Sales and Sales Management Blog

April 11, 2011

Results of the 2011 Richardson/McCord Training Social Media in Marketing and Sales Survey

Filed under: business,lead generation,management,marketing,Personal Marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:07 am
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It has taken a bit of time and a lot of effort, but we finally have the 2011 Richardson/McCord Training Social Media in Marketing and Sales Survey results.

Some will be surprised, some won’t like the findings, and others will find they confirm what they suspected.

Two things stick out for me:

1.  Both salespeople and companies, whether they currently use social media or not, are struggling to figure out how to use it effectively. In fact, few—even those with sophisticated marketing departments investing time and effort into the process—have any real social media strategy.  Undoubtedly, this will be true for quite some time to come–and, of course, that means there are and will be thousands out looking to take your money to help you learn the hows of making Social Media work.  The lesson here: be extremely careful as there are many who know little more than how to construct a tweet who are anxious to take your money.

2.  To date, social media has been pretty useless in generating actual sales.  By far the most use salespeople and companies are getting from social media is in the area of prospecting–finding new prospects to contact using traditional means, not in making sales.  Again, this will probably be the case for a long, long time–it may always be the case.  Except for web-based sellers, few are realizing any real sales volume from their social media activities.  The lesson?  If you’re thinking you’re going to make easy money by spending time on social media and not having to do the hard work of prospecting, well, good luck with that thought.  On the other hand, if you’re not using social media to help identify and research prospects, you’re probably wasting a heck of a lot of time elsewhere.

Find out what else we discovered–it’s all in the survey.

I’ve decided to divert from the typical approach of requiring you to register to receive a sales oriented White Paper or making you subscribe to our newsletter.  Instead, I’m offering the report as a simple PDF download with the download link below.  I would encourage you, though, to either subscribe to the SELLING POWER Newsletter by simply shooting me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with the subject line “subscribe,” or clicking on the “Sign Me Up” button at the top of the sidebar to the right and subscribe to receive notification of new blog posts.  Subscription appreciated, not required.

If you have questions or anything needs a little more light put upon it, by all means, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Download social media survey

March 31, 2011

Book Review: The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts by Mike Brooks

Filed under: Book Reviews,cold calling,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 9:33 am
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Almost everything in selling can be controversial.  Does cold calling work or not?  What’s the best sales process to use?  Should you even use a sales process?  Are referrals and word of mouth marketing related or are they totally unrelated marketing concepts?  Is the way buyers buy changing?  Are salespeople becoming irrelevant?

I could name dozens of other areas where there’s currently debate occurring.

I’m dealing with one of those areas today: using scripts.. 

Do you think scripts are useful and necessary?  

Do you think scripts create a “canned” presentation that is hokey and makes the salesperson come across as amateurish and unprofessional?

Although there are many who subscribe to the latter—that scripts are unprofessional and do more harm than good–the fact is that we all use scripts, even the most ardent anti-script arguers use scripts. 

What is a script?  A script is nothing more than a standardized presentation or answer.  A script can be written and memorized but that certainly isn’t necessary.  If I start every cold call I make with, “Hi, Ms. Prospect, I’m Paul McCord with McCord Training,” I’m using a standardized script, whether I’ve committed those words to writing or not. 

If I always answer a price objection early in the sale with, “I understand that cost is important.  The investment can range anywhere from a low of X to XX or more, depending upon your needs which at this point we haven’t discussed.  What would you say is your sales teams most pressing issue?”  Again, I’m using a standardized script whether I’ve put that answer to the objection in writing or not. 

A script is simply the standard wording we’ve developed to make our presentations and to answer the questions we are asked on a regular basis. 

So the question isn’t whether or not we use scripts, the question is does it make sense to think through our standard presentations and the typical questions and objections we get and develop well thought-out words to address them? 

If we don’t have a well thought-out script, we’re using an off the cuff script.  Either way we’re using a script.

Unfortunately, creating a high impact, effective script isn’t easy.  Rather than spending a great amount of time and frustration with a hit or miss script that you have to constantly refine until, if you’re lucky, you get it right, why not get professional help upfront?

Mike Brooks has just released The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts (Sales Gravy Press: 2011), the book that will help you construct the scripts you’ll need to handle your phone and non-phone presentations and overcoming objections.

Brooks will help you create well thought-out wording that will help you:

  • Overcome initial objections like, “We’re not interested” and “I’m too busy,” and “We  already have a company/supplier for that,” and many, many more;
  • Learn how to build crucial rapport in the first 5 seconds;
  • Connect with gatekeepers and getting through to the decision maker;
  • Know what to do and what NOT to do when prospecting and qualifying;
  • Deal with smokescreen objections like “The price is too high”;
  • Get your prospects to return your emails and voice mails;
  • Overcome common objections like, “We just need to think about it,” and “I can get it for less money,” and many more. 

Let’s face it – you get the same objections 90% of the time, so why not be prepared in advance with the absolute best scripts and techniques that really work.  Brooks’ scripts are focused on helping you connect with and engage your prospects instead of talking and pitching at them. 

As a bonus, Brooks has a special section to help overcome common objections for mortgage brokers, insurance agents, Realtors, and credit card processing salespeople.  Even if your product or service isn’t included in the “Top 10 Objections” section, reviewing how the specific industry objections are addressed will help you develop answers to the objections you constantly run across.

If you sell, The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts has something for you.—no matter your experience level.  Buy it and then spend some time crafting your scripts—you’ll find that making the phone calls and overcoming objections becomes a lot easier and lot more enjoyable.

March 22, 2011

Using Social Media to Help You Generate Referrals from Clients

Filed under: lead generation,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 1:59 pm
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Referrals.

We all want them.

Yet most of us don’t get very many quality referrals. 

Instead we get the occasional name and phone number that we call a “referral” to someone who either has no need or want for our product or service, or couldn’t afford it even if they did want it.

What seems to be the problem with us sellers that prevents us from getting more than just a mere handful of quality referrals?

