Sales and Sales Management Blog

February 2, 2011

Are You Connected? You Can Be With New Social Media Aggregator

Filed under: Networking,Sales 2.0 — Paul McCord @ 2:44 pm
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Do you have contacts on LinkedIn?  Followers on Twitter?  Friends on Facebook?  Contacts in Gmail?  Do you have appointments with some of these contacts?  Do you try to keep up with their blog posts, tweets, birthdays, job changes, and other activities?

If you do, you probably have a bit of a problem keeping up with literally thousands of business and social contacts.  It takes time to navigate through all of the platforms.  It probably has become such an issue that you really only keep connected with a few dozen select individuals and/or companies.

There’s a new service, Connected, that offers a way to take all of your contacts and aggregate their activity from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, including their blog posts, any interactions you’ve had with them on these platforms, as well as their recent Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn activity and put it at your fingertips.

Navigating Connected at first was a little confusing as not all of your contacts will appear under ‘contacts.’  Many appear under their company link instead of on the visible contact list.  Even then I had something of a problem finding a few of my contacts, although with a little detective work they were eventually all located.

A bit of a bonus if you happen to use Google Contacts, Google Voice, and/or Google Calendar, those contacts and updates can be imported and linked to the profiles in Connected also.

In addition, you can make the data in profiles into an actionable agenda that you can then have Connected email to you dailiy. 

How much time and effort will Connected save you?  That really depends on the number of platforms you are involved with and how many connections you really stay in close contact with—or that you wish to stay in contact with.

Unlike many other sites that offer resources to help you manage your social media contacts, Connected is a fee site, charging $9.99 per month with a free 14 day trial period (a nice touch by Connected, you DO NOT have to give your credit card information to get the free trial.  At the end of the trial period you’ll get an email from Connected directing you to set up your payment form.  If you don’t want to continue the service just don’t do a thing.  Much nicer than those sites that automatically charge if you don’t unsubscribe).

Is it worth the ten dollars a month?  At this point I haven’t decided as I’ve only just begun using it.  That being said, it does have some nice features (with the recognition they have more work yet to be done).  Time will tell—about 12 more days to be exact—as to whether I find it worth $120 a year.  I’d suggest, however, that you take a look and a trial and decide if Connected will work for you.

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.

August 18, 2010

Guest Article: “Sales Prospecting: 5 Tips for Using Linkedin to Sell,” by Nigel Edelshain

Filed under: sales,Sales 2.0,selling — Paul McCord @ 11:54 am
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Sales Prospecting: 5 Tips for Using Linkedin to Sell
by Nigel Edelshain

I went to speak to my friend and New York master sales trainer, David Leaver of Opus Partners, on this one. (You may have noticed a trend in my last two blogs posts that I am interviewing other experts. This is because I don’t know everything).

David has been at this sales training game for a while and as such is not easily impressed by gimmicks or gadgets that are “all flash and no cash.” So it’s notable that David has taken to LinkedIn like the proverbial mallard. That should tell all you Sales 2.0 doubters that there’s something here – my opinion.

Nigel: David what are the primary ways you use LinkedIn to sell?

David: I have a discipline each day to go into LinkedIn and spend 15-30 minutes there – no more. That’s important as social networking platforms and social media in general can suck you in and burn up all your selling time.

During my 15-30 minutes on LinkedIn each day I address the following things in order:

  1. My LinkedIn Inbox
  2. New Connections my 1st degree contacts have made
  3. New Recommendations my 1st degree contacts have given to people
  4. Questions I might be able to answer in the groups I belong to
  5. Who viewed my profile

Nigel: OK that’s very structured. Can we go through each one?

David: sure. So the first one is looking at my LinkedIn Inbox. This is pretty obvious but a good place to start. I check if there are any direct requests in there for my help, new contacts etc. Very basic LinkedIn usage.

The second thing I do is not obvious to most people. I check what new connections my new connections have today. This comes up on your LinkedIn home page if you have your LinkedIn settings set to display this (the default setting will show this).
 
