Sales and Sales Management Blog

September 12, 2008

6 Great Free Sales Efficiency Tools

Filed under: Sales Resources,technology,time management — Paul McCord @ 9:08 am
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Here are 6 great tools that you should take a look at.  Some are necessities, some are just cool, some are both.  All are FREE.

Backpack: Backpack is a great free resource that allows you to organize your files, create a calendar, including reminders that will be emailed to you, set up files about anything, including upcoming meetings and events, schedule events, and much more.  The best part is not only can you access all of the features from any computer, but reminders for events, meetings and ‘to do’ items can be sent to your mobile phone as text messages.  In addition, you can share your information with colleagues, friends, clients, prospects, your manager, or anyone or any group you desire.

Remember Me:  Remember Me allows you to connect with prospects and clients via texting on your mobile phone.  You can send your business card, let the prospect browse your products and services, set up custom greetings, add you to their LinkedIn account, and more.  Not only that, your prospect can send their business card back to you which is automatically inserted into your CRM, Outlook, or address book.  Yep, it’s free.

FreeConferenceCall.com: Free Conference Call allows you to hook up to 96 participants on a conference call free.  Well, almost free-each participant has to pay long-distance charges by their service provider, but even that typically is only a couple of dollars at most.  You can record calls of up to six hours free of charge and then distribute those recordings via email, RSS, download as a WAV file, or access it through their recording call in line.  There is no limit on the number of conferences you have.  Have more than 96 participants?  No problem-but it isn’t free.  You can have up to 250 callers at a time using an 800 at a cost of 6 cents per minute per caller, or up to 200 callers on their standard call in line for $99 per month.

CutePDF: Everyone needs a PDF writer.  Some are expensive, some are free.  CutePDF is free and has some great features such as no watermarks and no pop-up ads.  A great basic PDF writer.  If you need a few more advanced features such as writing booklets, combining PDF files, and such, there is a PRO version for just $49.95.

Google Notebook:  Allows you to clip notes, images, links from the Internet and save them without leaving the site.  You can access them from any computer or your cell phone and send and share them with others.  You can have multiple files, share all or parts of them, save and store as much as you want and organize it any way you want.

Sticky Notes:  Now you can have sticky notes on your desktop.  Reminders, hot ideas, to do lists, or anything you want to remember can be posted in a sticky note to your desktop.  You can even print them or send them via email.  You can save them, hide them, show them, roll them, show only the heading, and lots more.  Get rid of all of these sticky notes on your desk and put them on your desktop.  Sure, you’re likely not remember them, but when you do need them, you’ll know where they are.

September 11, 2008

Guest Article, “Think Before You Speak,” by Kelley Robertson

Filed under: business,Negotiation,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:04 am
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Think Before You Speak
By Kelley Robertson

You are talking to a customer and after you present your product, service or solution, she asks, “What discount can I get?” or “What can you do about the price?” Think before you speak otherwise this innocent-sounding question will cost you money right off your bottom line. While it’s tempting to offer a discount or better price resist the desire to do so.

Here’s why.

First, just because someone asks you for a better price, does not mean they expect to get it. Some people ask for a discount because they have been told to. They are often uncomfortable doing this and will seldom press the issue. However, professional buyers and key decision-makers know that many sellers will drop their price at the first sign of resistance so they ask everyone for a discount-and they can be aggressive in their approach. Plus, experienced negotiators lose respect for people who drop their price too quickly. Standing your ground and refusing to cave in right away is also a show of strength and executives respect this type of behavior.

Second, when you drop your price too quickly, you teach your customer to repeat that behavior in future transactions. Remember, everything you do now affects your customer’s behavior toward you in the future. When I first started my private practice, I gave a client a discount on a package of services.  The next time he contacted, he demanded that same discount which put me in a somewhat precarious position-did I give the same discount or risk losing the sale? A business executive once told me that she knew which of her suppliers she could browbeat into giving her a better price and she always took advantage of that perceived weakness.