The good news is the problem isn’t with us.  We’re just fine.

The problem is the way we’ve been taught to get referrals.  It doesn’t work very well.

Most sales trainers and managers teach sellers that getting referrals is easy—just “do a good job” and then ask for referrals.  All you have to do to get referrals, they teach, is satisfy your client and then ask a question such as, “Ms. Client, who do you know that could benefit from my products or services?”

Simple, huh?

Yep.  So simple in fact that it’s just another piece of traditional sales training crap that isn’t worth the 45 seconds it takes to teach it.

The problem is the very concept of asking your client to do your prospecting for you is totally wrong.

Asking is passive.  When you ask your client to come up with a referral prospect for you, you’re asking them to do something they aren’t capable of doing.  You’re asking them to figure out who would be a good prospect for you—as though they knew your business.  As though they knew what constitutes a good prospect for you.  Unless they are your competitor, they don’t know.  It isn’t their job to know—it’s your job.  When you ask your client that silly referral question, you’re taking the future of your sales business out of your hands and putting it in their hands.

Asking is unfair.  When you ask your client for a referral you’re putting them on the spot.  Would you want someone to put you on the spot where you felt pressured to do something even if you didn’t want to? 

Asking is a waste of time.  Most of the time when we ask for a referral we are literally standing in front of or are on the phone expecting them to give us an immediate  answer.  We are giving our client 10 or 15 seconds to go through their mental file cabinet to come up with a great referral for us.  And then we’re surprised when they can’t.

So if asking doesn’t work, what does?

Instead of asking for a referral from your client, generate a referral for your client to give you.

Referral generation is proactive.  When you generate a referral for your client to give you, you are doing all the work for your client.  You’re making it easy for them to give you great referrals.  You’re taking the load off them so they don’t have to come up with a referral—all they have to do is utter one simple little word—“yes.”

Referral generation takes work.  Where asking is easy, referral generation takes work.  Like most things in life, getting high quality referrals takes work.  Although asking for referrals is easy, the result is what most easy things in life bring—little to nothing.  In order to generate a referral for your client to give you, you have to figure out who your client knows that you know you want to be referred to.  That means you have to become a bit of a detective.

Referral generation guarantees you get great referrals.  When you generate a referral for your client to give, you insure you get a great referral because it is a referral to someone you know you want to be referred to.  How would you like to get one or two or three referrals from every one of your clients, all to prospects that you know are great prospects for you?  It would change your business overnight.

The process of referral generation is really pretty simple.  You figure out who your client knows that you know you want to be referred to.  Then when it comes time to ask for a referral, you ask your client if they know the person you want to be referred to.  If you’ve done your homework well, they’ll say they know them.  Then you ask for the introduction.

The conversation goes something like this:

You:  “John, I’ve been trying to connect with Don Jones at XYZ Corporation for quite some time and just haven’t been able to make the connection.  It dawned on me that you just might know Don.  Do you know him?”  If you’ve done your homework well, you know the answer will be yes—or at least you have good reason to believe it will be yes.

John:  “Sure, I’ve known Don for about four years, why?”

You:  “Great.  Would you be comfortable introducing me to him?”  If you’ve done your job well and have a very satisfied client who trusts you, he’ll agree to give the introduction.

John didn’t have to come up with a name.  He didn’t have to fret over who to refer or what it was you really wanted.  He didn’t have to invest time or effort.  All he had to do was say “yes.”

You get an introduction to a great prospect and all your client had to do way say one little word.

Super easy—for your client.  And really not very hard for you, either.

But how do you find out who your client knows?

That may seem like the hard part, but with practice, it’s really pretty easy and doesn’t take a great deal of time.

Learning to really listen to your client is one key.  In the course of getting to know your client you can pick up a great many ideas about who they know—references to friends, family, and co-workers.  References to employers, past employers, organizations and associations, or places of worship or recreation they belong to.  All of these are fruitful areas to figure out who your client knows or likely knows.  Small talk can become one of the most informative areas of helping you generate referrals.

Becoming highly observant is also key.  If you meet in your client’s office or home, you can pick up all kinds of clues: what awards or certifications do they have on the wall?  Are their pictures with potential prospects?  Who are their vendors and suppliers?  What association or organization directories are in the bookcase?

Today social media can be a quick way to discover who your client knows that you know you want to be referred to. 

Does your client have a LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook account? 

If they do, search through their connections, followers, and/or friends to find great referral prospects for you.  Once you’ve identified a few, try to figure out which ones your client knows best and concentrate on using them as your generated referral.

What groups does your client belong to on LinkedIn and Facebook?  These not only tell you what their interests are, but can also help identify prospects that your client knows.

Does your client have a blog?  If so spend some time reading it.  It is a great way to get to know your client—and who they know.  Do they talk about specific people or companies they know or deal with?  Are there certain people that comment frequently on their posts?

Do a Google search on your client.  You might find other social media sites your client belongs to or possibly comments he or she has made on blogs or various media sites.

Social media is proving to be a tremendous help in a number of business applications.  Referral generation is one—and one that you should be taking advantage of. 

Don’t waste your time asking for referrals.  Learn to make giving you high quality referrals so easy your clients will love saying yes.

March 15, 2011

Five Keys to Generating High Quality Referrals

Filed under: lead generation,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:52 am
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From the time we enter the sales industry we’ve heard that referrals are by far the best prospecting and marketing method in existence.  Yet, very few of us actually get very many high quality referrals. 

Certainly some of us manage to get a name and phone number here and another there.  A few of us will manage to get several.  However, most of these “referrals” are worthless–just names and phone numbers of people or businesses that have no interest in or need for or can’t afford our product or service.

Nevertheless, there are a few salespeople and business owners who have found a way to not only generate more than just a few referrals, but somehow they manage to generate enough high quality referrals to run very successful sales practices almost exclusively from the referrals they receive from their clients. 

Do they have some great secret the rest of us don’t know?

