Strategic Sales & Marketing Solutions

From Self-Reliance:

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.”

Sales pipelines everywhere are stuck, not because
of the economy, but due to a decision-maker affliction.

“I’m confused. I’ve had great meetings with the right people in the organization. They said that our product looks terrific…but that was 8 months ago. I’ve continued to call…followed-up by email…still no decision. I know that the competitor hasn’t gotten the business. If they love the product, why aren’t they buying?”

Every sales person can relate to this story. Chances are your pipeline is loaded with these kinds of situations. A tremendous amount of sales time has been spent; the company has invested thousands of dollars in pursuit of this “done deal” prospect, and still, there is no revenue in sight.

Meeting after meeting with your sales manager includes the continued mantra of “where’s the deal?” Then comes the inquisition…”Did you tell them this? Did you tell them that? Did you show them the latest…?” The answer to all of those is, “Yes!” Still, there is no sale.

Now the excuses start…”I’ve called and emailed them, but they haven’t responded. You have to understand…this is a senior-level decision-maker. They are busy, that’s why they haven’t gotten back to me. They have a full plate!”

First, there is some bad news to share about full plate syndrome. This issue has reached epidemic proportions in the sales profession. Decision-maker after decision-maker has come down with this dreaded affliction.

Sales pipelines everywhere have come to a screeching halt as decision-makers fall to this syndrome at record levels. It’s very difficult to identify those who have contracted this syndrome. They meet with sales people and are very friendly. They even give the appearance that the sale is imminent.

Don’t fret! The government has been researching this issue and a solution has been found. As a matter of fact, the White House addressed the full plate syndrome issue late last night at a press conference.

“We are acutely aware of the issues associated with full plate syndrome and recognize the tremendous impact on the sales profession. This matter has been investigated fully and it is with great excitement that we announce a remedy for this syndrome. This remedy will once and for all eradicate full plate syndrome from sales.

“Effective immediately, all decision-making business professionals are being issued a second plate. Thus, the issue of the decision-maker not returning calls to sales people due to their having a full plate has been eliminated. We expect this remedy to open-up sales pipelines everywhere.”

One of the easiest things for sales people to do when they don’t get a return call from their prospect is to explain it away as full plate syndrome. Perhaps, your prospect has a full plate, but the items on their plate can always change if you present the right solution.

Consider this…Just before you go to bed, you check your Blackberry one last time, and it’s a good thing you did. There is an email from the CEO of your company. She wants to meet with you tomorrow at 9:30am to discuss tripling your salary. You read it five times to make sure you read it correctly. In an instant, you reply, “I’ll be there!” In doing so, you didn’t even check your schedule you knew already was booked solid.

After all, who wouldn’t you be at a meeting with their CEO to discuss tripling their income? Whatever is in the 9:30am time slot is being moved because you are going to that meeting and getting that three-fold income jolt. Nothing is going to get in the way of that meeting.

That said, why would you accept this meeting knowing that you already had a full day planned? The answer is obvious! Making more money is high on your priority list. When the call comes for that opportunity, all else goes by the wayside. The CEO has a solution that is aligned with your top priorities.

The same concept holds true in working with your prospects.

If the solution you are presenting to a prospect is aligned with the primary area where they are challenged, full plate syndrome does not afflict your sale. The sale moves readily through the process. If not, the deal languishes in the pipeline. Similar to the old Roach Motel, the deal goes into the pipeline, but it never comes out. No return calls.

If you are in a simple-sales environment (one decision-maker), the process to align the solution with the focal area of the buyer is not overly difficult to do. However, in a complex sales environment (multi-person decision), it can be daunting. Different buying players (those who influence a sales decision) have different priorities.

While cost reduction for the CFO may be a front of mind priority, the plant manager may be focused on quality improvement, and the CIO may be focused on ease of integration. The key is to align the solution for each of the buying players congruent with their priorities. While the product is the same, the positioning with each of the buying players is different.