So, what is the best way to respond to a request for a discount or better price?

Professional negotiators will tell you to flinch. A flinch is a visible reaction to a request or demand and goes something like this, “You want a discount!?! Even though we have been working together for four years and you know our services will help you get better results you still want a discount?” When coupled with the right facial expressions and body language, this technique is extremely effective. However, I have found that most people are extremely uncomfortable using this approach and even I find it difficult to apply on a consistent basis.

An effective way to respond to a request for a better price is to ask, “What did you have in mind?” or “What were you looking for?” When you ask one of these questions, you get the other person to tell you how much of a discount they want. In many cases, their expectation will be less than you are prepared to give which means you will increase the size of the sale and save money at the same time-a double win. One word of caution here-an experienced negotiator will say, “Well, I want a better price than this” which means you need to be prepared to ask the question a couple of times.

This also applies to email correspondence. Many people will ask their sales person for a discount via email which makes it next to impossible to use some of the standard negotiating techniques. Before you respond by offering a better price, take the time to properly craft your email. Here is what you can say, “We might be able to do something for you. What did you have in mind?” The key is to give the indication that you have flexibility without committing to something you might regret later.

This sounds like an easy technique to use but it’s not. You have to train yourself to listen for your customer’s question and be prepared to respond with your own. I hate to admit it but I have fallen for this question because I wasn’t expecting it. In one situation, an existing client asked me for a package price on some bundled services. Instead of responding by asking what price he was looking for, I automatically offered a small discount. I kicked myself afterwords because I felt that I should know better.

It is essential to listen carefully to what your prospect says and to think before you speak. It is also critical to practise asking your question until it becomes second-nature so you can respond quickly when a prospect asks for a discount or better price.

Kelley Robertson, author of The Secrets of Power Selling helps sales professionals and businesses discover new techniques to improve their sales and profits. Receive a FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to his free newsletter available at www.kelleyrobertson.com. Kelley conducts workshops and speaks regularly at sales meetings and conferences. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com.

September 9, 2008

Looking For THE Silver Bullet in Sales?

Filed under: business,Closing Sales,sales,Sales Process,selling,success — Paul McCord @ 8:14 am
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Ah, the endless search for the silver bullet, that magic formula that will make sales so easy, so quick, so painless.  For many in sales that Don Quixote quest is never-ending.   The internet is full of sites that promise that magic bullet-if you’re willing to pop for only $895, they’ll send you the 14 page e-book that will give you the secret you’ve been looking for.

OK, so it doesn’t exist.

That’s not to say that there aren’t real strategies that work.  There are.  And Craig Elias is presenting a free tele-seminar that gets you as close to THE silver bullet in sales as you’ll ever get.

Yep, it’s free.

Yep, it works.

Nope, it ain’t easy (surely you’re not gullible enough to believe that those things that really do work are easy).

It’s called timing-and it’s the real thing.

What will you learn during Craig’s 30 minute presentation?

  1. Identifying what the right timing is
  2. Learning how to get the right timing
  3. Understanding what to do when you do have the right timing

You’ll also learn:

  • The three types of Trigger Events that create highly motivated buyers
  • The specific Trigger Events that create highly motivated buyers for what you sell

DATE: September 17

TIME: 10AM Pacific (1PM Eastern, Noon Central, 11AM Mountain, or GMT -7 for other time zones)

Register HERE:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/705326053

Head over and register.  It’s short.  It’s real training.  It works.

September 7, 2008

Great Tips and a Free Audio Copy of My Referral Selling Book

Filed under: Book Recommendations,business,lead generation,marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,Sales Resources,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:08 pm
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Would you like a free unabridged audio copy of my bestselling book Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals? Well, you can have one courtesy of Jeb Blount, The Sales Guy. That’s every second of the 4 hours and 18 minutes of the book-and not only do you not pay the Audible cost of $17.95, you don’t pay a penny.

