Archive for the ‘Sales Business’ Category

During my workshops I frequently speak of the need for selling professionals to be prepared for every selling situation. With the lack of selling methodology and training amongst 92% of the selling population there are a number of gaffs during the sales day.

After a relaxing Independence Day weekend, I returned to several emails. One of the most striking included the following, “I realize that your company may be too big to have a need for our training materials, but I liked what I saw on your webpage and I thought it might be worth having a conversation.”

While I honor the selling representative for having the gumption to connect, their lack of knowledge for my firm is alarming. Worse yet, there exists the typical bromide of “what you can do for me approach”. Selling professionals must refrain from selling products and begin to realize the need to invest in and develop relationships. Consumers buy from those they know and trust and this begins with intellectual dialogue based on objectives and values.

If there is a desire to invest in a relationship then:

1. Conduct fundamental research on the company and establish need.
2. Get introduced to the economic buyer through a third party.
3. If a cold call is required, ensure the focus is on objectives and measurements of success.
4. Conduct research on the true economic buyer, blind messages to gatekeepers will only get lost.
5. Stop thinking of input; consider how your product or service will benefit the customer. Think of external value end the selfishness and focus on the prospective client.

Before you pick up the phone or key a letter:

• Know the customer.
• Know the industry.
• Know the competition.
• Know your value.
• Know your differentiation.
• Know your value proposition.
• Know your output.
• Know your decision maker.
• Know your time frame.

Customers are too busy and not inclined to have their time wasted on the folly of sales commission. The only methods of competitively selling today include differentiation, value and output. Anything less is simply a waste of the selling professionals time. How much do you know?

© 2010. Drew Stevens PhD. All rights reserved.

Drew Stevens is one of the world’s leading authorities on Sales Marketing & Business Development Solutions . Drew is the author of the successful sales process book Split Second Selling. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Acceleration. To discover how Dr. Drew can assist your organization visit his marketing and sales website.

Popularity: 67% [?]

We see it a lot here at The Sales Corner. Including the “decision makers” making the decision to put an exorbitant amount of money into a product or service to gain little to no attention from that service or provider. In this example below, we show you a common type of approach;

“Mr. Customer, you can pay $15,000 dollars to get you in the top 3 on Google in less then 6 months!” Doesn’t that sound great?! Oh, and by the way, can and will also offer you; Internet Marketing, SEO Services, additional Search Engine Placements, Revenue Ad ideas, ways to sell products, and other things that will appear to help your online growth…. and if you want to gain access to that stuff, you’ll need to pony up another $15,000 or more to take advantage of those things!” If you’d like can start right away as long as you can provide them a Credit Card, AND SURELY WILL GUARANTEE you top placement on Google for your money, and their hard work, and you’ll become famous! Doesn’t that sound great Mr. Customer?”

Ho Hum, but we here at The Sales Corner say “Sorry Mr Customer; You’ve just been screwed out of a nice chunk of change!” Change that you could have used to buy a new desk, computer, programs, or hell, maybe you wanted a vacation with your family while you left the business to someone else!!

Why are you screwed though? Here’s how, and we think you’ll find this a bit intriguing;

1) ANYONE can search Google for anything.

When they do, some of YOU will have success on the top pages and some will not. However, it’s true that the top 5 links mostly get the clicks, it’s not always true that just because you are in the top 5 you’ll stay there there based on what those optimized search terms were. No, you’re in the top 5 because Google put you there based on how they ranked your popularity. (among other criteria….)

(This information alone to the right service provider is worth about $10,000 dollars in their price book, and I’ve just provided it for
free.)

So how popular are you today?
Where do you fit in?
Is your provider KEEPING you in that top 5 with “good ethics” and “dynamic ways” to keep you in the top listings?

Frankly our “Kid and Pre-Teen Research Team” can do better then some of the “experts” out there. WHY? It’s because they are creatively changing and remain dynamic.

You’ll stay on top of the Google game if you are dynamic, changing, and doing doing doing something that Google likes. Do you know all the secrets? NO, and let us tell you, neither do we, nor does the next service provider.

What The Sales Corner does know is how to keep you in front of your customers in your market. We help you build on your relationships and open NEW doors!