The question to ask yourself is why should your solution be a priority for each of the heavily influential buying players? Better stated, “Why should they do this now?” Before you can answer that question, some homework is needed to find out where each of these buying players are focused. For example, if the CFO is a heavily influential decision-maker, research CFOs to find out their front of mind issues. With that knowledge, you can ask yourself, “How does my solution solve this primary issue for the CFO?”

The same process is conducted for each of the identified strong buying players. Here is the kicker…If you can’t identify how your product solves the front-of-mind problems for the heavily influential buying players, you will find the sale languishes in the pipeline, forever. Forever is an overstatement. It will stay in the pipeline until your competitor presents a solution that is aligned with their priorities and they will get the business.

Not sure how to align what you sell with your buyer’s priorities, send me an email requesting my buying players worksheet which will help you gather your thoughts.

This article is reprinted with the kind permission of its author.

Lee B. Salz is a sales management strategist who specializes in helping companies build scalable, high-performance sales organizations through hiring the right sales people, on-boarding them effectively and efficiently, and aligning their sales activity with business objectives using his sales architecture® methodology. He is the President of Sales Architects, the C.E.O. of Business Expert Webinars and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” Lee is a columnist and member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Look for Lee’s new book in 2010 titled, “The Sales Marriage” where he shares the secrets to identifying, hiring, and on-boarding the right sales people. He is a results-driven sales management consultant and a passionate, dynamic speaker. Lee can be reached at lsalz@SalesArchitects.net or 763.416.4321.

As we approach the end of October and head into the November-December year end, there are a few things you need to understand as a Salesperson-slash-Strategic Marketing Professional:

1). MANY…far TOO MANY…business owners took a “time out” for the entire YEAR of 2009 when it came to strategically marketing their businesses.

2). Item #1 above, by default, created the return of “low hanging fruit”…the “market share” created by business owners too frightened to market their own businesses.

3). Many business owners have hypnotized themselves into believing that January 1, 2010 is a magic date…a date upon which the Heavens will rain gold coins upon their heads for “renewing” their marketing efforts.

4). The business owners are kidding themselves, because…through their own actions, or lack of them…they have knowingly and willingly surrendered their success to the business owners who remained committed to their businesses and continued to brand and market their offerings in 2009, no matter HOW much it hurt, no matter WHAT sacrifice was required.

There are NO “victims” in 2009…ONLY “volunteers.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”

Anyone still hiding and hoping for a windfall of cash on 1/1/10 needs to wake up, and wake up NOW.

OR…just surrender. That’s it, plain and simple. Let your competitors harvest ALL of the fruit.

WHAT is stopping YOU?

Understanding the Fear

The underlying reason for poor performance (and low productivity) when setting first appointments on the telephone is a lethal combination of Fear and Pain.

The Primary Fear is one of sounding stupid, or unprofessional, in front of a target when you get them on the phone. You fear that once you have a target on the phone, you will stumble and fail to convert the conversation into an appointment. This is not a fear of rejection: we are sales people and rejection comes with the territory. No, this is a fear that comes from not having mastered the simple, but critical, sales skill of converting a conversation into an appointment.

The Second Fear is that you are not “working” the target correctly; that you are in a random pursuit. A call here, a call there; leave this voicemail and craft an email to say what, exactly. You flail and you fear your results will correspondingly flail: your efforts will be ineffective.

The Third Fear is the dread in starting a process that you inherently believe is unproductive and painful. You have the same hesitation and take the same deep breath you would take before starting to rake leaves with a shovel in a wind storm. Experience says that there is no efficient way to do this task with this tool in this environment.

The Pain in prospecting is entirely mechanical (and, arguably, fosters the third Fear.) The tool kit you currently use to manage your calling, to record results and to generate reports requires a fairly high degree of “software literacy and operation.” You must correctly sequence through multiple screens to operate the correct pursuit process (that you may remember from sales training.) And, it always feels like you spend more time navigating the software than you spend talking on the phone.

OK, now what?