The reason I look at this is that when one of the people I know makes a new connection with someone their relationship is quite active. It’s a great time for me to request an introduction to that new person too. It’s most likely my direct connection and the new 2nd degree connection have been talking or emailing and they feel a certain level of connectivity at this time. Because of this it’s more likely than normal that my request to connect will be accepted.

Nigel: OK that’s not something I’d though of. What about new recommendations? What’s that about?

David: Nigel it’s a similar principle. When one of my direct (1st degree connections) gives a recommendation to someone – or someone gives a recommendation to them – it signals to me that their relationship is strong. Hence it gives me a good clue that I can ask for an introduction to that person I don’t yet know. A recommendation is usually only given when people know each other well.

Nigel: Right, got it. Not obvious stuff from just looking at LinkedIn. And item #4 groups. What do you do there?

David: I belong to several LinkedIn groups that are sales-related and also to groups that my customers/prospects belong to. What I do is look for questions that I can answer in those groups. I make sure I only answer questions when I can really add value. It’s a great way to start a conversation. Of course, if the person I’m talking to is a potential client or partner I will try to move the conversation offline so that it becomes “real.” As you know I believe real conversations happen offline on the phone or in-person. Social media platforms like LinkedIn are just good tools for STARTING a relationship.

Nigel: Yup, agree that real relationships get formed offline. And the last one – looking at who viewed your profile?

David: I look at who viewed my profile recently (you need to be on the paid LinkedIn to do this, so it will cost you $24.95 a month). I don’t do this very often but sometimes when I see someone whose profile looks interesting to me I will email them through LinkedIn and say “I see you looked at my profile. Is there anything I can help you with?”

Nigel: OK got it. Some great stuff. I knew about some of those techniques but many of them I would not have though of. Super. Thanks David!

Nigel Edelshain is CEO of Sales 2.0 LLC. Companies that work with Sales 2.0 improve their sales results 2-3 times. They achieve these results by combining the use of Web 2.0 tools and social media with well-thought-out sales processes.  Visit his website

June 28, 2010

Guest Article: “Dear Customer, Meet Me on Twitter. Dear Vendor, Why Should I Do That?” by Jonathan Farrington

Filed under: marketing,sales,Sales 2.0,selling — Paul McCord @ 1:10 pm
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Dear Customer, Meet Me on Twitter.  Dear Vendor, Why Should I Do That?
by Jonathan Farrignton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fact: It now costs fifteen times as much to locate and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one – compelling reasons to build brick walls around our client base, before  promiscuously chasing after every half-chance? It may not be as exciting, but be assured, it is a great deal more profitable.

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

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author and sales strategist, who has guided hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels. He is Chairman of The Sales Corporation, CEO of Top Sales Associates and Senior Partner at The JF Consultancy based in London and Paris. Early in 2007, Jonathan formed Top Sales Associates (TSA) to promote the very best sales related solutions and products. TSA is now a subsidiary of The Sales Corporation, based in London and Paris.  Visit his website

December 11, 2009

Sales 2.0 or Traditional Prospecting? Why Choose?–Attend the Top Sales Experts Masterclass on Me

Filed under: prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,sales training,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:55 am
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On Tuesday December 15th – 1:00 pm Eastern, Tibor Shanto is presenting another in the Top Sales Experts Masterclasses of 2009, and you can be there, with my compliments.

An Inconvenient Truce

It is time to move the discussion beyond the current limits of the discussion around effective prospecting.  The debate of Sales (Web) 2.0 vs. Traditional prospecting, while hip and convenient, is narrow and pointless and detracts from the real issue, how can one best utilize both for the purpose of finding and engaging with more prospects.

Each works great, but in different segments in different ways.  Rather than figuring out which works best for you, just accept that they both work, and spend time figuring out how to leverage the best of each.  We will look at how the two need to coexist and how to use that coexistence to accelerate and amplify success in finding more opportunities.

As part of the discussion we will set some basic foundations; look at the hand-offs between sales and marketing; and some practical applications of cold calling and the air cover social media provides. There’ll be definitions, opinions and confusion. Best of all it is all Free!