The perks of some of these things are becoming “famous” on Google, or having “the source” be you when a potential party is looking for your solution, service, or similar product etc…

We hope you take the time to consider this the next time you are seeking a service provider with a very large amount of overhead needed to do a job that any smart 3rd or 4th grader can do. Please be different; be smarter then those people. HELP YOURSELF LEARN and GROW and ACHIEVE and perhaps best of all SAVE YOUR MONEY! (Or give it to us, to help your ROI…..)

The Sales Corner Memberships;

http://www.thesalescorner.us/blog/sales-corner-marketing-seo-sales-membership-packages/

Popularity: 38% [?]

Sales proposals are part of business. Buyers want to know what they can expect before they turn over their hard earned profits for your goods or services. Websites abound with free templates to how to write a killer sales proposal. Yet, to be the Red jacket, to stand out from  all those other sales people suggests you may need to change the game plan if you truly wish to increase sales.

Outside of formal RFP’s required by many government or related agencies, most businesses use the word proposal. This word comes from the word propose which has Latin roots and means “to place forth.” Your goal is to place forth to your potential customer (a.k.a. prospect) what you will deliver.

Credit: Integratedinfo.co.in

If proposal means to place forth, then exactly what you are placing forth?  In simple terms, you are placing forth a statement of work or SOW.  So what would happen if you began to replace this phrase statement of work with proposal?  Would you think differently about your relationship with the prospective customer? Sales Training Coaching Tip: Change your words, improve your results.

Any gray suit can write a proposal, but those (Red jackets) who understand the nuances of words and how those words affect people (think emotional intelligence and neuro-linguistic programming) can bring additional value to the relationship via a statement of work.

The problem with proposals are they are just that – proposing. Your potential customer does not see you any differently than anyone else who has submitted a similar document. Also why would you waste your time unless you knew, barring some unforeseen obstacle such as a change in management, you were going to earn the sale?  I learned very early on that I could be in the proposal writing business or in the business of earning sales. For me in my executive consulting and coaching practice, practicality told to me choose the later because proposals in and by themselves are lost leaders.

Today, I do not, repeat do not, submit any proposals. Those are for the gray suits who are like sharks fighting after bits of decaying fish. What I have learned to do is to personally deliver statements of work that solidify the relationship and succinctly spell out how I envision the engagement to be conducted. My time is valuable and hence I am very selective in who I work with.

You can continue to deliver sales proposals after proposals or truly learn how to separate yourself from all those other sales people. The choice is yours.

Popularity: 23% [?]

My name is Francis Walsh. I spend most of my time right here, typing words that get noticed. I know this is true because people come and ask me what I’m writing about and why.

“I like to think they are more interested in my words but they’re not.” “They are interested in what I talk about.”

Content is King

“No doubt about it, content IS king.”

Right now, our friends and colleagues are talking and writing too. The problem is much of what they’re doing online has nothing to do with me or you. They are interacting on a personal level with their friends and colleagues who keep them motivated. Motivation is the key to happiness. Happiness is motivated through interaction on a personal level.

“People are online looking for the answer to their next big question and they know where to go for their answer, but they don’t yet know who the answer is going to come from.”

Even you have questions that need to be answered. They may change as your day goes along or as the need for an answer arises. What we all hope to have when questioning the things we need to know more about, is a rapid response.

“We like to get a quick response.” “Don’t you?”

Content is the answer. Or better yet, “Content about your product has the answers about your product.” Your business can quantify an actual benefit from having more answers about your product online. “Not just on YOUR blog or website, but anywhere there is a forum of similar minded individuals or subjects to leave an answer behind. This is the PERFECT place to introduce your position and the benefits of your product.”

“You have to spread yourself around if you want to really begin to see the benefit of marketing to the online community.”

Rapid Response Initiative

“I like to think that I can answer a question from anyone online before they actually sign off from that session of computer use.”

If you begin to initiate a rapid response to each and every request for an answer that comes in from anywhere online, you will dramatically increase your bottom line by “I would say 15% to start.” “And it doesn’t matter how big your company is right now!”

Small companies therefore have to consider that a 15% increase to their offline business from online activity would be a great boost, and big companies can see that taking back or acquiring more market share is possible. “Even companies that think they already have a presence online.”

“Some businesses don’t know what they’re doing really, and have no idea of the commitment it takes to drive business from the online marketplace.”

Being prepared to respond to that user before he or she signs off the internet is how you can expect these kinds of results.