To address and resolve these issues, proper attention must be given to the three (3) core elements for developing an effective calling or business development process and make these elements easy for the caller to execute. These three areas are:

Art (Skills Training): A proven way to improve the ability to control the flow of the conversation, to handle pushbacks and to secure an agreement to meet. The Art defines how to deftly and professionally handle the predictable negative responses to a request for an appointment and still secure an appointment. There is a confidence that comes from being able to control the conversation. Having the skill to turn the “I’m not interested, I’m too busy, Send me something” into conversations and then into appointments.

Best Practice (Methodology): Sets in place the specific pursuit of any group of suspects including how many times to call, the frequency of those calls and the messaging used in voicemails, emails, and/or videos. Developing a Best Practice will eliminate the feeling of flailing or being caught up in a random pursuit going nowhere.

Science (Technology): A proven, specialized process engine that enables callers to execute the pursuit of multiple Best Practices (cycles) very precisely and in the most efficient way. Generate Automatic metric reports so callers can manage their activity and in larger organizations the reported activity will assist first level management in coaching and any level of upper management in forecasting based on previous and predictable activity levels.

A process can now be put in place to improve the process over time and hold everyone in the organization accountable for the business development activity necessary for success.

Further on Reporting and Metrics:

While most sales meeting focus on leveraging success once an opportunity is in the pipeline, proper attention (in sales meetings) should be given to the way sales teams use the telephone to find new business to keep pipelines filled. Accurate and automatic metric reporting facilitates this process but management and callers themselves currently lack this necessary information because it is unavailable to them or is not easy to assimilate with the current available technology.

Also, being able to understand and track information such as how many initial appointments are needed for a sales person or sales team to achieve quota, how many conversations are needed to get those appointments, how many calls are needed to make my conversation goal give a definite purpose, direction and ability to improve the calling process over time.

The solution is to set up a calling process that will automatically report on what a sales rep has done and is generated from a program the sales rep embraces because it works. A good sales rep will adopt any process that works and if that process provides accurate reports as a byproduct, then everyone wins.

Roger Hamilton is Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Contact Science and may be reached at 214-483-5800 or via email at rhamilton@klpz.com. The Cold Calling 101 system combines prospecting effectiveness with prospecting efficiency, creating the first holistic solution that allows companies (and independent professionals) to design a combined and custom solution to their telephone prospecting process that addresses their total sales picture.

More calls in less time, with more conversations converted into appointments and activity reports generated automatically.

Charles Stanley shares a funny little story in his book Our Unmet Needs. There’s more than a little wisdom here for salespeople…

A young man was discussing his love life – or rather, his lack of a love life – with his grandfather. He admitted to his grandfather that he hadn’t been out on a date in several months. He finally gave a big sigh and said to his grandfather, “Gramps, I guess I’m just going to have to trust God to send me a wife.”

His grandfather replied with a twinkle in his eye, “I suspect that God would be a lot more eager to help you if He knew that you had the nerve to ask the girl He sends you out on a date.”

As entrepreneurs and business owners, we all have dreams of closing sales beyond our wildest dreams, signing up lots of clients, and making more money than we ever thought possible. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen as quickly as we’d like it to.

Many entrepreneurs and business owners come to me frustrated with their lack of sales, hoping to learn specific sales skills to turn around their businesses. They hope by learning new selling techniques, their sales will quickly grow and their businesses will flourish.

Some of my clients quickly apply the sales skills I teach, reaching extraordinary levels of success, while other clients reach minimal sales success. Why was this happening for some and not for the others? Both groups had the same level of experience, yet the level of success was significantly different.

At first, I was puzzled, frustrated, and saddened I could not make a difference for all my clients. Over time, it became clear I could share all my sales knowledge and show my clients everything I knew about sales; however, it was up to them to make it happen. I realized it took more than just learning the right sales skills; it took shifting the mindset.

A crucial key to unlocking unlimited abundance in business and life starts with shifting our inner mindset. Unfortunately, many people work really hard getting minimal sales results because of their mindset. On one hand, they want to break through their barriers. On the other hand, they allow their emotions to keep them from making the changes necessary to expand their businesses.