Fear not this is not a call just for geeks, social network elites or knuckle dragging cold callers.  It is for those that are more concerned with executing sales and delivering results on a consistent basis.

Tibor Shanto is Principal of Renbor Sales Solutions and publishes the Blog and Monthly editions of The Pipeline, and is a Director and contributor to The Sales Bloggers Union.  Based in Toronto, Tibor works with leading B2B sales organization to improve their new business acquisition activities and results through a process and focus on execution.

You can accept my invitation to claim your FREE place for this clash of sales cultures event and register here – http://bit.ly/8O5QTF

November 3, 2009

Learn How to Make the Internet Work for You

Filed under: marketing,sales,Sales 2.0,Sales Resources — Paul McCord @ 10:17 am
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rumbauskasMy friend Frank Rumbauskas has just released his latest book–The Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook–revealing in detail how he has learned to use the internet as a prime sales tool—and he shows you how you can do the same.

From building a website that converts visitors to sales to building your email list to creating brand recognition and using social media to create name recognition and drive sales, Frank shows you exactly he has done it and how you can use his hard earned knowledge to build your online presence and business.

If you purchase the book now, Frank has arranged for you to get over $3,000 in ‘ethical bribes,’ that is, products ranging from ebooks to podcasts to free registration for webinars from folks such as Gitomer, Joel Comm, Joe Vitale and many others.  Yes, yes, I know, many of these bribes are just junk, but some are really good and well worth paying for—and you get them free for spending less than $15 to get a book that itself is worth every penny you’re paying.

If you are really interested in learning how a really top notch internet marketer has grown his business a created his own little empire, I encourage you to get a copy of The Never Cold Call Again Online Playbook. 

Go HERE to learn more and purchase your copy

October 13, 2009

Resist the Hype While Taking Advantage of Social Media in Your Selling

Filed under: sales,Sales 2.0,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:06 am
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Have you received this SPAM email yet that I received over the weekend?

“Do you sell? Do you still waste time and money meeting with prospects face to face?  Are you still cold calling, using snail mail, or off-line advertising looking for business?

If so, you’re already out of business and are just too dumb to recognize it.

Today’s smart salespeople recognize and understand the power of Sales 2.0.  They understand that 20th century selling is dead and if they’re still trying to sell that way, they’re dead too.  They understand that social media is not only the wave of the future; it’s the wave of today.

If you think you can outsmart the market, you can’t.  If you think that because you’ve been successful using outdated prospecting and sales methods in the past you can continue to be successful in today’s market using those same methods, you’re wrong.

Don’t let some ‘guru’ sell you some outdated idea of how to sell that no longer works.

We are one of the premier companies helping independent sellers like you capture the power of the internet.  Formed by a core of three young, visionary, brilliant entrepreneurs, we are not bound by the blinders of what’s worked in the past but are instead in tune with the future.  We’re not trapped by history.”

The email goes on in the same vein, selling the idea that the world has changed and what has worked for sellers in the past will no longer work today—and this company will, of course, help sellers learn how to forget all they’ve been taught and learn the “new” way of selling, the way that’s easier, more productive, that eliminates having to deal with prospects and customers face to face, that uses the tools of social media to prospect, sell, and service.

If you get this or a similar email, delete it immediately.  It’s a deceit.  I don’t mean it’s deceitful in the sense the people connected with the company don’t believe what they’re saying.  They very well may believe every word they write.  But what they believe is wrong.  They misunderstand what’s going on in the marketplace.

I’m sure you are at least somewhat familiar with the idea of social media.  Certainly if you’re reading this article on a blog or off a website, you’re internet active.

The authors of the above email are correct in the sense that social media is here to stay and its influence will continue to grow.  Where they have gone wrong is in believing that social media is capable of changing the nature of our world.  That is, that social media can change human nature.  It can’t.

Certainly if you are selling a commodity, you may find a larger and larger share of your market purchasing off the internet without any interaction with a human being—or just minimal interaction via email or instant messaging.  However, if you are selling anything other than a commodity, the majority of your market is still going to want to deal with real humans.  Yes, a small percentage of your market may be happy making a major purchase without involving a human, but most will not.  It’s human nature to want to deal with a human, to be able to ask questions and get immediate, personal answers, to negotiate face to face or at least earpiece to mouthpiece.

