Catalyst

Are You Giving People Reasons Not To Do Business With You?

2011-01-16T04:22:00.000-08:00

We all know we are living in uncertain economic times, and maintaining your business let alone growing it is not easy right now. But I wonder if we are making it even harder than it has to be. Have we really taken stock of what changes have occurred with the economy, our target market and our customers, and how those changes need to impact how we do business.

A few years ago, the economy was riding high, money flowed like water, and consumers were spending freely. Pretty much if you opened your doors you could grow your business. Today, the economy is constantly changing, money is tight, and the consumer wants value for the money they spend. Attracting and retaining customers in this economy requires a different approach. You need to create an amazing customer experience consistently, you need to be easy to do business with, and you need to promote and protect your brand reputation. Exceeding in all three areas will ensure you grow your business; falling down in even one will make the job far harder than it has to be.

Let me share an example. I called yesterday to schedule a physical therapy appointment. The only time I had available was Tuesday at 5 p.m. All their therapists were booked at this time. But instead of telling me I would have to schedule for the next week, the receptionist suggested she check with their other location to see if she could "borrow" one of their therapists. She called the other location, booked the therapist and called me right back to confirm.

Now think about that. A few years ago (when patients were busting through the door to make these appointments) that level of service may not have happened. On the other hand, that practice is full despite the economy, because they understand the power of the patient experience has on keeping their book full. This was so easy for me. I told the receptionist what I needed, and she "colored outside the lines" to make it work. Taking all the responsibility to confirm the new therapist, make the appointment, and call me back to confirm. She made me feel valued, because she did it all to accommodate my schedule. Will that business grow? Yes, they make it easy for regular patients to keep their appointments, and give us reasons to send referrals.
Her's a little different example. I am researching schools that offer a different type of coaching certification than I currently have. My goal this year is to get certified in this area as well. I found one that offered a program that had been highly recommended to me, and worked well with my schedule. I first went to the schools website, but I was so overwhelmed with programs and course information, and I could not quite figure out the dates of classes offered or how to register. So I called the school, and after pressing several buttons was put through to registration. The woman I spoke with was very nice. She laughed as she told me that their site needed to be updated and she knows it is confusing. She let me know the dates I was looking for were not even confirmed, and she hoped they would be ready in a week or so. She told me to check the website over the next couple of weeks.

Now, think about this. I was on the phone, ready to buy, and ready to send them a check for $5,000. Not only did the woman admit to me they were not prepared, and that their current information was not up-to-date; she made it my responsibility to do business with and spend money with them. She never asked my name, my interest, or even offered to follow-up with me once the site was updated. She gave me plenty of reasons not to do business with them. Needless to say, that interaction told me all I needed to know about the coaching school. I moved on to another program and gave another school my $5000.

I realize times are tough, and growing a business is not easy, but you need to ask yourself are you giving people reasons not do to business with you? Here is an exercise you can easily do at your next team meeting that will help you answer that question:

Have everyone on your team bring in one example of a frustrating or exceptional customer experience they have had
One by one share those experiences with the group
Than ask yourselves, as a team, what happens, given the same situation, with a customer in our office
Discuss and then implement the changes you identify that would give customers even more reasons to do business with you.

This exercise is so easy to do, and gives you great perspective on how you can consistently improve your customer experience. Doing business these days is not easy, but making sure at every turn you welcome the opportunities you get, will help you go from surviving this economy to thriving in this economy!

Are You Choosing The Right Leaders?

2011-01-10T03:58:00.000-08:00

Studies show that less than fifteen percent of our success in life is based on our technical skill and eighty-five percent is based on our ability to get along and work well with others. I believe that statistic holds true for companies too, and even more so in uncertain economic times.

If companies want to succeed they need to be innovative, collaborative, highly efficient and produce hard tangible results. There is no doubt you need great people to to do all of this, but just having great people on your team won't get you the results you are looking for. You need great people who understand and promote the value of working together, and who can inspire and lead others to do the same.

Often leaders are promoted and valued for their talents and skills, when leadership is truly about the ability to get along and connect with others. The role of a leader is to influence and inspire the behavior of others to enlist their support in the achievement of a common goal. This takes a high level of self awareness, emotional maturity, and a commitment to continue to grow and develop your people skills.

So are you choosing the right leaders? Are you supporting their efforts to grow and enhance their people skills? Do you value those qualities in your organization?

Here are some questions to ask yourself about your leaders:
1. What specific things do they do to help others be successful in the organization?
2. Do they promote teamwork and collaboration within and across departments?
3. What have they done in the last year to mentor, coach and develop others in the organization?
4. Who else in the organization would credit the support and help of this leader with their personal success?
5. Are they respected by their peers? Do they treat their peers with respect?

If you answered negatively to any of those questions, I would challenge you that you have a leadership issue on your hands and one you need to address sooner rather than later. While I encourage you to invest time in helping these individuals become successful, I caution you from trying to "save" them. People have to want to grow and change, it is not something you can force upon them. Spending your time and energy here, without seeing early signs of true change, can be very costly to the organization in the long run.
If you answered positively to those questions, then you have a leader on your hands. Invest your time here, and see what support they need from you to continue to grow and develop. Putting your time, effort and resources into this individual will prove so much more profitable for you personally and the company. You'll grow more leaders, create even more collaboration and partnership, and produce even more powerful results.

We are living in uncertain economic times, and trust and value have become the new return on investment our employees and our customers are looking for, making what we offer a commodity and how we offer it our competitive edge. You need the best leaders on your team to both succeed and achieve the results you want. Choose wisely, and your job and your success will come fast and will be sustainable!

New Years Resolutions And The Wisdom Of A Teenager

2010-12-29T04:13:00.000-08:00

It is the time to write our New Year Resolutions! This is the year we save the world, get into amazing shape, only eat healthy food, grow our business fifty percent, and write the great American Novel.

I love the New Year Holiday and I love the idea of New Years Resolutions! The tradition of starting fresh, new ideas, new plans and plenty of new opportunity. Heading into a new year always fills me with lots of positive thoughts, energy and excitement. It is the perfect time to be mindful, and think about what we cherish about our lives and what we would like to change. It is time to make a personal commitment to be grateful for what we love and work to change what we don't. It is the perfect tradition!

The perfect tradition, with one little catch. Resolutions are often forgotten or broken by about mid-January, leaving us to really start the year feeling like we have failed before we even got started. Why? Because while we commit to make changes, we often bite off more than we can chew and then just the thought of making change is overwhelming.

Yesterday I was given great wisdom and insight on this very topic by my seventeen year old nephew. Yes, apparently teenagers do know everything! We were riding down the road, when a United Parcel Services (UPS) truck passed us. My nephew took this opportunity to inform me that UPS designs their daily routes so that their drivers can make as many right turns as possible when delivering packages. Why? Because making more right turns saves the drivers time, cuts down on accidents, and uses less gasoline. Putting the company on track to both save money and increase revenue. A small change that has a big impact.

I thought about that piece of wisdom all day, and thought why don't we apply that type of common sense to our own lives?Set our sites on big change (UPS obviously wanted to have a big impact on overall revenue, timely service, and expense control) with small, bite-size effort. The type of effort we can make and one we will consistently do. I mean think about it, let's assume UPS asks the question, "How could we save money and grow our revenues?" There are a million different answers to that question, and a million things they could have done, but they chose to begin with one that was minimally intrusive, simple to implement, and still had a big impact.

So as you head into this New Year, think about your own life. What do you love about it? What would you like to improve? Then identify one small and simple change you could make, one you could truly commit to, and make it. Let your resolution represent a big difference you want to make in your life, but let the way you go about carrying it out be small and simple. As you move into 2011, make a new resolution to make small incremental changes that have a lasting impact on your professional and personal life! Happy New Year!

Competitive Edge - Not What You Sell - It's How You Sell It

2010-12-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

I recently asked the question to a number of small business owners, "What are the top challenges you are facing right now?" Not surprisingly the economy ranked right up there at number one, but two others closely followed: Staying top of mind and visible with clients, and staying connected and engaged with clients.

That to me, was a very telling response. Really shows just how much our economy has changed, and that the economists were right. We no longer have the luxury of waiting for the client to come to us - we need to go to them. We are moving into what is known as a pull economy, meaning that the consumer is in control. With increased competition, technology and globalization the consumer really determines what they want to buy, when they want to buy it, how they want to buy it and from whom they want to buy it.That makes what we sell or offer a commodity, but how we sell or offer it our competitive advantage. it is not the what we do in this economy, but how we do it that will determine our level of success.

Having a superior product or offering a high quality service is merely a consumer expectation these days, a minimum requirement. Consumers have so many choices, so much opportunity they don't even give you the time of day if they do not believe you offer or sell a product that is at the level at which they are looking. So if you cannot differentiate yourself with quality of product, then what can you do to make the consumer notice and choose you?

Build trust and add value! Trust and value have become the new return on investment. They are what consumers are looking for, and they are what is driving the decision making process. Consumers will spend money, they will buy multiple services, and they will remain long term , loyal clients if they understand the value you offer. They will refer their friends, their peers and they will become your unpaid sales force if and when they trust you.

So if trust and value have become so important, if trust and value have become the point at which you can gain competitive advantage, what do you do to ensure you are really developing it with your clients?

Trust is built through consistent positive interaction with you and your company over a period of time. The longer the time invested, the more positive the consistent interaction, the deeper the level of trust. Meaning there is more opportunity for depth of relationship and greater sales. Adding value is simply determined through listening, and by understanding that value is unique to the individual. You need to ask great questions, and you need to listen so you can find ways to solve your clients challenges. You need to help them take advantage of their opportunities; not the opportunities or challenges you predetermined they had. There will be plenty of time for that later, once you have met their immediate needs and they feel that emotional connection that adding value brings. With that, you gain permission to expand the relationship and offer new opportunities and solutions they never knew existed.

So if you want to succeed in this economy, if you want to solve your top challenges and turn them into opportunities, understand it is not what you sell in this economy that matters, but how you sell it!

Focus Speeds Up the Buying Cycle

2010-12-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

We've made our choice - to be one of those people who thrive in this economy. One of those people that have made the decision to apply the strategies and take the actions to make it happen no matter the odds. We have accepted our reality, and we know the economy is not down it has forever shifted. We understand the consumer is driving the buying cycle, so we must now invest our time and energy in building relationships. With economic shifts, globalization and technological advancements we know the consumer can buy what they want, when they want it, and from whom they want it. We get it - we understand these changes - and we know we better be top of mind and highly visible, if we want to be the first person our prospects think of when they are ready to buy.

So how do we do all of that, still turn a profit, have a life, and get all of our other work done? I mean, building relationships takes time, energy and lots of resources. How can we thrive in this economy, if moving our prospects to clients takes so much time and effort? The answer - we need to focus. If you want to speed up the buying cycle, if you want to encourage your prospects to move through the sales funnel, and if you want to build long term relationships that create loyalty, referrals and a powerful unpaid sales force, then you need to focus.

Focusing is really nothing more than having a plan and being clear about what you want, and how you plan to get it. Ask yourself these questions:
1. What do you want?
2. Who can help you get it?
3. What actions or strategies are you willing to prioritize daily/weekly to make sure you achieve it?

Plans don't need to be long, they don't need to be complicated, they only need to be clear and they need to be followed. Where you spend your time, who you spend it with, and what you spend it doing, are directly related to your success (whatever your definition of success is.) The next time you feel stressed, full of anxiety or just plain burned out; take a look at where you have spent your time, who you have spent it with, and what you have done. Then see if it even remotely comes close to what you say you want for you career, your life, or both. I am guessing it won't even be close.

The great thing about focus is that it is simple - not easy - but it is simple. Now more than ever, we are overwhelmed with constant messages, distractions, and changing priorities. If you want to thrive in this economy, if you want to be successful and you want to be happy, then you have to know what you want, and you have to put your time and energy into getting it. What you focus on in life expands. It is that clear, that simple, and completely yours to achieve.

4 Must Know Strategies to Thrive In Any Economy

2010-11-21T02:39:00.000-08:00

You have a choice to make. Do you want to survive this economy or do you want to thrive in this economy? That may sound like a silly question, but make no mistake it is a choice, and one that is clearly yours to make.

If you choose to be one of the thrivers, and I hope you do, then stick with me for this next series of blogs where we will discuss the four must know strategies to thrive in any economy. We will explore the individual strategies and what steps you can take to begin to implement each one.

Strategy 1 - Accept
Who can tell me exactly when this economy is going to turn around, and exactly what that is going to look like? Precisely - no one. No matter how many economists way in, and no matter how many experts we listen to, the fact still remains that no one has any idea when this economy is going to turn around.

To become a thriver, the first strategy you need to implement is acceptance. You need to embrace the fact that the economy is not down it has shifted. No matter how hard you push, try or beg, our economy is not returning to the way it was before.

We must accept we have moved out of a push economy and into a pull economy, which means the consumer is driving the buying cycle. Globalization, economic shifts and technology, have all made it so easy for consumers to buy whatever they want, whenever they want, and from whomever they want. So, trust and value have now become the new ROI - Return on Investment. People are buying, if they perceive value, and they will buy from you, if they trust you.

The New Sales Funnel!

To convey value and build trust, means the relationship needs to come long before the sale. Making our sales funnel look more like a martini glass than an actual funnel. We must spend a lot more time investing in the top of the funnel (glass) building relationships. We have to get to know our prospects and customers, and work to develop their trust and deliver value that is unique to them. Then we must allow them to move through the sales process at their own pace ensuring they remain in control. Your ability to build relationships, convey value and build trust directly relates to the speed to which your client moves through that sales funnel (martini glass.)
So, your first step to be a "Thriver" in this economy is to the accept reality - this economy is different. The consumer is in control of the buying cycle and trust and value are the new ROI. Many of our old sales strategies and techniques just don't work anymore, and the best way to fill your sales funnel is by investing in and building lots of quality relationships.
Now the question becomes who do I build relationships with? How can I thrive in this economy if I just spend my time building and developing relationships? How do I turn relationships into bottom line results? Join us next week for strategy two, and you'll move one step closer to Thriving In Any Economy!

Employee Engagement - How to Get Your Team To Implement.

2010-10-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

I met with two clients this past week both on the fast track to promotion and opportunity. They have used their talents and skills to navigate these waters of a shifting economy to create more opportunity and actually get ahead. Yeah! I love a great success story and the motivation I feel when I hear such positive news.

Both are looking at positions that involve growing their divisions, reorganizing systems and in a nut shell making some serious change. They have the experience, talent and skills to ensure their ideas will lead to great solutions, however the real measure of success will come in their ability to implement effectively.

Even as I write that it makes me laugh, as it sounds as if effective implementation is something they can control. It is something they can heavily influence and manage, but not something they can control. That lesson - understanding and embracing it - is the difference between a leader who can effectively lead a team through change and one who cannot.

All the brilliant solutions, all the amazing new systems and processes, won't matter a bit if the team that needs to implement is not fully engaged, on board, and ready to make things happen.

That is why - the first step any leader takes when navigating the team through change is to focus on the power of the word "why"! To stop and think through every step of the process, every new idea, and answer a few simple questions:
1. Why does this change need to be made?
2. Why would my team want to do this?
3. Why is it beneficial to them as individuals to do this?
4. Why do I need their help and support to make this happen?

Effective change leadership focuses first on the answers to these questions. New strategies, techniques and company direction need to then be communicated and delivered in a manner that first (and continuously) answer these questions.

I fundamentally believe that people want to do a good job, and they want to help their teammates and their company grow. However, we as human beings are hard wired to resist change, and more so change that is "pushed" upon us. Change leads us into the unknown, and there is fear and uncertainty there, making resistance a natural reaction.

As leaders, when we first answer the question why for our employees, we create understanding in our employees and understanding is soothing and calming. Employees relax their natural resistance, and as leaders we are then free to implement the next steps of change.

I have long believed that first answering the question why is the most valuable tool you have for implementing change. Are you required to do this for you team - No! Do you owe them an explanation - No! But, stopping long enough to relax their natural resistance will make your job as a leader so much easier and so much more effective.

The Emotional Foundation of Service

2010-10-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

To script or not to script customer service people that is the question! I get asked this question so often that I had to devote this weeks blog to the subject. This is a big debate in companies. Many leaders feel that if you want consistency you have to script your customer service people, and others feel employees need more autonomy and more flexibility with customers.

The answer is they are both right - sort of! Consistency is key if you want to create some foundation of trust and value with customers. They attach value to knowing they will always be treated with the same positive, upbeat service no matter time of day or employee waiting on them. However, employees reading from a script do lose that personal touch, flexibility to respond to individual needs, and the ability to put their personality into their work. Customers recognize it, feel it, and respond negatively to it.

So what do you do? Whether you choose to use a script or not in your business, you need to first ensure you build what I call an emotional foundation for your employees. An emotional foundation consists of the following:

Make sure your employees understand:
1. The vision of your company - where you are headed and why
2. Their role in the vision - what is their purpose and why does it matter
3. The customers basic need - we all have the same basic need when it comes to customer service: to be heard, acknowledged, remembered and respected.

When employees understand these three basic things, they emotionally connect to your organization and what you are trying to accomplish. This translates into emotional connection with your customers. At the end of the day customer service, sales, and even growth of our business are all rooted in emotion. If you first make that emotional connection, the question of whether to script or not to script really doesn't matter. Both will work.
Emotional connection turns the process of service into an exercise of building relationships and adding value. So, to script or not to script? Any answer you choose is right if and only if, you first create the emotional connection.

What Does It Mean To "Really Add" Customer Value

2010-10-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

The experts are telling us that in today's economic environment, if you want to keep and build your customer base you need to add value. So what does that mean add value? Really, wouldn't you say if people want your product or service and you deliver it isn't that adding value?

Well not exactly, in today's environment what the experts really mean is that you need to add more value than your competitors. You need to consistently do things that make your customers stand back and say wow. Do things that make them emotionally connect to your company, and do things that make them realize (without you telling them) that you are different from your competitors.

This is more art than science. To add "more value" than your competitors, you really need to be more gray than black and white. Looking for the little things, the little ways and the little connections you can make to really make your customers happy.

Here is a great example of a missed opportunity. Last week, I received a letter from the attorney my husband and I use for our legal services. The letter was asking us to contact their office to set up an appointment if we had any questions or concerns about our account. The letter also asked that if we preferred to be contacted by email to simply call the office.

Well, that sounds like a pretty good letter right? I mean they were proactively reaching out to their customer base. In addition, they also let us know that if we would prefer to communicate in email all we have to do is let them know. Well, why they technically did everything right, they missed the opportunity to add value.

Here is the rest of the story. My husband and I have been clients there for three years, and always communicate through email. I make it clear right from the start, with any of our vendors, that the best way to communicate with us is through email or via cell phone. (Plus, to really add value for your clients, asking how they want to communicate is one of the first questions you should ask.)

In addition, I emailed the office to schedule our appointment asking for a Friday about three to four weeks out. The response I received, was that our attorney was not available on that date, and I was given some Tuesday and Thursday mornings she had time to meet with us. Now again, my husband and I have been clients for three years, and each time we schedule appointments I have to remind them that my husband sees patients all day Monday through Thursday and can only meet after hours or on Fridays.

Lastly, the email closed by letting me know to contact the office as soon as possible if I wanted to secure one of my attorney's available dates, as she is very busy and could not guarantee the availability of those dates.

I trust that my attorney, by sending this letter, wanted to us to feel valued and engaged as customers. But, at the close of this letter I felt more emotionally disconnected than I had before I received it. Why? It is clear to me they do not really listen to what I say. The very fact that I got a letter asking me if I would prefer to communicate in email, after I have already told them I do. The very fact that I have shared my husband's schedule with them over and over, yet they still try to schedule me on Tuesday and Thursday, and lastly the reference to how busy my attorney's schedule is made it sound as if they are doing me a favor in setting this appointment. I mean I am paying for it, shouldn't accommodating my schedule be more important?

Again, in this economy competition if fierce, the consumer is far more selective, and the available cash to spend on services is limited. Do yourself, your business, and most importantly your customer a favor, and listen to them, acknowledge their needs, respect their time, and remember the details and unique aspects of your relationship with them. Your return on investment will be well worth your time.

You Can't Close The Sale

2010-10-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Every Friday morning I have a sales meeting with myself. Just thirty minutes to review what I actually accomplished this past week, and where my energy and time is focused in the next few weeks as it relates to sales. A simple sales coaching session that holds me accountable for the networking, sales and sales follow-up calls I am making and how much actual revenue I am putting on the books.

This past week, I had a huge revelation. All of the clients I currently have, all of the business I am actually booking, and all of the business actually hitting my bottom line is there because of networking opportunities, market positioning or referral. Not one piece of business I have booked in the past six months months, or that I have set to close in the next three is a piece of business I booked through what are thought of as traditional sales methods.

Now this is fascinating to me for a number of reasons. First, I hear from so many of my peers how frustrated they are and how burned out that are making traditional sales calls. They continually share with me how much they are struggling and just can't seem to close the deal. Second, this knowledge truly revealed to me how much the consumer is in complete control of the buying cycle. Our economy has seriously shifted from a push economy to a pull economy. Now, the consumer is deciding when, where and from whom they are going to buy. And third, looking at my current sales tracking sheet and comparing it to tracking sheets from two years ago (yes I am that big a nerd, and I actually hold on to those things) I noticed how much my sales behaviors have changed from actual sales calling to more of market positioning and networking.

Now these observations are fascinating to me, because I believe most of us - due to this shift in the economy - are going about sales all wrong. First, you need to understand what it means to move from a push economy to a pull economy. That shift puts the consumer in complete control of the buying cycle, and they will decide when, where and from whom the are going to buy. You as the seller are not only not in control of when the sale will close, but you have to create so much trust and value on the front end to even be in the running.

Secondly, you need to understand how trust and value are created when it relates to sales in this economy. Trust and value are the new ROI (return on investment). Trust and value are what make people part with their money. We, as consumers, trust what we have heard of before, what we hear others talking about, and what our friends recommend, in essence the sellers reputation. Value is created in a number of ways, but on the front end of the sale it is created in much the same way as trust. What do we know about this person and what they offer? What do my friends and colleagues believe is the value? And have I seen, read or heard anything about this person or company that would make me believe time with them could be beneficial?

As sellers, once we know and understand this, it changes the way we approach the entire sales cycle. It makes sense that if we have to build trust and create value with potential prospects, before we are ever make a sales call, then this shifts our time and energy as it relates to sales behaviors.

The networking (community involvement, industry organizations, one-on-one coffees and lunches) and marketing (blogging, article writing, speaking, advertising etc..) become a far more significant piece of the sales cycle than ever have before. If you want the consumer to choose you, buy your product and service, then they need to have built some form of relationship with you before you ever walk through their door. You build that reputation through networking, referrals, and positioning yourself as an expert in your field through writing, speaking and possibly advertising. And that reputation continues to move the sale along after you have made an actual sales call.

No, in the is economy you cannot close the sale, but through redefining your sales behaviors you can create an environment where the opportunities become greater and the sales close for you.

Hey - Where Did My Favorite Employee Go?

2010-10-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I stopped by to drop off my dry cleaning, and my favorite customer service representative popped up to the desk and said "Well tell me goodbye and good luck!" I said goodbye and good luck? Why? Are you leaving? She said yes, and I am so excited. It has been my dream my whole life (she is about 55) to live in Arizona and I have decided to follow my dream.

As she checked me out, we had a great conversation about how excited she is, but how hard it is to leave this area and all of her friends especially her co-workers. She went on to say how her boss - the owner - has been teasing her telling her he hopes she hates it and comes right back.