You can learn all the skills, techniques, and strategies; however, without a positive inner mindset, your financial success is limited. If you want to create an abundance of sales and clients coming to you, it starts with shifting your mindset.

When you shift your inner mindset, you make the decision to rewrite the way you think. By changing the way you think, you’re changing the direction of your life. You’re now becoming the author of your life. Then you’ll begin to attract everything you want with ease.

As a coach and mentor, I am always learning from my clients. I saw in my own business how I would reach a certain level of success and then stop. I knew deep in my heart I could achieve much more, yet I was afraid of taking the leap. So I started studying with the experts, taking personal growth workshops, and reading more self-growth books than I can keep count.

As I made these internal changes to my thinking, something magical began to happen. I began to appreciate what I have, started “being” in my business rather than “doing,” and let go of the worry. I’m now taking bigger steps in my business and following my purpose. New opportunities are coming my way and it’s because I’m letting go of the fear.

From the journey I’ve taken and I’m happily still on, I saw there was a process I followed that opened me up to receiving abundance in my business. I’ve taken what I’ve learned and created 5 key steps to follow that will change how you are being in your business and help you easily attract an abundance of everything you want.

1. Shifting the Mindset. You must first believe you can. As soon as you have a doubt, fear, or worry, those feelings take away from believing. Your thoughts, emotions, and actions must be congruent with your belief so that the universe can give you what you want. Your thoughts and feelings create your reality.

2. The Power of Choice. You get to choose the direction you want your life to go. Through the power of choice, you decide how you want to create your life to be. What occurs in your life is not by accident. It’s a result of the choices you’ve made. Are you choosing to live your life powerfully or are you blaming others? Are you choosing to take responsibility for the growth of your business or are you blaming circumstances?

3. 100% Responsible. Responsibility starts with being accountable for every aspect of your life. When you can recognize, acknowledge, and own that you are responsible for your life, you experience a new level of freedom, power and ease in your life. When you’re being responsible, you’re no longer at the affect of any circumstances that come your way. There’s no complaining or blaming others. You know that the buck stops with you.

4. Moving Beyond What’s Stopping You. What have you been putting up with, tolerating, or trying to change? Whatever you put up with drains your energy and keeps you stuck in the same place. Do you make excuses for not going forward in your business? What’s the excuse really covering up? It’s probably an underlying fear that you’re holding onto. When you make the decision to move past where you’re stopped, all tolerations, excuses and fears will lose their power over you.

5. Letting Go of the Past. Are you letting past experiences keep you from moving forward? Some of our past experiences keep us from appreciating what we have in the present because we believe it will happen again. These experiences affect how we communicate, relate to others, grow our business, and even stop us from going after all the things we really want. By letting go of the past, you’re free to attract anything you want in your life and your business. You now have a blank slate from which to create anything and everything!

I believe by applying these steps to your business, you’ll begin to experience a shift in how you sell and interact with clients. You’re now becoming a master of the inner game of sales. I invite you to follow these steps to opening your mind to unlimited sales success.

Rochelle Togo-Figa, The Sales Breakthrough Expert, is the creator of the Sales Breakthrough System™, a proven step-by-step sales process that will help you close more sales, sign on more clients and make more money with ease and velocity. To sign up for her free sales articles and teleclasses on closing more sales, visit www.SalesBreakthroughs.com.

In the movie My Cousin Vinny, Joe Pesci plays novice attorney Vincent ‘Vinny’ Gambini, a man who can’t get anything right. All of a sudden, Vinny finds…for lack of a better word…his “mojo,” and now he can do no wrong.

There’s one moment in the film that should speak volumes to any professional salesman. Fully confident, fully aware of his powers, Vinny struts away from a completed witness interview proclaiming “Now I’m finished wit’ DIS guy!”

In the prospecting phase of selling, we often spend too much time “processing” a lack of interest. We need to be skilled in qualifying our prospects. They need three things, and three things only:

1). A need for / interest in our products or services.

2). Willingness to buy right now. Not tomorrow, not next week, noth next month, not after the first of the year, now.

3) the means to buy right now, A.K.A. money.

