Sales and Sales Management Blog

February 1, 2010

Networking That Really Works: A FREE Prospecting Webinar on Feb 18

Filed under: lead generation,marketing,Networking,Personal Marketing,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:34 am
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Are you spending time at the chamber networking event or the morning leads exchange group and finding you’re just wasting precious time and energy for no return at all?

Unless you’re an auto mechanic, a personal banker, sell cars, or are a dentist, the chamber event and the leads exchange group probably aren’t going to help you at all.  If you sell sophisticated products and services or high dollar items, more than likely you’re not going to be meeting great prospects or getting many quality leads at these venues.  The majority of people at the chamber event are other sellers looking for prospects and those at the networking breakfast typically can only refer to micro and small businesses or less than ideal consumer prospects.

So is networking out of the question?

Not at all.

You just have to network where you’re going to find a large number of quality prospects and create long-term relationships with them.

Join me on February 18 at 1PM Central for a FREE 1 hour webinar to learn how to make networking work.

You’ll Learn:

  • Where to spend your time networking
  • How networking demonstrates your integrity and trustworthiness
  • How networking builds your image and reputation as being an expert
  • How to work a room and guarantee after event meetings with prospects

This isn’t a come-on to sell products or coaching.  You’ll learn real strategies that produce results.

Limited Seating

Register HERE

January 29, 2010

Want Referrals? Find Them, Then Have Your Client Give Them to You

Filed under: lead generation,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 1:27 pm
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Most of us who sell would love to get a number of quality referrals from each of our clients.  The reality for most of us is we seldom get referrals, and when we do, they’re usually no better than if we’d picked a name or company at random from the phonebook.

Asking For Referrals Will Get You Nowhere
Most of us have been taught to get referrals by simply doing a “good job” and then asking for referrals after the sale has been completed—often literally as we’re walking out the door or during a post-sale follow-up phone call.  We pop the referral question on our client and are then surprised and frustrated when they don’t have a quality referral to give.

We shouldn’t be. 

Instead we should be amazed when one does give us a quality referral because what we’re doing is inherently unfair to our client.  We’ve given the client no time to become comfortable giving referrals; we haven’t defined for the client who a good referral for us is; we’ve not given them a reason to give us referrals; and we’re asking them to do our job for us. 

I’ve questioned thousands of sellers over the years about their closing ratio of referred prospects vs. the closing ratio of their non-referred prospects.  Sad to say, in general the closing ratio of referred prospects is about the same—only slightly higher—as the closing ratio of the prospects they’ve contacted through other means such as cold calling.  What does that mean?  It means the quality of the prospects they receive from referrals is no better than the quality of prospects they generate through other means.  It means that when they get a name and phone number from their clients all they are getting is a name and phone number, not a quality referral.

Yet, we want quality referrals from them.

Your Clients Have Quality Referrals to Give
Almost all of us has gotten at least one great referral from a client.   We know our clients have referrals to give if we could just figure out how to get them.

The problem is that our clients really don’t know whom to refer, and even if we define for them who a great referral for us is, most of our clients simply don’t think of those prospects that we’d love to be referred to.

It isn’t their fault.  It isn’t their job to do our job for us.

But we really want those referrals they have.

Make It Easy to Give Referrals
How do we get those great referrals our clients have that they don’t think to give us?

We do it by making it so easy to give us quality referrals that we walk away from our client with three, four, five or more great referrals and all our clients had to do was say, “Yes, I know them.”

We get lots of great referrals by doing our homework, by discovering who our client knows—or probably knows—that we know we’d like to be referred to. 

We do the work for our client.

Become a Referral Detective
Doing the work for your client means you have to become a detective; you have to use your eyes and ears to ferret out who your client knows, or you have reason to believe may know, that you know you want to be referred to. 

For most sellers this is a tough assignment. How can you possibly discover who your client could refer you to?  Can you get into their head or sneak in and take a look at their Rolodex?

In a sense, that is exactly what you do.  You use your senses to figure out who you know you want to be referred to that you client may well know that at the proper time, instead of asking for referrals, getting none and walking out empty-handed, you ask your client if they know the people on your list.  If they do and you’ve earned the referrals, you’ll get them.  So instead of walking out with no referrals, you walk out with three or four or more referrals to people or companies you know you want to be referred to.

Sources of Referrals
Where do you find these potential referrals?  Everywhere.  You must be ever on the lookout for potential connections your client has.  Literally from the moment you meet a new prospect you’re looking for clues to who they may know. 

Here are some ways to discover who your client may know:

  1. Talk.  Asking casual questions about their background, their hobbies, their neighborhood, their workplace during small talk can turn up some great connections.  Former employers, the organizations they belong to, where they spend their time can reveal many potential connections you can explore.
  2. Observe. If you’re meeting them in their office or place of business make sure you look around.  What organization’s membership book is on their bookshelf?  What plaques and photos do they have on the wall?  Are there signs of who their vendors or customers are such as boxes, envelopes, or business cards?
  3. Internet.  Look them up on LinkedIn.  Who are their connections?  Who else from their company is on LinkedIn?  Do they have a blog?  Are they on Facebook or Twitter?  Who are their followers?  What do they blog about?  Examine their company’s website—are there potential prospects you can find there?  Are they likely known by your client?
  4. Think of their professional connections.  If your client is an architect, what other architects do you want to be referred to that they may know?  If your client owns a franchise, are there other franchises of the same company around that your client probably knows? 
  5. Think of their family and social connections.  Do they have family members you know you want to be referred to?  Are there people in their neighborhood or within the same business park you know you want to be referred to?  Are there people involved in the same charity they’re involved with?