The Sales Corner

Matt Geier has the platform to push a company forward quickly. Not just a man with a plan, but a team with a dream. “The dream is about building equity from internet sources using content placement and rapid response initiatives that not only boost productivity of what already exists online, but generates its own business away from the one location certified to be The Product Source.”

The investment is sound. The people are experienced and motivated. More businesses are getting results that they cannot get from anyone else. Other companies run around with a product’s old content, putting one thing everywhere. “One little thing” (and then they pray.)

“I expect everything I do to be successful and it is.” “I expect that every company that I work with will see tremendous growth, and they do.” “I can only say that I know what The Sales Corner will do, and it will be well worth it if you put your business on a fast track with us.”

“I can say more but then I think I said enough already.”

Sincerely,

Francis Walsh
77375

@awewriter

FACEBOOK

Popularity: 61% [?]

1. Spending too much time with gatekeepers and others that are not key decision makers. Unless you are using them to gain access to economic buyers.
2. Not using action steps to move the sale forward. Do not expect the client to do your work.
3. Being ready and available for every call. Dress the part and dress professionally daily. Casual dress is a rote excuse for laziness.
4. Procrastination. Use a planner and take time for personal issues. Do not use work as an excuse not to spend time with family. Never use poor planning as an excuse not to return imperative client calls.
5. Not using a small percentage of each day for lead generation. The fuller the pipeline the more available the opportunities.
6. Not spending time in self-development. Learning is a continuous process. Do not use learning as criteria for weakness. Your organization is not responsible for your future development- take responsibility.
7. Using electronic media instead of meeting directly with buyers. Face and voice time are more important than the veil of the Internet.
8. Not using a process. Over 90 percent of sales professionals lack a formal roadmap that helps to efficiently find and close business.
9. Failing in customer service. Over 50% of every client interaction involves customer service. Kill them with kindness to have them return.

10. Responding to proposals not requested by buyers. Responding to blind RFI’s is simply a waste of time.

©2010. Drew Stevens PhD. All Rights Reserved.

Drew Stevens is one of the world’s leading authorities on business development and sales. Drew is the author of the successful sales process book Split Second Selling. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness. To discover how Dr. Drew can assist your organization to increase their business development skills visit him at www.stevensconsultinggroup.com

Popularity: 30% [?]

Winning the races at the NHRA is a TEAM EVENT. You do not enter without a team, and you do not go through the various challenges by yourself either!

Using this example gives us a great digression into deciding how to offer you advice to help grow your business. For many, running your business will take up all of your time. Some feel this is needed and some would rather free up time to focus on other things.

Unfortunately, if you entered a drag race on your own, you’d be left to complete every challenge and problem on your own also! What happens when your tire goes flat? What if you blow a head gasket? What if a high pressure hose breaks? Are you going to know all the “nuts and bolts” that need tweaked to make everything run pristine again?

At The Sales Corner, we don’t take information lightly. We like to provide something worth while, educative, and “real world” because this is the reality you live in. We are a part of your team in your corner, and we want to help you with all of your challenges and hurdles!

Consider that said while you watch this great promotional video brought to us from The Sales Corner’s one and Only “SEO Shaman” FD Walsh! We thank you and we hope you enjoy! Remember, be part of a team and get bigger results faster, and more targeted!

Popularity: 25% [?]

For over 27 years, I have worked with numerous organizations to improve their selling effectiveness. In the last several months stemming from the recessions, my phone rings frequently requesting help. At issue, the need to move more product as firms seeks higher margins during volatile times.

Contrary to popular opinion, sales managers and CEO’s do not need to increase goals, they need to increase communication and accountability with staff. There are two reasons why staff do not perform efficiently 1) poor employer and employee relationships and 2) unacceptable accountability.

First, sales managers today do not spend enough time in the field with representatives and do not take the time to create relationships with staff. A correlation exists between the relationship between employer/employee and the degree of satisfaction and morale at the job. Simply put, when employees are happy there is better work efficiency. Aiding this effort is the use of the MBWA principle (Management by Walking Around). Sitting in the office does little for relationships, knowing staff does. Invite staff for coffee, lunch or accompany them on account visits. Taking the time eliminates insubordination, tardiness and an array of other non work related excuses.