In a sense, they do know something most of us don’t.  They’ve learned that what most of us are doing to get referrals—just asking a question such as, “Ms. Client, do you know of anyone else that I might help”–doesn’t work.   

Moreover, they have learned ways that do work. 

Let’s look at five of the most basic things these mega-referral producers have learned:

1.  Ask for referrals:  Sounds stupid right?  If you don’t ask, how do you expect to get them?  Unfortunately, over 50% of salespeople simply never ask—and the majorities who do ‘ask,’ really don’t ask for referrals. 

2.  Really Ask:  Asking means a direct request for referrals.  Studies have also shown that the majority of salespeople and business owners who ask for referrals don’t really ask–they suggest.  They’ll say something like “Don, if you happen to run across someone who could use my service, would you give them one of my cards?” and then they hand the client a bunch of cards—that usually go straight into the trash.

3.  Let the client know who’s a good referral:  Very few salespeople ever define for the client exactly who a good referral is.  They assume the client knows.  Bad assumption.  Clients aren’t in your business.  Why should they know?  You have to let them know exactly who you’re looking for.

4   Better yet, make the referral easy for them:  Instead of making your client come up with the referral, do the work for them.  During the course of the sale do some detective work and figure out who your client knows that you know you want to be referred to.  Then, when it comes time to ask for referrals, make it easy for them.  Say something such as, “Ms. Client, I’ve been trying to connect with Joe Blow at XYZ Company for quite some time and just haven’t been able to make the connection.  It dawned on me that you might know Joe.  Do you know him?” 

If I’ve done my homework well, I know—or at least have good reason to believe—the answer will be yes.

If I know my client trusts me and that I’ve done a good job for her, I then suggest the referral:  “Great.  Would you be comfortable introducing me to him?”

My client doesn’t have to wonder who might make a good referral for me.  She doesn’t have to think.  She doesn’t have to do anything other than to utter one simple word, “yes.”  It’s a lot easier for a client to say “yes” than it is to figure out who would be a good referral.  It takes no time.  It takes no effort.  It’s easy.  I get a referral to someone that I know I want to be referred to.

5  Don’t get names and phone numbers, get introduced.  A name and phone number is just a nme and phone number, not a referral.  Get introduced to the prospect through an introduction letter, phone call, or lunch meeting.

Mega-referral producers have a detailed process they use to generate a large number of high quality referrals from every one of their clients–and even prospects.  They have developed a disciplined and effective procedure they use with each client that leads to a predictable end—receiving a large number of high quality referrals. 

But even without learning the process they use, if you simply implement these 7 simple tips, you’ll increase both the number and quality of the referrals you receive from your clients immediately. 

Want to learn the high referral generation process they use?  Contact me at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com or give me a call at 281-216-6845.

March 7, 2011

Bust Your Slump–The Benefits of Digital Media

Filed under: Book Recommendations,business,prospecting,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 11:55 am
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Isn’t the digital world grand?  No waiting days or weeks for stuff to be delivered.  And the discounts companies can offer are amazing!

Now, thanks to digital media, if you aren’t bringing in the sales you want or you’re in an honest to goodness sales slump, you can get real help in getting your pipeline filled quickly—for next to nothing.

My newest book, Bust Your Slump: A Dozen Slump Busting Strategies to Fill Your Pipeline in 30 Days has received a great amount of praise and recognition—from being one of the 10 finalists for book of the year at Top Sales Awards to being named one of the top sales books of 2010 by RainToday.com to being nominated for the Chally Sales Book of the Year award.  But more importantly, it has received praise from sellers who have actually used it to quickly and radically increase their sales.

The paperback sells for $14.95 and the Kindle has sold for $9.99.

For a limited time you can purchase the Kindle version or the E-book for only $2.99.  That’s an incredible 70% off the original Kindle price and a full 80% off the paperback price.  Because of production costs, I can’t make this offer on the paperback version, but because of the immense savings that digital media affords the publishing industry; you can get every word of the paperback book via Kindle or E-book for only $2.99.

Bust Your Slump is designed for sellers who want to increase their sales quickly.  Not all of the 12 strategies will be right for you and your market, but no matter whether you sell B2B or B2C, if your sales cycle is long or a one-time close, whether you sell locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally, there are strategies that will help you create business quickly.

These dozen strategies are designed to do one thing—bring in business quickly.  But they are not designed to be long-term strategies.  Most will create a big burst of business but because of the very nature of the strategy, it can’t be relied on long-term (just how many orphan files can you find in your office?).

The first chapter of the book outlines a four step process for filling your pipeline now and guaranteeing that you never again face a sales slump.

Grab your copy of the book at Amazon Kindle or the E-book while at this incredible price and get your pipeline filled NOW!

January 25, 2011

Is It Really a 2.0 World for Sellers?

Filed under: branding,business,Client Relationships,developing expert reputation,marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:33 am
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The hype is everywhere: if you’re a salesperson or company without a blog, you’re totally out of today’s marketplace and are losing position to the competition hourly because unlike them, you’re not establishing your image as an expert; if you’re not active on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and/or Youtube, you may as well concede that you won’t be in sales 6 months from now; if your focus is anywhere besides online, you completely misunderstand 21st century buyers.

The message from so many is simple: we live in a 2.0 (going on 3.0) world, and anyone who doesn’t recognize that and realign their business to focus on the enormous and exponentially growing online business opportunities is a dinosaur and cannot possibly be successful in the future—and the future is defined as tomorrow, the next day at the latest.

Certainly this is a message that many businesses and salespeople want to hear.  No more having to cold call.  No more having to figure out where to advertise—yellow pages? Magazines? Newspapers?  Nope.  No more having to network through physical groups and events.  Focus on social media and the virtual world and grow your business without having to invest a dime or spend hour after hour prospecting and hearing ‘no’ after ‘no.’  Finally, a free–and rejection free–way to sell and make more than you ever dreamed possible.

What a crock.