For most of us, if we really put our mind to it we could come up with many potential referral prospects for each of our clients.  It isn’t easy, at least not at first.  You have to get your mind into the habit of thinking about whom your client may know that you know you want to be referred to.  You have to train yourself to think like a detective—always questioning what you see and what it means for who your client knows.

But the payoff can be tremendous.

Quit just asking for referrals.  Learn to be a detective and both the quality and quantity of the referrals you get from your clients will go outta sight.

December 28, 2009

Free Webinar, Jan 21: 4 Quick Steps to Triple Your Client Referrals

Filed under: lead generation,Personal Marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,sales training,selling — Paul McCord @ 2:10 pm
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Free Webinar: 4 Quick Steps to Triple Your Client Referrals

Thursday, January 21  2PM Central Daylight Time

LIMITED SEATING so register early

Few sellers generate enough high quality referrals to seriously impact their sales and income because few have been taught how to work with their clients to generate high quality referrals. 

Most sellers have been “taught” that all you need to do is ask a satisfied client for referrals and they’ll give them.  Most find that asking doesn’t work.  Sure, there are a few clients who willing give “referrals,” but most won’t.  And even the “referrals” most sellers do get are nothing more than worthless names and phone numbers of people who have no interest in or need for their product or service.

Asking for referrals won’t get you where you want to go.

You must learn to work with your client to generate introductions to prospects who want and/or need your products and services.

That takes far more than asking some silly question such as “Ms. Client, do you know of anyone else that might be able to use my products or services?”

On January 21 we’ll focus on 4 easy to implement actions that will dramatically increase the number and quality of referrals you receive from each of your clients.

During this Hour You’ll Learn:

  • Why asking for referrals is a total waste of time
  • How to make your client comfortable and confident in giving high quality referrals
  • How to get your client to willing agree to give you multiple high quality referrals
  • How to get 3, 4, or more high quality referrals from your client—even if they say they have none to give you
  • How to nail down appoints with your referred prospects

The mega-producers don’t ask for referrals–but most have built their business on referrals.  Learn why you need to forget everything you’ve been taught about referrals—and learn how to generate them the same way the mega-producers do.

Start 2010 off right by learning how to fill your pipeline with great prospects.

LIMITED SEATING

Register HERE

December 18, 2009

Blast Your Pipeline with Dozens of Quality Referrals in 30 Days

Filed under: lead generation,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 8:59 am
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This is chapter three from my e-book: Recession Proof Your Pipeline: A Dozen Strategies to Fill Your Pipeline in 30 Days

Blast Your Pipeline with Dozens of Quality Referrals in 30 Days

Large numbers of high quality referrals are difficult for most salespeople to generate.  Certainly, many will manage to get a name and phone number here and there.  However, most of those names and phone numbers are little better than taking out the phonebook and pointing a finger at a name. 

It need not be that way.

By learning a disciplined, effective, proven process for generating a large number of high quality referrals from each of your clients and even your prospects, referral selling can become a reality.  It is for many of the top producers in every industry.

Yet of course, you can’t possibly learn and implement a systematic process of referral generation and expect to see significant results in only 30 days.

The good news, however, is that you can still generate a substantial flow of business in only 30 days if you learn to turbo charge your client’s ability to give you a large number of quality referrals in a very short period of time—virtually overnight.

Whom do You Want to Be Referred To?

If you expect to use referrals as an igniter of your pipeline in short order, you’ll have to do all of the work for your clients.  Asking your database of clients for referrals will generate referrals if done correctly.  However, the fruits of that request won’t be seen quickly.

You, of course, don’t have the luxury of waiting.  You need business NOW.

Therefore, you’re going to make giving referrals easy—for your client.

Sit down right now and draw up a list of 100 individuals or companies YOU KNOW you want to be referred to.  Be specific.  List the name, the phone number and the address of each individual or the name, phone number, address, and the specific person within the company for each company you wish to be referred into.

You may have to do some serious research.  Nevertheless, your list is the critical part of this strategy.

Don’t stop at 50, or 70, or 90.  List a minimum of 100 individuals or companies.  Remember, you’re going to make it easy for your client to refer you.  Someone must do the work—and that’s you.

When making your list, leave room on the right side of the sheet beside each name to put the name of the person who is going to refer you to that person or company.

Who Is Going To Refer You to Whom?

Great.  You know 100 individuals or companies you want to be referred to. 

So, how are you going to get referred to them?  By your clients, of course.

Now, take your database of clients and examine each one.  Which client do you have reason to believe can refer you to the first person on your list?  The second?  The third?

The more you know about each of your clients, the easier this part of the task will be.  Hopefully, you’ve come to know the majority of your clients well.

Beside each prospect, list the client–and their phone number–that you believe can refer you to that prospect.

If you have a list of 100 people or companies you know you want to be referred into, you’ll probably be able to identify 70 or so that you have reason to believe one of your clients may know and can refer you to.

If you have 70 prospects your clients may know, you’ll probably find they can actually refer you to about 47.

If you are referred to 47, you’ll probably set appoints with about 35

If you set appointments with 35, then multiply 35 by your average close ratio—that is what you can expect to close.  If your close ratio is 40%, you should have in your hand 14 short-term sales

Get the Referrals

Now the question is: how do you turn your list into referrals?