I walked out of there and thought how incredibly valuable that conversation was from a customer service standpoint. You see, I don't think that employers always realize how attached we (customers) get to their employees. Susan (my dry cleaner) always knew my name when I came in, she automatically got my order together for me, and when she would see me coming in the parking lot she would pretty much have me checked out by the time I came through the door. She knew my dogs names, what both my husband and I did for a living, and always asked about my weekend adventures. She was that friendly face, that person who turned going to the dry cleaner from a task to an experience.

If I would have walked through that door and all of a sudden she would have been gone with no explanation. I may think she was fired, or just quit, found a better job or became ill. In any scenario, the employer doesn't look good. Because I did not know why she was not there, I would begin to make up my own story and most likely the employer would be the villain. It would go something like this - he not pay her enough so she had to find another job, or the dry cleaning shop is not doing very well, so he laid her off. You get the picture.

Instead, those of us that are touched by her incredible customer service may be sad to lose her, but we feel good about the reason. We are happy for her, and while sad to lose her, we feel better knowing the owner of the dry cleaner is sad to lose her too, and would hire her back in a moment.

To an employer, this may seem like a small and insignificant thing, but to those of us that frequent your place of business it is big. Your business is your employees, and when turnover is high, or good people leave it is smart to let us know why. It is your people that get us connected to your place of business, and when they leave a piece of our emotions go with them. I would venture to say that there are plenty of times employees leave for very positive reasons, getting married, moving, found an incredible opportunity in their dream occupation or getting promoted. Share those with us, and let us feel excited for them, and happy that we support a company that supports its employees.

When I was a banker, we promoted a lot of people. We had quite an internal talent development pool. Promotion always meant moving branches within the area, or moving to new city or location. We always made a big deal out of it and encouraged the entire branch to share the exciting news with the customers at least a full month before the promotion was to take place. While customers always hate losing their favorite employees, they always feel better being included and valued enough to be a part of the excitement.

Remember, your customers invest more than their money in your business, they invest their time and their story. If you want to retain them then include them.

Are You Customer Centric?

2010-09-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Are you customer centric? Is customer centric different than customer service? Those are great questions to ask your leaders, your team and most importantly your customers.

Yes, they are different. When most of us think about customer service, we think of customer satisfaction. Asking ourselves "are we doing and delivering what the customer asks of us?" Customer centric is all about taking service to another level, when we are not only delivering what the customer asks, we are delivering what the customer wants, needs and determines has real value.

If your only goal is for your customers to have a satisfying experience and give you a favorable rating, than customer service is good enough. But if what you truly want is the type of customer who returns to you to repurchase your products and services, and becomes a true advocate, one that delights in telling your story and signing your praises, then what you want is to create a customer centric culture.

What is the difference? Customer service - in today's world - is simplying creating an experience in which the customer is happy with their current purchase. Studies show that "satisfied" customers do not routinely return for repeat purchases and do not routinely refer you to family and friends. In other words customer service does not equal customer loyalty.

Customer centric cultures is about creating a customer experience that is focused on customer value and a memorable experience. One in which the customer feels listened to, heard, cared for and an experience the customer can connect with. This type of culture creates desire to repurchase and excitement about recommending. Ultimately this type of culture creates customer loyalty and business growth.

Customer expectations these days are higher than ever and going up every single day. With global competition, increased development in technology, and customers in complete control of the buying cycle, you have to deliver beyond expectations if you hope to win or keep the business.

So how do you create a customer centric culture:
1 - Establish a clear vision that focuses on customer value. Keep it simple. Make sure everyone on the team understands it, can relate to, and knows how they can use their talents to support it.
2 - Be a role model - employees will treat customers how you treat customers. Remember that the next time a customer gets on your nerves, asks a few too many questions, or is having a bad day. Understand your team is watching.
3 - Hire right - hire for attitude, work ethic, and emotional intelligence. It is far more difficult to train the soft skills. Hire right and you are more than half way there.
4 - Invest in your team - if you want your customers to perceive value from their experience with your business, then understand your employees are your business. If your employees feel valued, cared about, and feel their job is an amazing experience than that is the culture they will relay to your customers. Help them reach their goals, achieve their values and they will do the same for your customers.
5 - Talk and train - make the customer front and center - talk about the customer everday - start the day with the simple question "What is one thing we can do today to improve the customer experience," and end the day with the best customer experience - end on a positive note. Train your employees on your service standards and help them grow in their ability to deliver a "wow" experience to your customers.
6 - Open culture - build a culture of trust and communication - empower your people to handle customer complaints with the freedom to make a decision. Weekly discuss what went well - what was a challenge - so people learn from each other and feel like they are contributing to the best ways to handle and care for customers.

A customer centric culture is the greatest competitive edge you can have in this economy. If you want to differentiate yourself, if you want to get noticed and stand out, if you want customer loyalty to drive bottom line results than develop a customer centric culture!

Four Keys to Developing A Powerful & Efficient Team

2010-09-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Do you want to gain a competitive edge? Do you want to standout from the competition? Then invest in your people and create a culture where the best and the brightest are beating a path to your door.

I truly believe this is the most challenging economy we have ever faced. Sure we have known tough times - heck we survived the Great Depression, but we have never had so many facets of our economy moving at the same time. We have a challenging economy, we have global competition, we have technology that is changing the rules daily, and we have four generations of employees and business owners with different values and priorities working side-by-side. It is enough to make your head spin.

There are lot of moving parts, and it is easy to feel confused about where to place your time, your money and your energy to move ahead of your competition and win new customers. In all this madness, there is one constant. One thing that never changes - the value of high quality people and the impact they can have on your company.

You have to hire right, and build the right culture so people can thrive and grow. Hiring right for me is simple - hire attitude. You want your team to get along, you want your employees to work productively, you want your customers to have an amazing experience? Hire positive, upbeat people and train them to do the job.

Once you hire right, you have to develop the right culture. One where the best and brightest not only want to work, but one where they want work hard to be productive and remain a part of for a long time. You need to create a culture of acceptance, vision, trust and community.

Step 1:
Acceptance - understand that four different generations are going to have four different set of values and priorities. They enter the workforce everyday with different expectations and different ways of doing things. See the value in that. Don't expect people to work and execute like you do, instead look at the talents they bring to the table and help them use those talents to enhance your company. Certainly help them overcome their challenges, but do it while simultaneously using their gifts.

Step 2:
Vision - your team needs a common vision and a common purpose. Without it, they will work hard individually, but you will miss the value of a cohesive team. People need to know where the company is headed, why it is headed there, what their role is and why they matter.

Step 3:
Trust - the foundation of effective communication and employee retention. When trust is present, people do more than they are asked, work harder for you and produce more. To build a culture of trust you need to invest in your people, be honest and open with them, and commit to accountability.

Step 4:
Community - people want to belong, feel connected and be a part of something that is important and of value. Build a community and watch your team grow, work together and work harder. Encourage them to work in teams, provide coaching and mentoring, develop opportunities for them to meet and play outside of work. The power of relationship retains and develops your team.

An effective team is your key to your competitive edge. Your people are one of the only things differentiating you right now from your competition. Be the company that attracts the best and the brightest and you will the company positioned to move ahead in this economy.

Build Relationships to Beat The Economy!

2010-09-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

Who knows what this economy is going to do. One day you turn on the news and everything is going down the tubes, the next day you hear things have flattened out, then things are picking up, and just when you are feeling a little perky the news reports the market takes a dive. It's enough to make you crazy. The economy has more ups and downs these days, more change and drama then all the soap operas and reality shows put together.

If you focus your energy on the economy and plan your strategy based around what the news is saying - you are sure to lose. So what do you do? What is the best way to survive this changing economy, and where should you put your time and your energy?

Yep - you guessed it - on building, developing and enhancing relationships. If you hit hard times, it is going to be the people you know, the relationships you've built and the reputation you have that are going to pull you through. Even if you never even feel a blip during these changing times, relationships are still the best and most secure place you can invest your time and your money if you want to see a high rate of return on investment.

Why? Trust, value and quality have become the new return on investment. Whether it is customers, employers, or friends and neighbors investing in people is sure to produce a win! Think about it:

Customers - who are they doing business with? Customers have so many choices. They can buy local, buy regional, buy national and global. The Internet has made buying things in India as easy (and sometimes easier) then buying things downtown. Consumers are overwhelmed with choices and ways to buy goods and services. They need ideas and input on how to narrow their options. Relationships are the answer. Customers are not nearly as price sensitive as they used to be, because the abundance of choice has made the guarantee of consistency, quality and a relationship far more valuable.

Investing in and building relationships with your customers right now increases loyalty, retention and referrals. All of which ensure your business grows, your profits increase, and the threat of a shifting economy remains something you only read about.

Careers - need a job, want to keep your job, want to be the one person in your company whose salary actually increases during challenging economic times? Then build relationships. When this economy first started to shift, I would get calls weekly, people wanting to know if I could help a friend or a family member find a job. My first question was always tell me about their network, tell me who they know? All too often that answer and list were pretty slim.

Again, employers are inundated with resumes and requests for employment. For every job posted their must be hundreds of applicants if not at times thousands. If you want to be interviewed, if you want to be hired, then you better come highly recommended by someone you know that knows the person interviewing you for the job. A long list of well-connected people will bring much more value in the job hunt, then the right education, skill set or job experience. When the pile of resumes is a mile high, it is going to be the relationship not the experience that gets you to the top.

Want to keep your job or get promoted. Then build relationships. Relationships have value, companies know this and they know they need employees who can build relationships if the company is going to grow. You can always find people who have the skills to do the job, but those that can do the job and build the relationships are few and far between. Relationship builders can not only bring in new business and expand existing relationships, but they understand the power of building internal relationships to get the job executed quickly and efficiently. Saving the company time and money.

Friends and Neighbors - where are you going to turn if you need help? Shifting economies and challenging times, make the importance of knowing and being able to count on people who can help vital to success. From the little things like making you laugh after a really bad week, to picking your kids up from school if you're running late. To the big stuff, like letting you car pool if your car breaks down or mowing your grass if you break your leg.

Tough times can be so much easier if you know you have people you can count on to help you and support you, and good times can be so much more rewarding when you have people to share them with. The key to surviving and thriving in any economy is relationships. If you want to beat this economy, thrive during any economic conditions, then invest in the power of relationships! You'll always come out a winner!

Engage, Participate, Connect - That is How You Network!

2010-08-25T06:19:00.000-07:00

I love this story! Last weekend I was playing in a golf tournament to raise money for a local charity. I was playing with two of the most fun and well connected people I know in Western North Carolina. We were set to be a three man team, when the organizer of the event approached us to ask if we would like a fourth. Always up for meeting new people, of course we said yes.

Up walks this nice young man, early thirties, big smile on his face, and he jumps in the cart with me. Off we go! I immediately introduce myself and start asking him questions. Where are you from? what do you do? how long have you been playing golf? eventually getting around to asking what his reason was for driving up here (he was from out of town) to play in this tournament. Turns out his company is a supplier to one of the businesses sponsoring this tournament. They would like to have more business with this company and in this region, and with other companies playing in this tournament. Terrific, now I understand what my new friend needs and how I can help him. I am engaged.

We hit the first hole, and turns out this kid is a ringer. Wahoo, we need him. Before he showed up, my girlfriend and I were just going to rely on our other teammate - he is the great golfer in our original group. This is great, takes the pressure off of him! As we head to the second hole, our new friend's blackberry vibrates, as the three of us head to the tee box, he takes a moment to answer a message. This is where the missed opportunity starts. From this point on, he is pretty much connected to his blackberry between every hole. At one point, I am riding in the cart with him, his phone rings, he takes a moment to let his friend know "he isn't really doing anything right now, and hopes to be back home in time to go out that night."

Now, was I insulted - no, mad - no, a little frustrated - okay I will admit to that. See I truly believe according to what our new friend understood, he thought he was networking. His boss told him to show up at this tournament, play in it, talk to a few people, and in his mind he did all that.

But boy did he miss it! He happened by pure luck to be put on a team with three people who I would argue between us pretty much know everyone in Western North Carolina. Especially my two teammates - well connected and well respected. If he would have put the blackberry down, engaged in conversation, truly connected with us, his results from this golf tournament would have been much different. It would have led to follow-up, connections with people he needs or wants to get to know, and an "easy in" to a territory he needs to develop but does not live or work in regularly. His missed his short-cut and easy rode to developing his business, his territory and his career.

In between his answering or working on his blackberry, I asked him lots of questions. I had a good feel for whom he needed to meet and the reasons he wanted to meet them. Two of those connections were at the golf tournament, several others were either people I knew or I knew someone who could and would easily make an introduction.

In all the time we spent together riding in the cart, playing each hole, he never asked me a question. Never really discovered what I do, what I am involved in and who I could possibly know. Never asked for my card or gave me his.

What is the point of this story and why do I love it? Because it is a great example of why so many people don't like, don't see the value or gain the benefit of networking. You can't just show up. You have to be present, get engaged, spend the time building a relationship. Ask people questions, be interested in them, and listen. Develop the foundation that will lead to the next steps.

Employers, don't send your associates off to play in tournaments, attend events, or work trade shows without giving them the skills and setting the expectations of what you want them to accomplish while networking. Networking is expensive - there are fees to enter tournaments, costs to attending events, not to mention you are paying your employees and losing office production time.

I still believe, networking has one of the highest rates of return on investment. Had our "new friend" had the skills, been given expectations, he would have walked away from this tournament with three new friends willing to help him meet the people he needs to meet, open the doors he needs to open and working along side him to help him build his business.

Now you may be asking, Meridith you knew what this guy needed why didn't you just help him? Because networking and making connections has my brand and my reputation on it. I don't want to open a door for someone I think may take a call in the middle of a conversation, use a blackberry all day during a golf tournament, and not understand that importance of asking open ended questions. I can only ask my connections for so many favors, I want to make sure that I ask when I am confident they will benefit from the relationship as well!

Now go out - learn how to strategically network!

Yes You Can - Develop Confidence!

2010-08-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

What is it that makes confidence such an attractive and powerful quality? Why do some people have it and some people don't? Can you really develop self-confidence if you lack it?

While confidence has always been a valuable quality to have, I think in these steadily changing times and this shifting economy it is more valuable then ever. Why? Because with so much uncertainty out there, the answers for how to move forward right now, the answers for how to succeed have to come from you. There are plenty of ideas, thoughts and opinions on what to do, how to do it and who to do it with, but there are no guarantees. You have to choose a path that is right for you, create a plan and stick to it if you want to navigate a successful road to the future.

In addition, if you want people to follow you, hire you, or buy from you, you have to project a positive image that resonates optimism and gives others the courage they need to take action. Your ability to motivate yourself, your ability to motivate others, and your ability to keep moving forward in uncertain times is all a direct result of your level of self-confidence. So, if confidence is so important, how do you get it if you don't have it?

First, you have to define for yourself what confidence is. No right or wrong answers here, just your definition of confidence. If you look confidence up in the dictionary it states that confidence is the belief in your own abilities. Pretty good definition, but for me confidence is so much more than that. Confidence is the emotion that I feel that gives me the internal courage to take the actions I need to be successful in any and all situations. It is a combination of strength and humility, that encourages me to take risks, yet be open to take advice, learn and build my own skills through the talents of others. My self-confidence ensures I speak up and out when I have ideas and opinions, readily admit when I am wrong, and be open about my struggles and failures with others so they can derive strength from my challenges.

Once you have defined what confidence is to you, you're ready to take the next steps:
1. Define your vision, your purpose, your values - what is it that you want and why do you want it? If you want to feel confident about what you are doing and why you are doing it, then you need to clearly and articulately define what those are.
2. Take personal responsibility - you are where you are because you chose to be there. No matter the reason- your parents made you; it was the only job you could find; your boss is a jerk or does not listen or promote you; you're shy and don't like people; it doesn't matter the reason own it. Own the fact that the only person you can control is you, and if your life is not working for you, you and you alone have the power to change it. There may be risk involved, it may be uncomfortable, but at the end of the day it is your choice whether you remain where you are or go for something different. Blame is wasted energy that could be powerfully refocused on you.
3. Do the core work - look at every area of your life - financial, personal, professional, health, spiritual, and decide where you are out of alignment with your vision, your purpose and most importantly your values. Do your actions match your words? Confidence is about integrity, and if you would struggle with any aspect of your life being transparent then you will struggle with confidence. The areas of your life do not have to be perfect, and your problems do not have to be solved. Instead you just need to be honest with yourself, and take the steps to celebrate your strengths and commit to work on your weaknesses.
4. Make a plan - You know where you want to go, you understand where you are, and you've taken responsibility for your actions. So, now you just need to make a plan on what, where and how you are going to focus to go from your current state to your desired state. What few strategies and behaviors are you going to prioritize in your life that will move you forward? How will you hold yourself accountable?
5. Embrace fear and failure. Avoiding things because we are afraid of them, or because we don't want to fail will diminish your ability to gain confidence. People who are confident gain strength from trying something they feared and eventually accomplishing it. Failing at something and continuing to try until they were successful. You must shift your paradigm and realize that fear and failure are gifts that help you succeed.
6. Be mindful. This is almost a bonus step, as I think it is the most powerful. Be aware and question why you make the choices you do, the negative thoughts in your head, the times that you choose to take a risk versus when you don't, how you feel after tackling and accomplishing something new. Mindfulness helps us understand and embrace our emotions, so we can realistically address the issues we need to, and understand how to help ourselves remain more positive and more action-oriented.

Confidence is definitely something that can be, and I believe (to be authentic) must be learned. Follow my steps or create your own, and then commit yourself to helping others develop theirs. That is my last step, once you have gained the skill your skill will be maximized by sharing your wisdom with others.

Success In Any Economy? Network, Add Value, Learn!

2010-08-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

What are successful people doing right now? Ever wonder why some people, no matter what (shifts in the economy, lack of customer demand, or increased competition) seem to "luck" into success.

Well here's the good news, it's not luck! It's focus and priority. More good news - setting priorities and choosing focus is something we all can do. I study and do research for a living. My job, as a coach, strategist and business development expert is to recognize, identify and track positive trends in the area of business development - networking, sales and service, and share it all with my clients.

What do I see working right now? The individuals and organizations that I see succeeding right now are those that are focused on networking, adding value, and learning. They've got their heads down and while they admit these are less than perfect times, they see the path to success lies in their ability to expand their relationships, truly add value to those relationships and invest their time and efforts in personal development.

Networking
Individuals and organizations focused on expanding their existing relationships and adding valuable new ones are finding amazing opportunities to grow their organizations. In my opinion, this is the most important area anyone needs to focus on right now. I am such a believer that if you build your network you will change your life! Relationships are critical to success and survival no matter the market. If you want your business to grow you need to retain the clients you have, as well as add new ones to your portfolio. In addition, you need to surround yourself with positive and successful people, with great ideas and an inner passion to be successful no matter the economic conditions. Are you expanding your network? Start with a relationship review of your top clients. Set a time to sit down and really listen to what they're going through and what they need. Next, review your prospect list. Do you have a focused list of clients you want to move to your company in the next year? If so, are these the right prospects and what are you actively doing to win their business? Lastly, where and with whom are you spending your time? What networking events do you attend? Ask yourself whether you are maximizing your limited networking time. Make sure you are using it to meet and build relationships with people that renew your energy rather than deplete it, people from whom you can learn and grow, and people that look for opportunity in challenging economic times.

Add Value
If you are not growing your business or your relationships right now there is a good chance you are not adding value. The organizations and individuals that are growing right now are putting the needs, concerns and challenges of their clients, and their prospects ahead of their own. They are looking for long term sustainable growth rather than short term (possibly limited) gain. This is definitely a different mindset. Growth right now requires building trust with prospects and clients. With all that has happened in our economy trust does not come easily right now you must earn it. You truly have to listen, solve the right problem (theirs) and sell solely based on needs the client understands they have. How can you be sure you are adding value?

Change your daily question from "how can we grow our business?" to "how can we help our clients?"
Learn from rejection. Every time you get turned down, you have just been told that this person does not perceive enough value in what you have to offer to do what you are asking them to do. No does not mean no forever, it means no until you can help me understand why doing what you want me to do it more valuable then the one-hundred other things I have on my list.
Approach every sales call, networking opportunity, or service call armed with a set of open ended questions that not only keep you from talking about yourself and your needs, but give you the opportunity to learn about the needs of the person you are engaging.

Learn
Confidence is so important right now on so many levels. Your prospects and customers want to do business with people they can believe in, and people they believe can be successful. Confidence gives you the inner strength to deal with the challenges (and find opportunity) we are all facing right now. While there are several practices and procedures you can do to build your confidence, investing in your personal growth and development is one of the most critical. Our economy is not down, it is different. Doing things the way we have always done them is not the answer or the path to success. It is going to take new ideas and new skills to be successful now. Making time daily to invest in your personal growth and development is going to expand your mind, inspire innovation, and open you up to find those new opportunities. So how do you commit to personal development, and how do you find the time? Here are three easy things you can try, commit to even just one and I think you will be shocked by the high rate of return you receive on your investment.

Commit 30 minutes every morning to reading a blog, a magazine article or a chapter in a book. Choose business topics you are interested in, want to know more about, and that you will find value in learning. Consistency is key here.
Change your exercise music to a download on leadership, marketing or customer service. Again, only 30 minutes will do the trick, then you can go back to the upbeat tunes that you need to make it through the last part of that workout.
Use car time as learn time! We all know it is not good to be on our cell phones, so use this time as your opportunity to invest in your personal development.

Success can happen right now, and we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Learn from people who are finding opportunity in these challenging times. History, tells us that the first people to adapt and grow in changing times, are the first to find success and happiness!

Talent Development - the New Competitive Advantage

2010-08-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

If you want to grow your business, and if you want to remain competitive you need to ask yourself: Why would my target market (customers) buy from me? and Why would the best employees choose to work for me? You not only need to ask yourself these questions, you need to know and be confident in the answers.

As a business development expert, I typically work with clients helping them define, gain clarity and implement a strategy around the first question. However, lately as the challenge of engaging top talent has become greater, we have been spending more time working on the latter. If you can't answer the second question (why would the best employees work for me) then spending your efforts on customer development is going to be less then effective.The quality of the customer experience is dependent upon the quality of the employee servicing them. Now more than ever, with the changes in our economy, the customer experience is critical to your long term success.

Experts in the field of Human Resources and Corporate Recruitment say that talent (recruitment, development and retention) is going to be one of the top challenges facing all levels of business going forward. In fact, efforts spent on ensuring your company has top quality employees, will ensure you have the expertise to manage other challenges your company may face. As the economy continues to shift, competition increases and technology continues to advance, the quality of your people has easily become your most significant asset.

Most significant asset, yet for the most part the most under managed in companies and small businesses right now. However, for those of us looking for the answer, the magic bullet of where to spend our time and energy and get the biggest bang for our buck, talent development may just be the answer. The number of problems it solves, opportunities it creates, and revenue it can produce is astounding.

So where do you start? Understand this is a long term process, and just getting started puts you ahead of most of your competition.
Work to answer then develop a strategy around these questions:

Why would the best and brightest come and work for (or remain working for) me and our company?
Who do I have and need on board and in place to run a successful company?
What talents, skills and competencies do I have and do I need?
How, specifically, am I going to recruit, develop and retain top talent? What is my plan?

Asking yourself, your senior leadership team and your employees those questions can be some of the most valuable time you spend all year. Creating and implementing the plan will be the most significant investment you make in your company and your future all year long!

Powerful messages at the National Speakers Association Annual Conference

2010-07-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

I just returned from the Annual Conference of the National Speakers Association (NSA). This is by far the most powerful meeting/learning opportunity I take part in each year. That is saying a lot as I am dedicated to learning. I study and write everyday, attend at least two webinars a week, and I travel to meetings and conferences two or three times each year.