Jeb’s podcast series, The Sales Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips, has arranged for you get a free download of my book in audio form from Audiable.com. Already have the book in hardback or audio form? Would you rather have another book? No problem. You can choose my book or a book by Nido Qubein, Tom Hopkins, Brain Tracey, Steven R. Covey, Harry Beckwith, Zig Zigler, Malcolm Gladwell, Jeffrey Giotmer, Seth Godin, or other top authors.

The best part is you also get great sales tips from Jeb. Hop on over to iTunes, Quick and Dirty Tips, or Sales Gravy, listen to Jeb give you some tips to help you sell and then listen to me tell you how to turn your business into a referral-based business, increase your income substantially, get off the ineffective, discouraging, and never-ending cold calling treadmill, and enjoy your job a whole lot more.

I want to thank Jeb for featuring my book on this offer-and encourage you, whether you get my book, another book, or no book, to head over to Quick and Dirty Tips and improve you sales business.

September 5, 2008

Networking Lessons from Mother Teresa and Machiavelli

Filed under: business,Client Relationships,Networking,prospecting,sales,sales psychology,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:38 am
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Little, sweet, big hearted, concerned only with the poor, the hungry, the homeless. That’s our image of Mother Teresa. And she was that in reality. But she was more-much more.

Conniving, heartless, power hungry, goal focused, destroy anything in your path. That’s our image of Machiavelli. Well, he actually wasn’t all that, but that’s the message that has been gleaned from The Prince, his treatise to his prince on how to govern.

Mother Teresa must have studied The Prince well because she learned the book’s lessons well. And Machiavelli must have been friends with Nostradamus to have envisioned the means by which to create great working relationships in modern American business.

What did Machiavelli understand about modern business so well that he taught it to Mother Teresa and she used it so successfully?

Fortunately, it isn’t the ruthlessness, the exercise of power, or the need to be vigilant in identifying and destroying threats, although it sounds like some modern businesspeople have been reading The Prince also.

What Machiavelli and Mother Teresa understood so well was human nature. They understood how to get what they wanted without the use of force, of ruthlessness, of power. They understood how to create relationships that brought people to do their bidding (admittedly, in Machiavelli’s vision there was always the threat of the more unpleasant means if one sought to resist).

Unlike so many today who try to take advantage of their connections to get what they want, Machiavelli and Mother Teresa understood that you must first give in order to get.

So often I see salespeople and business owners try to coerce people they meet into buying from them or giving them referrals. Not coerce in the sense of force, but rather coerce by immediately overwhelming them with information about who they are, what they do, their great products or service, their stupendous customer service, their unbelievable offers.

They hardly give the other person an opportunity to breath.

They don’t take the time to learn a thing about the other person or what they may or may not need or want.

Their approach is that of a volcano, spewing forth words like lava, hoping to bury them in so much hot BS that the other person capitulates in order to just survive the encounter.

Any of us who have been to a networking event, conference, or seminar have met these people. They swarm the floor like flies, moving from person to person with fantastic speed, leaving in their wake a series of potential connections who hope they never encounter that salesperson again.

We meet them and are appalled. We think to ourselves, “What a dufess.”

But in reality, that dufess just might be us. It’s so easy to fall into that type of behavior without even recognizing it.

Mother Teresa and Machiavelli understood the fruitlessness of this behavior. They understood that in order get what they wanted they had to first take a sincere (Mother Teresa) or calculated (Machiavelli) interest in the other person and to find something of value they could give-and then they could expect to get. And more importantly, they understood the value they gave had to be something the other person recognized as valuable. They understood that they had to dig; they had to discover what was valuable to the person they were dealing with. They didn’t give something they thought was of value; they gave what the other person thought was of value-even if that was something they would not have thought of being of much value themselves.