It’s also a message that a great many people have a very vested interest in spreading.  Take a look at the incredible number of social media, internet marketing, and online business “gurus” and “coaches” trying to connect with folks on Twitter.  It appears that everyone who’s ever signed up on Twitter and successfully created a tweet considers themselves to be social media experts, ready and willing to charge the next sucker a buck to teach them how to create a tweet also—and promise them instant millions without having to work. 

Then there are the “futurists,” predicting how technology is going to change the world of selling, virtually destroying the sales profession while creating untold opportunities for companies to increase sales and profits.  These are the same futurists who upon the invention of the telephone predicted that salespeople would never again meet face to face with prospects; and who upon the arrival of the fax machine predicted that mail was no longer necessary; who upon being introduced to email declared that surely this time business mail really was dead.  Now, with the gazillions of social media options, they’re proclaiming that this time technology really is going to completely revolutionize the world of selling.

And, of course, there are thousands and thousands of companies joining the chorus of social media and internet hype who must sell their products and services to the businesses and salespeople who want to be in the vanguard of the new sales world order. 

Before I go any further let me say that despite the above, this isn’t a polemic against the internet or social media.  My Sales and Sales Management blog is entering its fifth year of publication; I am active on Twitter and Facebook; I participate on LinkedIn and Focus and many other social media sites.  I believe there is much of value and much to be gained from these technologies and you should be involved with them just as I am—but I don’t believe that they’re decreasing the need for massive traditional offline marketing and sales activities.  If anything, the hype surrounding social media has lured many competitors away from traditional prospecting and marketing, giving those who recognize the current limitations of social media a distinct advantage over those who have bought into social media as the ANSWER.

I’m also not by any means trying to say that all trainers, coaches or advocates of social media are hyperbolic in their views of the role of social media.  There are many great trainers and coaches who understand social media’s place in the marketplace and do a superb job in guiding and directing sellers and business owners in how to use and gain value from them. 

The Reality of the Internet and Social Media

That being said, there’s still far too much unfounded, wishful thinking about the power of social media.  A recent post by Brian Carroll demonstrates the lack of business generated by social media—Brian was quoting Sergio Balegno, Director of Research for MECLABS, the parent company of InTouch of which Brian is President.

MECLABS surveyed 2,300 marketers and discovered that by the end of 2010 only 6% were generating enough business leads to track ROI.  Only 25% of marketers even have clear objectives and practices for engaging social media.

Those surveyed were marketers of good size companies, not small businesses and individual sellers.  Sergio’s conclusions are very different from mine.  His conclusion is that 6% of companies realizing enough sales to track ROI with such a new medium is impressive.  That conclusion is all well and good–for a company that can afford to assign someone to managing an aggressive social media campaign.

My conclusion is that only 6% of sizable companies producing measurable ROI with a marketing department behind their activities indicate that a small business or individual seller is so far behind the 8 ball with social media that investing significant amounts of time trying to create business through it is a monumental mistake.

Further, if only 25% of the marketing departments of companies using social media have developed clear objectives and practices of how to use it, how many small businesses and individual sellers who don’t have the time or research resources of a fully fledged marketing department have developed such?  How many can spend the time and effort needed to develop such a plan and still maintain their sales volume, much less increase it?

In addition, Dave Stein of ES Research Group, Inc, the only independent source of intelligence and advice on sales training approaches, programs and the companies that provide them, forwarded to me the following graph that indicates that there is still a huge segment of society that relies little or not at all on the internet for information and decision making help.

 

Although this chart tracks only three items; how many in each age group go online for any reason; how many in each age group access a government website; and how many in each group access financial information, it does give us some idea of how many use the internet for non-government oriented research and information.

According to the above study 79% of the population above 12 years of age goes online, yet only 38% of the population above 18 uses it for financial research and information, which is one of the top research topics on the internet.  This correlates well with a study by Ruder Finn Internet Index which found that 80% of all internet users go online to socialize but less than half that number uses the internet for shopping and/or research.

If we assume there are about 235 million Americans 18 or older and 79% go online but only 50% of them use the internet for shopping and research, there’s only 93 million adults online shopping and using it for research (39.5% of the total adult population).  That means there are still 142 million Americans (60% of the adult population) not buying online or using the internet for research, i.e., 142 million Americans that you won’t be reaching online no matter what you do.

The question is simple: do you want the opportunity to reach 40% of your market (online), 60% of your market (offline), or 100% of your market (both segments)?  If you concentrate on those who are online, you’ll be eliminating 60% of your potential market (these numbers do not include businesses which would add many more millions to each category).

Now, take 60% of your potential market away and then realize that only 6% of companies with a marketing department that has the resources to aggressively work social media have generated enough business from it to be able to track results.  What are the realistic chances that social media is going to become a significant income stream producer for you or your small business?

I know, I hear the answers now—“I’m not online to sell, I’m looking to develop relationships; sales are secondary and hopefully will come someday.”  Really?  You’re spending two, three, four, five hours a day online to develop relationships with people or companies not to sell–but to maybe sell someday?  What would a sales manager say if when she asked you how you spent your week you said something like, “Well, I spent about 10 hours this week on the phone calling and meeting with prospects and clients, and I spent 20 hours online trying to develop relationships.” 

“I see,” your manager says, “what are your sales projections from spending so much time online?” 

“Oh, you misunderstand,” you answer, “I’m really not trying to sell, I’m developing relationships with lots of folks that maybe in the future might someday be prospects.  See, social media isn’t for selling, it’s for relationship development and to do it right I’ve got to spend a good deal of time interacting with them.”

“I’m sorry,” your manger responds, “I was under the impression your job was to sell.  How did I get such a wrong impression?”

“I know,” you respond, “it’s hard for you to grasp the new sales paradigm.  Things have changed, we now sell by not selling, we engage with people who might want to buy at some point in the future.  With social media I can engage hundreds of these companies.  One day, if I continue to spend half my time engaging this way I’ll be a big producer, I’m sure.  You’ll see.”

“Uh, huh,” your manager stammers.  “How much business have you gotten so far?”