Naturally, you are going to go back to each of the clients that you have identified as a potential referrer to someone on your list.

Start with the clients you have the strongest relationship with first.  Better to get some positive reinforcement from your best relationship clients before you approach those you have a weaker relationship with.

However, before you approach anyone, you need to get comfortable with what you’re going to say.  You don’t want to stumble and stammer.  You want to come across to your client as comfortable, confident, and in control.

Referrals can be tricky.  They are hard to generate if your client doesn’t believe you expect them and that you have earned them.  If you doubt, that doubt will be picked up by your client, who will be less likely to agree to give them.  After all, if you don’t believe what you’re saying, why should your client?

Get your act together before you make your call to your first client.

Don’t ask for referrals via a letter or email.  You will be far more successful if you ask in person.  Short of that, you must make a personal phone call.  Generating referrals is a relationship action, not an impersonal request.  You must deal with your client on a one-on-one, personal level. 

When you call, before bringing up the referrals you seek, find out if your client has ANY needs, concerns, or requests regarding your product or service.  In other words, make sure you still have a happy and fully satisfied client.  If you don’t, you cannot expect referrals.  If the client is dissatisfied for any reason, instead of referrals to get, you have customer service work to perform.

Then, once you know your client is still ‘on the team,’ explain that you have a favor to ask.  You have two or three people you believe you can help but have not been successful in being able to meet through the normal course of business.  These are people that you thought for whatever reason the client might know and are hoping that if they do know them, that they would be comfortable referring you to these prospects. 

If you have done your research and matching of prospect to client well, your client will probably know one or two of the prospects you ask about. 

Once they acknowledge they know them, find out how well.  With a referral, you are hoping to build a relationship with the referred prospect based on their trust and respect for your client.  If the prospect trusts and respects your client, some of that trust and respect is imbued to you—so you start your relationship with the prospect from a positive position.

However, the person you’re asking about may not trust and respect your client.  If they are just casual acquaintances, their trust relationship is neutral, as will be your starting point.  In addition, if the prospect distrusts and disrespects your client, your starting point will be from a negative position because some of the distrust for your client will also be imbued to you.

It is important that you know where you start–the stronger the relationship between client and prospect, the better your chances of getting an appointment and a sale.

If you have done your job for the client well, they should have no problems referring you into the prospects they know.

Work your way through your list of 100 prospects.  You should have more than a month’s work ahead of you.  Again, you will probably have about 70 prospects to contact and set appointments with.

Don’t Just Get Referred, Get Introduced

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with a referral is to simply get your client to agree to refer you.  That’s what the average salesperson does—and it doesn’t work well.

Instead of just getting a verbal referral, that is having your client say, “Sure, I’ll refer you to them,” get a direct introduction to the prospect.  Not only is a direct introduction more powerful than an agreement to use the client’s name, a direct introduction, if done correctly, almost guarantees a private meeting with the prospect.

Although there are a number of ways of getting a direct introduction, when under the time pressure of a 30-day explosion of production, you have 3 realistic options:

  1. A Letter from Your Client Written by You for Your Client’s Signature.  A letter of introduction will probably be your standard format for a direct introduction.  Don’t ask your client to write the letter because they will not have the sense of urgency you need, nor will they write the letter you want written.
            Instead, write the letter for your client, on your client’s stationary, in your client’s voice.  Use a standard format:  1st paragraph informs the prospect of what you did for the client; the 2nd gives the prospect an idea of what you might be able to do for the them; the 3rd states an exact day and time the client has asked you to call the prospect; and the 4th has your client asking the prospect to call the client after your meeting with the prospect so the client can get the prospect’s opinion of you and your company ( the reason the client requests this is because the client respects the prospect’s judgment).
           Have your client sign the letter and then mail it to the prospect.  A day or two after the letter should have arrived, call the prospect.  Assume the prospect has not read the letter.  When you reach the prospect, immediately refer to your client and the letter, not to yourself.  If you introduce yourself first, the prospect may determine you are nothing but another tele-marketer before you have the opportunity to mention your client’s name and they may mentally block you out.  Don’t give them the chance.  Gain their interest with your client’s name first.
             Some salespeople think they can get around the letter by simply acting as if a letter has been sent.  Bad move.  Some prospects, after getting off the phone will look for the letter.  If it isn’t there, only one of two things could have happened—the letter was lost in the mail or the salesperson lied.  Guess which one they’ll assume?
  2. A Phone Call to the Prospect From Your Client While You’re in the Client’s Office.  This is, of course, a more powerful introduction than a letter.  Don’t’ let your client call without you being present.  You want a direct introduction and you want to know everything that is said during the conversation. 
         Although powerful, this format has some drawbacks.  This method is powerful because it is unusual and because it allows the prospect to ask direct questions about you, your product and the client’s purchasing experience.  This format can backfire if there are questions you’d rather the prospect not ask.  If there are weak areas in your client’s purchase, this may not be your best choice.
    However, this format almost guarantees a meeting with the prospect since it is difficult for the prospect to decline a meeting request when the client is also on the line.
  3. A Lunch Meeting with Your Client, the Prospect and Yourself.  This is, by far, the most powerful introduction format you can use in this circumstance.  A lunch format allows you to get to know the prospect as a friend prior to getting to know them as a prospect or client.  In addition, in this format, your client acts as your salesperson during the lunch, you’re there as the consultant.  As with the phone call format, it is very difficult for the prospect to decline a meeting request in front of the client.  Furthermore, since the meeting format is informal, you’ll have the opportunity to learn a great deal about the prospect and their business long before you begin discussing business.  If you pay attention, you should have a great deal of ammunition before the subject of business comes up.