Consequently, those “20th century” prospecting and sales skills will be just as valid in 2030 as they were in 1990.  Our technology may change, our nature won’t. 

As buyers, we may take advantage of researching our potential purchase on the internet prior to connecting with a human, but that human connection will remain vital for the majority of us.  We may use social media to help find potential suppliers, but it can’t flesh out the relationship we need with the supplier.

As sellers we may use social media to let prospects know who we are and what our capabilities are, but we must still interact to understand their individual needs, wants, issues, and problems.  We can begin to connect but we can’t analyze or develop a solution based on the shallowness of a virtual relationship. We can use social media to gain attention but it can’t go to the depths we must go to develop the trust and loyalty we must have to sustain a business long-term.   

There have been those who have predicted in the past that technology would fundamentally change the way we sell.  They’ve been wrong time after time.  When the telephone came on the scene there were some who predicted that salespeople would never again have to spend time and money meeting their prospects and clients face to face.  They were wrong.

For some, the fax machine was the key to freeing sellers from having to meet face to face with prospects and clients.  Now they could transact their business over the phone and when it came time to get the contract signed, all they’d have to do was fax it to the client, have them sign it, and then fax it back.  Didn’t happen.

For others it was email and then instant messaging that would be the magic technology to change sales.  We could now carry on a complete conversation while in the middle of doing other things.  We could even send documents, pictures, even audio and video.  Not only could we do everything via technology that we do face to face, we wouldn’t have our ego on the line as in a face to face meeting, so negotiations would go quicker and more smoothly.  Wrong.

For the majority of us who sell in a defined geographic area, meeting face to face will still be the crux of our business.  For those of us who sell on a broader field, the phone may be our primary communication tool, but building a deep relationship will still be the crux of our sales activity. 

There are a gazillion social media experts haunting the social media sites looking to pick up new clients.  One of the things I’ve noticed about a great many of them is their age—young, very young.  There is certainly nothing wrong with being young and one might expect younger people to be more attuned to the new technology than someone older. 

But there is a serious problem with youth (this is not to dismiss the advantages of youth—I’d like to have a bit more youth than I have)–a lack of experience, or as the email above proudly puts it, “not trapped by history.”

The young are not trapped by history as some of us longer in the tooth may be.  But at the same time youth lacks a grounding that experience gives.  Although I did not live through the expectations that the telephone would free salespeople from having to meet with prospects and clients face to face (I’m not THAT old), I have lived through the introduction of the fax, email, instant messaging, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and the other social media.  I’ve lived through several “revolutions” in sales that never materialized. 

In January of 2007 I had written a post encouraging sellers to learn more effective prospecting strategies as preparation for a quickly coming recession.  Of course, at that time the economy was doing well.  I received emails from a couple of young MBA’s claiming that I didn’t understand the “new economy” where there was no longer a fear of recession or a slowing of the economy.  These young MBA’s suffered from the same problem our young authors of the above email suffer from–a lack of historical perspective.  They believed they were experiencing something new, something revolutionary.  They weren’t, of course. 

There are some great social media coaches out there—some of them young.  Most social media experts recognize the limits of social media and actively work to help you meld your online and offline business activities. 

By all means, take advantage of the opportunities offered by social media, just don’t buy into the hype advanced by a few misguided souls who believe technology will change how humans act.  Our technology may be changing but human nature isn’t.  Technology may help you sell but it isn’t fundamentally changing how you sell.

June 26, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “As a Seller, Is Social Media Just Hype or Is There Real Value In It?” by Paul McCord

Filed under: business,marketing,Personal Marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 8:04 am

As a Seller, Is Social Media Just Hype or Is There Real Value In It?
by Paul McCord

On Monday Nigel Edelshain discussed how important embracing social media will be for sellers of the future.  And by future, Nigel wasn’t speaking of the distant future; he was referring to the relatively immediate future.  His contention is that those sellers who don’t embrace social media and learn how to connect with their prospects via these technologies will be left in the cold.