While I value every learning opportunity I have, I find the NSA National Conference one of the most valuable. Why? This conference is all about innovation, creativity, hard work, action and implementation. We hear speakers from all over the world take the stage and motivate us with new ideas, stories of personal responsibility and overcoming extreme obstacles. I always leave armed with a list of strategies to implement in my business, techniques to share with my clients, and unparallelled motivation to overcome any challenge I may face.

I take detailed notes in every session, and I come away with notebooks full of information and ideas. This year, three sessions in particular truly impacted me. The first was by Joachim De Posada , where he spoke about the lessons in his best selling book "Don't Eat The Marshmallow" This is the story to the secrets to success: hard work, dedication, delayed gratification and passion. This book is based on a study done with a group of four year olds, their ability to delay eating a marshmallow in the hopes that they would get two, and the interesting journey of success (or lack of) in their lives. This is such a powerful, yet simple message. Read more at www.donteatthemarshmallowyet.com

W. Mitchell, the story and the man to say the least made an impact. I was lucky enough to attend a "Meet The Pros Session" with this award winning speaker. W. Mitchell's focus is change, and helping people breakout of prisons and old mindsets. Beyond even his story and his speeches, just his presence and attitude are unbelievably motivating. He is tough, no excuses and a personal responsibility type of man. I encourage you to watch his video, read his website, and use his story to motivate you to reach new heights. http://www.wmitchell.com

The third was Karen Cortell Reisman, she is Albert Einstein's cousin. Her story focused around the personal letters Albert Einstein wrote to her mother. Included in this, she shared the story of her family, one of resiliency, hope and acceptance of change during the Holocaust and World War II. Her message featured her equation for making change work: Change = Acceptance + Attitude + Action. The stories, the letters and the messages from both sides of her family had quite a solid deliverable that each of us could truly use in our professional and personal lives right now. This is the story of what it takes to make it through turbulent times and how to access it within yourself. Learn more: http://karencortellreisman.com

The conference was powerful, ideas plentiful, and the impact it will have on my business is nothing short of extremely positive! During changing times give yourself the gift of time to be motivated, inspired, and pushed to take action. The return on investment will be more than worth the effort!

Tips, Ideas, Solutions To Move Contact To Client!

2010-07-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

In this economy there is no magic bullet. I think we all understand we have to do things the old fashioned way. Moving contact to customer, means you have to build the relationship, identify the true need, and follow-up until your customer is ready to buy.

While many of us have accepted there is no instant gratification, I still have folks tell me they are struggling to even get that first appointment. They'd be happy to "stay in for all the innings," if they could just get to first base!

Relax, if you are stuck trying to get over that first hurdle, a quick review of your sales system and strategy may reveal the block. Author CJ Hayden wrote a terrific book called "Get Clients Now" in which she shares her reasons why getting that first appointment may be tougher than it has to be. Read on to hear her reasons, and my tips, ideas and solutions for removing the block and start moving your prospects to customers!

1. Your phone skills are not up to speed - you are nervous or unprepared when you get on the phone, and aren't able to engage people in the conversation. Calling is easy and natural when you have and feel good about the reason you are calling. I am sure many training departments would argue with me about this, but in my opinion scripts that someone else writes for you are a waste of time. You know buying is emotional, well so is selling. If you want to get appointments, you have to be and sound authentic. If the words and reasons you choose to call are yours you will convey authenticity and confidence and people will respond positively. Luckily, there are a million reasons you can call prospects and customers, and you can easily find one you can feel good about it (we don't have time to cover in this blog, but promise I will cover this soon.) Sit down with your friends, best clients, or co-workers and brainstorm ideas, you'll be surprised at what you come up with!

2. You are not using the right words - consumers don't understand how you can help them. Many of you have heard me talk about that all important communication line (or elevator speech.) How you choose to introduce yourself is a critical step in getting your first appointment. Telling people you are a CPA is nice, but sharing with people that you are a CPA specializing in helping individuals understand how to use their financial information to run their business more effectively, is better. Or telling people you manage a retail store, well okay. How about sharing with them you manage an innovative retail store, that focuses on helping professionals create high fashion wardrobes on a budget. When you communicate value in your introduction, people understand immediately who you are, what you do, and how meeting with you would be a benefit.

3. The prospects you are talking to are not qualified - they don't have a need, can't pay or are not at a point where what you offer is their top priority. Have you clearly identified your target market? Did you do your research before your started making calls? What are your criteria - how do you determine who to follow-up with after networking events? What do you know about your prospect personally and professionally? If you don't have good answers to these questions, you are taking a shotgun approach to getting that first appointment, your prospects know it and they won't let you through the door. In this economy, time is as valuable as money, you get one shot, so be prepared.

4. You aren't well-known enough - have not been recommended - Prospects have a lot of choices, they can buy what you are offering any where, any time. If you want to open doors, your prospects need to have seen, heard, or met you before they'll open their door and give you their time. Believe me, lack of image and recommendations will hinder your ability to get that first appointment. I have written and spoken about this subject many times; in this economy you have to position, market, and sell. Prospects have to have heard of you (image), they have to consistently see or read information about what you do (market), and you have to directly ask for the business(sell). This is one of the biggest changes I have seen in the sales cycle in the last three years - it takes a takes all three if you want to turn prospects into customers. Can't get the first appointment? You need to build your reputation and create your image, luckily in this day and age that is easy to do (more in a future blog on this too!) Trust and value are the new ROI, when people have heard of, seen or read about you, they are more likely to trust you.

5. Your competition seems to have the market locked up - your prospects are being well-served by others. In my opinion, no market is ever locked up, and no competitor is ever doing such a great job that you can't get at least a piece of the business. Gaining market share in a market where your competition has a strong hold requires you to have patience and listen. Patience - there is nothing wrong with telling prospects you are happy they are well taken care of and letting them know if anything changes you are there. Listen - if you can ask great questions and really listen you'll find the opportunities and challenges your competitor missed. Want to unlock a locked up market? Be patient and listen.

Next, don't assume your prospect understands your value. Do you now how you are different, the value you add, and the benefit clients derive from working with you versus your competitors? Face it, there are so many people out there who do what you do for a living. The only thing separating them from you is how you do it,and the value you deliver to the customer. If you want to take business from your competitors, then you need to help your prospects understand the value you add!

6. You are offering what you think your prospects need instead of what they think they need - you are solving the wrong problem. Listen! Do you know and understand your prospect? When we are selling we tend to lead with what we want to sell instead of listening to hear what people want to buy. People will not be open to talking to you, unless you talk about solving their problem. So how do you do that on a phone call, or when you're setting up the first appointment?First, you've learned a lot from your research, so you have some idea of the challenges or opportunities your prospect may be facing. Second, your communication line speaks to value and benefit. Third, first appointments should simply be to ask for the opportunity to come and learn about them, and their business, nothing more. How often I have heard people ask for appointments by saying, "I would just like a few minutes of your time, so I can share with you who we are, what we do, and how I feel we could help you." Sorry, time is money and this person just told me in a few words that this call will be all about them.

7. Your packaging doesn't make sense or work for your prospect - you may be charging by the hour and they want to pay a flat fee, or your prospects wants to start with one or two of your services and you are offering only a full package. Sell less to sell more! Again, trust and value are the new ROI, sell your services the way your client wants them. If you can get your foot in the door with even some small service, or part of your service, you have just earned the opportunity to do more business. Some business leads to more business. People love custom, all business owners think they are unique, so let people know you customize your products and services, your open to adjusting your services to fit their time frame and their needs.

8. You are offering so many products or services your customer is confused trying to figure how what exactly you do or how you can help. You are good at what you do, and you understand the value and difference your products and services can make in your prospects life. You know that, but they don't. They don't even know if or why they may need what you are offering. So before you start trying to tell them all the amazing things you offer, and the miracles you can perform, simply listen. Let them tell you how to sell you their product. If you ask good questions, they'll tell you exactly which products and services to offer first, and how to offer them. If you're willing to listen, prospects will tell you exactly how they want to be sold.

Follow these tips and ideas and doors will start to open. I think we over complicate sales. New methods, techniques, skills all take a very simple process and make it scary and difficult. Selling is truly about helping other people, by asking great questions, listening, offering great solutions, and being patient.

They Key To Closing Sales - Listen!

2010-06-26T02:41:00.000-07:00

Especially in this economy, so many of my clients and people I meet at speaking engagements are asking "how do I close more sales?" They share the struggles they are having getting customers to commit, and I agree it is more challenging in this day and age then it has probably been in the last ten years.

It is more challenging now, because consumers are more cautious, they have more options and they want value for the money they are spending and time they are investing. It is more challenging now, because we are truly selling. For the last ten years or so it has truly been a sellers market. Meaning, that cash and credit were plenty, people wanted to buy, and no one seem to be too worried about the need to save or over abundance. With the crash of the housing market, failure of the banks, and rise in unemployment all that has changed.

Does that mean you can't close sales right now, or that you can't grow a business? Absolutely not! In fact, if you truly understand relationships and know how to sell (build relationships, listen to consumers, and add value and build trust) it is one of the best times!

However, you are right, it is more challenging then ever to close the deal and get consumers to commit. As you have heard me say before, there is no magic bullet, no perfect saying that gets consumers to all of a sudden say YES. The close comes simply by doing your job on the front end. Preparing for the call, asking great questions, really listening to the consumer, and following up. If the consumer will not close the deal, then most likely there is a break down in your system (that is why we track and measure, so we can learn where the deal is getting stuck or why it will not close.)

There is a great book called "Get Clients Now" in which author CJ Hayden lays out some reasons you may struggle to get the consumer to close.
1. You are not using the right words - consumers don't understand how you can help them.
2. Your phone skills are not up to speed - you are nervous or unprepared when you get on the phone, and aren't able to engage people in the conversation.
3. The prospects you are talking to are not qualified - they don't have a need, can't pay or are not at a point where what you offer is their top priority.
4. You aren't well-known enough - have not been recommended - prospects have a lot of choices, your lack of image and recommendations will hinder your ability to close the deal
5. Your competition seems to have the market locked up - your prospects are being well-served by others
6. You are offering what you think your prospects need instead of what they think they need - you are solving the wrong problem
7. Your packaging doesn't make sense or work for your prospect - you may be charging by the hour and they want to pay a flat fee, or your prospects wants to start with one or two of your services and you are offering only a full package.
8. You are offering so many products or services your customer is confused trying to figure how what exactly you do or how you can help.

I think an inability to close sales always comes down to one thing, your ability to listen. If you want to close sales, you need to figure out why (listen) your prospect isn't buying, and then adjust your approach based on that reason.

Your Brand Is Screaming!

2010-06-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

Are you struggling to grow your business or close deals? Are you noticing that some people seem to have all the business they want despite this economy? Are you wondering why this windfall is not happening for you?

If you are, then ask yourself one question - do I deliver? Do I meet, then exceed my customer's expectations and do I add value beyond the product or service I sell?

This economy is not down, it is different, and with that shift comes higher expectations and demands from your customers and your prospects. People who are doing well right now, are people who are delivering and exceeding customer expectations. They understand their brand is screaming. Everything they do and say matters, every interaction and point of contact with the customer is a chance to win or lose the next piece of business. They understand the strong connection between customer service, sales and business growth. Successful business owners understand that their customers have a choice and a voice. One wrong move and customers will make the choice to pull their business, and they will share their experience through their voice on social media and traditional networking.

So does that mean you can never make a mistake with a client? No, that would be impossible, but it does mean you can't make one until you have developed trust and added value. The underlying reason for successful business development in this economy is trust and value. That is how customers are determining their return on investment. Trust is built through consistent, positive interaction and value is determined by the "extra" received beyond your traditional product or service. To be successful, you need to build this into your sales model.

In this economy you are no longer judged by what you did wrong, but by what additional you chose not to do. Your first set of interactions and meetings with your clients are so important, this is where they are determining the return on investment of working with you. Can I trust this person, do they add value, and will they deliver? I had an experience just last week, where a client of mine fired a new web developer not because they did anything wrong, but because they simply did not understand or deliver on the client's expectations.

My client paid $10,000 in full for a new website and paid in advance. It took three weeks (after payment) for the web developer to follow back up with my client to get started. The first meeting was scheduled, and my client was informed that if the owner of the company did not attend this meeting, the client had to agree to pay for additional hours of production, in case the owner had changes etc. Fine, but the client was not informed of this when they paid what they thought was $10,000 for a new website. Strike one.

Second, the client was asked to fill out a standard online information form to get started, and told if they had questions to simply call or fill ask the Q&A form available on the form. Great, only it took three work days to get an answer back. Strike two.

Due to the unanswered questions, my client missed their deadline to have the form returned so the site could be started. No phone call, no check in and no "can we help you call" from the web developer. The client's feeling? You have my money and you don't really care if and when I get started. Strike 3

The result? The client asked for their money back, at which point the web developer started to add value and build trust, even offering discounts. Too late, discounts are not really what customers want right now, they want service. Service before there is a problem not after. The trust was broken, my client got their money back and went with a new developer.

Did the first web developer do anything wrong? No, not technically, but they lost the business because they did not deliver.

So how do you know if you are delivering?
1. Ask your customers? How is their experience, what else could you be doing to make this a better experience?
2. Make sure you listen to the customer and are solving the right problem. Clarify with your client.
3. Communicate and be proactive. Follow-up and communication are NOT the responsibility of your customer they are yours.
4. Check your customer touch points and make sure they are positive, consistent, and are customer focused.
5. Find opportunity to add value beyond your product or service. Make an introduction to someone they want or need to meet, suggest a great networking opportunity for them, or give them a book or DVD that would help them with a particular challenge they are having.

Remember your customers have a choice and a voice. Succeeding in this economy is about going the extra mile early on, so customers choose you and then use their voice to spread the word!

Does Your Team Send The Right Message

2010-05-25T04:16:00.000-07:00

I just bought a new computer! The whole set up - laptop, separate keyboard and big screen. My office is set, and I am anxious to get started. All I need now is my computer company to come and do the transfer of data from my current laptop to the new one.

Like many of you, I learned along time ago to hire someone to assist me with technology. It is not my area of expertise, and the expense is well worth the benefits of less stress, aggravation and saving time. For the past five years, I have used a local company to handle my technology needs. Started with them when they were small, and mostly dealt with the owners. They are fantastic! I mean fantastic. The service, knowledge and the completely understand ( that just like them) I am trying to run a small business.

Because of those values, there company has grown. In order to service all their new customers, they have had to add staff and locations. While I still maintain a solid relationship with the owners, in the past two years I have tried more and more to work directly with their staff, as I know they are busy with the overwhelming responsibility of running a business.

Monday I called to set up an appointment to have my data transferred, and the gentleman on the phone was very nice, and asked my name and how he could help. When I explained the situation to him - my new computer, the other questions I had, and that I would like them to come to my place of business so I could ask questions about set up, usage of the new system etc. He promptly informed me that they preferred to do data transfer in their office, and that they would need my computer for two to three days and possibly more. I explained that they had done in-office work for me before, and that I could not possibly be without my computer for that long. He again, explained, very nicely, that they really needed to do it "his" way, as they would need to thoroughly check out my computer before loading everything. In addition, when my computer was brought to their office, he could not guarantee how soon they would be able to start on it.

I thanked him and explained that I understood, but I needed to find someone who could do this in my office and faster than three days. He said not a problem he understood, and promptly let me hang up the phone and go to one of his competitors. I immediately called my tech friends for recommendations, and they referred me to another company that could handle exactly what I needed.

Out of respect, I called the owner of my former company to explain that I was very sorry, and that his service had always been incredible, but in this instance because of my "unique" request I would be using someone else. He immediately told me that was not the case, that he would be happy to accommodate me, and could easily take care of what I needed both on-site and in the time frame I needed.

Unfortunately, I had already put the other company through the hoops of assigning a tech and scheduling an appointment, so I felt I needed to go with them. Yes, you could argue that I should have called the owner before going with another company. I have done that before, but it always feels like I am going over the staffs head, getting a special favor and bothering very busy people for what is a small service request.

The point is customer service should never be the responsibility of the customer. Could I have gotten what I wanted - the answer is yes. However, if you assume that the customer will do what they need to do, move through the levels of your business to get the service they require, then you are assuming yourself right out of a sale.

When is the last time you set down with your staff and reviewed your vision, mission and core values? Talked about customer service situations and when to make exceptions? Does your staff look at a customer's buying history before saying yes or no to a unique request? Does your staff understand the rules you set in the office are a guide not non-negotiable? Does your team have a record of, get rewarded for, or feel empowered to go our of their way to listen to what the client wants and make it happen?

If you answered no to any of those questions than it is time to revisit your customer service strategy. Inconsistency of message, inability to attempt to solve unique requests, and allowing a long-time customers to go to a competitor without first trying to solve their problems is costing your company money, and it's reputation!

If you want to turn your prospects into customers and your customers into champions that spend time reinvigorating your customer service strategy.

Great Questions Make The Difference

2010-04-21T01:48:00.000-07:00

I promised myself I would take a hiatus from this blog until I finished my book, but since I turned the book in yesterday for second round editing I thought I might reward myself by blogging!

Lately, I have had so many people ask me how to be more effective with their sales efforts. Well, what they are actually asking is "help me - I am frustrated." I understand, it is tough out there right now. Sales cycles are longer than ever, the market is competitive, and this is a game of stamina if you want to be successful. Sales is far more art than it is science these days and combining a systematic process with more effective sales calls is a sure fire way to gain more clients.

I think the importance of great questions is one of the most overlooked opportunities in the sales process. The better your questions, the better information you gain, the better you connect with the client and the more you differentiate yourself from the competition. This is one part of the sales cycle where, if you invest your time on the front end, the result will be powerful.

So how do you determine the best questions to ask? Here are a few simple tips to follow:
1. Stop thinking about yourself, your goals and your needs. Focus on your client. This may sound counter intuitive, but I firmly believe you cannot truly ask, learn or listen if you are worried about getting the next meeting or closing the sale. Ironically, when you let go of your goals you open yourself up to truly connect with the prospect, and you can learn what you need to know to truly help identify the prospects or services that can really help your prospect.

2. Learn about your prospect before you make the call. A little time spent on the internet or talking with individuals who know your prospect or use their services will deepen your interest and uncover great questions you want answers to.

2. Once you do your research, ask yourself what you want to know. Now I know, you are thinking, "Meridith you just told me not to focus on myself, I do not get it?" I know it is confusing, during the call and during your time with the client I definitely want you focused 100% on them. Before the call, as you prep it is vital you establish your goals and objectives. Doing so will help you design a great path of questions to identify and learn the best way (the prospect-centric way) to get there. Ask yourself , what are you trying to learn from this sales call? Then write down questions (based on the research you have done) that can help you ultimately gain the information you need.

3. Keep a log of great questions that people ask you. I love this tip and have done it for years. I refer to this log every single time I prep for a sales call. One of my favorities happened when an account manager asked me what my one hestiation was in buying their product? I thought a minute and answered time. This lead to series of great questions by the account manager that really made me think, deepened our discussion and quite frankly helped me clear my mind around the importance of investing in this product. I not only bought the product, but I valued it so much more, and felt great about the sales person and the experience.

Questions are wonderful tools. I suggest truly investing time and effort in developing and mastering this skill. It will not only increase your sales effectiveness, but it will make calls so much more interesting and fun! Not to mention lead to other opportunities.

Go Ahead Take A Risk!

2010-03-09T02:04:00.000-08:00

This is going to be my last blog post for just a little while. I have to take my own advice and priortize! I am editing my first book and launching my new website, both are such huge undertakings that I need to put my head down and focus if I am going to get it done!

As I was thinking about what I wanted to write about for this entry, the word risk kept coming to my mind. It seems to have been a theme as of late, as so many terrific success stories have been shared with me. Just a few weeks ago, my friend Adair Cates told a group of us how she actually got the great Jack Canfield to endorse her book. Another friend of mine just landed a dream job without even having to interview, and one of my mastermind partners from the National Speakers Association just landed her first contract with a Fortune 500 Company. I like to think about these stories, because they motivate and they inspire me, and in doing so I started to wonder do they have anything in common? Are there any similarities? The answer is yes - the one thing all of these experiences have in common is in order to happen they required a little risk.

You can have great ideas, read all the fantastic resources and have the best education, however at the end of the day it all comes down to a willingness to put yourself out there. You have to get a little out of your comfort zone, get a little out of your box, and do something a little different if you want new and better results.

So what holds us back, what keeps us from taking a risk? That is an interesting question and one that is easily answered, I think, by watching children. See children - small children - have not fully grasped the understanding of self-imposed limitations and expectations. They do not fully grasp the concept of "I can't." Truly, watch small children playing, or a child just learning to walk, they are so determined, so open, so willing to try that anything is really possible. The whole idea of being embarrassed, feeling stupid or being laughed at has not registered with them yet, so therefore their success rate remains pretty high. Learning to walk, talk, dress yourself, eat - none of those can be accomplished without a willingness to put yourself out there and try new things.

Watch and learn! If we can incorporate just a little of that attitude into our everyday lives, imagine the difference it would make. Our openness to trying new ideas would be unleashed, our persistence would increase, and "luck" would be created all because we were willing to take a risk.

I mean really what is the worst that could happen? You could feel a little silly or a little embarrassed? No big deal really. What is the best that could happen? You could make a life changing connection, you could land the job of your dreams, or you could uncover an opportunity that enhances your life both professionally and personally.

So next time you see opportunity, but you hesitate because it requires you to get out of your comfort zone or to put yourself out there. Push through and go for it. The best things in life happen when we take a little risk!

Yes - Everyone Can Sell!

2010-02-15T01:47:00.001-08:00

Why do we think that "sales" is easier for some people, then for others? Why do we think that sales is natural for some people, and unnatural for others? The truth is, everyone is good at some part of the sales process, and everyone has to work to be good at the total sales process. We all have to work to be good at the diverse set of skills it takes to actually close a sale.

I want to share a secret with you, the secret to sales. Sales is so simple, so simple anyone can do it. Yes it is simple, but it is not easy. So, what is the secret to sales? Bottom line - the secret to sales is hard work. There is no magic bullet. To be good at sales you have to work hard. You have to make a plan, get out there and meet people, stay in touch and follow-up, and you have to deliver quality. Yes, it takes all of that to be good at sales. It takes hard work, consistent behavior and dedication. That is the difference between success and failure.

Now more than ever, we need to understand that with a fast paced and ever changing economy it is going to take work. I worry for some people, this wake up call is coming too slowly. They continue to believe they can avoid doing what makes them uncomfortable, and somehow it will work itself out. Unfortunately, that is wrong. We have had the luxury in the last ten years or so to live in an abundant (albeit somewhat false) economy. You could pretty much do average work and make a decent profit. Everyone was buying, people were not as selective about where and how they spent their money, and people were not afraid to spend money.

Today, that is not the case. Buying has slowed considerably, people are thinking long and hard before they buy, and budgets are much tighter. This means that every single one of us is going to need to get outside of our comfort zone, and add new skills to our list of talents if we want to close sales and continue to be successful.

Take me - I love to meet people. I am outgoing, energetic and very interested in the story of others. Going to an event, or a party and walking right up and introducing myself to other people does not make me nervous in the least. Spending an evening asking other people questions, finding out who they are and what they do - I love it! So, you see that makes me very good - somewhat natural - at the connection part of sales. Yes, I am lucky!

However,I do have a downside, I naturally hate the planning, the detail that leads to quality, and especially dislike the follow-up. None of those skills come naturally to me. My whole life, I rebelled against making a plan. Why would anyone want to do that? Takes the fun out of everything. And quality? I have never understood why people get so bent out of shape about a few typos or missing pieces. Follow-through and stay in touch? In my opinion, just plain boring. I like new things; I like change; I like different. What is wrong with that?