Execution

Developing referrals from your clients can take some time.  You must develop your list of prospects you want to be referred to; you have to match those prospects to individual clients in your database; you must contact each individual client for the referrals; write the letters or arrange the calls or lunches; and then have the actual contact with the prospect.  All of this before you even have the individual meeting with the prospect. 

This method requires you to be disciplined, very well organized, and committed to working the process.  You must have a sense of urgency or time will slip away and you won’t meet your 30-day goal. 

Commit yourself to having your prospect list completed within 2 days.  Keep in mind, developing this list may take some serious research.  Then, once you have your prospect list, you should have matched prospects to clients by the end of day three.  By the end of the fourth day, you should have contacted and received referrals from several clients.

As soon as you have referrals, start the introduction process.  Don’t try to go through all 100 prospects prior to beginning getting introductions.  You’ll run out of time.  Again, this format calls for good organizational and coordination skills.  You’ll have to be gathering referrals while working referrals.

More than likely, you’ll find that you’ve filled your pipeline and still have more referrals to pursue.  Good job!  Not only will you have jumpstarted your sales again, you’ll carry that momentum into the coming months as well.

Want more strategies to help fill your pipeline quickly?  You’ll find 11 more strategies for using the phone, networking, creating marketing partnerships and more in Recession Proof Your Pipeline.  Order it here

December 17, 2009

Guest Article: “Can Your Business Survive a Drop in Google Ranking?” by Donald Farber

Filed under: business,lead generation,small business — Paul McCord @ 8:44 am
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Can your business survive a drop in Google ranking?
by Donald Farber

Have you heard the term Hilltop when someone is talking about Google? No, it’s not a big mountain of money that Google piles up at their corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.

What about Google Caffeine? Maybe it’s what happens when you drink too much coffee and spend an afternoon querying random things.

Not the case either – Google Caffeine and Hilltop are what are known as algorithms, or search architecture updates, that are used by the search engine giant to determine relevancy when you look for something on the internet.

That’s fine but what do these algorithms mean to your small business?
Many small businesses live and die by their Google rankings and it’s factors like these algorithms that decide where you rank.

Some small online businesses generate almost all of their revenue from ranking for only one or two keywords in Google. So when someone searches for those terms, their website will come up near the top of the listings.

Having to rely on ranking well in Google for a few keywords is a risky way to run a business. What if your ranking dropped tomorrow and didn’t come back for another 6 months? Could your business survive?

Typically you have to do something against Google guidelines or the algorithm’s formulas to see this kind of drop in rankings but it’s probably not worth the risk. Many sites have been knocked into obscurity for various reasons.

How do you protect yourself?
I know a lot of you aren’t going to like to hear this but the best way to protect your online business is to spend the time (or money) to build a great website:

  • Make it a vast resource and continually add pages of content
  • Have content that interests and engages your visitors
  • Make the website easy to navigate
  • Get an excellent design that makes your site stand out from the competition

Unless you’re multitalented this isn’t going to come cheap but there is a lot of software out there that makes this easier for small businesses on a budget.

These factors will make people want to talk about your site and link to it, which will bring better rankings and more visitors. You still need to get the word out about your website but having a site that is linkable will make life much easier.

The other thing about building a great website is that people wont forget about you. They’ll bookmark your site, write it down, send it to friends by email, tag it, and remember it later. They’ll do this because you’ve built a great resource on the subject, product, or service that they’re interested in.                                                                                                       

Build a brand
When most people think of online auctions they think of eBay. If someone is on the Internet looking for the new Coldplay album there is good chance they might go straight to iTunes without looking anywhere else.

Some companies are known for selling shoes, pipes, cat toys, pencils, or ornamental grasses. If you are an ornamental grass connoisseur than you might immediately think of Grassgardens.co.uk when you’re looking for grass for your garden.

Being known as “the website that sells ornamental grass” might not be as lucrative as the “company that sells laptops” but the competition isn’t as strong so you can own that niche more easily. Owning a niche is not easy but it’s not impossible either, especially with the amount of lazy webmasters out there.

Brands don’t need to be big but they need to be well known within that group of consumer. If you’re a small businesses offering anything then you need to own that product or service to be the best online. It’s starts with a great website.

Content content content
Without content most websites wouldn’t get any traffic from search engines. The more pages of quality content you have, the greater chance that someone will find your site from Google searches.

Google estimates that 20-25% of all searches are new so by creating more pages of content, you will increase the chances that your website has what they are searching for regarding that topic.

Creating quality content is important because it gives someone a reason to link to you and it also gives the visitor a reason to trust you when they get to your site.

Interaction
The problem with advertising on social media sites like Facebook is that the user is not looking for a product or service. They are on the site to interact with their network of friends and family. But when someone searches “buy new Coldplay album,” chances are they are looking to purchase the new Coldplay album.

What Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs, and other social platforms do is allow companies (and more specifically people at the companies) to interact with their customers directly. This allows the customer to build trust in your business and to show them that you see them as a real person rather than just money.

It doesn’t work for every online business but chances are, with a bit of ingenuity, almost every small business could find a way to interact successfully with their customer base in a way that your competition isn’t.

It’s no different than that local deli you keep going back to because a) they have good food and b) the couple that run the place are very friendly.

The competition on the internet is getting harder by the day and there is no easy answer for making money online. The key to getting on top and staying there is to build an outstanding site and then promote it.