Whether sincere or calculated, if you want value from your connections, be they clients, family, friends, or new acquaintances, you must find ways to first give value. And you don’t get to decide what’s valuable and what isn’t-that is for the person you’re trying to connect with to decide.

And for their effort what did Machiavelli and Mother Teresa get? Machiavelli’s prince got power. Mother Teresa got the funding and the ability to carry out her work. Each had very different objectives, but they got them the same way. You can too.

September 4, 2008

Guest Article: “Setting the Climate for Non-Confrontational Negotiation,” by Roger Dawson

Filed under: business,Communication,Negotiation,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:19 am
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Setting the Climate for a Non-Confrontational Negotiation
By Roger Dawson

What you say in the first few moments of a negotiation often sets the climate of the negotiation. The other person quickly gets a feel for whether you are working for a win-win solution, or whether you’re a tough negotiator who’s out for everything they can get.

That’s one problem that I have with the way that attorneys negotiate-they’re very confrontational negotiators. You get that white envelope in the mail with black, raised lettering in the top left hand corner and you think, “Oh, no! What is it this time?” You open the letter and what’s the first communication from them? It’s a threat. What they’re going to do to you, if you don’t give them what they want.

I remember conducting a seminar for 50 attorneys who litigated medical malpractice lawsuits, or as they prefer to call them, physician liability lawsuits. I’ve never met an attorney who was eager to go to a negotiating seminar, although that’s what they do for a living, and these people were no exception to the rule. However, the organization that was giving the attorneys their business told them that they were expected to attend my seminar if they wanted to get any more cases from the organization. So the attorneys weren’t too happy about having to spend Saturday with me in the first place, but once we got started, they became involved and were having a good time. I got them absorbed in a workshop involving a surgeon being sued over an unfortunate incident involving a nun and walked around the room to see how they were doing. I couldn’t believe how confrontational they were being. Most of them started with a vicious threat and then became more abusive from that point on. I had to stop the exercise and tell them that if they wanted to settle the case without expensive litigation (and I doubted their motives on that score) that they should never be confrontational in the early stages of the negotiation.

So, be careful what you say at the beginning. If the other person takes a position with which you totally disagree, don’t argue. Arguing always intensifies the other person’s desire to prove himself or herself right. You’re much better off to agree with the other person initially and then turn it around using the Feel, Felt, Found formula. Respond with, “I understand exactly how you feel about that. Many other people have felt exactly the same way as you do right now. (Now you have diffused that competitive spirit. You’re not arguing with them, you’re agreeing with them.) But you know what we have always found? When we take a closer look at it, we have always found that . .”

Let’s look at some examples:

* You’re selling something, and the other person says, “Your price is way too high.” If you argue with him, he has a personal stake in proving you wrong and himself right. Instead, you say, “I understand exactly how you feel about that. Many other people have felt exactly the same way as you do when they first hear the price. When they take a closer look at what we offer, however, they have always found that we offer the best value in the marketplace.”

* You’re applying for a job, and the human resources director says, “I don’t think you have enough experience in this field.” If you respond with “I’ve handled much tougher jobs that this in the past,” it may come across as, “I’m right and you’re wrong.” It’s just going to force her to defend the position she’s taken. Instead, say, “I understand exactly how you feel about that. Many other people would feel exactly the same way as you do right now. However, there are some remarkable similarities between the work I’ve been doing and what you’re looking for that are not immediately apparent. Let me tell you what they are.”

* If you’re a salesperson and the buyer says, “I hear that you people have problems in your shipping department,” arguing with him will make him doubt your objectivity. Instead, say, “I understand how you could have heard that because I’ve heard it too. I think that rumor may have started a few years ago when we relocated our warehouse; but now major companies such as General Motors and General Electric trust us with their just-in-time inventories, and we never have a problem.”