Everything if I want to close a sales. Think about this. Yes I am a natural when it comes to meeting others, but what good is that if I have no focus, no direction, no plan on who I need to meet, why I need to meet them, and how I can add value to their business? Yes, I love to meet people, but what value does that have if I do not follow-up and follow-through on what I promised or that relationship? What are the chances that someone will want to buy from me right then, right there on the spot without any extra effort on my part? Lastly, yes I am a natural at meeting people, but what good is that if I deliver a product or service that is missing information, is riddled with typos, or is not easily implementable?

It took me a few years to figure that my natural outgoing personality was only going to get me so far. That if I wanted to build a business and truly serve my clients, I better start learning how to plan, how to follow-up and how to dedicate myself to the paying attention to detail. People who know me now would find that information surprising (okay maybe not the attention to detail part - that is a continuous work in process) as I am known as a planner who preaches follow-through and follow-up. Here is the surprising part, getting started is the only hard part. The rest is simple, and the payoff for that commitment is huge!

See sales is a complex process, and everyone has a natural gift for some part of it. However, if you do not work hard, if you decide to delegate the parts you are not good at before you first master them, you will never be good at sales. Why does being good at sales matter? Because, there are plenty of people out there with fantastic ideas, incredible products and amazing talents that never make it, because they never learned to sell.

If you want to turn your prospects into customers, you must first commit to push yourself out of your comfort zone and master the art of sales. That includes all the parts of the sales process. Remember, you are not alone, because when it comes to sales everyone has something to learn!

Relax, Enjoy and Have Fun!

2010-02-13T02:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is true, if you want to turn your prospects into customers you need to relax, enjoy and have fun. I actually found it funny, that when I tried to do research on this topic - fun and sales - there was very little if any written about it. Wow! I mean no wonder people don't want to sell, no one is out there telling you how much fun it is. Believe me it is and should be fun!

We have covered so many ideas, strategies, and rules on how to sell and sell effectively, but one that you must remember and one that you must keep at the top of your list is to relax, enjoy it, and have fun with the process. Turning your prospects into customers, depends so much on your sustainability. It depends on your desire to do this job long term, and on one wants to do anything long term they don't enjoy doing.

The best sales people I know are happy.You can tell they love their jobs, and they love the opportunity to come out and talk with you about how they can help. One that comes to mind is Rusty Owen, a business development officer with JPS. When you see Rusty walking your way, he has a confident swagger and big ole grin on his face. You can't help but smile back. He will be the first to tell you (whether you ask or not) that he loves what he does, and he is so happy in his role. His energy and enthusiasm are so apparent it is just contagious. You feel yourself getting happy too. Rusty, invokes an energy that makes you want to be around him. With that type of impact on people, what do you think the likelihood that his prospects will turn into customers?

Certainly you have to (especially in this economy) have and implement a strategic process to make that happen, but your energy, your enthusiasm for what you do plays such a large role in making that happen. The good news is, just like implementing a sales strategy, you have total control over your ability to relax, enjoy and have fun!

So here are your tips for learning to relax, enjoy and have fun with sales!
Relax - remember, Rome was not built in a day! You do not have to master all the parts of the sales strategy right away, you do not have to have the perfect prospect list and you do not have to have all the answers. Just get started and focus on what you are good at, and commit to learn what you don't know. No one ever masters sales, no one ever has a perfect year, and no one is ever free of making mistakes. Sales is constantly evolving and changing. Understand that on the front end, and you can focus on the positive, and embrace the negatives as growth opportunities. In other words, you can relax, you are on the road to improvement!

Enjoy - smile! Yes, even if this does not come naturally to you put a smile on your face. We enjoy things more when we smile. Plus, our likelihood that our prospects will smile goes up too. You think I am kidding, spend today watching people who smile. You will find yourself smiling back much of the time. Tell yourself first thing every morning that you love what you do, and remind yourself why you do. Reward yourself for the positive things that happen no matter how small. Set a goal (I love goals) to reward yourself with positive praise three to four times a day. This will focus your mind to prioritize the positive and keep you enjoying the process.

Have Fun! - find a reason to laugh during the day. Humor is a great sales tool, and it just makes life so much easier. Seek out people who make you laugh, look for the humor in stressful situations, and help others learn to have fun in the work place. Especially in these changing economic times, people need reasons to have fun, and when you set your sites on bringing humor into the work place you help everyone enjoy the process.

I am on a mission, I want people to learn to love sales! I want them to understand sales can be (and should be) fun, rewarding and something you are passionate about doing. I started out hating to sell, and what I realized was I had just been taught habits and behaviors that took the fun out of the process. If you find yourself hating sales, then find a strategy or a coach that can help you learn to love it. Sales is crucial to your success in life, and if you want to turn your prospects into customers then you need to relax, enjoy and have fun!

Just Do It!

2010-02-13T01:51:00.000-08:00

The one thing a sales coach cannot do for you, no matter how good they are, is actually make your sales calls for you. Sure they can go with you if you like, support you on the call, but the actual growth of your sales portfolio is up to you and you alone. The most important part of sales, the "actual doing it" part, is something you need to execute.

While it is important to go through all the other steps, all the other rules, none of those matter if you never walk out the door and actually make the call. Making the call is important because you begin to build a relationship with your client, you learn how to sell from actually doing it, and oh yes making calls builds the bottom line and produces revenue.

So why do so many people fail to execute? I will have to admit this question frustrates me. Why do people put so much time, effort and money into learning how to sell and then not do it? What is going on here? I recently ended a contract with a client in the field of medical sales. He hired me because in the last two years his business has slowed down considerably. He had physicians retiring, new competitors joining the market, and his company had changed his territory. His challenge was moving from a strict referral based business, to actually needing to hit the streets and develop new relationships, expand existing relationships and establish new referral sources.

We worked to develop a solid plan, and spent a lot of time working on his fears. (Which, I love to help people with, as I remember being very afraid to go and sell. I am always happy to share my story and my steps for turning my fear into positive passion) It had been years, since he had to go and make real sales calls. I was empathetic to that, and we built a lot of support into his coaching program. We also worked on skill to boost his confidence. We developed his prospect list, developed strategies so all of his calls were warm vs. cold, developed his conversations, his follow-up plans and pretty much covered all the basis. He was ready to go! Unfortunately, he just never did. Each time we met, each time we got together to discuss his progress, there was always some excuse as to why he couldn't get out there and actually make the call. Things like - He had to train a new employee, then he got buried in community activities, his wife had surgery, his boss needed information and reports for a critical meeting. Always some reason he could not get out the door and actually sell.

After the first month, I asked him if he wanted to sell, if growing and developing his sales base was something he truly wanted to do?He assured me it was, but his words never matched his actions. desire. He failed to execute, and as a coach you learn early on that desire is a personal choice, and while you can provide environments that are inspiring, supportive, safe and motivating, you cannot make anyone do anything - that is up to the individual.

So why do we fail to execute? I think part of it is what I like to call the "Gym membership concept" Thinking that if you pay enough money for something it will, just by osmosis, produce the desired result. Simply by cutting the check or swiping the credit card, with no real effort on our part, we will reap the benefits of what we paid for. Well, unfortunately, there is no free lunch. If you want to gain the rewards of selling (or going to the gym) , then you have to execute.

Failing to execute usually falls into one of the following categories:
Fear - you are simply just scared to execute. This one, when you break it down actually makes a lot of sense. Most of us are afraid to do something we have never done before and are not quite sure how to do. So, first accept your fear and understand it is normal. However, the only way to get past fear is to do the task, gain experience and get comfortable with the process. Also, stop thinking and start doing. That is why children jump in with such enthusiasm. They waste no time convincing themselves they can't or thinking about what might happen, they just do it!

Data Distraction - you research, gather information and study to the point of exhaustion. Selling does not have to be perfect it just needs to get done. Don't get lost in over studying or over planning. Sure you need to be prepared before you go on calls, but you do not need to be able to pass the an exam. Gather your information and go make the call!

Inept Accountability - if no one - including yourself - is holding you accountable then there is a good chance you are not going to execute. Studies show that people with coaches are eighty percent more likely to produce results than those without. While your boss or your coach is a great person to hold you accountable, if you truly want to be effective, if you truly want to develop your confidence then personal accountability needs to be at the top of your list.

Personal Investment - execution both produces and is the result of confidence. You need to learn your skill, invest in your education and continue to learn from your results. Increase your investment in yourself and you will increase your ability to execute.

The need to execute, actually go on the sales call, is not going to go away no matter how much you avoid it or how many excuses you come up with. At the end of the day, if you want to turn your prospects into customers you have to Just Do It!

Invest In Yourself!

2010-02-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

When is the last time your name appeared at the top of your to do list? When is the last time you blocked off an hour even fifteen minutes just to work on personal growth and development? My guess is it has been a while. If you want to turn your prospects into customers, the first investment you need to make as a sales person is in yourself.

Your prospects are relying on you to be confident, to be the expert, to have ideas and to provide solutions. That is a tough bill to fill in any economy, but in an economy that is rapidly changing and increasingly competitive, you have got to be at the top of your game if you are going to deliver.

Personal development is always important, but in this day and age it is more critical that it has ever been. We are in tough economic times, and economic times that are changing rapidly. New technology is leading to new ways for people to communicate and do business. Growing competition is increasing the need to be better skilled at building relationships, conveying value and delivering service. And product and service innovation is changing the customer's expectation of value. How can you keep up if you are not consistently devoting time to improving your skills, motivating yourself, and gaining new perspective.

Now I realize, we are all pressed for time. Certainly, I am not advocating you spend days per month reading books, watching videos or attending seminars. What I am advocating is you dedicate time every single day to doing something to improve your skills and talents as a sales person. Yes, I said every single day! Scheduling small amounts of time everyday to personal growth and development is not only manageable, it is powerful in its impact and result. The magic is in the short time frame and the consistency.

I am an early riser, I love to get up in the morning, make a pot of coffee and enjoy the peace, quiet and alone time of the morning. It is also the time I invest in myself. If you walked in my house long before dawn you would find me, jammies and slippers, big cup of coffee, hair pinned on top of my head, with either my head in a book or watching a video online. Learning something pertaining to business development, business trends, strategic planning or any other topic I feel I need to research in order to be at the top of my game. The first 30-minutes of every morning, I devote to learning. I read books a chapter at a time, I read articles no more than two or three per session, and I can usually watch three or four videos and still have time to take notes and develop plans on how to implement what I have learned.

This practice I feel puts me in pretty good company, among them is David Nour, one of my favorite experts to follow. I read his blog, belong to his social network and soak up everything I can in terms of his knowledge and expertise. One of the first things I heard him say in a lecture he was giving, was that he devotes an hour every day to learning. An hour every day! This is a man who is already recognized as someone who is at the top of his game. He is known as an expert in the field of social networking and relationship technology. He works with Fortune 500 companies around the world helping them design and implement their social networks. With all that he has accomplished, he still respects the importance of investing time in yourself on a consistent basis. I suspect, he knows it is what keeps him valuable to his clients and ahead of his competition.

Your prospects are paying you for your knowledge, whether you realize it or not. The more value you can add in addition to that of your product or service, the more likely you are to not only close the deal, but keep the relationship for the long term. Prospects need you to be experts not only of your product or service, but of the market, your competition, the latest trends. Now more than ever, prospects need confident sales people who can help them on so many levels.

This takes dedication and commitment to personal growth and development. If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then invest in yourself. It will be the highest ROI you will ever make!

Position, Market, Sell To Turn Your Prospects Into Clients

2010-02-12T01:13:00.000-08:00

I had dinner a week ago with one of my "friendly" competitors. We get together every few months, just to talk about things we are working on and discuss what is new in our industry. While some people find that odd, I have always felt there is far more benefit to making friends with your competition then keeping them at a distance. After all, who better to learn from then someone who is out there doing the exact same thing that you are.

Never the less, I found it interesting that for the first time we found a topic about which we seriously disagree. We were discussing my book, 42 Rules To Turn Your Prospects Into Customers, and talking about some of the rules. He was adamant that all you need to do to turn your prospects into customers is sell. If that doesn't work sell more! I disagree. I believe that the ability to turn your prospects into customers largely depends on your ability to apply a strategy that includes a strong mix of positioning, marketing and sales.

While sales is important, your prospects (in my opinion) are far more likely to turn into customers the better you position and market yourself. What does that mean and how do you do it?

First, let me state my disclaimer! You are here by reminded, you are about to read about position and marketing from the guru of networking, sales and service NOT the guru of position and marketing. In other words, I am giving you my opinion about why I feel position and marketing are vital to the sales process not telling you specifically how to position and market yourself. You would be better off to talk to the marketing guru about that. Okay, back to the story!

You will stand a much better chance of turning your prospects into customers, if your prospects have heard of you, have a positive image of you, and have some understanding of the value your product/service offers, before you arrive at their door to make the sale. That positive image, that value is created through positioning and marketing.

Positioning ( according to Wikipedia) is about creating an image or value in the minds of your target market. Making sure, long before you ever show up at their door, they already understand why what you sell has value and some thought as to how they could benefit. Again, professional marketers can take you through the formal process of how exactly to position what you sell. However, a great simple place to start is to ask yourself a few questions:
What value can prospects or customers get from my product?
What benefit does my product or service add to their business or their lives?
Why should they care about the value and benefit?
What is unique or different about your product or service from your competitors?

Let me give you an example, In my business the value my customers receive is their ability to convert their prospects to customers greatly increases. The benefit is, they learn specifically and in detail what to do to make that happen. They care because their revenues increase and they are now confident in their ability to execute the skills necessary to generate revenue for the company. Lastly, I am unique and different, because I teach people to sell according to their personality style, so the process is both comfortable and effective for them. In addition, I make it very easy to learn and really fun to do. I take people from a fear of selling to making them passionate about selling.

So once you establish your position, you need to market it. It is great that you understand what your market position is, but what good is that if no one ever hears about it? Again, for professional marketers this is a broad term, and I need to again explain that marketing is a complex and deep term and for specifics on how to market it is best to talk with a professional. However, to keep it simple, what I mean by marketing is getting the word out. Once you have established your position in the market place, how are you going to get your message out there so potential customers learn about you, the value you add and the benefit you can bring to their company? There is no right answer here, you just have to do it. You can write articles, advertise, use social media, lead seminars, etc. There are a variety of ways you can market yourself, but the point is to make the sales process easier prospects need to have heard of you, understand what you sell, the value it has, long before you ever show up at their door.

Can you see that if you take the time to position yourself and market yourself, that making the sales call, establishing a relationship with the prospect and closing the deal become so much easier. Doing these three simultaneously will do more to open doors for you and close deals, in my opinion, then just straight selling. However, you have to do all three, you cannot expect positioning and marketing to lead to closed deals without working your sales process. Conversely, you cannot expect to have a high closing ratio of deals, without positioning and marketing yourself.

Positioning, Marketing and Sales are a powerful combination. The mix, the style and the delivery are unique to you. It doesn't matter how you do it, just that you do it. If you want to turn more prospects into customers than position, market and sell!

Know When to Walk Away

2010-02-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

The hard truth about sales is very few prospects are going to tell you no directly. It is human nature, most of us do not like confrontation and we don't like telling people no. We want people to like us, and telling people no conflicts with that desire.

Unfortunately, for sales people this translates into wasted time, effort and money spent on prospects who never plan to buy. If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then you have to know when to walk away. In other words, you need to learn to manage your sales efforts so you focus on those prospects with the highest probability of buying from you. Not everyone is going to buy from you.

I work with a large firm in South Carolina, coaching and training their sales team. When I started two years ago, we had several sales professionals who were struggling to close deals. John, one of my favorite's there, had one client he had been working on for over a year. We sat down to talk about why he felt the prospect wasn't buying and what his options were. When we took the time to analyze the situation, what we found was John had been selling to a customer that had little if no probability of ever buying his product. Why? First, his prospect had been using a competitor's product for years and had had consistent positive results. Second, his sales representative had been calling on him for more than 20 years and they not only did business together, they played golf together on a monthly basis. Third, the prospect had been recognized and rewarded by the competitor company, being featured in testimonial ads and given special discounts. When John and I stepped back to look at this, take in all the information together, it was pretty obvious this prospect should not be on the top of John's prospect list. Sure this prospect had huge potential in terms of financial gain. He bought a lot of product and spent a lot of money. However, John could have called on, developed relationships with, and moved four or five smaller prospects in the amount of time he spent calling on this one. In other words, by knowing when to walk away from one prospect, he could have called on four or five others.

While that example is pretty obvious, it amazes me that many sales people never step back and really analyze why a prospect is not buying. Instead they keep trying to convince the prospect to move their business, and they wind up frustrated, unmotivated and burned out.

So how do you know when to walk away? How do you strike the balance between persistence and knowing when to walk away? You need to establish your sales criteria, basically your guidelines of where, when and how you determine the likelihood this prospect will buy.

While these guidelines need to be developed by you for you. Here are some ideas and some criteria I use.

1. Does the prospect understand they have a need?
2. How is that need currently being met (or not met) and how solid is that relationship?
3. Am I calling on the person who has the power to make a decision or what is the probability I can call on this person?
4. Do I feel my prospect is engaged?
5. How hard is it to get follow-up appointments for second, third or fourth calls. Does the person seem interested in meeting with me?
6. Does my prospect do what they need to do to move the sales process forward (i.e. provide me with information, give me access to people I need to talk with, review information I provide them with, etc.)
7. How often does this prospect change providers? (Too often and I know they are price sensitive, vs. never, I want to investigate how loyal they are to the current provider)
7. Are there any obstacles in my way, that are beyond my control? Example, brother-in-law is currently providing the service, decisions are made at the corporate level which is based in another country, current service provider is doing a good job and taking care of the prospect.

Understand, knowing when to walk away does not mean you will never do business with this prospect, or that you should not continue to stay in contact with them. It just means, for the little amount of time and energy you have, you need to move on to work with other prospects that have a higher probability of buying your product and closing the deal.

If you want to turn your prospects into customers then learn when to walk away!

Wanna Turbo Charge Your Sales Results - Learn To Focus!

2010-02-11T02:11:00.000-08:00

The power of focus amazes me. I find the results it produces so incredible, that I have to wonder why there was not a class on how to focus in school? Why is learning how to focus not a requirement to graduate? Why did I spend all this time learning "the new math" or taking Film as an elective? Makes no sense to me, as focus is a skill I will use for the rest of my life, and I honestly cannot remember one thing I studied in film class.

Learning to focus is one of the most useful skills there is for turning your prospects into customers, and for achieving anything else you want to in life. Believe me, I suffer from "everything sounds like a great idea to me" syndrome. Google "easily distracted" and my name will appear. I want to try, participate in, travel to, and enjoy everything. I am the person infomercials are targeting. I say all this, because when I tell you first that focus is powerful, and two that anyone can do it, I come with the credibility to back it up. It took me a long time to embrace the concept of focus, then to train my wide open personality to learn to do it. Am I glad I took the time? You bet, the ability to focus is one of the most powerful tools you have in your ability to turn your prospects into customers.

Let me share a story with you. When I first started in banking ( a long time ago, back in the day when a loan actually had to cash flow before you were allowed to make it) our company was just initiating their business banking department. In my role as a business banking manager, it was my job to get this program going to to assure we achieved our goals. This was challenging to say the least as we were starting from scratch. My boss, Jeff Ward, called me into his office and brought up this strange concept of focus. Sounded like a rule to me, so I was naturally resistant, I hate rules!

He persisted (must have read my last blog) and we set a goal to book $350,000 a month in business loans. We devised a plan (which I am going to share with you in a moment) and within two months we were blowing that goal out of the water. So, we moved the goal to $1,000,000. I will never forget Jeff and I saying to each other, boy if we could do a million dollars a month that would be incredible, and I was a little doubtful we could do it. Well, to cut to the chase, by year's end we were booking three to four million a month in business loans consistently. The power of focus is incredible! It is also easy.

So how do you do it? How do you learn to focus?
First, begin with the understanding of how your company makes money. That may sound a little unconventional, but for goals to have meaning and purpose you need to understand why they are your goals. One thing I advise all of my clients, is to first make sure they have a good grasp of how they make (and how they lose) money. If they have employees I advise them to teach their employees how to do it. If you are an an employee, then go to your boss and ask how the company makes money. It will open your eyes, shift your paradigm and give you the knowledge you need to focus on the right things.

Two, set a goal. If you want to focus you need to know what you are focusing on. I think it is good to have a financial and a visual goal. A number you want to achieve and a visual of how that will look. In the example above, we set a goal of not only booking a million a month in business loans, but we knew that type of business growth would bring us the President's Award. (Which it did.) The visual and the financial goal made a powerful combination in our ability to focus and stay motivated.

Three, design the consistent behaviors you need to do to achieve that goal. In other words, how are you going to focus?What things or actions are you going to take day-in and day-out to make your goals? Example - how many networking events are you going to attend? how many sales calls are you going to make? how many sales follow-up calls etc. Establishing the actions you want to take is simply your way of creating your plan to focus.

Four, hold yourself accountable. There is that word again, one of my favorites. Track and measure your daily actions, then hold weekly meetings to see how you are doing. This is key in your ability to learn what is going well, and what is not going well. What actions are producing results, and what actions are hindering results? A fifteen, thirty or sixty minute weekly meeting is one of the best investments of time you can make. Better yet, if you are part of a team, having these meetings as a group can bring incredible insight, peer-to-peer coaching, and improved teamwork.

Five, commit to improve. Your weekly meetings will tell you what is working and what is not. You need to commit to do whatever it takes to keep doing what is working and improving what is not. Ask yourself? Do you need to improve your skills? make more calls? choose better prospects? be better prepared for calls? follow-up more? Whatever it is, if you want to reap the benefits of focus, then you need to commit to improve.

Laugh, enjoy it, have fun with it and laugh. Focus is fun! That may sound a little crazy, but it is true. When you see those results start going up, when you watch a group of people start helping each other to succeed you cannot help but smile, laugh and simply enjoy the process.
Focus is about improvement and results. When you use these steps, people enjoy the process of focus and accountability. When you and your team enjoy this process then a fat bottom line is inevitable!

If you want to turn your prospects into customers then learn to focus. Even if you are doing well, learn to focus and your results will get even better. Knowing what you want, how you are going to get there, and committing to consistent accountability and improvement will yield amazing results!

Get Back On The Horse - Handling Rejection.

2010-02-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

Why are we so afraid of the word no? In all the training and work I do with sales people, it amazes me the lengths we will go to, the work and stress we will cause ourselves just so we do not hear the word no. What is so bad about the word no? Why are we so afraid of that word?

Now I agree, no one likes to be rejected, and no one likes to hear "I am not interested or just plain no." However, when you really stop and think about it, the prospect is only telling you that, for now, you did not convince them that your product or service has enough value for them to part with their money or their time. Wow! When you put it that way, no is actually pretty good information for you to have. It means, you should just go back to the planning stage of your calling efforts and think about how you could add more value. In fact, that is such great information that we should all say thank you so much when we hear the word no! (Okay, I may be going a little overboard here, but you get the point. No does not mean never - no means, no thank you right now.

If you want to turn your prospects into clients you must learn to be persistent. Persistent without being annoying but persistent. You need to accept rejection, learn from it, and have enough stamina to get back on the horse and try again. Ask yourself, are you willing to keep trying , go the distance in order to get what you want? Persistence actually means, lasting or enduring tenaciously and constantly repeated and continued. If you want to be good at sales you have to be persistent.

