to do this…

1. Look at your ratios
At a minimum, sales reps should produce 6-9 times what they’re paid. The best companies achieve ratio of 10-12 times what they pay their sales staff. If the total take-home pay for a rep (commissions and salary combined) is $100,000, then the best reps produce at least one million dollars in sales.

Granted, these numbers are moving targets. You need to take into account accelerators, bonuses new hires, among other factors, but it is nevertheless a reasonably accurate measure to use when assessing sales productivity.

Let’s test your own productivity for last year. What was your total take-home pay (i.e., salaries plus commissions)? What was your total revenue tally? Simple division will tell you if your productivity levels were mediocre or high. I recommend that managers conduct that test for each team member, as well as for the entire sales team.

2. Examine your sales capacity
Another way to look at productivity is to analyze your sales capacity last year. Do that by multiplying the following:
(# of reps) X
(average hours you work per day) X
(number of weeks you work per year) X
(% of selling time) X
(closing ratio)

For example, if you worked 10 hours per day, 52 weeks per year, spent 100% of your time selling, and had a 100% closing ratio, your sales capacity would be a whopping 520. This, of course, is an entirely unrealistic number, but it serves to illustrate how this kind of analysis is conducted.

Realistically, most sales people work an 8-10 hour day, up to 46-48 weeks per year. Selling time per day is a huge variable. The key question is how much time you spend talking to customers. Most sales people report 30% of their day is spent talking directly to customers—and I find it can be as high as 60% and as low as 10%. If you’re unsure, estimate that 50% of your time per day is spent selling and the other half is spent in meetings, at lunch, driving, talking to co-workers, entering data into CRM, research or doing general administrative work. Enter this number as a decimal in the formula.

Closing ratios can be as low as .008 (125:1), and as high as 0.5 (1:2). It depends on whether you’re cold calling from the yellow pages (which has the lowest closing ratios), or growing your business based on referrals (which has the highest closing ratios). Be honest with yourself and make sure you consider your closing ratio from net new contacts to close—not just the closing ratio from proposal stage to close.

Now that you have your sales capacity number, you can set some goals to improve it. Try to get as close to the unrealistic 520 number we mentioned earlier!

What to improve first? For starters, don’t think about increasing the number of weeks you work in the coming year. That number should be decreasing not increasing. Also, there’s no point in adding sales reps to the equation if your sales capacity is already too low. Instead, consider the following activities.

Optimize your number of hours selling — Can you outsource some non-sales work to others so that you can increase the number of hours you spend per week in front of customers? Consider outsourcing low-return tasks (e.g., expense reports, preparation of slide decks, editing).

Improve your closing ratio — Are you asking for referrals every day from clients? Can you target your market to a smaller niche? Can you improve your qualification steps? Do you have a targeted marketing program to help the right clients find you? Are you reaching out to your existing customers at least once per month?

Sure, we all want improved productivity, but if you don’t know how productive you were last year, how will you know what to improve? To reinvent your sales this year, you must know your benchmarks from last year. Once that’s established, you can choose the right activities to improve. You must measure results at every step, and make decision based on the numbers—not your gut feeling.

As I do every year, I invite you to set a goal for yourself for the coming year and send me your implementation plan. I am happy to hold your feet to the fire every month—just a friendly check-in to see how you’re doing!
Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions (www.EngageSelling.com). Armed with skills developed from years of experience, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line.

Start improving your results today with Engage’s online Newsletter Engaging Ideas and a FREE 10 day intensive sales eCourse: www.EngagingIdeasOnline.com

Today’s News:

I would like to take this opportunity to send all my friends, colleagues and associates in the USA, my very best wishes on this very special day. Whilst this is a very significant day for you, you know that it also will inevitably have a significant effect on the lives of everyone in the world.

You should also know that “the thinking classes” in Europe are 100% behind President Obama – we can almost say that now. We have never doubted the need for drastic change, and I for one, will wake up far more hopeful after an eight year nightmare. This is not a time for recrimination - post-mortems will take care of  that – let’s all look forward to an administration which is honest, transparent and that genuinely puts the people (of the world) first.

Have a great day my friends, today I am spiritually on Capitol Hill with you.

Tomorrow: It is time for me to give you another FREE Ebook – “Networking To Success” so be sure to claim your copy.