Donald Farber is a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) specialist. He currently works with the web team at LifeCover.ca: a Canadian life insurance website.

November 24, 2009

Using Incentives to Get Referrals

Filed under: business,lead generation,marketing,Personal Marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 12:01 pm
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I’m often asked why I don’t advocate using incentives to influence clients and prospects to give referrals.  My reasoning is two fold:  first, if your referral generation process is effective and you execute it correctly, you don’t need to give incentives; and second, if done correctly, incentives can be very effective—but most salespeople find giving effective incentives to be cumbersome and time consuming.

Let me explain.

I coach and train clients who use incentives very effectively.  They are a key part of their referral generation process.  They follow the PWWR Referral Generation System™ to the letter—with the exception of their explanation of why it is in the client’s best interest to give them referrals.  Instead of explaining to the client how their being referral-based is an asset to the client and why giving referrals insures the client receives the purchasing experience they want, these salespeople prefer giving incentives.

The difference between the incentives they give and those most salespeople give is the secret to why their incentive program is so successful—and why it is so cumbersome.

Typically, salespeople will make one of three mistakes when giving incentives:

  • The incentive is not an incentive, it’s a bribe—a sizable chunk of money, at least in relation to the cost/value of their product or service, in the hopes of getting referrals.
  • The incentive is not an incentive, it’s a come-on—it is nothing more than a discount for their own products or services which many clients see as nothing more than another way for the salesperson to get more business from the client.
  • The incentive has limited appeal.  For instance, they’ll give a $10 gift card to Starbucks or coupon for a car wash.  That is, an incentive given to everyone but with limited appeal.

Incentives need to be just that—an incentive, something that encourages people to give referrals, not a reward, not a bounty. 

What does an effective and reasonable incentive look like?

Let me give an example from one of my clients.

I have a small IT client who uses incentives very effectively.  As a matter of fact, prior to working with me, they gave cash incentives believing money would motivate clients.  Although they initially resisted changing their incentive program, since changing they’ve increased their referrals by over 1,700%.  Much of that change is due to implementing the PWWR Referral Generation System, but the incentive they provide is their reason referrals are in their client’s best interest to give.  Not only have they saved a small fortune by not giving large cash incentives, the incentive itself is far more effective.

They focus mainly on installation and service work for small to mid-size companies.  They, of course, are constantly looking for other small to mid-size companies that don’t have an IT department that they can help with both their installation and performance issues. 

They use incentives as their reason that it is in their client’s best interest to give referrals.  But their incentive isn’t a discount nor is it dollars.  Rather, they get to know their clients very, very well.  They get to know their clients so well that they can focus their incentive to meet that individual client’s personality and interests. 

For instance, one of their clients is a small publishing company.  The company publishes cookbooks.  The owner of the company collects antique and rare cookbooks.  Although her collection is quite large, she is still constantly looking to add to her collection.  Every time she refers someone to her IT service company, they go to a used and rare bookstore and purchase her—you guessed it, an antique cookbook.

They never spend more than 25 or 35 dollars.  The incentive is small—nothing compared to what she will spend with them over the course of the year—or what they would have given her in the past.  But she will kill to find new referrals that she can make because she appreciates the attention they give her.  Obviously, they aren’t giving every client who refers someone to them a cookbook.  They go out of their way to show their appreciation to her by doing something unique just for her.

Another of their clients is a minor league baseball team.  This team has been around since the 50’s.  Over the years, they’ve had hundreds of players come through their team and eventually go on to the majors, some for only a few days, others have become stars.  What do they do for this client?  Every time the team gives them a referral they find and purchase a baseball artifact associated with one of the players that had played for the team who eventually went on to the majors.  The team has started a “museum” (read trophy case) based on the artifacts they’ve received from their referrals.  Again, they only spend a few dollars on each item.  The dollars they spend isn’t what gets the client’s attention—it’s the attention to detail and the uniquely personal nature of the incentive.  Like the publisher above, the baseball team is always looking for referrals to give—and new artifacts to include in their display.

Obviously, this incentive system requires getting to know the client well.  That’s actually the easy part.  The tough part is finding the incentive item.  The IT company above may spend weeks looking for the appropriate incentive gift for their minor league client.  Instead of investing money in the client’s incentive, they invest their time, their effort, and their creativity.  Most importantly, they invest their attention and their sincere interest in the client.

Using incentives can be very effective and need not be costly if done correctly.  Avoid costly bribes.  Don’t give money; give personal attention.  Certainly, don’t give a discount coupon or any other “incentive” to spend more money with you.  And avoid blanket incentives that are easy to give and have little impact.

The key to an effective incentive program isn’t the dollar value—it’s the personal value.