I think our biggest fear right after hearing no, is if we are persistent we fear others will find us annoying. So how do you be persistent without being annoying? How do we keep going after someone has told us no, and do it in a way that makes us feel comfortable. Here is my five step plan for being persistent without being annoying.

Thank the customer - whenever I lose a sale to a competitor or a prospect says no. I make sure I thank the prospect. For their time, their consideration, and for the information I learned about their company and their needs. While I am quite sincere about this, it also leaves the customer with a positive feeling about me. Remember, buying is emotional, and if you want to leave the door open for future sales, you need to leave your prospect with a positive feeling about you.
Make sure you heard the customer - It is amazing how much we don't listen. We think we are listening, but truly all we are doing is waiting for an opportunity to give our opinion or our reasons for why they should buy our service. So, when the customer says no, sit down and take a few moments to try to understand why? Often the answer will be,because you were not solving the right problem, filling their need, or understanding what is going on in their life that is preventing this sale.
Know your customer - Do your research, again. Go back to the research phase of the sales call and learn more. The amount of information you know about your prospect is vital in understanding where, when and how to sell to them. Understand their personality styles, their interest, their reasons for being in business, the types of clients they work with, and what they are looking for in a vendor. If you heard the word no, chances are you don't know enough about your prospect and therefore you don't deserve the business - yet!
Send an 11th Hour Letter - If you lose business to a competitor always send an 11th hour hour letter. Why? Because once people reject you, they may feel awkward or embarrassed to call on you if things do not work out. Again, no just means no for now. You want to make sure you do everything to keep that door open, so when they are looking for new opportunity, or their sales person is not delivering, you are the first person they think to call.
Don't be desperate - Keep the top part of your funnel full. Sales takes time, and especially in this new economy. By having plenty of prospects to call on, and plenty of opportunities to pursue, you keep yourself from being desperate. Meaning you remain in the value add part of the sales process and not in the need to close part of the sales process. If you focus on listening, adding value, and being approachable prospects will become your customers in their own time. You need to have enough prospects in your pipeline that if one takes a little longer, you have the time to let the prospect move at their own pace.

Learning to embrace rejection, being persistent, and building your stamina are key in your ability to turn your prospects into customers. Remember, if you fall off that horse, think about what you learned, put these steps into place and get right back on for the ride of your life!

Be An Expert! Turn Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-02-08T03:51:00.000-08:00

Prospects need a reason to choose you. They need valid points, benefits and value in order for them to choose to do business with you. Why not? For them, moving services or changing a product they use is a hasstle. It is an interruption to their daily routine and their habits, so their has to be a purpose to make the move.

You can sell the features and benefits of your products and services all day long, but in the end the decision will be made based on who you are and what you, personally, bring to the table. We talked in earlier blogs about the importance of being a resource, someone that your prospects and customers can rely on for good information and quality advice. Now, we need to take that up a notch, you not only need to be a resource you need to be an expert. You need to know more about your industry, your product or service, and your market then anyone else. You need to be confident in your ability to both use and teach the benefits of your product and service. You also need to be recognized as an expert in your field. Building your reputation will significantly increase your ability to turn your prospects into customers.

No I do not mean you need to be written about in magazines, featured on television and publish books. I just mean first you have to believe you are an expert, and second you have establish that reputation among your peers, competitors and your customers.

So how do you become an expert. There was a great article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago entitled "The Making of an Expert," which talked about the fact that experts are almost never born they are developed. How great is that? What it means is with dedication, hard work and focus anyone who has the desire can become an expert.

The article went on to say that real expertise must pass three tests:

Performance that is consistently superior than that of their peers - this is simple enough, if you want to be an expert you have to outperform others in your company and your field.
Produces concrete results - to be an expert you need to be able to produce. What would be the point of listening or taking advice from someone who does not meet goals, build the bottom line, or produce revenue.
Can be replicated and measured- without the ability to measure it you cannot share it or improve it

So what does this mean for us in our quest to be viewed as experts in terms of the products and services we sell. How do we become experts in our industry?

First you need to study and master your craft - there is no magic bullet here, you have to do the work. You need to dedicate yourself to consistently learning about your product or services, and learning about your industry. You need to read books, listen to CDs, attend conferences, watch DVDs. You need to know what information is coming out that is valid, what works and what does not, and the latest trends. If you want your prospects and your peers to view you as an expert then you need to be able to offer credible ideas, resources and information. In other words, you need to know what you are talking about.
Second you need to practice. Yep you heard me, there is no way around this one. If you want to be good at something you have to practice it. Sales calls, sales planning, networking events and opportunities. You need to prepare and you need to practice. Spend time role playing, working in front of the mirror and even "performing" for the family pet. If you want to be an expert at something you need to devote yourself to the age old art of practice.
Third you need to measure and improve. Track and measure then review. We have discussed this before, the importance of tracking and measuring your performance. However, in your quest to become an expert this becomes even more important. Why? Experts need to constantly improve. If you want to become and remain an expert, you need to understand your results and be consistently looking for ways to improve them. Measurement helps you remain at your peak performance level.
Fourth you need to promote. What good is being an expert if no one knows you are an expert? You need to make an effort to establish your reputation as an expert. No, you do not need to be obnoxious or bold about it, but you need to subtly take action. How? One of the easiest is to help people (on a small scale) free of charge. When you are out networking or on a sales call, find out what issues people are dealing with in regards to your product or service and give them advice, a tip, make a connection for them. In other words do anything that is helpful free of charge. Second, offer free seminars, write articles or produce online workshops - again free of charge. This will position you as the go to person in your field of expertise. Third, use social networking to share great articles and ideas about your subject. People will come to see you as a leader. Lastly, over deliver when working with clients. Give them more than they asked for and give them something to talk about.

Becoming an expert takes time, dedication and focus. In the end however, it is worth it. You feel proud, confident and secure in your abilities to take care of your clients. All of this moves you one step closer to turning your prospects into customers!

Work Your Sales Funnel

2010-02-07T05:16:00.000-08:00

If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then you have got to manage your own sales process. Whether or not you have a sales manager, a boss or anyone else that may hold you accountable, the more personal responsibility you take for achieving your sales goals the more successful you will be.

We talked in the last article about accountability (one of my favorite words), and in this article I want to discuss one of my favorite accountability tools - the sales funnel. What is a sales funnel? Well it is exactly what it sounds like, a funnel that illustrates the sales process. I have found that most people are visual learners, and providing a tool that helps them see the sales process is key in helping them understand how it works. Having a tool like this drives home the importance of systematically performing all the parts of the sales process if you want maximum results.

It is also a great learning device. On a weekly basis I go back through my sales funnel to see what went" into" the funnel and what "came out." Meaning how well and closely did I follow the funnel's steps and what level of result did I achieve. A simple review like this helps me realize in minutes what steps are going well, where a breakdown may have occurred, what things I did that I definitely want to repeat, and where I can make simple improvements to produce better results. I love the sales funnel. It is quick, easy and highly effective!

Let's take a look at my process for using The Effective Sales Funnel (shown above). I call this the effective sales funnel, because this is my version of a sales funnel, and you'll find it slightly different from versions you receive in typical sales course or sales books.

Defined Target Marketing and Established Goals - I always start by asking myself, how closely did I focus on my target market and how accountable was I to working my established behavior goals. What was the result?
Target Networking - which events did I attend? Was my target market there? Did I work to meet and connect with my target market? What was the result?
Prospect List - who did I add to my prospect list from my networking events? What was my justification for adding them to my list? What was the result?
Structured sales calls - how many sales calls did I go on? Did I follow the structure? What was the result?
Qualified Sales Follow-up calls - how many follow-up calls did I make? What was the quality of those calls? Did I set and meet objectives? What was the result
Goal - How am I doing in terms of meeting my behavior and growth goals? If going well, what is working? If not, where (in the funnel) is the problem?

Using your sales funnel as part of your weekly accountability is one of the easiest and quickest ways to establish what is working in your sales process, and what may possibly be slowing it down. As we discussed in our last article, if you want to make sales fun, less stressful then you need to use accountability to learn, make adjustments and move the sales process forward. Design your own Sales Funnel, use it on a weekly basis and enjoy watching your ability to turn your prospects into customers improve.

Existing Clients Make The Best Prospects

2010-02-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

Let me share a secret - the easiest prospects to sell to already buy from you. The best prospects are your existing clients, and the only reason they are not buying more is because you are not selling. If you want to make selling "easy" (I am all about making things easy) then sell deeper, wider and more to your existing clients. I know it sounds crazy, but most sales people sell one product or service to a prospect then move on to the next. Leaving the total needs of the prospect unmet, and the door wide open for their competitors to come in and steal the relationship.

Take a moment, and sit down right now, pull out a pen and make list of all the products and services you offer. Then make a list of your top thirty customers. Then match the products or services they need to the number they buy from you. I will bet, for most of us, the number of needs they have far outweighs the number of products and services they buy from you. Ouch! Wait - there is good news! It is not too late - you have just created a great prospect list. One that is going to be easy to sell. Again, I love easy!

First, these "prospects" already know your company and consider themselves your customer. Two, they already know you and would welcome a call from you. Three, they have purchased from you in the past, and most likely trust and value what you tell them - closing the next deal should be a piece of cake!

Why create a prospect list full of your existing customers?
There are a number of reasons, but here are the best:

One, your bottom line. My personal favorite! It is expensive to attract new customers and there is no guarantee you will land their business. The cost of attracting new customers can be as high as seven to nine times as expensive as to sell to an existing client. In addition, by selling more to existing clients you are assured that they will remain your customers. The more products and services they buy, the deeper the relationship, the deeper the relationship the less likelihood they will move their business. This is the difference between production and growth. Production is nice, but it does not sustain the company!
Two, your personal fear or distaste for cold calling. For most sales people, the most stressful part of the call is the beginning. Getting in the door and establishing the relationship. Making that first sale. With existing clients that part is over. You already did all the hard work, why not sit back and reap the rewards. Why not make selling easier by calling on your existing clients? Let your competitors cold call, let them get stressed out and burned out, you call on your existing customers.
Three, your reputation. As a sales person your customers place their trust in you. If you continue to share information with them and offer them products and services that benefit their business that trust and value will grow. You will move from just their sales person to their advocate and trusted advisor. Plus, there is nothing more embarrassing for a sales person, then to have a customer tell you that one of your competitors offered them a product (that you offer yourself) that would benefit their business, and they wonder why you never mentioned it.
Four, because they will start to call you. The better you take care of your existing customers, the better your reputation. The better your reputation, the more your customers will call you. They will actually be trained to do that. You will have taught them that when they have a need it is you they need to work with to fill it. Why shouldn't they, you seem to have all the answers. Then, this gets even easier, they start telling their friends, their neighbors, perfect strangers to call you. Next thing you know you show up at the office everyday, and you are covered in business all without making a single sales call. Life is good!

The top half of your prospect list should be filled with your existing customers. There is "gold" in those relationships, and it is your decision whether you want to hit the jackpot or whether you want to leave it all on the table for your competitor! If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then start by calling on your existing customers.

Track, Measure, Learn to Turn Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-02-05T12:04:00.000-08:00

I love accountability! I think it is one of the most important terms in the sales process. In addition, I think it is one of those words that has gotten a bad wrap over the years. I would like to be among the first to say, if you want to turn your prospects into customers then you need to learn to love accountability.

For most sales people, the very term accountability brings up painful images. The stern sales manager who hounds you day-in and day-out. Asking you consistently, how many sales calls you made and how many products you sold. The ole tick mark management system. What did you close, who are you calling on, and how much money did you make? No wonder people hate the word.

The term accountability is really about practice, consistency and learning. If you want to be good at anything you have to practice it, commit to consistently do it, and learn from both your accomplishments and your mistakes. You can only do that if you set up a method of accountability. Accountability is the story of "you."

If you want to turn your prospects into customers than you must track your behaviors, measure your progress, and learn from your results. There is true gold in that information. Process and consistency are critical to great sales results, but if you do not take the time to review the information and learn from what you are doing then how can you ever hope to improve.

One of my favorite stories about accountability actually comes from a friend of mine, Myra Holbert. She is a conference sales manager in Texas. She has a staff of about 25 sales people working directly for her. A few years ago she shared this story with me. She had her newest sales members calling existing clients trying to drum up new business. Being a great sales manager, she had each of them track their calls and their results. Each Friday, they had a quick sales meeting just to review calls made and services sold. At this time, she noticed her newest sales member was enthusiastically making plenty of calls but seeing very little in the way of results.

Myra asked to speak with her after the sales meeting. She brought her into the office, and asked her to talk about her sales experience. First, she made sure to compliment her on the level of sales calling she was doing, and then asked her what challenges she was facing around closing deals. After a little prodding, the new sales person revealed she was so frustrated and tired. She called and called and while customers were nice, they showed very little interest in doing any additional business. The sales person found sales depressing. Myra smiled, and told her not to worry. As a sales person she was doing the hardest part and that was making the calls. Myra guessed there was just a sentence or two that needed to be changed in her approach and the results would be different. Myra offered to make calls with her that afternoon, and give her the opportunity to listen to Myra talk with customers. To make a long story short, Myra and this new sales person spent the afternoon working together, adjusting her delivery and improving her sales style. The result, a significant increase in the number of closed leads and a highly motivated new sales person.

None of that could have happened if Myra did not hold her team accountable. I love accountability because it is how we learn. If you track what you are doing and you are not getting the desired result then it may not be from a lack of effort. It may be from your technique, your skill or perhaps choosing the wrong prospects. When you hold yourself accountable, schedule time to review your progress, you can learn what you do well, work to improve what you don't and move far more prospects into customers!

Confidence Equals Sales Success.

2010-02-04T01:13:00.000-08:00

Confidence is the key to sales - bottom line! Yes, everything else we discuss in these articles is important but confidence is the foundation. Ask yourself these questions - do I believe in myself? do I believe I can do it? do I believe in the product I sell? If the answer to any of those is no, then you will forever struggle to turn your prospects into customers. Yes, it is that simple and that fundamental.

Now, here is the good news. If your answer is no, no problem, you can easily turn that around and take steps to build your confidence. No one starts out and no one is always confident. Confidence is something you grow and develop. Confidence stems from learning and investing in yourself, taking time to prepare for meetings and sales calls, and taking small risks to try new ways of doing things. Each step you take, each time you invest in yourself, your confidence builds. While it is a slow process, once built it stays with you and transfers into all aspects of your life. It is powerful!

Confidence and personal belief are at the core of sales, so if you want to be good at sales you need this rock solid foundation. Need to build your confidence? Try these simple steps and watch your confidence grow:

Get a clear vision of what you want - Take the time to sit down and figure out what it is you want to accomplish and then write it down. Then read it out loud first thing every morning. Yes you heard me out loud! Confident people are clear about what they want, and they can easily articulate it. There is not a right or wrong vision, just your vision. So write it down, get your mind set to visualize it every single day.
Study and learn - Devote time each day to reading, studying and learning. Consistency is key here. Limit your time to thirty minutes or an hour at most (I find introverts will study too long, extroverts will lose interest if there is not a time limit) but be consistent. Information and knowledge are key to your ability to grow and develop. You gain new perspectives, gather new ideas and get motivated by new and energizing solutions.
Learn to fail -Shift your thought process when it comes to rejection or lost opportunity. If you are not failing you are not risking enough. Grab failure as both a growth and learning opportunity. Instead of focusing on the failure, focus on what you could have done differently or what you learned. The thing about failure is no one cares but you, no one expects you to never fail but you. Focusing on the negative emotion of the failure is a waste of your precious energy. Energy that can better be used to move you forward.
Think positive - This is big and easier for some then others. However, everyone has the ability to "catch" negative thoughts and turn them into positive thoughts. Start your day with saying ten positive things about yourself. Again, write them down, post them and say them out loud every morning. People truly underestimate the power of positive thinking and their ability to shape their own thoughts. Thought provokes action which provokes results. Grab hold of your thoughts and you will build your confidence.
Reward Yourself - Be nice to yourself. For every little thing you do right pay yourself a compliment. That's right, I said be very nice to yourself. You are making change, you are growing, positive reinforcement is critical. If you made ten sales calls this week, treat yourself to some small pleasure you enjoy. If you made one but were supposed to make five, compliment yourself on the one and decide on a reward for next week when you meet your goal.
Avoid negative people- My favorite quote, my mantra is "you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." Unfortunately, for most of us our belief system is shaped for us by those with whom we spend the most time. We do not even realize that the negative messages we take in all day long are shaping our thoughts, our actions, our results. Change your negative crowd, your negative television shows, your negative reading materials and you will change your belief system.

If you believe in yourself, believe in your ability, believe in your product you will not only be able to sell, you will be passionate about doing it. Confidence is the key, you build your confidence you'll enjoy watching as your prospects turn into customers!

What Honduras Taught Me About Thriving In Any Economy!

2010-02-02T03:50:00.000-08:00

I am passionate about networking, so much so that I believe if you build your network you will actually change your life. This past week more than proved that to me. My trip to Honduras with the Asheville Rotary club gave me an amazing opportunity to witness the level to which networking and relationships are vital to survival, to changing lives and to our overall success both professionally and personally. This trip opened my eyes to just how much people skilled in the art of investing in relationships and developing networks can make happen.

I am, by nature, an observer as I love to watch people. Watching people, for me, is one of the greatest opportunities to learn. I am, also by nature, obsessed with business. I watch business programs, read business magazines and study business books with the enthusiasm others watch Reality TV or read Tabloids. Strange I know, but I have been that way since I was a kid. Those two habits or natural tendencies served me well this past week in Honduras, as I observed the impact networking and relationships can have on people, community and business.

The very foundation of Rotary is relationships and networking. Within your community, your District and around the world. A major function of Rotary is for business leaders to connect, develop relationships and work together on service projects both locally and internationally. I started thinking about that on this trip, and thought where would a project like Honduras be if the relationship and networking piece had not been developed first? If these Rotarians (both our group and the Hondurans) had skipped the relationship building piece? Could a project like this have happened without the network connections and the leveraging of those relationships? The answer is no. As I observed what was being accomplished, the talent and skill level of the people on this trip, and the generosity of the Honduran people, I thought all of that is important but the work and the result comes only because the foundation is built first. The foundation is relationships and networking.

As we worked in the Honduran villages, I thought about the people living and surviving in these (for me) horrible conditions. How do they make it and why do they look so happy? The answer simply is relationships and networking. They support one another to find work, feed their children, and care for the least fortunate. They seek help outside of their communities for the additional support and help they need. They "network" with other towns, communities and leaders for their limited medical care, needed food in tough times, and supplies and labor to build schools and roads. Less than perfect living conditions yes, but more proof that networking and relationships are at the very core of our ability to survive and thrive. If a few people in these communities did not take the lead to develop relationships and leverage networks, the people in those villages would never get what little they need to survive.

Think about this. A little over one week ago, a Rotary brigade (Honduran term for mission) went to Honduras because a few Asheville Rotarians had developed relationships with a few Honduran Rotarians. These Rotarians connected first, and that positive connection inspired both to leverage their networks with others to help the Honduran people. A little more than a week ago, approximately twenty-five "strangers" embarked on this trip to Honduras. They paid their own way, used their vacation time and volunteered their skills and talents simply because someone they new on this trip asked them to. Again, the power of relationships and networking. By the end of the week, hundreds of Hondurans had received badly needed medical and dental care; Honduran medical and dental students were given the rare opportunity to work with American doctors and dentists, receiving training, mentoring and support completely unavailable in their country; these twenty-five strangers had developed relationships and friendships that would enhance their lives both professionally and personally.

The skill of networking and relationships is powerful if you understand it and know how to use it. This trip made me think about what people are going through in our country, a tough economy, job layoffs and challenging times. And while there is no magic bullet, no simple answer, the solution, I believe, does lie in first building relationships and leveraging networks. Those individuals who develop this skill, invest in perfecting the art will be the ones who emerge far richer in this economy both financially and personally.

Asheville Rotarians in Honduras - Remote Villages of Honduras

2010-01-29T03:54:00.000-08:00

We have spent the last two days in remote villages of Honduras - driving one to two hours to arrive at each village. The mud is unbelievable, and I cannot imagine what it is like here in the rainy season. We have long days here, as we leave between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. each morning and arrive back around 5:30 or 6 p.m. The drives to the villages are just beautiful. The mountains are picturesque and the ride yesterday actually revealed scenery much like our Great Smokies!

We are quite the attraction here, as people come from the villages just to watch us in our caravans drive to our destinations. Each village offers pretty much the same accommodations. We work in school houses (which the villagers have built often carrying the supplies - cement, gravel etc. - in on their backs) which are open air, cement floor and wall structures. They are not clean or ready when we get there, so we spend the first thirty minutes moving furniture and getting prepared. We have become quite impressive at setting up clinic - it is amazing how fast we do it. It is amazing what it looks like when we are done.

As we work, the lines form. Mothers with their children, men taking time away from the fields and young children who walk in on their own to be seen. While the crowds are large, people sit so patiently and just wait their turn. Their patience is so incredible! We all laugh and say you would never see this type of patience in the United States. They wait all morning, and if by lunch time they have not been seen they wait patiently while we grab a quick bit to eat. We always have to turn people away, which is very, very hard.

The poverty here, as you can imagine, is quite severe. Billy, one of our incredible Missionary hosts, told us they go hungry at least two months out of the year. They earn money working in the fields picking mostly coffee. Even the small children work, and we have seen many who do not look to be six or seven returning from the fields after a long day of work. They earn at most $5 and the children earn a $1.

Our missionary hosts are fantastic. Mary is a "get 'er done" type of woman, and she is so wonderful with these people and does not understand the term obstacle. She just BLOWS right through any challenge. Billy, her husband, is hilarious. Speaks fluent Spanish with a heavy Arkansas accent, and is one joke right after the other. He tells a great "yarn" as well, and I quickly jump on his bus every morning. Although it is the roughest ride (we are packed in like sardines) he is so entertaining (and informative, I have learned a lot) that it is like a "driving show."

We are off today to our last village (cannot believe it is Friday), and then tonight Don Udo is having us to his house for a farewell party. It has been an incredible week, and I wish I had had more time to share stories and tell you more of our adventures. But - we have been so busy and Bob and Adrian have made sure the Asheville Rotarians have made the most of this adventure!

More tomorrow!
Meridith
PS - Don Udo is so proud of his Paul Harris, and the members of Rotary are so incredibly grateful for all that you do for them. The meeting was QUITE humbling for all of us that attended.

Rotarians In Honduras - Clinics begin today

2010-01-26T05:45:00.000-08:00

We're off!
Yesterday was eventful! The town of Copan was alive and celebrating. Their new mayor took office yesterday, and they are preparing for Wednesday's celebration of a new President. It is certainly a fascinating time to be here. Our medical/dental students are bright, well-informed and opinionated about all the political happenings here. Interesting similarities to our country - too much media bias and the power of the political machine. One big difference though - the Hondurans do not elect their officials for more than one term. It is not law, but it rarely if ever happens. The town was alive all day yesterday with parties in the square, food and celebration. Last night we barely slept due to the fireworks and loud parties all night long.

Our hotel, Don Udos, is just wonderful. It is clean, really comfortable and we are safe here - we think. Last night Don Udo went out to check to see what all the noise was about and he tripped over the hotel's sleeping security guard. People are a bit more laid back here!

Now, on to work! We set the clinics up yesterday and did a few dry runs. A lot of work, but I am impressed with the amount of equipment we have and what we have been able to do with extensions cords and generators. The dentists and oral surgeons will be working in one clinic, with the medical team just across the street. We have no idea how many people will be set to visit with us today, as "advertising" is strictly word of mouth (no pun intended.)