* If the other person says, “I don’t believe in buying from off-shore suppliers. I think we should keep the jobs in this country,” the more you argue the more you’ll force him into defending his position. Instead, say, “I understand exactly how you feel about that, because these days many other people feel exactly the same way as you do. But do you know what we have found? Since we have been having the initial assembly done in Thailand, we have actually been able to increase our American work force by more than 42 percent and this is why . . .”

At my seminars, I sometimes ask a person in the front row to stand. As I hold my two hands out, with my palms facing toward the person I’ve asked to stand, I ask him to place his hands against mine. Having done that and without saying another word, I gently start to push against him. Automatically, without any instruction, he always begins to push back. People shove when you shove them. Similarly, when you argue with someone, it automatically makes him or her want to argue back.

The other great thing about Feel, Felt, Found is that it gives you time to think. Sometimes something will come up in a negotiation that you weren’t expecting. You haven’t heard anything like this before. It shocks you. You don’t know what to say; but if you have Feel, Felt, Found in the back of your mind, you can say, “I understand exactly how you feel about that. Many other people have felt exactly the same way. However, I have always found . . .” By the time you get there, you’ll have thought of something to say. Similarly, you sometimes catch other people at a bad moment. You may be a salesperson who is calling to get an appointment and the person says to you, “I don’t have any more time to waste talking to some lying scum-sucking salesperson.” You calmly say, “I understand exactly how you feel about that. Many other people have felt exactly the same way. However . . .” By the time you get there you will have recovered your composure and will know exactly what to say.

Key points to remember:

Don’t argue with people in the early stages of the negotiation because it creates confrontation.

Use the Feel, Felt, Found formula to turn the hostility around.

Having Feel, Felt, Found in the back of your mind gives you time to think when the other side throws some unexpected hostility your way.

Roger Dawson is a professional speaker the author of two of best selling books on negotiating: Secrets of Power Negotiating and Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople, both published by Career Press. He was inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame in 1991. You can contact him at rogdawson@aol.com. His website address is: http://rdawson.com.

September 3, 2008

Are You Skeptical?

Filed under: business,Client Relationships,marketing,prospecting,selling,technology — Paul McCord @ 6:36 am
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I’m sure you’ve heard of social media. I’m sure you’ve heard what social media can do for your business. I’m sure you’ve heard that social media is going to change your life. I’m sure you’ve heard that if you’re not involved-if you haven’t embraced social media unquestioningly and with checkbook open, you’ll be left in the trash heap of business history. I’m sure you’ve noticed that all of these dire warnings about the hell you’ll be relegated to if you fail to give your life over to the empowering wonders of social media are coming from product developers, trainers, and consultants of-social media-that is, those with a very vested interest in its sweeping success.

Sorry, but I’m highly skeptical. Not of its value. Certainly I see value in some of it. Yet I see a lot of hype and useless techno gizmo flash in a great deal of it. In the end, I see value, not salvation. I see uses, not a revolution in how people connect and communicate. I see humans still being human-including that minority who find it safer connecting with a piece of technology than a real human, cloistered in their office or bedroom playing like they’re building a network of close associates when all they’re doing is avoiding that most frightening of all human activities-interacting with real, live, in-person humans.

As I said, I certainly see value. I see value in the ability to communicate instantaneously. Well, we had the ability to do that already, but social media allows us to mimic face to face interaction to some extent. I see the ability to find and create relationships with men and women we would not have had the opportunity to do so without the technology. I have friends and associates now that I would never had in the past. Some of these men and women live literally half way around the world from me. Some I’ve gotten to know very well. But the reality is that no matter how much time we spend communicating via email, on Skype, or through any other technological means, the relationship lacks the depth and dimensions that my one-on-one, physically in-person relationships have.

I have clients and prospects that are in countries that I know I’ll never visit. We interact, we communicate, we make real progress in changing their business. But these relationships lack the depth and dimension of those clients I deal with face-to-face.