I agree.

Sorta.

With lots of caveats and admonitions to not neglect the traditional methods of engaging prospects and clients.

Although embracing social media is the rage—if you’re not hip on Sales 2.0, you’re so 20th century it ain’t funny–and the number of social media experts willing to guide you through the jungle of the new medium grows exponentially daily, for most of us the vast majority of our prospects are not going to be found via social media for some time to come.  Most of our existing clients and our near prospects won’t be engaging us via social media either, at least for the foreseeable future.

This is near sacrilege to many; out and out heresy to a great many more.   Just read the White Papers promoted on various companies blogs, listen to the conversations on Twitter and Facebook, read the discussions in the various sales forums and on the various sales blogs.  They’ll tell you in no uncertain terms that social media is THE force to be reckoned with.

And they have proof.  All they have to do is point to all the downloads of the White Papers, all the interactions on the forums and blogs, and all the tweets on Twitter that prove their point.  There are so many they must be reaching a huge audience. 

And I agree.  Many are reaching a huge audience.  The social media audience is large.  It’s you and me and millions upon millions of others.  And it’s growing every day.  It’s the audience reading this post on this blog—people who in one form or another use social media. 

A large audience, yes.  The majority of people?  Not even close.

For most of us it isn’t where we’re going to engage the majority of our prospects.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve taken a very informal poll of the people I’ve spoken to.  Didn’t matter where they lived or what they did for a living, nor did it matter whether I spoke to them over the phone or in person.  Virtually every person I had an opportunity to speak with I asked two questions:

  1.  Do you or your company use social media to engage customers or prospects
  2. As a buyer (business or individual), do you use social media to connect with or engage salespeople or companies or to research products or services.

Almost 40% of those I asked indicated that their company uses some form of social media to try to connect with customers and prospects (I suspect next year at this time this number will be closing in on 70% or more).  Less than 30% said that as buyers they have ever used any form of social media to find or engage a company or salesperson or to research a product or service. (NOTE: This does not mean they didn’t use the Internet to research or purchase, it simply means they didn’t use blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, or other forms of ‘social media.’)

So what does this mean for us sellers and our companies?  Do we simply ignore social media until it becomes a more dynamic place to find and engage prospects?

Well, we’re back to Nigel’s article.  As I said, I agree with him.  Social media will continue to expand, to develop, to mature.  And as it does more and more of our prospects and customers will use it.  The few prospects and clients we can engage through social media today will steadily increase over time.

If we want to grow, we’ll have to be prepared to engage these prospects on their terms.  Just as today we have to find ways to find and engage prospects outside the world of the internet, we’ll increasingly have to be able to find and engage them within the world of the internet in the future.  If we can’t or if we choose not to, we’ll find ourselves struggling to find business.

This isn’t to say that social media isn’t of value today, because it is.  However, for most of us it shouldn’t be the primary focus of our prospecting and business development strategy since the majority of our business is still going to come from traditional prospecting and marketing strategies. 

But just because it isn’t our primary focus doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be a part of our portfolio.  The majority of our prospect contacts may not be made through social media, but that doesn’t mean that none are.  There is business to be developed through social media and as mentioned above, that business will grow over the coming months and years.

Furthermore, social media is in many ways a different animal than what we are used to dealing with.  We have to learn how to effectively use it.  More basic than how to use it, we have to experiment to learn what to use. 

  • Do you invest your time in starting and developing a blog? 
  • Which, if any, forums should you participate in? 
  • Is Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook worth the time and effort for you?
  • What are your alternatives if one of the medias you heavily invest in such as Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube doesn’t make it?  Where do you go from there?
  • Based on your ideal prospect, what social media would they likely use?

Right now we all have the opportunity to learn how to use the new social media platforms.  Yes, we can find and engage some prospects, but more importantly, we can prepare for the coming transition as more and more of our prospects and clients begin to utilize these media.  We can screw up, figure out successful strategies, and experiment with the various options now while the stakes are relatively low instead of later when the consequences of making mistakes may be far more serious.