We are loaded with stuffed animals, coloring books, and crayons for the kids. And the day promises to bring great stories.

And great stories we have! We just returned from our first official day in clinic. Dr. Councell alone performed more than twenty exams, and the dental team was steady all all day long with people lined up out the door. The clinic opened at 8:30 a.m. and we wrapped up at about 4 p.m. having to turn people away. The children are amazing - they wait patiently for long periods of time just to be seen, then never make a peep as we numb, drill and fill teeth. Even in oral surgery, the three and four year olds make the best patients.

The day care was a big hit! The puzzles and the games. We were prepared for a mob scene but once again the kids played together, shared and were generally kind and appreciative of all that we brought them to play with.

We spent the last hour of the day organizing, splitting supplies and getting prepared to head out tomorrow to the rural parts of Honduras. We are going up into the mountains to the remote parts of this country, and we are taking portable dental units and medical supplies to do what we can. Half our team will continue to run the clinics here.

Tonight though, we celebrate! Don Udo is preparing a lobster dinner and right now I can hear the laughter and lively sounds from happy hour at the bar. A great day - we helped people and we are becoming fast friends!

Rotarians In Honduras! The Adventure Begins!

2010-01-25T06:32:00.000-08:00

Ola! (did I spell that right?)
The Adventure Begins! We have arrived in Honduras, and what an experience this is shaping up to be.

We had the typical travel delays - weather delayed the plane, one of our crew missed his connection and we lost a couple of bags. True to Rotarian character, our sense of drive, cooperative natures and ability to laugh at everything saw us through just fine. The bus ride from San Pedro to Copan ended up being four hours rather than three, due to the number of cows that seem to find true pleasure in standing in the middle of the road delaying traffic. They truly have no fear and I am convinced are the Honduran National Champs in the age old sport of "chicken."

We may have started this trip barely knowing one another but one long travel day has made us fast friends (truly a great group of people.)

Today is our get organized day. We easily have fifteen bags of dental and medical supplies, including two dental chairs and dental lamps. We also have toys and coloring books for the children to play with while they are waiting for their parents to receive care. Our goal today is set up our clinics, set up the day-care and assign everyone tasks and roles. Tomorrow we will hold just one medical and one dental clinic, but beginning Tuesday we will work in Copan, as well as send one team to a more remote village. This will give us the opportunity to both treat more people and treat those who truly are in need of care.They may never have seen a doctor or dentist before.

We are off on what promises to be a scavenger hunt to buy even more supplies. We have a huge list and it will be fun just to see what we can find (this town is cute, but it is small.) It is amazing to realize how much we take for granted. Betty Doll discovered that more than 90% of this country's electricity comes from generators, and Don Hudo told us that the water and electricity are fragile. We will lose power and run low on water at some point this week. Our main goal to day is to ensure the clinic is clean and ready for us, and that our sterilization process is in place. Again, something we take so for granted at home, and something we truly have to focus on here.

We have many expert photographers on this trip, and I have brought my FLIP video camera. Please look for photos and videos - edited though - as what happens in Honduras stays in Honduras!

Stay tuned for more Adventures from Honduras!

Be Easy To Do Business With!

2010-01-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

I love this idea, this concept, this rule! If you want to turn your prospects into customers than you must be easy to do business with. Have you ever asked yourself if you are easy to do business with? Whether you have or you haven't, the truth is you don't know until you ask your customers.

We work in our businesses day in and day out, we understand how the process works, what our acronyms stand for, and which department handles which service. The question is do your customers? You can invest in the best marketing, have the best trained sales force, but if you do not make it easy and enjoyable to do business with you, than you will consistently struggle to turn your prospects into customers.

Ever have this experience? You buy a new computer. You search online, visit the local computer stores, ask your computer tech and you finally make a purchase. This is the computer every sales person told you was easy to use and easy to set up. You are ready to get started and boom you hit a snag. You call the company, and while I am not sure I need to tell the rest of the story, for arguments sake I will. First you get put on hold, then you get cut off, then you get passed from department to department, and then finally when you are connected to someone who can help you, they either talk over your head, are condescending or do not speak your language. You get off the phone, you are frustrated, made and vow never to do business with this company again. You end up calling your local computer tech and paying some outrageous service fee to fix something you were promised could be handled through free support.

Now, in defense of the company, I do not believe this is the outcome they want. Especially in this day and age, who wants their customers mad, upset and god-forbid twitttering and facebooking negative things about them. No one. Then why are they so hard to do business with? Because they don't prioritize making the customer experience one the customers actually designs and one they actually enjoy.

So, how do you do that? How do you make sure you are easy to do business with? I have read, researched and come upon many complicated systems and processes to do this, but you know I think the best thing to do is just ask your customer. Do it informally, through formal survey, or assessments. I have several clients who ask me to once a year perform and customer assessment to determine what they could improve in their systems and process to enhance the customer experience. This is not only a fun process, but you gain great perspective and information.

Making sure you are easy to do business with, makes prospects happy about their decisions, customers loyal and advocates happy to keep sending business your way! If you want to turn your prospects into customers then make sure your customers believe you are easy to do business with.

Creative Ways to Stay Visible With Prospects

2010-01-21T01:32:00.000-08:00

Visibility and easy access are key if you want to turn your prospects into customers. You have to be top of mind, when your prospect is ready to buy. In today's economic environment, the experts say it can take as many as sixteen contacts or touches to move a prospect to a customer; a number that just a couple of years ago read more like seven or eight.

It is not the number that matters, it is the consistent approach you develop and practice to be visible, easy to access and in touch with your prospects. When I discuss this need for a consistent method with my sales clients, I get one of two reactions, either they want to be more aggressive and "help" their prospect make the decision a little faster, or they fear any consistent approach will make them annoying or a bother to the prospect.

If you want to force - oh I mean "help" your prospect to make the decision you stand a good chance of losing the sale. If you do land the sale, you've weakened your chances of future sales. Prospects need to enjoy the sales experience, and forcing them to make a decision just does not feel good. On the other hand, not stay in touch consistently pretty much ensures you just gave a sale to your competitor. You just simply set up the play, and gave your competitor the glory of the slam dunk. Yet, fear of being a bother or annoying to a prospect is completely understandable and exactly why you need to a well thought out plan!

While you strategy needs to be your own, let's discuss how to get started and some ideas on how to stay in front of and touch prospects without being annoying.
Start with a brain dump! Get one or two friends and just sit down and brainstorm ways you could keep yourself visible with clients.
Review the list and check off the ideas that add value or benefit for the prospect
Ask one or two of your really good customers what things you do (outside of providing your product or service) that add value. Add those to your list
Review the list, choose the fifteen or twenty ideas that you feel most comfortable with and create your "high visibility/high touch" strategy

Here are some ideas to get your started
Attend a networking event where you know they will be, say hello and talk, but do not discuss business
Introduce them to another business person that would be a good connection for them
Invite them to an event your company is hosting
Comment on their status via Linked In or Facebook, or retweet them on Twitter
Send an article or book (high quality used books under $10 on Amazon) regarding a particular business challenge they are having
Refer business to them - then call them and let them know
Invite them to a networking event they may not know about or have attended
When the time is right, set up another sales call

You get the idea, casual ways to add value, stay visible and easy to do business with. For prospects that take longer to close, finding that right balance of the visibility, high touch and actually asking for business is key. It is different for everyone and different with every prospect. So develop your strategy and listen to gut! Trust yourself, you'll know when to tread slowly and you'll know when to turn up the heat. They key to turn your prospects into customers is to have a strategy for both and to balance the two!

Nudge Your Prospects Along - Turning Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-20T02:54:00.000-08:00

So here you are, you have made the sales call, delivered your best pitch, and you feel sure the next step is to simply close the deal! Nothing happens. You call the prospect, you follow-up and they say they are interested but still no movement - no close. What do you do?

In sales, patience is a virtue and stamina is vital! Prospects buy when they are ready and when what you are offering becomes a priority for them. In this busy, fast paced world, prospects may very well be interested in something you are selling, realize they need what you are selling, but your timing to sell and theirs to buy is just a little off.

You have to understand your product or service does not solve their most pressing concern. Put your "buyer's cap" on and you can easily relate to this. Think about it, there are a number of things you would buy right now, if your schedule was not so full of other priorities. For example, I want a new cell phone carrier, I want to update my homeowners insurance, and I need new tires on my car just to name a few. All of these are things I want and need, but they are not my most pressing concern when I look at my daily schedule. However, if a well-skilled and authentic sales person targeted me, invested in building a relationship and followed through with me, those are all purchases I would make in the next few months. Why, because this sales person would make the process easy. As sales people that is your job - to make it easy. To stay in touch, stay connected and be visible enough so that when your prospects are ready you're who they come to; or your mere presence and gentle reminders makes it so easy for them to purchase they quit putting the decision off.

This sales roller coaster, cycle or process is completly normal and natural. If you recognize that, you will have the edge over your competitors. Sales people, when put in this situation, usually do one of two things - they give up or they get overly aggressive. Either way the sale is lost. So how should you handle this?

Last summer I attended the National Speakers Association Annual Conferece, and heard one of the best sales professionals speak on this topic. His name is Ed Robinson, www.edspeaks.com . I learned from Ed, that in our current economic environment, it can take as many as sixteen contacts or touches to move a prospect to a client. Sixteen! Just a few short years ago, that number was more like seven or eight. Now people want to be assured of value, they want to build trust, and they want time to make decisions, thus the sales cycle lengthens. So how do you stay in touch without being annoying? I left Ed's lecture motivated to develop a list of ideas and ways to stay in touch, in front of and connected to clients without being annoying.

In tomorrow's post we will talk more about this list, how incredibly well it is working, and share details of how you can nudge your prospects along!

Don't Cold Call - Turning Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-19T01:13:00.000-08:00

If you want to turn your prospects into clients - stop making cold calls. Yes, you heard me! Unless you just love calling people you don't know, who don't know you, and pushing your product or service on them then stop. You know you want to, you know your prospects want you to, and whether you know it or not there is a better way.

Late last Friday afternoon, I received a message from a nice man (named George) in Washington DC asking me to return his phone call. He said that he had received my name from Vicki someone, that he believed I knew, and she recommended we talk. Well, I could not recall a Vicki someone, but as I strive to return all of my phone calls, I called him back. This time I received his voice mail, so I left a nice message explaining I did not know Vicki, but to call me back and let me know why he was calling and I would be happy to talk. Next time the phone rang, I recognized his number so I didn't answer . I wanted to see if he would let me know why he was calling me. Sure enough, he left a nice message with no reason why he was calling. Naturally, I did not return his phone call. My suspicions were confirmed - this is a cold call!

Monday rolls around, and I am busy running from one meeting to another. The phone rings, I grab it (unfortunately) without looking, and my luck, it is this nice man (George) - again. I say hello, listen as he explains the Vicki connection again. I interrupt him and explain I do not know Vicki and again ask why he is calling. He explains that Vicki is actually a researcher (meaning she pulls calling lists together for him) and he sells technology for delivering courses on line. He asks if I would like to hear more about his online technology, or if I am interested in purchasing it. I say no, he pushes a little harder and begins explaining his product. Again, I interrupt him, let him not I am not interested and say thank you as I hang up.

I would guess that I was much nicer than most prospects he called that week. This process can not be enjoyable for ole George. I mean, we just effectively wasted each other's time He made five long distance phone calls just to connect with me. He lost credibility with me on several fronts - one he described Vicki as someone who knew me (not true), two he would not leave me a message as to why he was calling which made me suspicious, and three he talked only about himself and his products and services. He never asked what I do or inquired about my challenges and opportunities. We never discussed how his product or service would benefit me. We simply discussed his product, his need, and his goals.

Why does anyone want to sell like that? It certainly is inefficient, as he put in a lot of effort and gained no return. It is stressful, as he told a white lie, and he knew I was resistant by the fact that I kept asking why he was calling. Lastly, it was ineffective. I did not buy the product, and because of his dishonesty I never plan to.

If you want to turn your prospects into clients then try a different way. Take the time to clearly identify who can truly benefit from your product or service, and invest in building relationships. Your process also needs to involve asking great questions, learning about your prospect and then finding unique and custom ways your product and service is something that truly adds value. Selling should be fun, enjoyable and something both you and the prospect look forward to. Stop cold calling, start relationships building, and sit back and watch your prospects turn into clients!

The Four C's of Selling! Turn Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-18T03:48:00.000-08:00

If you want to turn your prospects into customers you need to love to sell. Now, hold on, don't run away just yet, hear what I have to say. I know, for many of you the thought of selling is uncomfortable, unattractive and not something you look forward to doing. That is exactly why I am writing this blog and writing my book. I used to be that person, until I discovered the methods and the tools to make selling fun, interesting and something I am passionate about. So, don't count yourselves out just yet. You may simply not love to sell, because you don't really know how to sell.

Learning systems, processes and methods are important in the sales process. Those combined with skill development, accountability and support you can easily build your self-confidence and personal belief that can love and be successful at sales. Master that and the rest is easy.

What learning new methods and techniques cannot do for you - that is vital in your ability to succeed in sales - is determine whether you embody the basics. Those fundamental ground rules that determine whether sales is a good fit for you or not.

I call these the four C's of selling. I use these to help companies choose and develop good sales people and the right sales leaders. I use these to help small business owners and entreprenuers determine if they should be the one selling their services or if they should hire someone else. If you are missing even one of the four C's of Selling, then turning your prospects into customers is going to be a difficult process.

So let's see how you stack up!

Care - you have to ask yourself if you genuinely care and are interested in people. So much of your role in sales is to find out about people in detail. You have to want to listen to their stories, learn about their companies, and empathize as they share their challenges and opportunities. This is where you gain your insight and information about how your product or service can support this prospect. Without genuine care and interest, your ability to uncover opportunity and gain new business will be lacking.
Consistency - this is not a sprint it is a marathon! You have to develop and implement a sales process. A consistent set of actions and behaviors that you work day-in and day-out. People buy when they are ready not necessarily when you are ready to sell. Without a well-organized and well-run routine, you will miss the opportunity to be top of mind when prospects are ready to take action.
Connection - the ability to relate to and move people to action. Yes, this is more natural for some than others, but the more you increase your self awareness, the more you understand how others communicate, the better your will be above to connect with people. People connect with you because they feel you understand them, speak their language and the generally like you. That all comes from truly understanding your communication style, understanding others and adjusting yours to better relate. Truly a skill that is fun and can easily be learned.
Commitment - ask yourself, what is my desire and drive to sell? Do I really want to be accomplished at sales? Do I want to spend my time learning about other people, their businesses and identifying ways I can help them grow and succeed? If the answer is yes, then how badly do you want it? Are you willing to work a sales process and commit to the daily actions and behaviors that need to met? Are you willing to develop your communication skills and improve your ability to relate well to others? Are you willing to learn from rejection? Be open to constantly learning new strategies and methods? Working when the prospect or client needs you, not according to your schedule? Whatever you choose to do in life, your commitment to success is key.

If you answered yes to the four C's of Selling, then the rest is easy - not simple - but easy. If you embody the basics, if have the foundation, then the answer to turning your prospects into customers is simply a matter of learning and following the rules!

Sell the Opportunities - Turning Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-17T03:07:00.000-08:00

If you have been in sales a while, you have come across terms like "up sell" or "cross sell" meaning to sell deeper and wider to your customer base. About ten years ago, sales terms like "relationship sales" and "partnering" with your customers came into fashion as well. We were all going to classes and seminars learning how to convince our customers that we were different from other sales people because we were about relationships. Unfortunately, most of those courses only taught us techniques that made our current method of product pushing or order taking simply a little less obvious.

If you want to turn your prospects into customers than yes, you do need to learn to sell deep and wide, and you do need to learn to develop and build relationships. Why? because the last thing you want is your competitor offering a product or service to your customer that they find valuable, simply because you never offered it. That is not only embarrassing it can be fatal.

Your job as a "relationship" sales person is to care about and for your customer. It is your job to understand their business and their goals, and then identify multiple ways that your product or service could add value. Remember, your prospects understands their business and they understand their challenges. They are looking to you (or other sales people) to provide them with options and solutions.

This is where the "up sell" comes in. I have to share with you, I do not like that term and I don't like it's underlying meaning. Instead, I describe this process as selling opportunity and possibilities. By doing so, we give our prospects choice, power and control! Simply, by providing the prospect with one or more options, you can open their eyes to possibilities and choices they did not know existed.

For example, one of my favorite clients owns a large plumbing company. His business is evenly divided between new construction and service. In reviewing his sales process and looking for opportunities to grow his business, we noticed that the majority of his new construction work never evolved into service contracts. YES! here is opportunity for growth. We simply adjusted his sales proposals (as well has revamped the sales team's conversations) to offer two or more options. Simply put - Option one: new construction; Option two: new construction and one-year service contract with option to renew. Sales increased, the process was far more efficient, and the salesman loved it because it was so easy. Ultimately, the prospect had the choice, but more often than not they chose option two.

If you want to sell possibilities and opportunities, then you must follow these simple rules:

Build trust first - do this by committing to not trying to sell more until you have solved the prospects immediate need.
Give the prospect the choice, always have more than one option so they can feel they are in control and it is their decision.
Explain the benefit of the higher option. Make sure you can clearly articulate and explain why this higher option has value
Provide a discount for the higher option. Bundle your product and services then give your prospect a personalized deal. You don't have to discount much, but make the effort to ensure they feel this is just for them.
Don't push, if they do not choose the higher option. Give them the room to try you on for size. If you get some business you always have the chance to get more. If you push, you may shut the door on future opportunity.

Turning your prospects into customers is fun when you learn to sell by opening your prospects up to the possibilities and opportunities.

Attitude, Attitude, Attitude - Turning Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-16T03:52:00.000-08:00

In the real estate world they say the three most important things are location, location, location. In sales it is attitude, attitude, attitude! If you love what you do, love your product or service, and love sharing it with others then turning your prospects into customers is a much easier sell!

When I go into to train, coach or develop strategy with a sales team, the first thing I gauge is the sales leaders attitude and level of enthusiasm. If the leader is not passionate, excited and motivated about their product and selling in general, than how can I possibly expect the sales team and the prospects to be excited? Attitude is always the place to start. Get your attitude right and the rest will fall into place.

To sell you have to engage; to engage to you have to communicate; and to communicate you have to connect. If you want to close more sales then you need to ensure that connection is positive, upbeat and enthusiastic. If you want your prospect to buy, then you must convey your pride, excitement and confidence about your product or service.

Attitude is vital to the sales process, and the great thing about that is that attitude is completely controllable. Sure it may be more of a struggle for some than others, but at the end of the day you have a choice whether you are positive or negative. Whether you infuse energy or deplete it.

Remember, buying is emotional. People buy products or services based on how they feel. Certainly the features, facts and statistics play a role, but it is the emotional connection to the sales person and the product or service that moves the prospect to action. So how do you convey the right attitude?

First you have to have the right attitude. Do a gut check and get real with yourself. Are you positive and upbeat? Do you believe in your product and does it show? What specific things do you do or say to get your message across. Ask yourself, if and how often you smile. Smiling - like attitude - is contagious. Increasing your smile factor will increase your likability and increase your ability to connect with your prospects. A great attitude makes you likable an approachable, two important elements if you want to turn your prospects into customers.

Second, analyze your words and your body language. Are they positive and are they benefit driven? Asking family and friends for feedback here is crucial. Often, we do not even realize the negative or sarcastic undertones our speech or body language convey, and asking others their observations and opinions can make a big difference. Relaxing your ego and taking their advice will make the difference. Those minor adjustments can go along way in delivering the right attitude.

Third, what is the talk going on inside your head? If you are like most people it is pretty negative. Why is that? Why do we spend all day telling ourselves negative things, don't we have enough challenges? So, work on your "head talk" and routinely increase the number of positive messages rolling through your mind. That "head talk" will translate into positive conversations, body language and compliments to your prospects. Thought dictates action and action dictates outcome. It all starts with what is going on in our heads.

Fourth, if you want a positive attitude you need surround yourself with positive people. Now that seems simple doesn't it? For many of us, the need to help, feel sorry for or commiserate with others is a constant distraction. A distraction we cannot afford if you want to be good at sales. My favorite quote (which has become my mantra) is "you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." If you want to be positive and upbeat, if you want to convey energy and enthusiasm then don't hang out with negative people. It really is that simple. If the individuals you spend time with are positive, upbeat and energetic, then you cannot help but be that way too.

Attitude is so important in sales. You can spend money for the best training, hire the best coaches, sell amazing products and still struggle to meet your sales goal. If you adjust your attitude, increase your enthusiasm and master the art of conveying confidence about your product you'll find it easy to turn your prospects into customers!

Know Your Competition - Turning Prospects Into Clients

2010-01-15T01:42:00.000-08:00

How can you possibly win if you do not know who you are competing against! Defining, understanding and gaining intimate knowledge of your competition is an important step in sales success. If you know your competition, you are much better positioned to communicate the strengths, benefits and overall value of your product or service. Makes sense doesn't it?

Before you can "know" your competition, you have to clearly define your competition. The most effective way to do that is to examine your lost sales. Often I ask my clients who their competition is and they list four or five company names. Yet, when we take a little time to analyze the data, those are not the companies they lost business to. You don't define your competition, the market and the prospect does. So review your sales log and identify who your prospects have determined is your competition, and who they have determined adds more value than you. This is your competition.

Next you have to "know" your competitors strengths and weaknesses. That means it is time for a competitor analysis done via competitor shop. You can have this professionally done, or simply get your family and friends and go visit your competition in person, on the phone, and/or online. Find out what their sales pitch is, what their value points are, and what - if any - weaknesses you can uncover. This is a terrific opportunity to meet their sales people, understand how they engage their prospects, what their follow-up process is as well as the price, features and overall quality of their product or service.

Lastly, you want to define how you stack up. Where are you similar? What opportunities do you have to beat your competition, and where and why do you lose out? Then start filling in the gaps. Use this information to redefine your sales pitch to emphasize your competitor strengths, and redefine similarities as minimal expectations. Then work with your team to turn your competitor weaknesses into opportunities for improvement.

I was working with a small hotel chain in South Florida who defined their competition as the Hilton, the Marriott and other chain's of that size. We performed a small competitor analysis, talking with several past customers that had regularly returned to South Florida but not to this hotel chain. What we discovered was this chain was not competing with the Hilton, Marriott and other large hotels, their competition was actually small family owned motels and bed and breakfasts. In addition, people were choosing these competitors over the small chain because of atmosphere. They were about the same price, about the same in terms of convenience and amenities, but the smaller motels and bed and breakfasts emphasized service. They offered homemade cookies and milk at bed time, cocktail hour for business travelers and a live wake up call rather than a buzzer or recording. Understanding this, we were able to change our marketing and service delivery and reposition our strengths to truly compete in the market.

Remember, you control the sales call. Your asking the questions, listening for information and opportunity, then providing a support statement to prove benefit and value. If you understand how to position your product or service to outshine the competition then you will turn your prospects into customers.

Solve The Right Problem - Turning Your Prospects Into Clients

2010-01-14T02:07:00.000-08:00

I think one benefit of being in sales that most people miss is how incredibly interesting it is. Think about it, you get paid or make money, by going out and asking people all types of interesting questions and you get to listen and learn as they answer. How great is that!

People miss this experience, because they enter each call with the mindset of a sales person rather than a problem solver. They enter the call thinking "What can I sell this prospect," or "This would be the perfect product for this person," rather than entering the call thinking "I am interested to discover what challenges or opportunities this prospect is facing and how I can help." You need to remember your prospect is not going to be interested unless you can help them clearly identify and easily solve their problems.