August 14, 2009

Recession Buster Webinar

Filed under: business,cold calling,developing expert reputation,lead generation,marketing,Networking,Personal Marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,sales training,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:08 am
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Recession Buster Webinar

4  Tremendously Powerful Strategies

4  One and half hour Sessions

1  Session Everyday for 4 Days

Monday, September 28 through Thursday, October 1

Each day from 3 PM to 4:30 PM Central Time (4PM to 5:30 PM Eastern; 2PM to 3:30 PM Mountain: 1PM to 2:30PM Pacific)

4 of the Most Powerful Strategies to Find and Connect with Quality Prospects:

Monday, September 28
The PWWR Referral Generation System

You’ll Learn:

^ Why what you’ve been taught about referrals doesn’t work
^ How to work with your client to generate a large number of great referrals
^ How to guarantee you get at least four great referrals from every client
^ How to continue to get great referrals from every client every year

 

Tuesday, September 29
The Best Damn Networking Process There Is, Period

You’ll Learn:

^ Why networking at the Chamber meeting or at the leads breakfast group never
seems to pay off
^ Where to spend you time that will really pay off
^ How to create and execute a realistic, profitable, business producing networking strategy
^ How to work a networking room to maximize your time and create relationships with prospects fast
^ How to set a telephone or in-person meeting with every person you want at a networking event

 

Wednesday, September 30
Never a Cold Call, Always an Introduction

You’ll Learn:

^ Why decision makers hate cold calls
^ Why calling and fishing for a reason to meet with a prospect will get you nowhere
^ How to discover REAL issues your prospect has that you KNOW you can help solve
^ How to guarantee you get past gatekeepers and get voice mails returned without being deceptive, evasive, or lying
^ How to make using the phone to prospect far more enjoyable and productive for both you and your prospects
^ How to make more money by spending less time on the phone

 

Thursday, October 1
Get the Phone to Ring: Become the Expert

You’ll Learn:

^ Why if you don’t have the reputation and image of an expert you’re losing and will continue to lose in the marketplace
^ What it means to be an expert
^ How to use the tools at your disposal to CREATE your image and reputation as an expert in your field targeted to your specific market
^ How to totally eliminate price as an issue
^ How to get your phone to ring with people who want to work with you and only you

 Who Should Attend?

The Recession Buster webinar is designed for anyone who sells in a relationship driven environment such as:

^ Business to Business sellers

^ Professionals: attorney, accountants, architects, financial planners, consultants

^ Business to consumer services such as financial services, personal services, realtors, travel agents, etc.

Whether you are struggling to establish your sales practice or you’re established and simply seek to add more business–or maybe the recession has really devastated your current client base, this webinar will help drive your business to new heights.

These aren’t the same old worn out “strategies” you expect to hear. You’re not going to hear some worthless drivel like “ask for referrals,” or “tell everyone you meet what you do,” or “set a goal to make 50 dials a day and you’ll succeed.”

You know and I know, that’s crap. That’s the same old junk you hear from every “trainer” who doesn’t have anything of value to say.

You don’t need some worn-out, worthless piece of advice, you need real, workable, proven strategies to find and connect with quality clients.

That’s what you get in the Recession Buster webinar.

Four real strategies that work. That produce results. That will get you business.

Why four strategies over four days? Wouldn’t it be easier to just lay out the one best strategy in one session?

It would certainly be easier on everybody involved. It takes commitment to take time out four days in a row.

True. But there isn’t one single “best way” to generate business. We have to have a business building matrix that gives us several avenues with which to connect with prospects. And in today’s marketplace where more and more prospects are rejecting the traditional methods sellers have used to connect with them, we need several ways to find and connect with them that they’ll accept, respect, and respond to.

That’s the power of the Recession Buster webinar
 

Early Registration Until September 10

1 to 4 attendees only $199.00 per person

5 or more attendees only $159.00 per person

Register HERE

Afraid you can’t make the session each day? 
Don’t worry.  Each session will be recorded and within 24 hours of the end of the session each attendee will receive a link to the recording.  Whether you missed the session or just want to hear it again, you’ve got it at your fingertips to listen to when you want.

June 23, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “How to Find the Right Social Media Strategy for Your Business,” by Cindy King

Filed under: business,lead generation,marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 6:26 am
Tags: , , , , ,

How To Find The Right Social Media Strategy For Your Business
by Cindy King

“How can social media improve my business?” 
“What will Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn bring to my bottom line?”
“What is the ROI of social media?”
And…
“Are businesses really making sales through social media?”

These are questions I heard often this week while attending the Social Media Success Summit 2009 . They are heavy questions.  And there is a problem: the real answers people want depend on their business and their markets. Social media is about connecting with people.  This means connecting you in your business with your clients.  This is why I believe that businesses need to jump in and participate to find the answer to these questions themselves. 

In this article, I hope to help you get a little closer to these answers by telling you my own story as a small business owner using social media to reach international clients.

Why It Takes Time To Find The Answer

Less than a year ago, I did not even realize that a blog was social media. My blog was 6 months old and it was time to look for ways to improve my online presence.  I blog for business and had no time to waste.  Luckily I met Chris Garrett  who gently got me to look more closely at the other social media platforms, even though they seemed unsuitable for a small business struggling with time commitments.

So I reluctantly tried Twitter, while I blogged daily on two blogs, had a dormant Facebook profile, a LinkedIn account and a small group of social media friends to coax me on.  It took me 3 months simply to understand what social media was about.  Don’t panic, it does not take everyone this long.  But I had a few prejudgments against social media to get rid of and was not quite as web savvy as I am today.  I also found that I needed to understand several of the social media tools individually before I could see what was happening in the big social media picture.

Once I understood the social media environment the fun started.  I began to play with it, to see what value social media had for my business.  It took another 6 months to understand how the people in my market use social media and how I could use social media as a prospecting tool.

That is my social media story in a nutshell. 

For many businesses it is not that simple.  Management wants answers to those big questions before jumping in. 

What Is The Buzz About?

First you need to understand why social media is important.