“None, but don’t worry, it’s the wave of the future, everybody says so.”

“So is unemployment,” your manager responds, “it’s the wave of today.”

Sounds silly?  Yes.  Real?  Yep, there are lots of sellers spending huge amounts of time engaging in social media when they should be selling.  But, hey, social media’s easier and safer—and everybody’s doing it.

The Real Role of the Internet and Social Media in Sales and Marketing

What does this mean for sellers and small business owners?  It doesn’t mean ignore social media.  Not by any means.  Social media can play a real role in your marketing—and it will become more important over time; just take a look at the percentage of each age group that is plugged into the internet.  As you would expect, it gets bigger and bigger as the ages get younger, and, of course, those youngsters will become oldsters one day.  Likewise look at their activities.  Those in the 18 to 34 age group aren’t that far behind the older age groups in using the internet for financial research.  As they age, more and more members of this age group will engage the internet for reasons other than socializing.  By the time they reach the 65-73 age group, their financial research numbers could well be almost twice what that current age group’s numbers are.

But that’s a good ways away.

Unless you sell only to internet users—say you’re selling SEO services, website design, and such—your market is more offline than online (even if you only sell to net users you still have to spend a good deal of time selling offline—EBay and Esurance are good examples).

For most of us the internet is a viable marketing tool if used correctly.  (For an interesting current discussion of using blogs to establish credibility and expert status, see Dave Brock’s post and the comments here.)  Unfortunately, it can also be the ruination of us if we allow it to eat up too much of our time hoping for easy, faceless, no rejection sales.  There’s really no magic bullet to get around the fact that selling success has, as Tibor Shanto of Renbor points out, “always come down to planning, discipline and execution.”  Tibor goes on: in B2B sales “most buyers are not plugged in to the [internet] echo chamber to the degree 2.0 gurus would lead you to believe.  Speak to most office supply sales people, speak to buyers in the transport trade, or a vast majority of buyer and sellers, and they are not in the 2.0 lane, some are not in any lane at all.  Even many of the buyers who are ‘tuned in’ find themselves with information overload and contradictory input, as a result studies show that they still turn to direct interaction with trusted sales professionals.”

I think that in today’s world investing a few minutes a day in social media makes perfect sense and is a commitment almost every seller should make; making social media a major time and effort commitment doesn’t. 

Where you invest your time—and how much you spend–is the real question.  Most salespeople need to engage social media as a prospecting and marketing tool. More than that, they need to engage social media as a tool to develop and strengthen relationships with their prospects and clients who are tuned into technology.  Linda Richardson of Richardson, one of the leading sales training companies, put it well:

“Selling is about relationships and competency.  Sales 2.0 does not take the place of relationships, but it does give salespeople and customers a new platform for building relationships and increasing competency.  Sales 2.0 is more than technology. The tools enable collaboration, better preparation, and create a more effective and efficient way to sell. 2.0 is about reaching and connecting with the right people, getting a lot smarter and engaging in more meaningful conversations.   Of course not every company or buyer is leveraging 2.0 but by waiting on the sidelines sales organizations and salespeople are placing themselves at a serious disadvantage and risk.  Sales 2.0 is transforming sales and opening up possibilities never before seen.    It is a fast moving 2.0 Sales World and with the ever increasing number of tools there is a real need to help salespeople learn how to use them to reach their buyers.”

Where are buyers today?  Certainly there’s a large contingent that engage the internet, yet most are there not to buy or to do research or inquire about products, services, needs, or wants, but to connect with their circle of friends—to socialize with their group.

That recognition means we have to consider just how much are we willing to invest in the 2.0 world when we are not going to be able to engage with the majority of our prospects.  Can we connect with prospects?  Can we even make an occasional sale?  Yes.  Is it going to produce the business that could be otherwise produced in strategic offline prospecting and engaging of prospects?  Testimony and research to date seems to indicate the answer is a resounding no, not now.  Are the hoped for relationships that will result in future sales worth spending large numbers of hours on social media sites?  Not if your paycheck relies on sales.  Unfortunately you can’t cash a relationship, no matter the future potential. 

The internet and social media will continue to grow in importance.  You need to have a presence and grow that as the influence of the technology grows.  But if you want to be in business long enough to see significant business come from it, you have to be fully engaged in the business of selling—offline.  That hasn’t changed and it won’t change for many, many years to come.

The Major Role of the internet and Social Media for Most Sellers Today

That doesn’t, however, finish the discussion of the role of the internet and social media for us sellers.  Although the chart Dave sent me points out the limitations of social media and the internet for marketing, Dave emphasized the very real benefit of them for virtually every salesperson to significantly change and improve their prospecting research, for learning and sharpening sales and product knowledge, and for the fast and inexpensive (often free) opportunities for great training and skill development through blogs, article sites, webinars, forums and groups, and the other platforms available on the net.

Webinars offer unbelievable training and learning opportunities and should be a core resource for every company and seller.  You can get guidance and training from some of the best trainers and thinkers in business and sales without having to leave your office; whereas in the past you couldn’t get their training unless you were lucky enough to have your company bring them in or you lived in or were willing to travel to a place where they were presenting a public seminar—if they gave public seminars.  The internet has opened those opportunities to every seller in the world that has a computer and internet connection–and often at no cost.  (Webinars are also one of the best resources for sales and customer service as the uses for selling, customer and internal training, and servicing customer needs is endless.)

LinkedIn groups and sites such as Focus offer sellers the opportunity to ask questions and get answers from some of the top sales minds in the world, as well as from other sellers.  These forums and groups make it possible to get world class answers to virtually any question a seller could possibly have—free of charge.

For most of us the internet has opened tremendous new doors for researching our markets, for identifying quality prospects, for doing competitor research, for obtaining training and developing new skills.  As Linda indicated above, it can help us create a more effective and better way to sell—both online and offline.