That is your job! You are a sales person yes, but the role you play is that of someone who is a problem solver. I like to think of sales calls as a "nice break" for the business owner or professional. This is their time to sit down with you, and tell you all about their business. They get to talk about the strengths, the challenges, opportunities they see and what really keeps them up at night. I believe, business owners and professionals are so busy they rarely get this opportunity, and a great sales person provides that for them. If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then you need to approach each sales call with the mindset that you are a problem solver.

Let me share with you an example of missed opportunity. This happened to me just last week.
My cable company called me to upgrade my service and add new and additional channels. I nicely listened to the salesman's pitch (which I venture to say most prospects do not), and then I nicely informed him no one in our house watched television all that much. However, I told him, while he was on the phone, I would like to discuss bundling our services to save money. He immediately again tried to talk with me about the new "incredible" channels his company was offering.

Well, you can guess how the call continued. He tried to sell me a product I did not want, I tried to get him to talk about the service I did want. I ended the call with my overall cost reduced yes, however also with the mindset that I would never do additional business with that company. I felt this sales person did not listen, did not care, and had nothing to offer me that I wanted. The sad part about that is that as a sales trainer I know this is not true. Especially the part that he had nothing to offer me that I wanted. If he would have solved my problem, I would have been ready to listen. If he would have solved my problem, he would have uncovered other opportunities of how his products or services could benefit me. I would be ready to listen because my immediate need would have been met.

Great problem solvers follow these steps:

They ask great questions
They listen
They identify the problem
Discuss further with the prospect to ensure they fully understand
Gain agreement from the prospect this is the right problem
They create multiple solutions (ensuring the prospect remains in control)
Work with the prospect to make the best decision for them (the prospect)

If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then approach each call with the mindset that you want to help people solve their problems.

Know Your Style - Turning Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-13T05:13:00.000-08:00

I have heard it said that merely 15% of our success in life is directly related to our technical skill. Meaning those skills we spend our youth and early adult life honing and paying for through years in school, college, certifications or trade schools only account for 15% of our success. The other 85% is actually our ability to communicate with and connect with others. Interesting though, no where in life do we really study or learn communication.

Your ability to communicate is a powerful asset in advancing your ability to sell. Selling is emotional. People buy for a variety of reasons, and the reasons that continually pop to the top of the list are: "I like my sales rep," "My sales person watches out for me, she cares about me," "I like her and look forward to seeing her, she is fun," "I believe what my sales rep tells me, I know he has my best interest at heart." Those reasons are all about connection, emotion and a sales persons ability to communicate.

So, where do you start with communication, how do you improve your communication technique, skills and abilities?

First, learn how people communicate. Find a personality test and model that works for you and study the different styles and personality types. It will be eye opening. You will laugh, you will understand and most importantly you will learn why and how you gravitate to some people and are so confused by or repelled by others. The model you choose will help you uncover how people share information, how they process information and how they like to receive information. When you take the time to understand the different ways people communicate you can begin to understand what makes communicating with some people so natural and easy, and why communicating with others seems to be a challenge.

Second, delve into your personality style and understand how you communicate, what is your style. There are a number of communication tests or communication profiles you can take that will help you determine that. I happen to use the DISC assessment because it is easy to understand, yet can be complex and has many layers if you want to dedicate yourself to continuous learning and improvement in terms of communication. Any test is valuable and provides good information as long as you are open to learning and are willing to accept and use the information.

People have different communication styles. Different ways they view and see the world. It is important for you to first understand your style and be open to learning the strengths and weaknesses of how you communicate.

Third, learn to understand others. Once you have a good handle on your communication preference and why you are the way your are, take the time to learn about the other styles. What are the strengths of the other styles, what are their limitations, how can your style benefit and/or irritate their style? What is important to them and what do they value in terms of communication?

Lastly, learn to adjust your style to better communicate with others. Yes, it is true you are not stuck with the personality style you are born with. Sure it is your natural style and when you are overly excited or overly stressed this style will most likely be the way you communicate. However, by learning about the other styles and what is of value and importance to them, you can actually learn to adjust your style to communicate more effectively and easily with others.

Let's look at an example, if you are a high energy, fast-paced, strong-willed, quick decision maker and you set up a sales call. If you will first take a few moments, look for the clues you have learned from studying communication styles, you can get a fair assessment of the style preferences of the person on whom you are calling. So, let's say for this example, your prospect is lower energy, slower paced and needs time, information and a relationship before they make a decision. Think if you know that, you may make a few adjustments to your calling style?

Sure! You'll slow your pace down, both move and talk a little more slowly. You will work on the front end to spend a little more time developing a relationship and making a connection. And you may even break the decision process down into a series of smaller decisions so it does not seem so overwhelming or like such a big decision.

Communication is a powerful, powerful tool in the sales process. I encourage you, if you want to turn your prospects into customers, to invest in learning more about personality styles and how you can adjust yours to better connect with others.

Master The Art Of Listening- Turn Your Prospects Into Clients

2010-01-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

I learn a lot from the groups on Linked In, and I enjoy hearing the ideas and opinions of my fellow professionals. Recently, I got involved in a discussion entitled "What do you feel is the most important part of a sales call?" In other words what is the one part, the one thing that either makes a call successful or not successful. It was a huge discussion, so many professionals weighed in. There was debate about how to open a sales call, debate on how to close the sales call and debate on whether it is the client saying yes. Good information, but kind of a silly discussion really. I mean is one part really good without the others? Is one part really more important than the others?

However, as I sat and thought about it, the idea of listening kept coming to my mind. Now, I am going to stop short of saying that listening is the most important part of a sales call, but without it you will miss opportunities and miss the advice of your client on when, how and why they want to buy.

You know you are on a good sales call when the client is doing most of the talking based on the great questions that you asked. In fact, a great sales call should be you talking just 20-percent of the time and the client talking 80-percent of the time. Talking, again, based on the great questions that you asked. If you ask great questions and listen, the prospect will provide you with a stream of ideas, clues and opportunities to sell your product or service. People don't want you to tell them what they want, they want you to share their story and have you respond with ideas and opportunities on how you can benefit them.

So how do you become a great listener? How do you know you are a great listener? How do you convey to the client you are really listening and hearing what they are saying?

Know your communication style. Great listening is one critical part of communication. You need to understand your strengths, weaknesses and what specifically you need to work on based on your natural style.
Learn from others what to and not to do. This is my favorite piece of advice. Spend one whole day watching people that you interact with and observe whether they are listening to you. You will learn more from this process of how to be a great listener, what to and not to do, then any advice I can give you.
Engage your whole body. Make eye contact with the prospect, and use facial expressions as they talk. If they say something amusing smile, if they are conveying serious information look intense, if they are saying something you agree with nod your head. Engaging more than just your ears will help you pay attention as well as let the prospect know you are paying attention.
If you struggle to stay focused (and many of you will based on your natural communication style) take notes and agree verbally with the prospect saying yes or I understand. Doing little things to add a little activity to the listening process.
Practice! Oh I know we hate to practice, but if you do your listening skills will improve. Spend ten minutes talking with a member of your family, a friend or your children and just listen. Then, when they are finished, attempt to repeat what you believe you heard. It is fun, and again you'll get better at listening and they will feel more valued and cared about.
Lastly, do not interrupt. This one is hard for me as I get excited and want to jump in. Nothing is more distracting for the prospect than being interrupted. No matter how great your advice, information or ideas are, if you interrupt the prospect you have clearly stated you do not value what they are saying.

The funny thing about listening is as important as it is, we are never taught to do it. If you want to make selling easy and fun then learn to listen. If you want to turn your prospects into clients then learn to listen.

Closing the Sales Call - Turning Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-12T01:15:00.000-08:00

I often wonder how many articles, books and millions and dollars have been made trying to help sales people "close the deal." As if there were some magic phrase, some vital word, or some secret way to ensure the prospect signs on the bottom line. Let me ensure you there is not - engage the prospect, listen and add value - that is how you close a sales call.

The truth is, while the close and actually asking for the business are key to closing the deal, if you do not structure the sales call correctly, put effort into all the other steps, then closing the call will be an extremely difficult thing to do. Why make calling harder than it has to be?

Turning your prospects into customers and your customers into champions, is about creating a long term relationship. To create a long term sales relationship, you need to be interested in selling your product or service to someone who can actually benefit from and wants to buy it. That means doing your research, defining your purpose, asking great questions and transitioning with a meaningful support statement.

However, once you do all that and you do it well, you do still have to ask for the business. You still have to close the sale. You have to make it easy for your prospect to take the next step with you and create desire for them to do business with you. So how do you close the sale?

First, you have to understand that turning a prospect into a customer is actually a series of small closes and not just one big close. Especially, in this day and age when trust, value and connection are key to building long term relationships, prospects need time to get to know you and you need time to prove you deserve and truly want the business. The close needs to be based on and directly tied to your purpose. What did you want to accomplish? How does that translate to a close. For example, if your purpose was to schedule a second meeting and present a proposal for how you can save them money on their banking services. Then that is your close for this call. To schedule a second meeting to present your proposal. If your purpose was to get your prospect to discuss and commit to the proposal. Then your close is to gain their commitment and set an engagement start date. Whatever your purpose is it should tie directly to your close.

Second, your close needs to be the action that moves the sales call forward and let's you determine quickly if the prospect is interested in discussing this further or doing business with you. So many sales people either ask for too much at the first close or they avoid the close all together not wanting to be rejected. If you ask for too much and do not connect the close to your purpose or what you learned from your prospect then you risk the prospect feeling you are only interested in what you stand to gain. If you avoid the close all together, then you risk not only not closing the sale but looking pretty foolish in front of the prospect. They expect you to ask for business. I mean what have you been doing all this time, just wasting your time and their time? Prospects want to do business with people who are confident and asking for business positions you as someone who will work hard for them.

Third, if your prospect says no embrace it! All you were told was that you did not create enough value or benefit for them to want to do business with you right now. Great, learn from this and change and develop your value add approach for future sales calls. If you work at developing value you will have your shot with this prospect again. We never know what is going on with our prospects or clients really. All the events that are happening in their lives. Often people say no because the timing is wrong, and we did not create enough of a sense of urgency, enough value for them to want to make a move right now. Learn from rejection and use to to improve your future calling efforts.

Yes, the close is key to turning prospects into clients, but if you work the process, if you invest in learning and adding value, your prospects will close the sale for you all you have to do is ask!

Transition With Support - Turn Your Prospects Into Customers

2010-01-11T01:37:00.000-08:00

You have done your research and planning, you stated your purpose and you have asked great questions. Now it's time to get down to business. Up to this point, you have been learning all about your prospect, gathering information in one form or another. Now it is time to make all that hard work pay off!

The purpose of a sales call is yes to get more business, but it is also an opportunity to really learn about business and the person running this business. This is my favorite part of a sales call. It is so interesting how and why business owners started their businesses, how they run their businesses and how they make their businesses successful. The sheer guts, creativity and innovation it takes to run a business.

It is from this learning process, that we as sales people can identify where, when and how we can help this business owner. This is what call the support statement. The point in the call where we start talking, and we start sharing with the prospect how our service, product, ideas can help them and their business be more successful.

To deliver a good support statement, you need to shift your paradigm. Adapt the mindset that a sales call is an opportunity to discover if this prospect could benefit from your product or service - the call is about them not about you. So many people approach sales calls as a way to get what they want rather than an opportunity to discover how to help others get what they want. You set up a sales call to go out and learn about what particular opportunities and challenges this business is facing, and if your product or service could be of benefit. From this process, you discover (through conversation) opportunity. This opportunity is your support statement, the opportunity is the answer to the question how superficially can I help this prospect? So how do you discover and deliver an effective support statement?

1. Discovery is the key. Support statements are not something that can really or should really be pre-planned. You need to ask great questions and listen to the prospect talk, and through this process discover how and why your product or service could be of benefit. If you have done great research and developed a strong purpose you may have ideas for your support statement, but to deliver a solid support statement it needs to come directly from what you just learned during the sales call from the prospect.

2. Connection is your credibility. By connecting the support statement directly to what the prospect just told you, you raise your credibility with the prospect. They know you were listening, they know you care and they believe you want to help. In others words, by connecting to exactly what they just told you, you made this call about them and not about you.

3. Involvement is your permission. If you involve the prospect in the support statement then they are far more open to your suggestions and ideas. Share with the prospect the problem or challenge you believe you heard and clarify you got it right. Then state what you believe they want the outcome to be and again ask them if they agree. Then offer your solution (product/service) to help your prospect reach their goal.

Let's look at an example. This was my support statement earlier this year when calling on a Travel Industry Executive in regards to their selling strategy. "Jen, thank you for sharing so much information with me. I just want to make sure I understand you correctly, your biggest challenge right now is how to motivate and support your sales team in their efforts to sell in this competitive environment. Is that correct? Great, and while you feel you have an exceptional team, you do not feel they have been supported with proper training and clear objectives. This is all new to you, as this team just came under your supervision and your main focus is marketing and public relations? Terrific, thank you. I would love to offer a few ideas and suggestions of how to solve this challenge. Great, thank you. I offer a sales strategy and coaching program that I feel would be perfect for you. First, it would efficiently and effectively establish a sales strategy so you and your team could establish clarity on what specifically needs to be accomplished and how it should be accomplished. Second, my coaching program would provide the structure to help your team develop the confidence, skill development, and accountability they need to put the strategy easily into action. The entire program engages the team so they feel involved and in control, and it provides you with the information you need so you can easily manage them while still remaining focused on your main objectives Marketing and Public Relations.

Now, I won't share with you how I closed that call as that is our next rule! However, you get the point. If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then you need to transition to the sale with a meaningful support statement.

Ask Great Questions - Turn Your Prospects Into Clients

2010-01-10T01:38:00.000-08:00

Asking questions, in my opinion, is a lost art in sales, networking and just general conversation. If you want to be great at sales, if you want to truly turn your prospects into customers then you need to ask great questions. Be curious, take an interest, and have a desire to learn all about your prospect.There is gold in the answers you receive!

Asking your prospects great questions has so many benefits, I don't even have room in this article to list them all, so here are just a few. First, people love to talk about themselves. They love it! When you ask them questions you give them that opportunity. If you give them that opportunity they will love you for it, and you will have just accomplished a major step in the sales process - emotional connection. If you talk about yourself and your company you will not only bore the prospect, they will completely lose interest. If you want to turn your prospects into customers you need them to emotionally connect with you and asking questions does the trick!

Second, asking great questions allows the prospect to open up and actually freely give you the information you need to understand the best way, the best time, and the best manner in which to do business with them. If you'll stop talking, let them do the talking they'll actually tell you how to make and how to close the sale. If you listen closely, they'll share their biggest challenge, they'll tell you how they make decisions, and they'll tell you what or who is your biggest competition.

So how do you know the right questions to ask? Research and do your homework of course. This well invested time, should make you curious and make you want to know more. When your doing research, simply write down the questions that come to your mind. Research will net you the details of the company's annual report, information on their product lines, major clients, and background on their Executives. All a great foundation to peak your interest, so you can use your interview to uncover things like: How is the current economy impacting this company financially, strategically and from a moral standpoint? What opportunities are being created, and what opportunities are being lost? What one or two things do they feel are most critical to focus on in the next year? What best practices and strategies do they feel are working for them right now? What is one thing about the company they want or need to change in the next year? Who is their competition and how well do they feel they compete? The list goes on. The point is if you will ask questions and you will listen, the prospect will actually tell you exactly what is wrong and what solution they are looking for in order to fix it. In other words, your prospect will tell you exactly what they are looking for and exactly how to present it if you want the sale. Pretty amazing isn't it, because all you have to do it ask questions.

This "question asking strategy" works in all different types of situations. I was giving a sales and networking workshop in North Carolina, and a member of my audience, Nancy a personal trainer, challenged me with this question. She needed to grow her client base, retain more customers and increase her number of referrals. Among the other strategies, we reviewed with her in the workshop, was her sales process. Here is what we discovered. While she asked her prospects and customers the usual questions - what brought them to her; how did they discover her; what were their goals? etc. She was not really connecting with the them and she could benefit from using better and deeper questions . Based on what we learned about her current customer base, and her target market we developed a list of questions that would not only gain her better information on how to help her customers, but questions that would position her as the personal trainer that cared, listened and was interested in what her clients want. Questions such as: Tell me about your history regarding challenges with weight loss, physical fitness and diet? If you could name one or two particular areas that seem to be your biggest challenges what would those be? Share with me times that you have had success with your personal fitness goals? What is the most important thing you need in terms of support - a plan, accountability, information and instruction, all of the above? You get the idea. We created questions that would truly get the client to open up and share what it is they want, need and struggle with. Nancy was then able to design fitness plan presentations that were more personal and training that ensured the client received exactly what it is they desired in terms of both training, support and information. By asking better questions, Nancy was able to design better training program presentations for her prospects. Those presentations made buying easy for the prospects and ensured her prospects turned into customers!

Asking great questions is fun, interesting and crucial in the sales process. If you want to turn your prospects into customers take the time to develop and ask great questions.

2010-01-09T17:56:00.001-08:00

Carolinas NSA this weekend - saw Ty Boyd, Jeffrey Gittomer, Steve Rizzo - AMAZING! Great info, fun and impactful!

A sales call needs a purpose

2010-01-05T01:42:00.000-08:00

Sales calls are expensive. According to AllBusiness.com the average cost of a sales call ranges from $100 to $250 (depending on years of experience and salary.) Think about that, if the average sales person makes three calls per day over the course of a year (allowing for vacations and holidays) that is annual cost ranging from $75,000 to $187,000 per year. If you are investing that much money in making sales calls don't you want to ensure that you make money or more importantly you don't lose money? Yes, when successful sales calls yield the highest rate of return, and without them you cannot stay in business. But keep in mind they are expensive. So if the investment is high, you need to do everything you can to ensure that that your return on that investment worth the effort. Defining your objectives and stating your purpose before you make a sales call greatly increases your chance that investment will yield a high rate of return.

Before your make a sales call you need to know why you want to make that call. Oh I know, you want to make a sales call because you want more business. But beyond that why are you making this call? What is the point, purpose and what are you trying to accomplish, what do you want? In other words, what is your goal for that sales call?

Your sales call purpose needs to be written down, actionable, measurable and be time specific. Your purpose needs to ensure that you hold yourself to accomplish something on this call and that this purpose moves the call forward and moves the call to the next step. Sales success comes from a series of sales calls in which each call moved the prospect one step closer to doing business with you. To make this easy to remember and easy to use, many people often use the acronym SMART - SMART -specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable and timely. The point is you need to define a purpose and hold yourself accountable to complete it. More importantly, by writing it down, stating it and thinking about it, you get the opportunity to think about how you are going to transition into the purpose. Think about what the call will look and feel like, role play the call before you actually make the call. This is very important if you want to make an effective call and you want a high rate of return on your investment.

It is important to note that your purpose will be different given the stage of the calling process you are in. For example, if this is your first call on this prospect, your purpose may be to establish rapport with the client, learn more about the client's business, and gain permission to set up a second call (within the next two weeks) with the prospect to share information about how your services could benefit their business. If this is perhaps your third call, your purpose may be to present the proposal that you have prepared for the prospect, gain the prospect's feedback and input, and get the prospect to commit to act on the proposal within thirty days. In both examples, the purpose is written down, specific, actionable, measurable and timely. More importantly, both require that you think about how you are going to structure the call so that your purpose can be achieved in a natural and comfortable way for both the prospect and for you as the calling officer.

If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then taking the step of defining the purpose of your sales call will help you do it. Remember, a sales call is a privilege and stating and defining your purpose ahead of time shows you respect your client and you value your time!

Do your homework and set your goals

2010-01-04T05:47:00.000-08:00

Once you have set the appointment with your prospect, your first step is due diligence. Now understand this requires time and effort, and because of this it is often a step your fellow sales people ignore.

Why is preparation so important? Because it sets the tone for the call and shows the prospect you care and your value their time. You made an effort to ensure this time they are giving you is time well spent. If your goals are to make more quality instead of quantity calls, gain more referrals and ultimately turn your prospects into clients than preparing for sales calls is a must do part of the process. In a strong economy and a weak competitive environment sales people are more apt to get away with lack of or preparation for a sales call. In an economy that is consistently changing and highly competitive preparation and planning are important steps.

Doing your due diligence. This simply means - do your homework. Spend a little time researching and finding out about the company, your prospect, their role in the company. My favorite place to start is google! The Internet has made the job of due diligence so much easier. Simply enter a few key words into a search engine, and up pops your prospects website, articles written about them, reviews on their company, and interesting information about their competition. Within just a few moments you can find out things like how many employees they have, how long they have been in business, who they do business with, what their goals are, what their financial results have been, who else they do business with, the position your prospects holds in the company etc. The list goes on. The Internet is a wealth of information and with a little time invested you can easily get the background you need to put together an effective sales plan.

Once you have done the "technical research," it is time to find out the "personality research" of both the company and your prospect. What is "personality research" that is the information you need to make an emotional connection with your prospect. Why would you want to know that? Remember, buying is emotional, and if you are going to turn your prospects into customers you have to connect on an emotional level. So how do you do this? You start by simply asking around. Talk with vendors, clients, people you know that may know or do business with your prospect. Find out things like - what their personality style is, how they like to be communicated with (i.e. are they email people, phone people, go to lunch people or quick office meeting people), what do they do in their spare time, how do they make decisions - quickly or slowly. Do they require a lot of information or do they like to get right to the point. Anything significant going on in their life you should know about. And again the list goes on. Finding out those key relevant things that will help you truly connect with your prospect are invaluable in your efforts to turn your prospects into customers.

Let me share a great example of a calling officer who failed to do this. Oh, she did a wonderful job of doing the technical research, but she missed a golden opportunity by ignoring the personality research. I actually made for her, she is a friend of mine and she wanted to meet and do business with this particular business owner. As I knew him pretty well, I offered to introduce the two of them. She followed up and set up the call, and found he was actually in need of her services. All appeared like it would go well.

A few days later, I called to see how things were going with the two of them. My friend thought the call went great, she asked good questions, identified a need and was working on a proposal. When I spoke with him, I found out he felt quite differently. See, he had just made a decision to run for political office. This was a difficult decision for him, and the topic remained top of mind. It had been on the news, in all the papers and was an important topic for him. She never mentioned it, and never even asked about his life outside of the business. He interpreted that - right or wrong - that she was uniformed and uninterested in him personally. Needless to say she never got the business. Not because she was not qualified, but because she did not do her due diligence.

If you want to turn your prospects into customers, you must take the time to invest in finding out as much as you can about them before you make the call. This shows you care, are interested and respect them enough to ensure time spent with you is of value for them. Invest this time and you will turn your prospects into customers.

The Privilege of Making the Call

2010-01-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

You just completed one of the most important tasks in sales - getting the appointment. Congratulations - this means that you have successfully convinced someone - who is most likely very busy - to actually agree to take time out of their day to listen to you talk about your product or service. That is an accomplishment. I mean time these days is as precious as money, and this person has no guarantee your product or service is going to be of interest or benefit to them, yet you convinced them to give you something of value - their time. So, as a sales person you really need to respect that, and you need to understand a sales call is a privilege. If you remember and act on that, than you will truly ingratiate yourself to your prospect and you will differentiate yourself from your competition.

People are busy, and again time is as valuable as money these days. That is why treating a sales call as a privilege, something you plan and prepare for, is critical if you want to turn your prospects into customers. There are many different styles and designs of how to prepare for a sales call, and any style and structure that works for you is fine as long as you have one and you use one.

I use a very simple structure, one that does the job and is time efficient. It is easy to set up and efficient to use as there are just six simple steps. In the next few chapters we will look closely at each step, but lets first take a quick overview so you can experience how they work together.