Although social media started out as personal communication platforms, these platforms are in the process of becoming useful tools businesses to reach clients.  For example:

  • Facebook is used successfully by many businesses in the B2C world as a sales platform.  Other businesses are using the Facebook Pages as a hub within a strategic social media presence. 
  • LinkedIn is not just a place to virtually exchange business cards.  For example, there are polls and applications to share slide presentations.
  • Twitter is now widely accepted as one of the easiest and fastest ways for businesses to poll their audiences and get immediate feedback.  Tweets are now indexed by Google, which improves overall search results.

Although each of these social media platforms will continue to evolve, it is this form of communication that is important.  Social media communication will continue to expand in today’s customer-centric world of inbound marketing. 

Social media is a place to connect with your clients.  You need to find out what part this plays in your sales cycle.

How Can Social Media Help Your Business?

Before you can answer this question there are three important things you need to establish:

Right attitude – You need to understand how social media communication works.  You can only pick up the right attitude through participating. People have different communication skills, so this can take more or less time to get right.

Context – Many businesses wonder if their clients are on social media.  The answer is often yes.  Your clients are like everyone and probably spend time online. The real question is one of context. 

  • What are our clients doing on social media?
  • Where are they?
  • Why are they there?
  • How are they using social media?

You need to understand the context your clients are in when they use each social media platform.  Only then will you be able to find the right approach to connect with them on social media. 

Clear Business Objectives – Social media platforms have a wide range of bells and whistles… and things that can seem absurd in a professional environment.  If you want business results out of social media you must stay business focused and learn to navigate in this environment.

Although a direct sales approach does not work on social media, you can use social media tactics within a well planned soft sales approach based on a strong value proposition and engaging with people.

Clear business objectives also help you to handle some of the challenging aspects most people struggle with on social media:

  • Get over any personal issues you have with networking.  People who are good networkers in traditional environments usually adapt well to social media networking.   Social media highlights personal preferences and styles in networking.  Clear business objectives helps you keep to business networking.
  • Avoid wasting time on the gadgets.  There are many social media tools to “help” you get the most out of social media.  It is very easy to add on extras that do not add any value to your business strategies and get you out of focus. Clear business objectives help you to come up with a social media system that works for you. 
  • Stay focused on targeting the people you want to meet. 

Why My Tweet Plan Boosted By Business?

My first Tweet Plan revolutionized by business.  It opened doors to people I would never have dreamed of meeting.  Yes, I have had a few clients come to me through Twitter.  But this is not where I have had the highest return on my time investment. 

What I appreciate most out of Twitter is the ease in making high quality contacts.  Instead of using social media to get individual clients I deliberately looked for people who could bring me many clients.  I wanted high quality sources of referrals to help me develop my new business. 

What I found was that I can make contacts very easily on social media, but not sell directly.  To make these contacts work for my business, I need to take them outside of the social media environment.  Social media is simply a part of the initial cycle to find clients.

This is why I started the New Year by deciding to connect directly with one new Twitter contact each day.  By phone, or by email.  This means that my sales success rate depends on my traditional sales and business skills. 

And this leads me to the most important thing to remember about using social media to develop your business:  Take the conversation outside of social media.

Conclusion

Social media does not provide miracle solutions for businesses.  You still need good common business sense.  It does have one distinct advantage though: it puts everyone on the same playing field.  Small businesses can have the same business success as the big ones.

Today I have learned how social media works for my business. 

  • It is not just one social media platform that brings in the results.  People are different and multifaceted.  They bounce between Twitter, my blog, my website, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed.  They check out what I have to say in several places before contacting me directly. 
  • It is not just the inbound effect of people contacting me either.  I also go looking for interesting people and reach out to make direct content.  This is how I meet 2 or 3 good contacts each week.
  • It is not just me sitting alone behind my computer.  Several networks of friends for different social bookmarking activities and networking help me learn more and keep up to date. 
  • It is not just about my business and what I offer.  It is also keeping a tab on what is happening in my industry online.  This increases my business intelligence and gives me interesting information to pass along through social media platforms.

My social media strategy does not work for everyone.  Different business models need to adapt their social media strategies to fit their needs.

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Strategist  based in France.  She uses her dual background in sales & marketing to help businesses improve their international sales conversion and develop country-specific international sales guides.  Connect with her on Twitter @CindyKing

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April 20, 2009

Guest Article: “Five Simple Things You Can Do Every Day To Improve Your Bottom Line,” by Colleen Francis

Filed under: lead generation,Personal Marketing,prospecting,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:31 am
Tags: , , , ,

Five Simple Things You Can Do Every Day To Improve Your Bottom Line
By Colleen Francis

Whether you’re a business owner or part of a company’s sales team, it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of the number-one activity that keeps your organization thriving, and that’s client prospecting.

New business and repeat sales both put money in the till but this won’t happen if you don’t have anyone to sell to. However, prospecting is more than just broadening your social network. It’s about finding who can and will buy what you’re selling. And that’s a skill that you can refine and learn to use as an integral part of your work.

The key to successful prospecting is to make it a daily habit. Never let a day go by without doing at least one thing to generate new business. Recognize that each time you do this, you’re putting new potential leads into your funnel.

With time, your commitment to that one simple act will bring great results, including a boost to your bottom line. Let’s look a bit closer those daily prospecting habits. There are five simple things you can do every day to refine those skills.

1. Pick up the phone. One of your most powerful selling tools is sitting right there on your desk. Pick up the phone and make a new call to a new potential lead. Successful people who are in the top-ten percent of any organization will tell you that this habit is vital for finding new leads and turn them into customers. Not every call is going to result in a new sale. And sales are not the only reason why you need to pick up that phone every day. Talking to people builds your confidence and teaches you to fine-tune your listening skills. Both of those will help you go a long way to meeting your sales goals.