The 2.0 world does have a tremendous impact on how we sell.  Its influence will continue to grow.  Right now it can open doors to opportunities in training and research that can change the very basic nature of how we do things.  The only thing it can’t do is help us reach that more than 60% of our market that doesn’t use the internet or social media outside of socializing with their group.  For that—for the lion’s share of our market—we have to hit the street in the same manner we’ve always done.  And that means it really isn’t quite a 2.0 sales world–yet.

January 2, 2011

Seller, Get Your SPAM Out of Your Prospect’s Email Box

Filed under: marketing,prospecting,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 11:51 am
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Do you use email to try to connect with new prospects?  If you do—or if you’re thinking about starting—you might want to take into consideration what one of my clients had to say about prospecting through email:

“I used to get an occasional email with a subject line such as “Meeting Request” once a week, maybe three or four times a month.  Although I thought it a bit cheeky since the salesperson and I hadn’t talked, it really didn’t bother me. 

“Now I’m getting those emails 15 or 20 times a week.  They’re all the same—‘my product is great, will save you (or make you) a ton of money, I’d like a few minutes to introduce you to my product/service.  Please let me know what would be a good time to connect with you.’

“Lately I’ve also noticed that the salespeople are getting more deceptive in their subject line with lines such as ‘RE: Meeting Request,’ like we’ve already exchanged emails about this; or, ‘Per Your Request,’ as though I had spoken with the salesperson and requested them email me to set up a time.

“I consider anything in my email box that comes to me unsolicited or from someone I don’t know to be SPAM.  Anyone who invades my email box will never get an appointment.  If they have no more professionalism than to SPAM me, they certainly won’t get my attention or my business.”

This from the CEO of a mid-size manufacturing company with offices in 12 states.  Robert’s company would be a great client for most any salesperson—they are making money and aren’t afraid to spend it on the right products and services.  My client is a fairly easy guy to connect with.  But if you invade his email box you won’t be connecting with him.  If you’re part of the 300 to 400 emails he gets a day, you better have made your connection through some other means or you’re just going to get deleted with prejudice. 

Like Robert, I—and probably most business owners and managers reading this—have been getting more and more of these meeting request emails.  I now get at least one every day, often two or more.

The question is: is using email to make an initial connection a legitimate way to connect or is it, as Robert believes, an invasion of privacy?  And whether or not it is a legitimate connection method, is it worth the potential ill will it can create?

I don’t have a definitive answer.  But I decided to ask just a few business owners and executives what their reaction to these emails is.  It was a very small poll—22 men and women from various parts of the country and from various industries.

The results:

10 never notice these types of emails because they automatically delete anything from those they don’t know or aren’t expecting

7 automatically delete any email that appears to be a solicitation of any kind, including a meeting

5 will open these types of emails.  3 of the five will read long enough to determine no interest—their estimate two to three seconds; 2 will read virtually the whole email.  One has actually responded to a meeting request.

To put these in numbers:

45% automatically delete any email from anyone they don’t know

Another 32% automatically delete any email that appears to be a solicitation

77% will delete the email without ever opening it

23% will open the meeting request email

     The sender has 2 to 3 seconds to capture the attention of 60% of these email openers

     40% of the openers will read the email (9% of the 22 surveyed)

     20% of the openers have actually responded to a meeting request email (5% of the 22)

Of the 17 who deleted the email without ever opening it, how many consider it SPAM and how many have a negative impression of the sender?

13 of the 17 consider the email to be SPAM (59% of the 22)

15 of the 17 have a negative impression of the sender (68% of the 22)

Is creating a negative impression in 68% of the people you try to connect with via email wise?  Maybe it is if your prospecting strategy is strictly based on a numbers game—blast the world with as many emails as possible and somebody will respond and to hell with those who don’t. 

But if your prospecting activity is based on a well thought out strategy of finding and connecting with high quality prospects you probably can’t afford to burn 68% of them.

Before you queue up that list of prospects to blast with your meeting request email, consider whether or not there is a better way to connect with them.  As more and more people get fed up with the hundreds of pieces of SPAM they get every day, your piece of email that is so important to you is more and more often considered unwelcome and rude SPAM.  Is that the impression you really want to make?

December 27, 2010

Is Confusing Word of Mouth Marketing with Referral Marketing Costing You Business?

Filed under: marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,small business,Word of Mouth Marketing — Paul McCord @ 12:30 pm
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Log on to almost any site that has a large and varied library of sales articles or head over to Amazon and scan the books that come up from a keyword search of “referrals” and you’ll find one of the most common—and innocently destructive—confusions in the discussion of prospecting methodologies: discussing word of mouth marketing in the same context as referral marketing.

From sellers to business owners to sales leaders to some of the biggest names in sales training and coaching, word of mouth marketing and referral selling are discussed as though that are just two aspects of the same prospecting methodology.  They aren’t.  They are very, very different, and understanding the difference is important if you want to maximize your word of mouth and/or referral marketing effectiveness.

Word of Mouth Marketing is PASSIVE.  In word of mouth marketing the object is to have someone, usually a client, recommend people they know call you if they have a need for your product or service.  Your recommender may or may not give the person they speak to one of your cards or your phone number, but at a minimum they will tell the other person your name and give them a brief idea of why they should speak with you—usually an idea of what you accomplished for them, how great your service was, or how competitive your price.

Other than possibly encouraging them to pass along your information—and maybe giving them a few of your business cards—you have no control.  You are relying on other people to create business for you.  You have to rely on your client to mention you to those they speak to who might need your products or service.  You then have to hope that the person they spoke to about you picks up the phone and gives you a call or to walks into your office.  Seldom do you even know that your client spoke to someone about you.

Word of mouth marketing works.  It certainly isn’t the most effective prospecting strategy, but it has its place in the prospecting toolkit of many sellers.

Referral Marketing is PROACTIVE.  Referral marketing is the exact opposite of word of mouth marketing.  Instead of waiting for someone else to generate prospects for you, referral marketing demands that you take control of the process, including doing the referral work for your client.