The JF Guest Author Spot

Lee B. Salz

Sales managers are facing a set of challenges that they’ve never experienced before. They think their team is focused on generating sales, but they are completely distracted.

As a sales manager, for years, you’ve had Human Resources preaching to you about the importance of work-life balance for your sales team. They reminded you that studies showed that productivity increased when employees had balance between their work life and their personal one. They told you that the team needed time to recharge their batteries so they could sell more for the company.

Some still talk about work-life balance, but the truth of the matter is that this is a yesterday issue. Work-life implies that “work” is a stressful world and “life” is a place of solace. Those days are gone with the way our economy has evolved. Your sales team is getting it from both sides now. They have unprecedented, high levels of stress at work and at home. The former life of solace is now filled with concerns of mounting debt, drastic drops in home values, a real fear of job loss, and disgust over their investment portfolio.

When your sales team arrives to start the day at 8am, the reality is that their day is already over. They began their day by watching the morning news. “Unemployment is at a record high! Housing values continues to fall! Consumer confidence is non-existent!” What a great way to start a productive sales day! 

Imagine a boxer who gets beaten up before he enters the ring…What chance does he have of being successful in the match? ZERO! Today, your sales team is faced with the same challenges as that boxer. The media is defeating them before their day even begins. They arrive at work to begin their day, but the truth of the matter is that they are already finished. They’ve already lost.

Despite all of these woes, the company is relying on the sales team to pull the company out of the painful downward spiral driven by the economic mess. Logic would tell you that with the present state of affairs, the sales team is more focused than ever on generating sales. Every minute of the business day, they are either on the phone with a prospect or meeting with one. All they can think of is… Make a sale!

Unfortunately, logic does not come into play here. All of the external noise is leading your sales team in the complete opposite direction. They are checking the market hourly, their 401k every 15 minutes, and checking the job boards. It’s as if there is total sales paralysis. Sales productivity is probably at an all time low, at a time when the company needs them most. As the sales manager, this all falls in your lap. You are the face of the sales organization. The company needs you to change your hat from manager to leader to help focus the troops on the task at hand.

Since this is a relatively new issue, most sales managers have not been trained how to help their team regain their focus to drive productivity (a.k.a. sales). As a sales manager, what can you do to regain the reigns of the team and lead them to sales success?

1. Communicate, even…over communicate. Open and honest discussion about the present state of affairs helps to relieve the angst that the team is experiencing. As a manager, you may be in a leadership chain, but the team looks to their direct leader for guidance and support.

2. Hold the team accountable. While empathetic and understanding, the sales leader needs to remind the team of the task at hand. Direction provided to the team should be clear and team members should be held accountable for performance.

3. Coach them. Little things can help your team regain their sales edge. Suggest that they not start their day by watching the morning news. Have them read the news online so they have total control over which news to become informed. They control the information saturation point, not the television media. (This is a prudent thing for you to do as well.)

4. Lead by example. While challenging, put on your game face and show confidence. Keep the conversation on the task at hand, not external influences. Smile! If you walk around showing stress, your sales team will mirror your behavior. They will think something is wrong and sales paralysis enters.

5. Be visible! When the number of closed door meetings increases, sales people speculate that something is wrong. While a productive meeting may be taking place inside, on the other side of the door, your entire sales team is talking about what you may be discussing in your meeting. In the absence of direct knowledge, your sales team will guess the meeting is about gloom and doom. Limit your closed door meetings. Be visible with your sales team. Join them on sales calls. Meet with clients.

Other industry experts have also weighed in on this issue. If they were talking to a sales manager about how to focus their sales team and drive productivity, they suggest…

“Sales managers must remember the behavior of sales people is driven by the desire to avoid pain or gain pleasure. The more powerful of these two drivers is the desire to gain pleasure. Smart sales managers recognize that achievement and recognition of that achievement are the two most powerful motivators in sales. So instead of cracking the whip, they are whipping up contests, games, spiffs, and awards that keep their sales professionals focused, happy, and engaged.”
- Jeb Blount, CEO of SalesGravy.com and author of “Power Principles”

“Stop being complacent to selling professionals. Selling professionals control their destiny more than any other organizational function. Nothing happens unless something is sold. Selling professionals must speak with customers, requesting referrals and closing business. Watching the news is simply a form of procrastination. They must discover the unspent allocated money from the current budget year and request the business. Products and services are still needed. Tell selling professionals to do what the competition is not – sell something!”  -Drew Stevens, PhD, Business Growth Consultant and Author of “Split Second Selling” and “Ultimate Business Bible”