And despite some of the hype about social media, it will never fully replace your non-internet based prospecting and marketing.  Yes, there are a few who have chosen to eliminate the entire non-internet based world as potential customers by investing their entire business in a virtual world.  They are few and far between and success stories are even more difficult to find.

If you haven’t ventured into social media, do so.  Begin to figure out how you’re going to use it as a serious part of your prospecting and marketing strategy.  Don’t judge it based on traditional sales metrics today as you will probably conclude that it’s a waste of time and effort.  Instead, rejoice in any new business gained from your efforts and take heart in knowing that you’re developing a long-term strategy that will come into its own over time, and that by investing the time and effort today, you’ll have a significant competitive advantage over a good deal of your competition as social media becomes an ever increasingly more important tool to find and engage new business.  

I think Nigel is too optimistic in his timeframe of social media’s impact on sellers, but he is spot on in terms of the ultimate importance of having developed the skills and tools to use it to find and engage prospects.  Ignore social media at your own peril, but invest in it too heavily today and you’ll also be risking losing significant business by spending too much time chasing too few prospects. 

Paul McCord, a leading Business Development Strategist and president of McCord Training, works with companies and sales leaders to help them increase sales and profits by finding and connecting with high quality prospects in ways prospects respect and respond to.  An internationally recognized author, speaker, trainer and consultant, Paul’s clients range from giants such as Chase, New York Life, Siemens, and GE, to small and mid-size firms, as well as individual sales leaders.  He is the author of the popular Sales and Sales Management Blog (http://salesandmanagementblog.com

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Like What You See Here?

If you like what you see on the Sales and Sales Management Blog, I encourage you to either:

Save it to your RSS Reader

or

Subscribe to my POWER SELLING newsletter where twice each month you’ll get a full length article designed to help you increase your and/or your sales team’s sales.  Just shoot me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address in the body and I’ll get you subcribed, and since I hate SPAM as much as you do, I’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER.

June 24, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “Integrate Social Media with Your Prospecting Approach,” by Ardath Albee

Filed under: marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 6:49 am
Tags: , , , , ,

Integrate Social Media with Your Prospecting Approach
by Ardath Albee

Salespeople need to be expert listeners, delving into their client’s problems, needs and challenges to ensure their conversations are designed to deliver more “what’s in it for me” than ever before. This type of exchange used to be done almost exclusively face-to-face. But today’s reality shows buyers taking control of their purchasing process and putting off traditional sales activities until they’re ready. The upshot is that by the time they’re sales ready, it’s likely they know more about your company’s products and solutions than your sales reps.

So, what’s a salesperson to do?

Use social media to get your prospects talking…directly to you.

That said, you must realize that social media is not an instant-gratification endeavor. Listening is just as critical to creating engaging online dialogues as it is in face-to-face conversations. And, given the fact that there are no facial expressions, vocal tones or physical body language, listening is even more critical to creating the outcomes you want via online social interactions.

Location, Location, Location…
The first step in listening is to determine where your prospects spend their time online. It could be LinkedIn groups, Twitter or blogs (their own, or someone else’s). They could also spend their time in industry forums, topical communities or leaving comments on articles and blog posts published by industry portals. By spending some time where they hang out, you’ll discover the best ways to open a dialogue.

The Key to Listening
Many companies track and follow what’s being said about their company with Google Alerts. Then they respond by trying to control the conversation, defend themselves to naysayers and pat themselves on the back when they hear kudos. We’ve all known people like this. We call them self-centered and try to avoid them. The value of whatever they contribute to the conversation is diminished because we know that what underlies their effort is based solely on self-interested gains. They’re surface listeners.

Connecting with people in a way that builds engagement beyond momentary attention is critical when employing social media for prospecting. People want you to help them solve their problems. Heck, they can buy something similar to your solution from numerous sources. So, give them a differentiating reason to buy from you by listening to what they’re saying and responding appropriately. Get beneath the surface words to the meaty meanings.