Before you spend unnecessary time in the presentation phase, you need to work through the checklist above. If the answer to one or more questions is “no,” your immediate response should be “Now I’m finished wit’ DIS guy!”

But don’t take it from me.

Take it from your cousin Vinny.

Happy selling, and never give up.

Up Your Sales with a Simple Strategy

Do you have a sales strategy plan for growing your business and bringing in more sales?

The dictionary’s definition of a “strategy” is a plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal; a method of making, doing, or accomplishing something.

Your sales strategy plan is a very clear statement of what your business has to do for you to achieve your sales goals. The wonderful thing about having a plan is it gives you a sense of control over the direction of change in your life.

Now, the type of plan I’m talking about is a plan for growing your sales and clients. If you’re serious about doubling your sales and bringing in tons more clients, you have to know how you’re going to do it.

The key is to plan, envision, and articulate what you want, and write it down. If you don’t put it into existence, you don’t own it.

Sadly, most people spend little or no time working on their sales strategy plan. Without a clear plan of what it is you want to accomplish and how you’re going to accomplish it, chances are you won’t reach all your goals.

I recently spoke to a business owner who was struggling closing sales. When I asked her how she sold her services, she said by calling people she knew. She thought if she just reached more people, she’d get more appointments, and make more money.

I asked her what else she’s doing to market her business? She said, “I’m planning to network; however, things keep getting in the way. And, I hope to create my website shortly.” She was vague and unclear about what steps to take, and easily getting sidetracked by other tasks without a clear plan to follow.

Let me share with you the process I followed to create a sales strategy plan for my client, Judy, and the results that followed:

The Situation
Judy is the owner of a tile and stone company. She dreamt of producing a website and creating a brochure; however, without clear steps to follow, she easily became distracted by the daily details of her business. Her dream looked like it was going to remain a dream.

Judy came to me because she lacked focus and direction. Without clarity and a clear sense of how to increase her sales, she was confused and overwhelmed with the responsibility of owning a business. She clearly was not running her business; her business was running her.

The Process
Early on, I had Judy create 3 specific and vivid goals she wanted to achieve in the first 3 months. With each goal she listed the action steps to take and a due date for each step. We divided the goals into business, sales, and marketing categories.

Before Judy got into action, I had her make a list of all the barriers she had that were keeping her from reaching her goals. She saw she had some fears that were keeping her stuck. These same fears were also stopping her in other areas of her life as well. I helped Judy understand these fears were not real and what needed to be done was to take action. The more she moved forward, the less fearful she felt. Judy began to feel freed up and energized about her business!

The Results
Judy now had a clear vision of what she wanted her business to look like. With her renewed energy, she continued to be more productive and in action, and the results happened almost immediately. Her dreams became real. She produced a beautiful brochure to give to her customers, created a website that professionally showcased her company, and designed a new logo. With the new company image, sales increased by 60%! Judy is now running her business; her business is no longer running her.

A clear and concise sales strategy plan provided Judy with a step-by-step process that gave her clarity and direction. She quickly started closing more sales, signing on more clients, and making more money.

With her own sales strategy plan, she mapped a clear pathway to reaching all her dreams and goals.

Rochelle Togo-Figa, The Sales Breakthrough Expert, is the creator of the Sales Breakthrough System™, a proven step-by-step sales process that will help you close more sales, sign on more clients and make more money with ease and velocity. To sign up for her free sales articles and teleclasses on closing more sales, visit www.SalesBreakthroughs.com.

A stomach for great slabs of fortune: In the body of wisdom, a big mouth is an organ of no minor importance, because great capacity requires large portions. One worthy of more will not be gorged by good fortune. One person’s indigestion is another’s appetite. Many get sick when the food is rich, because they are naturally weak. They are neither accustomed to nor born to high living. The business sours on them, and they get dizzy on the fumes of their unearned distinction. They run great danger in their high places, unable to maintain themselves in them because unaccustomed. So let the really big person display the capacity for even larger enterprise, and scupulously avoid anything that suggests a faint heart.