“Managers need to shift away from fear based management and develop more of a collaborative coaching culture. You cannot inspire others when you are afraid and you can’t be inspired when you’re full of fear and worry. Conduct more frequent one-to-one meetings, build greater accountability by relinquishing your role as Chief Problem Solver and have less tolerance for mediocrity. Ultimately, management needs to adapt, innovate and evolve or suffer from corporate inefficiency, rigidity and declining profits.”-Keith Rosen, Executive Sales Coach and author of the award winning, “Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions”

“In tough times, sellers must be at the top of their game. As a sales manager, your job is to infuse your team with fresh thinking – to make sure they have the knowledge and skills to deal with today’s challenges. Start a “book of the month” club. Register for webinars or teleseminars put on by sales experts. Encourage sign up for sales e-newsletters. Lead weekly “how we won” sessions. For maximum impact, start now!”
-Jill Konrath, Sales Strategist & author, Selling to Big Companies

“Sales managers must help salespeople to maintain clarity, calm their nerves, help them function, keep them positive, get them motivated, challenge them to perform, urge them to fill their pipelines and hold them accountable to all of that. And talking the talk isn’t quite enough.  When conducting pre-call strategizing, coaching must include how the account or call plan will be executed – with role play – so that sales managers are certain their salespeople truly have the ability to get it done.  Your pipelines may have been thrown into a holding pattern. Orders haven’t canceled or been lost to competitors; they are simply delayed.  The sooner that everyone gets over their initial reaction to the recession and gets back to just doing business, the sooner that money will loosen up and start changing hands again.” -Dave Kurlan, Sales Development Expert, and author of “Baseline Selling”

“To get the malaise out of your sales team give them permission to press the “off button” and shut out the negative media. Protect seller’s natural optimism – have contests for the best joke of the day – buy coffee for the winner. Equip them with the winning words – role-play the very words decision-makers long/need/want to hear: which are how your product increases revenues; decreases expenses; mitigates risk.” -Leslie Buterin, CEO at The Sales Corporation and founder of Top Dog International

“During this time of stress, management needs to attend to the emotional needs of their sales professionals. Part of that attention is to help them understand what they can change and what is beyond their abilities to change. For example they can change their attitude in how they approach each day, keeping a positive focus and working to produce results. What they can’t change is how the market will fluctuate on an hour by hour basis.”  -Gregory Stebbins, Ed.D., internationally recognized Sales Psychologist

There has never been a more critical time for sales leaders to work overtime to ensure that their teams remain focused and fully motivated: Attitude is, after all, that small thing that makes such a big difference. Strong leadership from the front, and by example, is the only way to reverse the downward spiral that comes with self-limiting beliefs and fears.” -Jonathan Farrington, Chairman of The Sales Corporation & CEO of Top Sales Associates

“In order to re-energize your team you need to help them become more successful. The fastest way you can do that is by establishing a killer sales strategy that focuses on a moderate amount of ideal clients. An effective strategy positions you as the industry expert, educates the client/prospect on how to run their business better, sets the buying criteria and establishes doing business with you as a forgone conclusion. Your sales people will be fired up because they are closing lots of business, making good money and loving life!”  -Andy Miller, sales strategist

“Although the current economic situation presents problems for you and your sales team, it also presents unprecedented opportunities. There are still prospects buying and customers purchasing additional products and services, and your competitors are facing the same daunting and depressing news. Salespeople who overcome their lethargy and seek new business can turn this economic downturn into a record-breaking year.  Empathize with their issues, but emphasize the tremendous opportunities your team has while their competition is sitting on the sidelines.” -Paul McCord, management consultant and author of the Sales and Sales Management Blog

“Salespeople will be excited to come to work when they adopt a referral-selling strategy. They’ll meet with decision makers, shorten their sales process, and convert prospects to clients more than 50% of the time—while acing out the competition and landing new, profitable clients. They’ll meet only with the people they want to meet and who want to meet them. What an irresistible proposition! Money in their pockets. What a great motivator!” -Joanne Black, founder of No More Cold Calling and author of “No More Cold Calling™: the Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust”

