Sales and Sales Management Blog

August 29, 2011

Guest Article: “Using Social Media for Sales Prospecting,” by Anita Campbell

Filed under: prospecting,sales,selling,Uncategorized — Paul McCord @ 12:25 pm
Tags: , , ,

Using Social Media for Sales Prospecting
by Anita Campbell

One of the hardest things for a sales professional is getting the right people to listen to you. Cold-calling is difficult, especially if you end up pitching someone who is not interested in spending money, or doesn’t have the authority to make decisions. That rejection is unpleasant, unhealthy, and it’s now unnecessary.

Social media offers the ability to reach out to people who are already talking about what you’re selling. All you have to do is find them, and that’s easier than you think once you’re using the right platforms, and using them in the right way. Imagine how your leads could grow if you placed your product in front of people who are already looking for it, and are in the mindset to spend. Not only would it be easier to turn prospects into leads, but you’d be saving everyone’s time and energy by reaching out to people already in the market for your product. That’s what social media can do for you, and your potential customers.

Twitter
Searching for conversations on Twitter that are pertinent to your field is fairly easy because the majority of Twitter’s content is public. It’s made even easier by using the Advanced Search feature of Twitter. Before diving in, though, the first thing to do is brainstorm all the related topics of conversation you could insert yourself into that could potentially yield sales. You may find that multiple topics are relatable to your products or services. For example, if you’re a wedding planner, you may want to search conversations about photographers, bakeries, and invitations. Giving a soon-to-be bride advice may help her realize the number of decisions she must make, and that she needs your help.

Once you have a list of topics to search, use conversational wording in your searches to get better results. If you sell cars, search for “what car should I buy” or “buy a car” (don’t forget to specify a location!) as it will reveal a larger number of people asking for advice about what car they should buy. As a car sales professional, you’re an expert in the current market and what products are available, so why not offer advice? Be helpful in addressing their questions and needs, and create a conversation around what they’re looking for, and they may seek you out when they’re ready to buy.

LinkedIn
If your business offers services, or your sales are B2B oriented, a good choice for social networking is LinkedIn. Not familiar with the site? It’s a social network aimed at companies and professionals, and gives them a place to connect with one another. While another great option for professionals is a business networking site, LinkedIn offers several features not found in other places.

One of these features is the Answers section, which is a way for professionals and business experts to give and receive business advice. Using the Advanced Answers Search feature, you can find questions that contain keywords related to your services. Answering these questions will give you the opportunity to share your expertise and knowledge, as well as information about the products or services you provide. By showing other members you have superior knowledge and great products or services, you may be able to foster connections with those asking questions, and explain how your business can help their own.

Quora
Just like LinkedIn Answers, Quora offers great opportunities for using questions and answers to reach prospects and encourage sales. While answering questions on LinkedIn offers the chance to connect directly with businesses asking questions about specific products or services, Quora allows you to position yourself as an expert in your field.

Quora is also similar to Twitter in that it’s designed for users to follow people who are thought leaders in their industry. The site organizes all the questions you answer under your profile so anyone who visits it can get a comprehensive view of your expertise. Because of this, answering questions regularly and on-topic with your products is important if you’re looking to attract certain prospects to your profile.

By using Twitter to get involved in current conversations, LinkedIn to answer direct questions from businesses, and Quora to showcase and promote your expertise, you’ll be on your way to developing the most strategic sales prospects for your business.

Anita Campbell is the Founder of the Small Business Trends website and CEO of BizSugar, an online community of small business owners.

July 16, 2011

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Secret to Sales Success

Filed under: career development,lead generation,prospecting,sales,Sales Failure,selling,small business,success — Paul McCord @ 10:49 am
Tags: , , , , , ,

A little over one hundred years ago the father of a young 8 year old girl named Virginia O’Hanlon encouraged her to write to a then leading New York newspaper, The Sun, and ask the question she’d just asked him—if there were in fact a Santa Claus, for all of her friends were telling her that he really didn’t exist and she wanted to know if they were correct.

The Sun answered Virginia in one of the most famous editorials ever published—Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus.  The reply was a resounding YES, there is a Santa Claus and the writer of the editorial laid out his proof.

Unfortunately, today all too many deny there is a real secret to sales success also.  Like Virginia’s friends, the claim is made that there really isn’t one single thing that if done can guarantee success in sales.  No, they say, you must become a master of every aspect of selling and then you’ll be prepared to become successful.  Oh, sure, they’ll admit, a few here and there appear to succeed by blind luck, but they’re the exception, not the rule.  Forget your silly search for the magic bullet of selling and resign yourself to learning the minutia of sales before seriously turning your eye to becoming truly successful.

Many, many others are all too eager to promote the idea of the sales secret—and to let you know that they are the sole keepers of the great secret that so few have known.  Better yet, they tell you, they’ll be happy to share the secret with you, but since it is such a valuable thing and should only be shared with those who are truly deserving of knowing, they must make sure you are worthy.  But since they really don’t have any other way of discerning who is and who isn’t worthy, they must charge an exorbitant fee to keep the riff-raff and undeserving from attaining it–and since you have the money to acquire it, you must be worthy and deserving of being given the great secret (as soon as your check clears, of course)..

Lucky for you I know this great secret and I’ll give it to you—and it won’t cost you $1,995.  Won’t even cost $995.  Heck, I’m not even going to charge you $9.95.  I’m simply going to give it to you—no charge.

Why in the world would I give such a tremendous secret away for nothing?  Because I know that once learned, the vast majority won’t put it into practice.  You see, the secret is simple, but it is far from easy.

Anyone can take this secret and become a successful seller—just how successful will depend on their commitment to implementing it.

So what is this secret?

Is it a super-duper sales process?  No.

Maybe a super special leads list?  Nope, not that.