Traditionally referral marketing has been taught as a semi-proactive process; one where you were taught to ask a weak referral question such as, “Ms. Client, do you know anyone else that I might help?”  Or, “Mr. Client, who do you know that might benefit from my products or services?”

When you ask a weak referral question such as one of these, you’re still relying on your client to do your prospecting for you.  Although more proactive than word of mouth marketing, you still have little control over the result—you may or may not get a positive response to your question, and even when you get a positive response, it may not be a referral to a quality prospect.

However, if you’ll do the work for your client by doing some detective work to figure out who your client knows that you know you want to be referred to, and then instead of asking a general referral question, asking for the specific introduction to the person you know you want to be referred to that you know your client knows, you’ve taken total control of the referral process.  You’re no longer relying on your client to come up with a quality referral for you, nor are you relying on them maybe mentioning you to someone who might need your products or services.  Instead, you’re asking for a direct introduction to someone you KNOW you want to be referred to.  You know you’re getting a high quality referral.

It isn’t a possible.  It isn’t a maybe.  It isn’t a might. 

It isn’t a maybe they’ll take my phone call.  It isn’t a maybe I’ll get to talk to them.

It is a direct introduction to someone you know you want to be referred to.  You know it is a good referral.  You know it is a quality prospect.  You know you’ll get to talk to them. 

You’ve taken all the maybe’s out of the equation and have taken total control of the process.

Referral marketing is not only far more effective than word of mouth marketing, it is also a far more predictable prospect generation strategy.

OK, so there’s a difference.  What’s the big deal?

It’s a big deal to understand the difference because it means you can substantially increase your business by thoroughly understanding how each strategy works and then employing both in your sales business.

I’ve had a great many sellers and sales leaders tell me that they either currently use referral marketing aggressively or they tried referral marketing and it was a total flop.  Yet when I question them about what they’re doing or what they did that didn’t work I discover that they were using word of mouth marketing, not referral marketing. 

Lumping word of mouth marketing in with referral marketing is an innocent mistake–but one that is costing sellers business.  And although they are very different strategies, by engaging your clients and others in both a proactive and a passive prospect generation strategy, you can quickly and substantially increase your pipeline.  It simply takes understanding the difference between the two strategies than then learning how to maximize their utilization.

December 3, 2010

Can You Build Your Business From Referrals? Depends on the Question You Ask

Filed under: marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 11:03 am
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Over the past few years I’ve worked with thousands of sellers, helping them learn how to radically increase both the quantity and quality of referrals they get from their clients.  In the early stages of working with these men and women I usually hear the same comments and frustrations about referrals: from how asking for referrals is a waste of time because seldom do the referred prospects buy, to how asking for referrals makes the seller look weak, to how clients resent being asked for referrals.

There are dozens of reasons sellers have had less than great experience with referrals, and almost all of them are because the way they’ve been taught to seek referrals creates more problems than it solves. 

Most sellers have been taught that all you have to do to get referrals is ask for them after the sale has been completed.  Just do a good job for your client and then, after the sale, ask them if they know of anyone who could benefit from your products or services.  Depending upon the seller you ask, that simple referral question can take many different forms, such as:

“Ms. Client, who do you know that could use my products or services?”

“Mr. Client, who do you know that I should be talking to?”

“Mr. Client, who else do you know that I could help?”

“Ms. Client, if you happen to run across anyone else that I might be able to help, would you give them one of my cards?”

No matter how they phrase the request, seldom will these questions produce quality referrals because they don’t address the basic anxiety that many clients have about giving referrals, and worse, the seller is asking their client to do their prospecting for them, an unrealistic request and one that puts the client in an awkward position.

By waiting until the end of the sale to introduce the idea of referrals, sellers are making it very difficult to acquire quality referrals.  Most clients need time to get comfortable with the idea of giving referrals and they certainly need time to think about whom to refer.  Furthermore, they need a clear idea of who would make a great referred prospect.  And since most clients do things for the same reason most people do things, because they see doing the thing to be in their own best interests to do, the seller needs to give the client a good reason to give referrals.

All of the issues above work to make getting quality referrals difficult.  But in the end, the single biggest reason sellers don’t get many high quality referrals from their clients is because the client simply doesn’t know who to refer.  We think it is obvious whom to refer—we want them to refer someone just like themselves.  It isn’t obvious to them.  Although we may think they do, our clients don’t really understand all of the things we can do or all of the needs and issues we can solve.  Consequently, they really don’t know who to refer. 

So if asking your client for a referral to someone they know who might need your products or services doesn’t work very well, is it possible to get a large number of high quality referrals from clients?

Yes, absolutely it is.

But instead of asking a silly, weak question like “who do you know that might be able to use my products or services,” ask to be referred to a specific person.  Although the typical referral question is simple, it is very ineffective. 

More difficult and extremely effective is doing a bit of detective work to discover who your client knows that you know you want to be referred to and then asking for a direct introduction to that person.

 This method demands more from you than popping off a throwaway question at the end of the sale, but it is powerful because:

  • You are no longer asking your client to do your prospecting for you, taking an unwanted burden off them because you’re doing the work for them
  • You are far more likely to get a positive response from your client because instead of asking them to rummage around their mental file cabinet trying to figure out who to refer, you’re asking for a specific and easy to fulfill action—an introduction to someone they know
  • The introduction you get will be to a quality prospect because it will be to a prospect that you pick and that you know you want to be introduced to
  • You will have a much greater chance of setting an appointment with the prospect by being personally introduced by your client than if you just get their name and phone number and call them out of the blue
  • Over time, you can get multiple high quality introductions from each client.  They become a never ending source of quality referrals by simply asking for additional specific introductions as you earn them

Top sellers have learned how to build their businesses from referrals, and for most of them, that weak referral question most sellers ask isn’t a part of their referral strategy.  They’ve learned that if they make giving referrals easy for their clients, getting referrals becomes easy.  Better yet, they’ve learned that if they control the referral process and get referred to the prospects they want to be referred to, their closing ratio from referrals doubles, triples, quadruples, or more.