2. Go to a networking event. Whether it’s a sales seminar or a charity golf tournament, a networking event is your opportunity to show your face in the community and to meet new people. To be clear, no one is there to buy anything, so NO PITCHING! People at networking events are most definitely keen on making new connections…and new connections can lead to some great relationships. Make time for events in your business calendar, and always be on the lookout for new ones by subscribing to email distribution lists for social events in your area or by joining business- or trade-related groups on social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.

3. Send an email. The third thing you can do to hone your prospecting skills is to send an email to a prospective customer to follow-up on an earlier discussion. It costs you nothing but a few minutes of your time and the mere act of reaching out to someone helps to cement the relationship you have with that person. Don’t fall victim to the “out of sight, out of mind” principle. Stay on your prospect’s radar. Remember that for every 30 days your prospects goes without hearing from you, they lose 10% of their potential value to you.

4. Rekindle… Mayybe there’s a reason why that’s happened. A quick note or phone call is often all it takes to rekindle that business relationship you once had with a client and that can result in some pretty exciting leads. Reviving lost customers can be a profitable way to generate business now.

5. Call a satisfied customer. Call a customer that you know who is really happy with your services. You can call just to say hello, you can share with them a business-related tip, a link to a great news article you just finished reading, or you can even take the opportunity to ask for a referral or a testimonial. Satisfied customers-especially those that you have recently started to work with-have already seen the benefits of the product you sell or the service you provide. Staying in touch and remaining familiar face is how you reinforce that positive experience.

 

As the President and founder of Engage Selling Solutions, Colleen Francis has succeed in building Engage from an idea to company that delivers focused, customized programs to 100′s of sales teams internationally. Companies such as Semiconductor Insights, General Dynamics, Future Electronics and the Government of Canada have improved their sales processes by implementing Engage’s Selling System.

April 6, 2009

Book Review: Digital Body Language, by Steven Woods

Filed under: Book Reviews,lead generation,marketing,technology — Paul McCord @ 9:38 am
Tags: ,

digital-body-language

Whether you are a salesperson or company, your prospects are changing.  Finding and connecting with prospects is more difficult today than ever before.  And once you do connect with a prospect, the chances are they know far more about the issues they want or need to address and the potential solutions to those issues than the prospects you’ve dealt with in the past.

It used to be salespeople were the dispensers of knowledge and solutions.  Not too long ago most prospects needed salespeople to help them analyze their needs and to then propose viable solutions to those needs.

No longer.

Everyday more and more of our prospects are turning to the ever growing number of resources on the internet to research their problems and issues, their wants and needs.  With the explosion of websites, article sites, blogs, forums, webinars, and other resources immediately available to anyone willing to take a few minutes to do a keyword search, salespeople are no longer the lynchpin of knowledge and solution.

Salespeople are increasingly engaging prospects at a later and later stage of the purchasing process—often so late in the process that their only task is to give a price since the prospect has already diagnosed the issue, researched the various solutions, determined the most appropriate solution for their situation, and now only need a potential product or service provider to quote a price.

This movement away from using salespeople early in their purchasing process creates a huge problem for companies and salespeople—how to recognize and capture a prospect early in their solution search.

Steven Woods in Digital Body Language: Deciphering Customer Intentions in an Online World (2009: New Year Publishing) argues that just as it used to be critical for a salesperson to be able to read a prospect’s body language in order to be able to successfully move them to make a positive decision to purchase, it is now equally critical—and possible—to read a prospect’s “digital” body language via their use and movements through the company’s internet resources.

Digital Body Language is aimed at the marketing function of companies with relatively sophisticated marketing departments engaged in business-to-business complex sales.  For Woods, the activities that allow one to read the body language of a company’s electronic visitor are very much a pre-sales handoff activity.  This, however, doesn’t mean that smaller companies, salespeople, and individual professionals can’t pick up some good ideas of how to understand where in the buying cycle the visitors to their website, blog, podcast, or other resource are.

Woods argues that by understanding and analyzing where the visitors to the company’s website or blog come from, how long they stay, what they engage while they are there, and what they go afterwards can help the marketing department formulate a campaign to eventually move the prospect from investigator who is researching issues and options to being handed off to the sales department for final follow-up and consummating the purchase. 

Each movement a prospect makes signals their individual involvement within the purchase, where in the process they are, what type of information the company can follow-up with that will interest them, and when to turn the lead over to sales. 

Reading digital body language requires a set of data mined from both your electronic and non-electronic resources, as well as “a marketing team prepared to implement numerous processes that deliver the right communication at the right time to the right prospect.”  No easy task and one that Woods says require “the entire organization to make significant changes to marketing.”  Traditional marketing concepts and functions still apply, Woods says, but now take a back seat to understanding and responding to prospect’s online behavior.

Digital Body Language is a thought provoking look at how prospects are buying in today’s market and how marketing—and ultimately sales—must respond.  As more prospects move to self-education, analysis, and solution creation, a new understanding of the prospect must emerge.  And since it seems that every day brings an additional resource that allows prospects more control over their purchases, those companies who learn how to “read” their prospects and engage them with the information they are seeking in a manner they will respond to will be the companies who manage to maintain their margins and grow their business—even in a market where more and more “complex” products and services are moving into the realm of commodities to be bought at the lowest possible price.

 

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