“The issue has become one of finding and sustaining mental energy. Not just the energy you and your team need to achieve sales. Even more important is your ability to sustain the enthusiasm, calm and inspiration needed to get your team through these torrid times.  Instead of work life balance, it’s about getting the right flow of personal energy input and business energy output. Having an enjoyable personal interest that enables you to switch off is a good start.”-Peter Nicholls, Director, Work Leisure International

Lee B. Salz is a sales management guru who helps companies hire the right sales people, on-board them, and focus their sales activity using his sales architecture® methodology. He is the President of Sales Architects, the C.E.O. of Business Expert Webinars and author of the award-winning book, “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” Lee is an online columnist for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, a print columnist for SalesforceXP Magazine, and the host of the Internet radio show, “Secrets of Business Gurus.” Look for Lee’s new book in February 2009 titled, “The Sales Marriage” where he shares the secrets to hiring the right sales people. He is a passionate, dynamic speaker and a business consultant. Lee can be reached at lsalz@SalesArchitecture.com or 763.416.4321.

Today’s News: The Sales Bloggers Union have just released their first ebook and you can download it by simply clicking on the banner below – it is a scream! (Can’t believe I said that, Munch will be turning in his grave  :-(

Tomorrow: “Thoughts About Leadership And Thoughts About Followship”  You are either one or the other and whichever it is, you have a new set of challenges this year!

The JF Guest Author Spot

Jill Konrath

Selling in today’s economy is tough. And, it’s likely going to get a lot tougher in the upcoming months. That’s not news that we want to hear, but it is the reality we face so it makes sense to address it head on.

Recently I noticed that 465 fewer sellers get my newsletter today than 3 months ago, even though I’ve added tons of new subscribers. Why? Dead email addresses. I can only surmise that these sellers have lost their jobs. Ouch!

So let me ask this: What are you doing about it?

I can tell you right now that I’m taking action. Tough times call for different sales approaches, new offerings and stronger business cases. It’s not enough to just make more calls or have more meetings. We have to be better than we’ve ever been – in every aspect.

But let’s talk about you right now. Are you hoping you can hang in there for a while longer? Hoping that you’ll still have customers? Hoping that you’ll make your numbers?

As Rick Page says, “Hope is not a strategy.” As far as I’m concerned, there’s only ONE thing that makes sense right now. It’s time to take charge of your own career.

You can’t count on your employer to take care of you. That’s a brutal statement, but true.

Whether you work for a big organization or an upstart firm, you could lose your job tomorrow. Even if your boss really cares about you! Even if your company is still doing okay. Of course, you realize that it’s not personal. It’s just a business decision.

But it is personal. It’s your life, your career, and your family that’s at risk. I don’t mean to be an alarmist. I just want you to wake up and take responsibility for your future now so you can minimize the effects of this economic downturn.

Too many sellers I know are complacent, coasting, doing what’s expected of them but not a whole lot more. If this continues, it will be their downfall.

When companies hit tough times, mediocre sellers are the first to go. Doing an “okay” job or being “average” is no longer an acceptable contribution.

If you’re mediocre, you’re also disposable to your customers. Being knowledgeable about your product or service is no longer enough. All that information is online, so you don’t bring value. When that happens, they replace you with a lower cost solution.

Customers want to work with experts who understand their business and can help them achieve their objectives. To do that well, you need to be a problem solving, critical thinking person who can synthesize lots of information and turn it into invaluable, actionable ideas.

In tough times, you have to sharpen your sales skills and bring expertise to your customers. Doing just one is not sufficient. Whew! That’s asking a lot.

You just have to keep getting smarter and better in order to stay in the game. If that’s not your focus, you’re vulnerable to the ravages of these tough times.

Don’t let it happen to you. Give yourself a booster shot! It’s time to invest in your own professional development program. Don’t wait for your company to send you to training programs to upgrade your knowledge and skills. You’re not #1 on their priority list.

But you are #1 on your own priority list. So, wake up. Get going. Your livelihood depends on it.

Booster Shot 1: Open Your Mind to New Thinking

When was the last time you read a book that offered fresh perspectives on how you can be a valuable resource and/or a top seller? Honestly? What are you waiting for?