Referrals can be the cornerstone of your sales business if you learn to do a little detective work and make it easy for your clients to give the great referrals you’ve always wanted.

November 6, 2010

How to Guarantee You Get Great Referrals

Filed under: marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 4:01 pm
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At first glance, a referral is a pretty simple thing.  For most sellers, managers, and trainers, a referral is just a name and phone number that a client has given once the seller has completed the sale, has done a good job for the client, and then asks a general question such as, “do you know of anyone else that I might be able to help?,” or, “do you know of anyone else that might benefit from my products and services?”.

Once a seller has received a referral, contacting the referred party is just as simple.  The seller will call the referred party mentioning to him or her that the client, which the prospect knows, referred the seller to them, or on occasion they will ask the client to write a referral letter to the prospect and then the seller will call the prospect after they have received the letter.  A very simple, straightforward process.

Unfortunately, this “do a good job and ask for a referral” process is totally and completely wrong, and has been proven by millions of sellers to not work worth a darn. Nevertheless, this is what is taught in almost every sales course that mentions referrals.  And not only is it a waste of time and effort, it deceives the seller who don’t succeed when using it into believing that the fault lies with him or her, not with a “system” that doesn’t work.

Generating a large number of high quality referrals requires far more than “doing a good job and asking for a referral.” 

If you want to generate a large number of high quality referrals from your clients, you must understand what creates a quality referral.

A high quality referral is built on a foundation that has four solid pillars—and as the seller; you have control over three of them:

  1. Your relationship with your client:  Most clients don’t give referrals because they like you or even because you did a good job.  Certainly there are a few clients that will give referrals at the drop of a hat, but most clients hate to give referrals and unless they have a deep trust that you will not embarrass them and that you’ll deal honestly and competently with the prospect they refer, they won’t be willing to give quality referrals. 

    Most clients believe that when they give a referral they’re not just suggesting that someone they know speak to the person they are referring, they believe that they are endorsing the seller, in essence telling the person they refer to the seller that they don’t need to do any research because the referrer has already done it and this person they’re referring is the best choice.  To get clients to take this step doesn’t come without having built a strong bond of trust.

  2. Your client’s purchasing experience:  Discover what your client’s purchasing expectations and priorities are, then meet and, hopefully, exceed them. 

    Few sellers ever exceed their client’s expectations because even though they think they know what the client’s expectations are, they never really try to find out, they never ask.  You cannot afford to guess or “think” you know what your client’s expectations are–you must know exactly, and you can only do that by discussing them with your client and then making sure you meet or exceed them–nothing less will do. 

    If you don’t specifically ask your client what their expectations are, the best you can do is meet or exceed what you think your client’s expectations should be.

    Clients assume that the purchasing experience anyone they refer you  to will have a similar or WORSE experience than they had.  The further away from their desired purchasing experience they have, the less likely they will be to give a quality referral.

  3. The relationship between your client and the prospect:  This is the one pillar you have no control over.  Clients will refer you to people they have very strong, positive relationships with–and people they have very negative relationships with. 

    If the prospect trusts and respects your client, some of that trust and respect will be automatically imbued to you and you start your relationship with them from a position of strength.  On the other hand, if the prospect distrusts or doesn’t respect your client, some of that distrust or disrespect will also be imbued to you and you will start your relationship with them from a position of weakness.  Your job is to find out exactly what the relationship between client and prospect is and then plan you introduction approach to them accordingly.

  4. Your initial contact with the prospect:  To this point you’ve invested a great deal time and effort in establishing your relationship with your client, making sure they have exactly the purchasing experience they want, and finding out what the relationship is between your client and the prospect they are referring.  After investing so much time and attention to get this far, the last thing you want is just a name and phone number.

    Instead of getting a traditional “referral” consisting of the name and phone of the prospect and permission to use your client’s name, get a direct introduction from your client to the prospect. 

    There are three primary methods of getting a direct introduction:

    Letter of introduction from your client to the prospect:  Ask your client to write a letter introducing you to the prospect.  However, once you’ve asked your client to write the letter, let them know that you know how busy they are.  Offer to take the burden off of them by writing the letter for their signature.  If you allow them to write the letter it won’t communicate a reason for the prospect to meet with you and it will be written on their schedule—which could be never.

    The letter you write should give a brief overview of what you’ve done for your client and why the client believes it would be beneficial for the prospect to meet with you, as well as the time and date to expect a call from you.  Have your client sign it.  Phone the prospect at the exact time your client indicated you’d be calling.

    Introductory phone call from your client to the prospect:  An even stronger introduction is a phone call from your client to the prospect to introduce you.  This method puts additional pressure on the prospect to agree to set an appointment with you as it is difficult for the prospect to say “no” to your meeting request when they know that their friend, co-worker, or associate is standing next to you when you ask.

    The downside to a phone call is it gives the prospect the opportunity to ask questions of your client.  If there were aspects to the sale that didn’t go well there is a good chance they will surface during the phone call.

    Lunch meeting with your client, the prospect, and yourself:  A tremendously strong introduction method.  Have your client invite the prospect to lunch or coffee with the three of you.  Encourage your client to let the prospect know this is NOT a sales meeting, just an opportunity for the two of you to meet one another. 

    One of the strange things that often happens during the meeting is the client ends up being your salesperson and you are there simply as the consultant.  And, again, it is very difficult for the prospect to say “no” when you request a meeting.

As seen above, you have control of the majority of the pillars upon which a referral is based.  If any of the above is weak, your likelihood of generating quality referrals will decline and the weakness must be made up elsewhere.  In actuality, if one of the first two segments is weak, you will not be getting quality referrals–period.  However, you can mitigate the third one by using a strong method of introduction.

Generating a large number of quality sales isn’t done by chance or luck, and neither is generating a large number of high quality referrals. Just as you need a well thought out process to consistently sell, you need a well thought out process to generate quality referrals.   You can significantly increase the volume and the success of your referrals if you understand the dynamics that generate quality referrals and then control those dynamics.

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