Second, accountability begins with developing metrics that staff understand and commit to. Qualitative and quantitative are the metrics used to evaluate staff. Determine those metrics by type and aligned with your sales process. Then create milestones so that individuals commit to dates and key performance measurements. Managers must meet with staff regularly to ensure progression. That requires constant communication and not waiting until performance time to review. Accountability also requires the emulation of the best practices of the best people and employing proper staff. Nothing else matters but measurements the denote account activity.

Goal revision does not alter behavior and poor business practices. Change the measurements and relationships and watch the alterations with observed behavior.

©2010. Drew Stevens PhD. All Rights Reserved.

There are seven secrets for selling effectiveness. Click here For a Free Report 7 Secrets to Selling Success

Drew Stevens is one of the world’s leading authorities on business development and marketing. Drew is the author of the successful sales process book Split Second Selling. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness. To discover how Dr. Drew dramatically accelerate your business development and sales skills visit his sales and marketing website.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Some days at The Sales Corner are like many others when we find ourselves hashing over the same issues that the last client had, or helping a new client grasp what they can do to help themselves be a better seller, be a better marketeer, or be an all around better business builder. We spend our time on the phone, helping educate people on what THEY can do to help themselves! Even if there is someone like TSC working in the background; even we agree that you need to do more more more!

Often enough, our clients struggle from similar things as each other like you’ll see below in this discussion with Joe.
(Remember Bob the engineer who wanted to grow his website sales??)

Joe is a lot like Bob in the way of thinking. Joe doesn’t realize that he’s out of scope when it comes to how his customers perceive his store, his website, his “mission.” Joes very good at blowing glass, but he lacks in his ability to inform the customers about his products in a way that encourages them to buy it because they want to, not because he’s asking them too!

Joe says to me “I try every time they call me to ask them for their purchase. The problem is, they all end up asking me questions, then hanging up the phone. I never see their orders. I don’t know what I can do. Can TSC help me?”

“Yes Joe, we can. I’m glad you’ve asked. TSC likes it when people reach out for help!”

I explained to Joe that I recently spoke to Bob who was having a similar problem. Bob’s problem was that he was trying to fix symptoms of his problems, without address the problems head on. Joe on one hand, faces a similar dilema of not being able to identify WHY he cannot get more traffic or better traffic which will generate conversions. On another hand, Joe is very honest about being able to communicate to his audience effectively.

I asked Joe to explain to me his definition of “effective marketing” and he proceeded to explain. “I’m a marketing major and I graduated from Standford with a degree in the subject. It’s what I’ve done for myself for the last 20 years and I’ve helped a lot of brands build up also. This was back in 1990. My problem is that in the last decade, it’s not that I haven’t kept up with what’s going on, but I’ve not been able to reform my education that I had to create a NEW and FRESH message. Marketing to people of the 80′s and 90′s was not like these “new age” people like you, Matt, and the people at The Sales Corner.”

“I agree with you Joe. Times have changed. One reason I started The Sales Corner was to help people build their business with NEW and FRESH ideas that would result in growth, and visibility to their market. Again, I can help you.”

Joe was very happy with our conversation and was ready to purchase services from The Sales Corner but became a little confused about what would suit him best with regard to what we could do. I explained that since we do a lot of things here at TSC to help people build and grow their business, that we can focus on the strengths he has, and we will focus on the weak parts to, and improve them both!

“Here Joe, you need to look at these as they have been designed to give you a ton of visibility with a broad movement directly for you!” Full Internet Marketing Packages

Realizing he was a Marketing Major, he knew what a good message looked like, and even admitted he could write one. He wasn’t feeling like he wanted to pay for something he could do already himself.

Then I asked; “So Joe, you have 20 hours a week to write 100 messages for your business, and then market each of those 100 message out to researched content valid mediums?”

Joe replied, “No, I don’t have the time to do that. I just said I could” “Well then, you’ve come to The Sales Corner to help you right?” Joe pondering the question, then with a heartfelt “Yes” he responds.

I helped Joe understand that nobody doubted his ability to communicate and market to his customers.

What Joe lacks, is the ability to get his message, in 50 different ways, all saying the same thing “buy Joe’s glass blown products off his website” and take the time to market each of those 50 messages out to 50 different places.

Until Joe worked with The Sales Corner, he didn’t realize that we could take his current message, and market it in his local area, and his surrounding area, choosing mediums and places that WOULD CREATE HIS RESULTS, rather then HOPING they would.

If you’d like to find out how we can help you! Take a look at our pre-composed Full Service packages, or, registered members, can contact us directly and ask for customized packages to encompass even better or bigger growth!