How about some special words that will immediately connect with prospects?  Not that either.

Could it be a special super power like a super hero has?   Now we’re getting warm.

The secret is a super power of sorts–one that few are capable of acquiring.

This super power is tough-mindedness.  It’s the ability to out work and out prospect your competitors.  It’s the ability to take the rejection, the ‘no’s’, the frustration of making calls and not reaching anyone, of being stopped dead by a gatekeeper, by having the phone slammed down in your ear, of networking until you feel like you can’t network anymore–and to then do it again and again and again until you’ve reached your goals.

The secret is simple—if you have the determination and commitment to prospect longer and harder than anyone else, you will become successful.

I’ve seen this truth worked out time after time as new sellers enter the field and out work and outperform even the top sellers in their office. They know nothing–but work their tails off and sell like crazy. Unfortunately, many times after they “learn” that they’re not supposed to be having the success that they’re having their production craters. They’ve “learned” how to be average. Sometimes we simply learn the wrong things–such as there isn’t a secret to sales success.

This isn’t to say that all the other things in sales aren’t important.  They are.  You need a great sales process; you need to know how to probe and discover needs and wants; you need to know how to solve issues.  There is a great deal that every professional seller must learn.

But there is still one key to being successful in sales above all others—prospecting.

The better you become at qualifying suspects; the better you become at finding and solving real needs; the better you become at finding and connecting with your quality prospects; the easier success will be and the less time you’ll have to spend prospecting.

That being said, even if you know nothing about sales, have the world’s worst close ratio, have no discretion in who you spend time talking to. and haven’t the slightest idea of the difference between a closed-end and open-end question, if you outwork your competition in prospecting, you will reach a measure of success.

Don’t let anyone tell you there isn’t a simple secret to success in selling that alone can make you successful because there is.  It certainly isn’t complicated—but it is hard.  And it can be claimed and implemented by anyone. 

By all means, acquire a great sales process, learn the most sophisticated and effective prospecting strategies you can, learn to become great at identifying and solving prospect issues, learn all you can to make selling easier, but if you aren’t having the success you want, take heart—you now have the secret.

Take it, claim it as yours, implement it, and enjoy the rewards.

And know that even if your competitors know it too, few, if any, will claim it as their own because it simply costs too much for most.

May 21, 2011

Are You BS’ing Yourself with Your “Prospecting” Activity?

Filed under: career development,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:32 am
Tags: , , ,

 Over the years I’ve spoken to salesperson after salesperson who is frustrated, angry, and depressed because although they’ve invested heavily in trying to make their sales career a success, all they have to show for their efforts are little to nothing—and often a pink slip from their employer.

It usually doesn’t take long for these conversations to get around to the particulars of their activities, in particular their prospecting activities.  They are baffled by their lack of sales success because they insist that they are ‘always prospecting.’

Almost all of them can produce lists of prospects , some of which they’ve called; they can show where they’ve sent out a ton of letters and emails; they can give receipts for advertising they’ve bought; they can produce filers that they’ve plastered all over town.

Most have been busy; there is little doubt about that.  The problem is that although they have been busy, they haven’t been prospecting.  Instead of prospecting, they’ve been doing ‘things’—creating filers, writing letters and emails, attending non-qualified networking events, constructing call lists–and on occasion actually making a few phone calls.  Like many salespeople, they’ve confused doing preparatory and busy work getting ready to prospect with the activity of prospecting.

Although they have spent a great deal of time doing busy work, they have spent very little time actually prospecting.  They think they are always prospecting, but in reality they find ways not to prospect.  They engage in a great deal of activity, but the activity engaged in isn’t the activity that would produce business; instead, it is the activity that made them feel good, that made them feel productive, allowed them to convince themselves that they were being extremely active.

We salespeople tend to focus on activity—after all, activity is what gets us in the door, gets us the business we must have in order to succeed.  But activity alone is fruitless.  Activity for activity’s sake is just as sure a way to failure as inactivity.

The salespeople above believed they were highly productive because they felt productive.

Prospecting isn’t preparation to prospect; it isn’t finding easy ways to feel like you’re getting your message out; and it isn’t simply being busy all of the time.  Nor is it easy but very low return lead generation such as plastering the Wal-Mart parking lot with fliers or sending out thousands of SPAM emails.  Those may be easy, non-threatening activities, but they are also career killers.

Prospecting is a very specific activity—connecting with decision makers who you can help in one way or another and that requires a physical connection.

If you cold call, that means being on the phone, not getting ready to get on the phone.  If you network, it means actually being in front of and meeting prospects or garnering introductions to prospects from referral partners, not researching events or even spending time at non-qualified events where you’ll meet few, if any, prospects.  It means connecting with quality prospects through highly targeted and personal letter and email communications, not sending out thousands of pieces of SPAM hoping that someone will read and respond.  It means creating a highly targeted and well researched direct mail campaign, not just sending letters to a purchased list.

Yet even in the above prospecting activities, the prep and research time is NOT prospecting time and should be done only during non productive prospecting hours.

Investing time and energy in the wrong activities has killed as many sales careers as inactivity has.  As salespeople we have three very basic duties—finding and connecting with quality prospects, working with those prospects to help them satisfy needs or wants and to solve real issues, and insuring that they are taken care of during and after the sale.  Everything else is busy work and busy work doesn’t make a sale, doesn’t generate income, and doesn’t move us toward our sales or income goals.

Before you engage in any activity consider whether that activity is income producing or not.  If it isn’t directly producing income, does it really need to be done?  If not, move on to an activity that will directly lead to a sale.

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
Tags: , , , , , ,

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
Tags: , , , , , ,

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.

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
Tags: , , , , , ,

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.

Theme: Rubric. Blog at WordPress.com.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 4,442 other followers