By listening beneath the surface, you’ll gain a lot of useful insights like:

  • Perspectives about problems and objectives your prospects are dealing with.
  • Terminology used conversationally by different market and industry segments.
  • Communication efforts they don’t like.
  • Clues that indicate the real root of a problem so you can help solve them.
  • What your customers really value, which sometimes is the little stuff you may think is unimportant, but can be used to jumpstart an interactive dialogue.

As you listen, think about how you can be helpful. Don’t give in to knee-jerk reactions. Wait until you understand the context before you respond. And, when you do, make sure your response shows you’ve given their input care and consideration. Listening requires a clear intent to understand. Listening does not mean mining online exchanges to find places to post a comment that’s out of context because you can’t be bothered to integrate yourself into the conversation.

CRM + Marketing Automation
Salespeople who use CRM systems integrated with marketing automation have a leg up on those who aren’t so privileged. You’ve got access (or should) to a wealth of information that can jumpstart your listening. Plus, you know just which prospects have the most potential, and what they’ve expressed interest in.

Given your prospects’ interests, be on the lookout for useful content you can provide to enrich your online interactions. Make sure it’s objective and focused on your prospects’ priorities whether it comes from internal or external sources. Given what you know about your prospects, consider requesting articles and white papers with a specific topic be developed by your marketing team. Or, ask them to provide a resources list with links to collateral you can use.

If you’re stumped for external resources, a huge number of analysts have blogs and Twitter accounts. There are independent industry experts writing articles and blogging about issues relevant to your market. Providing a mix of content in addition to conversational exchanges will help to establish you as a trusted resource. And, that’s just where you want to be. That way, when your prospects need help, they’ll think of you first.

Define Your Social Media Purpose
Salespeople should use social media in conjunction with other methods to create an integrated prospecting approach. Social media can be a great way to keep up appearances. This means that your purpose for social media may be best executed by using it to keep yourself in front of specific prospects by participating where they can see you, and have the choice to engage.

If you’ve left several voicemails and followed up with email, but received no response, perhaps you have the opportunity to catch their attention and gain a dialogue via a social media interaction. The big thing to remember is not to give the impression of a stalker. As long as you stay focused on being sincerely helpful as a resource for valued insight and information, you stand a good chance of creating a relationship.

Exchanging comments on a blog or via an industry discussion group or Twitter can be seen as much less of a commitment for a prospect who has yet to decide they’re ready for a sales conversation. Proving you’ve got expertise and answers they need can also serve to provide a reason to connect with you, even if they’ve ignored your other efforts to contact them previously.

Always Be Thoughtful
Social media can become an impactful tool for improving your sales process, if used appropriately and with purpose. Just remember to listen first, respond in context and always with the intention of being a helpful resource. Don’t try to sell. By engaging people in topics related to solving their problems, the dialogue will grow beyond the limitations of open, online exchanges to a request for an offline, personal conversation. If you’re paying attention, you’ll know when the time is right. And so will your prospects.

Ardath Albee, B2B Marketing Strategist of her firm, Marketing Interactions, Inc, helps companies with complex sales increase and quantify marketing effectiveness by developing e-marketing strategies driven by compelling content. She taps over 20 years of business management and marketing experience to help clients, including Covad Communications, LANDesk and Silicon Graphics [SGI], create customer-focused nurturing programs to engage and progress prospects to sales readiness. Her book, E-Marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale will be out this fall from McGraw-Hill. Ardath also authors the industry-leading Marketing Interactions blog.

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Like What You See Here?

If you like what you see on the Sales and Sales Management Blog, I encourage you to either:

Save it to your RSS Reader

or

Subscribe to my POWER SELLING newsletter where twice each month you’ll get a full length article designed to help you increase your and/or your sales team’s sales.  Just shoot me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address in the body and I’ll get you subcribed, and since I hate SPAM as much as you do, I’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER.

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

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Like What You See Here?

If you like what you see on the Sales and Sales Management Blog, I encourage you to either:

Save it to your RSS Reader

or

Subscribe to my POWER SELLING newsletter where twice each month you’ll get a full length article designed to help you increase your and/or your sales team’s sales.  Just shoot me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address in the body and I’ll get you subcribed, and since I hate SPAM as much as you do, I’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER.

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