Sure, social media gives us the opportunity to prospect in some new ways. It gives us the opportunity to find and meet people we’d never meet otherwise. It gives prospects, vendors, and the curious new ways to find us. It gives clients, competitors, and others new ways to praise us, recommend us, attack us. But it cannot give us a substitution for the experience of connecting with a human in a human way. It isn’t a substitute for living in the real world, with real world business and social relationships, with old fashioned marketing and prospecting, with a plane ticket in one hand and phone in the other. We’ll still have to have the soles of our shoes replaced, our hair combed, our suitcase packed, our car ready to go.

Few of the product developers, trainers, or consultants overtly claim that social media will replace these things. Most, if asked, will acknowledge they won’t. But when you listen to many of them, their message is something very different. I read one who claimed that if you’re not spending at least four hours a day working social media you’re doomed to fail in the coming business environment-and by the way, he’ll teach you how to do it for just a small fee of $3,500 a month.

I encourage my clients to engage social media but to reject the hype.

Some of the developers, consultants, and trainers of social media that I know think I’m doing a great disservice to my clients. Some have told me that I shouldn’t be allowed to misguide my clients in this way. I’ve been told by one that if I had any integrity I’d get out of the training industry since I don’t understand that the world has left me behind.

This in my opinion is nothing but the same hype, the same wishful thinking, the same hope that they’ve found the MECCA of business that preceded it with the telegraph, the telephone, the fax, the mobile phone, and every other advancement in technology. All of these changed business, it didn’t revolutionize it.

It’s the Jetson’s mentality where we’re all going to be flying instead of driving, pushing a button instead of vacuuming the floor ourselves, sitting behind a computer instead of engaging humans in human relationships.

Yes, I’m skeptical and I continue to encourage my clients to do the same. Engage the technology; reject the dreams. Use the technology; forget the message of business salvation. Find the technology that is really useful to you and don’t worry about each new toy, each new tweak, each new incarnation of the business messiah. Don’t worry about rushing to be the first to embrace a new twist-if it’s really that important, it will be there later-but if you get so caught up in the hype that you invest your life in it, will your business be there later?

September 2, 2008

Do You Use Salesgenie? A Couple of Cheaper and Maybe Better Alternatives

Filed under: lead generation,prospecting,Sales Resources — Paul McCord @ 6:29 am
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We all know that finding information about prospective prospects is difficult. Certainly we have access to their website, which information is helpful but not complete. Not only do we need more information than we’re likely to find on their site, but we have to have a way to identify the potential prospect before we can research them.

One of the leading lead identification sites is SalesGenie. The problem for many is that SalesGenie is down right expensive. Sure, they’ll give you a hundred free leads, but after that the service costs dearly. And of course there’s Hoovers and Dun and Bradstreet, but they’re expensive also. Not only are they too expensive for many individual salespeople, maybe those dollars could be better spent elsewhere-if there were just a cheaper alternative.

Depending on what you need, there are cheaper alternatives:

Manta.com: Manta is free for the basic service and the basic service gives a good deal of information. Manta has profiles of about 45 million companies worldwide. You can search by industry, by company name, by state or country, even by city and zip code.

A typical company profile will give you the basics such as address, phone number, and industry, of course. But you’ll also get the year established, approximate annual sales, and the primary contact person.

That’s a darn good start for free.

Salesconx.com: Salesconx is far different than Manta. Salesconx isn’t a free service. Instead of finding leads in the manner of Manta or Salesgenie, Salesconx allows you to purchase or sell introductions to decision makers to particular companies. I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of these introduction purchasing sites, but they have worked for some and are worth checking out.

Inquisix.com: Similar to Salesconx, Inquisix is a site to buy or sell ‘referrals,’ as though one could actually refer someone they know nothing about. In fact it is nothing more than buying or selling a contact, but it might work for you.

If you’re searching for leads or if you’re currently using Salesgenie, check out these alternatives. You might find a cheaper and better alternative. If not, at least you’ll know your current provider is the best for you.

Have other alternatives? I’d love to hear about them.

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