Here are several books I’ve found stimulating:
• A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink: Discover the skills needed in a changing economy.
• Good in a Room, Stephanie Power: Fresh observations and useful advice.
• Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds: Learn how to tantalize with your presentations.
• Made to Stick, Chip & Dan Heath:  What makes (sales) stories memorable.
• Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam: Discover strategies to really engage your prospects.
• Metaphorically Selling, Anne Miller: New ways to make what you say, pay.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Selling to Big Companies. It challenges your entire process for getting into corporate accounts and shows you what’s required. If you haven’t read it yet, you’re missing out.

Blogs are also a great place to get fresh perspectives. I regularly read blogs about sales, marketing, business development, creativity, writing and more.

Booster Shot 2: Increase Your Personal Productivity

Virtually every seller I know could get much more done in less time if they leveraged technology better. Not only that, but you’d be a whole lot savvier when you’re with your customers – which should directly correlate to increased sales success.

There’s no excuse any more for not using these resources. In fact, if you don’t know about them or can’t use them, it’s time to get educated. Here’s what I recommend for:
• Finding contacts: Jigsaw, Netprospex, LinkedIn
• Triggering event updates: InsideView, Google & BizJournals Alerts
• Account research: Hoovers, D&B, ZoomInfo
• Industry intelligence: First Research
• Email intelligence: Genius
• Sales productivity: Landslide
• Online Meetings: GoToMeeting, Webex

All these resources are affordable to everyone. If your company doesn’t pay for these services, use your own money. The value that you get from them far outweighs the expense. You’ll save so much time, plus learn critical insights that can be leveraged for business success.

Booster Shot 3: Get Connected – and Stay Connected

The worst time to build your personal network is when you’re desperate. No matter how hard you try to sound normal, every contact oozes with your neediness.

Start by creating or updating your LinkedIn profile. From a business perspective, it’s the place to be. If you’re not sure what to do, check out my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/sellingtobigcompanies.

Once yours is ready for prime time, you can:
• Ask your boss, co-workers and clients to recommend you. Do it now, not when you need it.
• Invite your customers to connect with you online. That way, if anyone changes jobs, you can keep in touch.
• Look up former colleagues (classmates, friends, etc.) and invite them to connect.

Get out from your self-imposed isolation too! I know you’re busy. But it’s important to talk or meet with people from outside your own company. Arrange breakfast meetings. Attend industry events. Take a former colleague to lunch. My favorite? Meet for coffee over the phone! It saves so much time, but it gives you a dedicated time to talk.

Finally, remember that networking is not a one-way street. You’ll find people much more willing to help you out if you’re a GIVER first. You can share insights, refer potential customers, make connections, or offer genuine assistance in any area. As a bonus, giving makes you feel good inside too!

In Conclusion
While these booster shots can’t protect you against everything, they will give you the best immunity possible for these tough times. Plus, when you make them a part of your life, your success is truly guaranteed – in tough times and in good times!

Everything is within your control. That’s why it should be your focus right now. Because it is what you can do. Because it will make you a better seller. Because it changes your life & your career.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and founder of the Sales Shebang, is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and industry events. For more articles like this, visit http://www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com. Sign up for the newsletter and get a BONUS Sales Call Planning Guide.

Buy Jill’s book, Selling To Big Companies, at Amazon. Visit the community for Women Who Sell at http://www.salesshebang.com. 

Today’s News: Today’s message is from the referral selling expert in the world – Joanne Black.

Beat Back the Recession

Join Joanne Black in the popular Business Expert Webinar: Recession-Proof Selling. Take a deep breath and successfully forge ahead against fierce competition, price pressures, and tight budgets.

Learn the 8 Killer Steps to Recession-Proof Your Business!

Blast the competition out of the account
Leverage existing relationships to grow revenue
Accelerate the sales process to win more, faster
Convert more sales than ever before
Know the importance of price and how to mitigate it

Date: Tuesday | January 13, 2009
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (Pacific)
Cost: $79 USD
Register now

Avoid the Perils of Recession
You’ve heard about referrals: Ace out the competition, and get a new client well more than 50% of the time. There is no other strategy that comes close to these results, and at no cost to your company.

Enrollment Bonus
Registrants receive Joanne’s powerful MP3 download “Weaving Your Own Network”.

Make the Investment: Register for the Business Expert Webinar
Date: Tuesday | January 13, 2009
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (Pacific)
Cost: $79 USD
Register now

Join us on Tuesday and make 2009 your year!

Tomorrow:”Reconstructing the Pieces of the Sales Puzzle – A FREE Ebook“