Full Service / Support Packages!

Popularity: 19% [?]

It’s true that not everyone has been around “forever,” not even Google. In fact, it was only in 1998 that they were officially Incorporated.

Why do I mention that? Well, it has something to do with credibility of The Sales Corner.

Matt Geier was designing websites BEFORE Google was around. Matt designed his first website in 1995, and did about 10-15 of them that year using HTML 1.0. Later they evolved into better version of HTML and eventually started using CSS and other “code” to improve aesthetics, interoperability among browsers, and more!

When Google came out, some website owners became scared as to the unknown about “this new search engine” and others, like me, learned to thrive on that unknown with the promise of what was to come down the line. Those that didn’t understand how it worked, couldn’t utilize it and maximize their success as well, simply from lack of understanding and knowledge about it.

When Google first became “real” a lot of questions were asked about their search engine algorithms and how they looked at sites and more;

Nobody knew the secrets, and so you had website owners, and webmasters doing things like adding pop ups, or exchanging links, or sharing links on sites, and anything they could do to get Google algorithms to pick up on their sites with Google Robots and so forth. Some things people did know, came back to these types of tactics to get noticed. Unfortunately, hurting a lot of credibility from reputable sources in the process due to the “fast acting ways to get recognized” which were later recognized as ill-legitimate ways vs the good quality ways and over time Google adjusted this to some of the more current algorithms we see today.

Unfortunately, even today people try and fail to get the understanding of how Google searches work, and what they are really looking for in order to rank your page, or show you on a search.

We understand it; why? Because we’ve been “getting it” since day one finding out any information about how Google works! Searching and scouring the net; but did you know the best place is “from the source” Google, themselves? Yes, that’s right, you can follow them in all kinds of ways to understand what they tell you is the best way to get your website ranked, searched, and more!

Nowadays, Google has their hand in all kinds of things; and I want you to take advantage of Google’s great ability to show your website some really spectacular ranking results and traffic but in order to do that, here’s a list of things you’ll need to do every single day……..no, I’m not joking…. and If you cannot, then I simply suggest finding someone who can do this for you, because this is what it takes to generate results; Like The Sales Corner

1) Make sure you generate NEW content every single day, including Saturday’s and Sunday’s; This should be between 3-10 Articles or Blog posts a day that are original from each other. Each Article or Blog should be different in context or if the content is the same, change it so that the same content is read or appears different, and now it’s NEW or SIMILAR, but NOT THE SAME.

2) You need to advertise and market your content and drive it to the people, all of it, every day. The more your active with your site, the better results you’ll get from page ranking tools, and people like Google always looking for “active and popular” websites and blogs! The more people AND GOOGLE see your site active, the higher it will rank in popularity!

3) Don’t bother just exchanging links anymore, or even submitting to link exchanges! Get EXTERNAL LINKS in place! The problem with adding your link to a exchange, is well, you’re with about 1000 other links too; who knows if they are the same type of products or services. Instead; establish good relationships and get your link permanently placed on your partner’s pages, or customer’s websites. The reason you want permanent placement is to help with your “popularity” and the popular you are, the higher you’ll rank. This is only measured in part by how many external links you have; none-the-less, get some, it will help!

4) Stop making exact copies of your pages and putting them on different domain names. The only thing this is doing, is giving you three individual domains, with the same content on each one. That doesn’t provide any value. Google frowns immensely on this kind of behavior. Google algorithms look for “value add” and “unique” things that attract it’s attention. Having a site the same as the next, is like owning three cookie cutter houses in three different zip codes; You still have three houses, and the same amount of relatives at any given time in each one. Nothing new and valuable, just the same.

5) If you cannot do what needs to be done to manage and maintain your website presence, find someone, like The Sales Corner, who can help offset those tasks and become focused on generating results geared to help YOU directly! It’s imperative you take a focus on your business results and stop leaving sales and marketing driven items to your graphics designer, or sales to your engineering team! Work with people that give you the results you’re looking for; not the one’s they want to sell or offer in their proposal!

Good Luck

Matt G
The Sales Corner

For more information on the types of things The Sales Corner can do for your business, website, or brick and mortar can be found in our Membership Packages here; http://www.thesalescorner.us/blog/sales-corner-marketing-seo-sales-membership-packages/

Popularity: 16% [?]