Step 1 - Due Diligence: You need to do your homework. Before you ever show up to make a call on a potential customer you need to have done your research. Learn about the company and learn about specifically on whom you are calling. Sales people often overlook or choose not to do this step. Avoiding due diligence means you will have no foundation of which to build your call.

Step 2 - Determine your objectives. Every call you go on needs to have a purpose. You need to determine what your focus will be, what you want to happen, and how you will know if the call is successful. Your objectives need to be written down, time specific, actionable and measurable. Having an objective holds you accountable to move the call forward.

Step 3 - Ask Questions. Sales calls should be 20-percent you talking and 80-percent you listening. This is your opportunity to learn what your client wants and needs from their perspective. They will tell you what to sell them if you ask the right questions and you really listen. Good questions come from quality due diligence and strong objectives.

Step 4 - Support Statement - Once you have spent time listening, hearing and thinking about what your prospect has told you, it is time to offer a support statement. A way, based on what you have heard, that you feel your product or service could help them with the specific challenges or opportunities they just discussed with you. Strong support statements relate directly to the information the prospect just offered in the question phase of the sales call. To make an impact, your support statement needs to be timely and relevant.

Step 5 - Close - A strong close moves the call to the next step. Once you have delivered your support statement offer the client an opportunity or a suggestion on how they can take advantage of this benefit. A strong close ties back to your objectives and ensures that you keep the sales calling process moving forward and on track.

Step 6 - Round Two - A sale is nothing more than a series of small sales calls all linked together. Often a salesman expects to close a sale on the second or third try. The bigger the prospect the longer the cycle. You need to structure the sales call to be a series of small wins rather than one gigantic victory. Consistent small and steady wins add up to a portfolio of repeat customers.

That is a basic structure and or plan to follow to help you in your efforts to turn your prospects into customers. Let's walk through an example and tie it all together. I was given a referral for a prospect that owns a large software company and was successful in setting up my first appointment. In doing my due diligence, among other things, I found out he is quite successful, built the company from scratch and now his goal is to take his company to another level. He is interested in growth but lacked systems and process' to make that happen, and he was unsure of how to make that happen. Also, I learned he was the key decision maker, and he was very analytical and bottom line driven. I also learned, he had lived in this area for a quite a while, yet did not know many people as the majority of his clients were in other states. He was looking to expand both his personal and professional profile and that of his company locally. In addition, he loved music and enjoyed playing guitar and singing with fellow musicians.

My objective on this call was to get further acquainted with this man and his company. Learn specifically what he was looking for in terms of growth for his company. What marketing, strategic planning and systems/process' he was looking for. Lastly, I wanted to make sure I secured a date for a follow-up meeting, so I could present my ideas on how my services specifically could benefit his company.

The questions I asked related directly to my objectives. What was going on in his industry right now? With the economy changing, how was he impacted and how was his company impacted? What did he see as his opportunities? What specific challenges kept him up at night? Where did he see the company in the next five years? What did growth - the process - look like to him? Did he feel is team was ready for change and growth? Why or why not? If he could only focus on two things over the next year what would those be and why? etc..

The conversation was fascinating. I learned so much just from asking questions and listening intently. When we finished this section of our initial meeting. I asked him what questions he had for me. I like this question, because it often opens up the perfect opportunity to offer a support statement. Prospects usually ask how you think you could help them which my prospect did. I suggested that my background in systems thinking strategic planning, sales and networking, and business coaching provided the skills and processes he was looking for to take his company to the next level. As well as encompass the flexibility he requires to both deal with challenges and opportunities. I could help him position his company for solid growth over the next five years. My process could help him focus his ideas and goals in the form of a strategic plan, and then develop the systems and process' need to support it. I suggested that we set another date within the next week for me to sit down and go through step-by-step how this process would work and further answer questions and provide more information. Because I knew he was analytical and a slow decision maker, I offered to forward some information to him before our meeting, so he would have time to review it and gain some background around our discussion.

He accepted immediately. As we finished the meeting, I also recommended three people in the community he should talk with in regards to expanding his local business. I offered to make the introductions. Of the three I recommended, I let my prospect, know one was quite a musician, and I suggested the two would have a lot in common.

It took three formal meetings, and a lot of written correspondence to close the deal. It was a great job and a terrific experience lasting more than a year as each sales call lead to more ideas and opportunities. If you treat a sales call as a privilege, do your due diligence, set objectives, ask good questions, offer support statements and close by moving the process forward you too will succeed in your efforts to turn your prospects into customers!

Turning Your Prospects Into Customers - Setting the appointment

2010-01-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

We have all received this phone call, probably several more times than we have wanted to. "Hi, Mr Smith, this is Susan with XYZ company, I sell widgets and I would like to come by and talk with you about how our widgets could benefit you and your company. My phone number is 555-555-5555. Please call me back and let me know a time that would work for you."

What is wrong with an approach like this? Well, in my opinion practically everything! First, if Mr. Smith is like the rest of us he is most likely a very busy man. The fact that he does not know or has never met Susan is just one of the reasons he will not return her phone call. Second, since Susan does not know Mr. Smith, that was most likely an uncomfortable call for her to make, and since Mr. Smith will most likely never return her message she is going to have to call several times before ever getting the appointment or simply giving up.

In the sales calling cycle, setting the appointment is often seen as a small and insignificant task, however how and why you set the appointment sets the tone for the entire call and the relationship. If you want to turn your prospects into customers then follow these three rules to set every sales call appointment - have a reason to call; prepare to set the appointment; take control of the appointment.

Rule 1 - Have a reason to call. Remember, we are in phase two now of turning our prospects into customers - the call. In phase one, we put all that time and energy into laying the foundation. We selected our prospects, we networked, and we defined our value. All the work we did in phase one gives us a reason to call in phase II. The foundation ensures that when you take the step to set the call, you know the person on the other end of that phone has a need, can benefit from your product or service, and has expressed interest. This makes picking up that phone not only so much easier but so much more efficient. Your can rest assured your call will be returned.

Rule 2 - Prepare to set the appointment. No matter how well you think you know this person or how many times you have met. Prepare to make the appointment call. Do your research and learn about the company and the person with whom you are calling. It is important to not only know your facts, but to also ensure your timing is right. Here is an example, I met a woman at a networking event, after talking with her a while I identified that her company was getting ready to go through a strategic planning process. I made a mental note to follow-up with her as I specialize in this type of work. I found out however, in doing my research, that her husband was having surgery and she would be taking a week or so off from work. Great information for me to know before I try to set up a call. Instead of making phone calls to set up appointments, I sent her a note expressing my thoughts for her husbands speedy recovery. I then followed-up two-weeks later. She was so appreciative of my gesture, and this connection made talking business such an easy and natural step.

Rule 3 - Take control of the call and setting the appointment. Remember, people are busy, and they will respect someone who has a reason to call, is interested in them and uses their time efficiently. So, first understand your confidence, attitude and enthusiasm when engaging the prospect is critical. These are even more important when talking on the phone with someone. Second, have a connecting greeting. Something that conveys you know, listen to and understand the prospect, and third, get to the point. Third, state the reason for calling, the benefit to the prospect and the next step. Example, "Hi Tom, that was a great golf tournament last week wasn't it? Congratulations again to you and your team on your win. My team and I had fun, but think we need to work a little on our game. I am calling, because I wanted to follow-up regarding our conversation around sales and your goals for next year. I' love to buy you lunch or a cup of coffee early next week so we can finish our discussion." This example is personable, focused and effective.

If you want to turn your prospects into customers, then pay close attention to your process of setting the appointment. Follow the three rules: have a reason; plan; and take control. If you follow this process then your prospects will welcome your call, look forward to meeting with you, and be far more open to buying your product or service.

2009-12-16T01:51:00.001-08:00

Lessons In Leadership 1/21/09 event - sign up NOW! Great info for winning in the new economy! sign up now http:tiny.cc/EZekE

Relationship Building - Turning Prospects Into Clients

2009-12-14T01:04:00.001-08:00

Relationships are back! In this age of overwhelming information and evolving technology, people are starved for connection. Selling is no different. Consumers are overwhelmed with choices and decisions they have to make, so knowing, trusting and connecting with a sales person is often a deciding factor on where, when and from whom to buy a product or service.

If you want to turn your prospects into clients, then learning how to build relationships is well worth your time. Investing in relationships helps you make a friend, make a sale and gain a customer for life.

So how do you build relationships? First, learn the art of meaningful conversation - how to talk with people and more importantly how to listen. Remember, buying is emotional, people buy based on what they feel more than on what they think. Second, you must be authentic. Honesty and empathy are important traits when it comes to building true relationships. Relationships are built on trust, credibility and value. If you want your customers to buy into your ideas, information and services, then they have to feel that you care. Customers want to know you are listening and that you understand. And they want to trust that you will provide valuable and relevant solutions. Third, you must have their best interest at heart. Relationships are about caring, and if you want to build long-term relationships with your customers then you need to provide solutions and ideas that are of true benefit. You need to be a resource, and build relationships that put your clients best interest ahead of your own.

Fair Childs is a manufacturing sales representative that I have worked with over the years, and she is diligent in her approach to relationship selling. She has been in this industry for more than 20 years, and most of her original clients are still with her today. Despite the increase in competition and despite the fact that her pricing is not always rock bottom. Why? her relationships with her clients. The organizational assessments I have done with her company have taught me that clients adore Fair (and most of her co-workers.) They know they can count on her to deliver (trust), the feel she understands their need for fast service and adherence to deadlines (listen) and they believe no matter the request Fair and her team will make it happen (value). They also genuinely like her and look forward to her sales calls! Why? Because she is fun, upbeat and positive, and she comes with solutions, ideas and resources. Fair takes the time to add value and invest in her customers, so her customers take time to invest in her!

Building relationships is the very foundation on which successful sales is built. If you want to turn your prospects into clients then invest in your ability to establish trust, credibility and value by taking the time to get to really get to know your customers.

Your Brand Matters - Turning Your Prospects Into Clients

2009-12-06T17:40:00.001-08:00

Have you ever heard the sayings"everything speaks" or" your actions speak louder than words"? Those statements definitely come into play when you are working to turn your prospects into customers. Everything about you, from how you introduce yourself, to how you dress, to how you keep in touch with prospects conveys a message. You are telling the prospect ( whether you realize it or not) if they can trust you, if you can add value and if you are worth their time.

In a world where trust and value have become the new Return On Investment (ROI) your brand is as (if not more) important than the product or service you are selling. You have to be as good at marketing yourself as you are at selling your product or service. Why?

Remember, competition is fierce and growing stronger everyday. Consumers have a million choices as to where, when, how and from whom they buy your product. And again, just like we discussed in the last chapter, if you want to be the one turning this prospect into a customer, then you better be the first one they think of when they are ready to act on their needs. And that takes marketing, you need awareness, top of mind connection, a keep in touch strategy, and a highly regarded reputation. A big part of this strategy is your personal (not your company) brand. You need to build a personal brand that is powerful and so strong that your prospects actually seek you out when they are ready to buy.

When we talk personal brand - we are talking about how you position yourself in the market place. How you look, what you say, how you act, the experience the client has when interacting with you, and how well you listen, communicate, and follow-up.

We live in a prejudice society. Oh I am not saying in the way you think, we all just have expectations and those expectations are a prejudice. When we go to the doctor we expect a clean atmosphere, white coats, well trimmed hair, sterile environment. If our doctor walked in looking like our tattoo artist we would run not walk out of there. And consequently, if our tattoo artist looked like our doctor, we would run out of that tattoo parlor as fast as we could. We want our tattoo artist covered in tattoo's - to look like she knows what she is doing, loves what she does, and is good at it! These professionals have a brand, and if you want to turn your prospects into customers you must have a brand too.

So how do you develop a personal brand? Well, for starters, you already have one. May or may not be the one you want, but trust me you have one. Brands get stronger if we proactively design the brand we want. A great exercise is to make a list of ten ways (or competencies) you would want people to describe you. Then ask yourself, how do I proactively deliver on these competencies? Would my prospects and customers describe me this way? If not, what could I do to proactively convey this message? I keep a list of my ten competencies on my desk. I read them out loud every morning - first thing. And over the years, I have evolved to become this brand. I have gained a reputation that matches exactly to my top ten list. My professional field is highly competitive and having a strong brand and distinct reputation is a major asset in my ability to turn my prospects into customers.

So next time you head out to a networking event, to call on a prospect or head to a community meeting take a moment to stop and think. What am I wearing; how do I look; how is my attitude; am I positive and upbeat; am I confident; have I prepared for the call or event; if I tell someone I will do something do I do it; would I hire or work with me; do I look an act in such a way that I exude professionalism, confidence, service and trust?

So test yourself, hold yourself to these standards, and constantly look to improve, mold and expand your brand. You will quickly see your prospects not only turn into customers, but your prospects come to you asking to be your customers. This can be a huge competitive edge!

2009-12-06T07:53:00.001-08:00

Celebrate ASTD Learning Week 12/7-11 - important connection between learning & achieving organizational results! http://tiny.cc/hbv8P

Turning Prospects Into Clients - Plan Your Success

2009-12-02T01:09:00.000-08:00

How would you answer these questions? Where do you see your life in five years? What specifically do you do and how can you benefit your clients? What makes you different from your competitors? What do you want to accomplish in 2010? How will you know if you were successful? and the list goes on!

If you want to be successful at sales you must have a plan. You need to know where you are going, why you want to go there and how you plan to arrive at your destination. Years ago, I was in yoga class and our teacher was helping us with a new balance pose. It was very hard to do. Mid-way through our exercise she had us all stop, relax and then slowly go back into the pose. This time she told us only to focus on what we were doing well and to put out of our mind how awkward, uncomfortable or out of balance we felt. She told us what we focus on expands.

That statement was so powerful for me, as it was so true and I could relate it to every piece of my life. That day, I observed myself in that yoga pose and watched as my pose got stronger, my balance more solid and my form more aligned. The more I focused and knew what I wanted, the more of that I got!

The same is true for business. You need a focus. There are several ways to design a plan and several strategic planning processes. It is important that you find process that works best for you. For me, that is systems thinking strategic planning. A holistic approach, that ensures you view each part of your business and plan as connected and impacting one another. Regardless of the style you choose, you need to set aside some time to develop your plan. Here are some tips and ideas for making this time productive and successful.

Annually, block two days for a personal business retreat. Yes, there is a chance you can do this in one, but I find blocking two ensures I have made the full commitment to complete this critical job. Sit down and ask yourself these five questions:
1. Where do I want to be or what do I want? (Vision, Mission, Core Values, Goals)
2. What will it look like when I get there? (Key Success Measures)
3. What is my current state? (SWOT Analysis)
4. What are my gaps from current state to desired state? (Key Actions Steps and Behaviors)
5. What is going on in my external environment that could impact my plan? (in the community, market, my client base, competition)

Post your vision, mission and core values somewhere prominent, so you read them everyday. You want to internalize and live this. If you want to achieve it, you need to see it.

Each month review your actions and behaviors. What actions are producing desired results, which are not and what do you need to change going forward?

Lastly, set aside time each quarter to review your whole plan. Again, what is going well, what is not and does anything need to change?

Planning for success is a critical step in not only working smarter and more efficiently, but in building your confidence and your motivation to achieve your dreams. Plan for success and you will achieve it.

Sales - Are You A Long Distance Runner?

2009-11-29T02:03:00.000-08:00

They say in a good economy it takes seven to eight contacts to move a prospects to a customer, in a tough economy ten to twelve, and in a changing (I know I am repeating myself for those of you that hear me speak or read my blogs - but I truly believe this economy is struggling BECAUSE it is changing - we are never going to back to how things used to be. So, can you be successful in this changing economy? Yes! But, you need to learn to do "it" differently) economy that number moves to fifteen to sixteen contacts.

Do you know when most people give up on a client? How many tries the average sales person attempts before writing this prospect off? just three to four - yep that is right three to four!

So the question is - How long do you stay in contact and how many attempts do you make before you give up on a prospect? Is this a sprint for you or are you a long distance runner?

If you are in this for the long haul, then ask yourself how do you stay in contact with prospects? And what exactly is your process for moving a contact to a client? Answer those questions and you have just made a giant leap forward in designing your process to move a prospect into a client.

Here is the good news, you need to remember most of your competition is giving up after just three or four tries. In fact, if you think about it they are really warming up the prospect for you - setting up the sale so to speak - so that all you have to do is go in further, develop the relationship and land the deal. The bad news is unless you are the one proactively hanging in there, proactively cultivating the relationships, when the consumer decides to buy it most likely won't be from you.

My husband's dental office practices this method of long distance running to a tee everyday in their office. When patients first visit (yes they call it a visit) they start off with a welcome tour of the office, they meet the full staff, and they are given time to discuss with both the hygienist and the dentist what is on their mind and what they expect from this relationship. As both the hygienist and the dentist listen, they take notes and they develop a plan - the patients plan. Based off of information they heard the patient share. Then, they discuss with the patient what they heard and ask the patient how the patient would like to move forward. Letting the patient know what is critical to take care of first, and then what else is recommended for good preventative care. The bottom line is the patient receives value first from being heard, secondly from having their biggest concern handled first, and lastly from understanding all their options and choosing what, when and how to move forward. The result, this office has some patients that want care immediately and others that come in six months, one year, and some times two years later to receive their preventative care. The patients are happy as they know they are receiving both the care and information they need to take care of their team, but the decision about when and how to move forward is theirs - fitting their time and their budget. This dental team understands the patient is in control. And they understand how to balance quality care with patient need. They are long distance runners.

So how do you become a long distance runner? Again, I sound like a broken record - network. Your networking efforts should run three to one over your sales efforts. This is why this is the fattest part of your sales funnel. You want to network to find, meet and connect with the right prospects.

When you do meet a potential prospect your first thought should be how could I add value? What could I do to benefit this person, so I can further our relationship? Could you introduce them to someone that would be good for them to meet? Do you have an article or piece of information that would benefit their business? Could you invite them to an event where they would make some strong connections? You want this person to say they know you - you also want this person to say they are glad they know you.

Next you stay in touch, providing information and ideas that would be of interest. You listen when you meet and talk with them, and share your thoughts and recommendations to develop trust and build the relationship. As the relationship deepens, the timing will reveal itself. You will find your opening and you will offer your suggestions. If you stay in touch, connect authentically and allow the consumer to control the buying cycle you too will be a long distance runner!

2009-11-27T01:44:00.001-08:00

Trends 2010 - interesting video - Valerie McLeod shared w/ me http://ping.fm/C3oZZ

Serve to Sell!

2009-11-26T15:45:00.000-08:00

Why are people reluctant to sell? When you think about it, it one of the most critical skills. If you want to increase your business, earn more revenue and keep your existing clients you have to sell. So why do so many people dislike it?

Because somewhere along the line sales people, unfortunately, got connected to words such as pushy, aggressive, and confrontational. Words that make most people uncomfortable - as they should. When the truth is to be successful at sales, you need to serve. Now that is a term most people like, identify with and strive to do. And your ability to serve is what makes you successful in sales.

Great sales is great service - period. If you care about people, and offer a product or service that you believe is of benefit and value then you can sell - and be terrific at it. Sales is nothing more than: First, believing in and knowing the value of your product or service. You need to be able to articulate not only the features of your product/service but what difference it will make to your prospects life. Does it save money? Provide peace of mind? Build confidence? Create efficiency ? What benefits does your product/service provide? Second, you need to learn to ask questions and listen - really listen. Who is your client, what is important to them? What challenges are they facing? What opportunities are available to them? Third, provide solutions and solve their problems. Notice I said their problems. What have they shared with you about their challenges and opportunities? How can you use your new found knowledge to search your resources, products or services to help them see and achieve their goals.

I heard a wonderful example of this philosophy practiced when I was getting my hair cut. The woman next to me was explaining to her hairdresser (after her hairdresser had asked her a series of great open ended questions) that she was tired of her cut and hair color. Rather than jump right in and provide a solution. The hairdresser kept asking questions. Hairdresser: Why don't you like the color Client: I feel old, I want to look younger. Hairdresser: What colors have you seen that you like? Let's look at some magazines and you can show me. By the time they were finished, the woman not only had a new cut and color, but she had an appointment with the image consultant at the salon to help her redo her overall look. The client was thrilled, the salon had served her needs, and bottom line sales overall were increased.

If you enjoy helping people solve their immediate problems and realize what is possible for their life and their business then you should be serving to sell.

Turning Prospects Into Clients - Know Your Value

2009-11-25T05:09:00.000-08:00

If you want to turn your prospects into customers you must understand what you are selling - really selling. Often the product or service you offer is something your existing clients can purchase anywhere, anytime and from anyone. So what is it that would make them buy this product or service from you? Gathering this information and understanding what it is and how to use it is not only interesting information it is incredibly useful in your efforts to turn your prospects into customers.

So where do you start? Begin simply by doing a little research. Spend some time interviewing and talking with your existing clients. Both, those that buy from you often and those customers you wish did more business with you. Discover what they value about you, your product and your service. Ask them questions like: Why specifically do you buy from me? What specific problem do I solve for you? What do I deliver that keeps you coming back? /What else could I do or offer that would be of value to you? Now that may seem awkward at first, but remember this is about simply letting your existing clients you are trying to serve them better. That you want to understand what is important to them and what it is they need and value.You will be surprised, they will actually feel honored that you asked. This simple exercise can do as much to retain your existing customers as it does in helping you turn your prospects into customers.

Next, you need to talk with your prospects and really listen. Determine what particular problems or challenges they are facing today.Then spend some time brainstorming and defining how a product/service like yours could add value or solve their problem.

Once you know this information you can craft your message of how your product or service is unique in the market place. Knowing this information, and having it ready on the tip of your tongue will help you connect better to your prospects and your customers, create trust as they feel you are listening, and value as they know you have ideas on how to help.

I work with a client in Washington D.C. Mark Elliott. He uses this strategy on a routine basis in his legal practice. He finds value in both his ability to bring in new business and as well as deepen his existing client relationships. Prospects move business to him and his clients stay with him, because he consistently adds value to the relationship. He knows his clients expect quality legal work, however they value the connections he makes for them and the resources he provides. He is known as the great connector and a great resource. Because of this he is different from his competition. He not only works with clients to solve their legal problems, he helps them connect to high quality individuals who can help them. He also recommends clients and prospects meet one another for mutual business gain. In other words, he knows from listening to his clients that his high quality legal work is an expectation; his role above and beyond is how he adds value. High quality legal work is something his clients feel they can get most anywhere, his ability as a connector and a resource is why they work exclusively with him. The value he provides creates a much easier transition from prospect to client.

If you want to turn your prospects into customers you must first understand how your product and service are unique from your competitors and why your clients TRULY buy from you. Then share this unique message with your prospects to help them understand why working with you is the right decision.

Turning Prospects Into Clients - Start Early

2009-11-23T01:30:00.000-08:00

Selling is truly all about the soft skills - the ability to connect with people, listen, communicate, understand, convey trust and develop confidence. We call this "building the relationship." Why invest the time and energy in the relationship? Think about this - what are the chances that you will connect with someone at the exact time they are ready to buy your particular product or service? Pretty slim aren't they? So, by building the relationship you are working to ensure that prospects automatically think of you when they are ready to buy.

Those that are masters at this know you have to start this process well before you need the sale. Make no mistake, the sales cycle is long and the consumer is in control. Our prospects now have the opportunity to buy anything they want where ever, when ever and from whomever they want. Our competition has grown and with growth our products and services have truly become commodities. The differentiator now is trust and value and that puts us right back at investing the time and energy in building the relationship.

So where do you start? Well let's start with the definition of relationship. What do we mean by relationship? According to Websters Dictionary it is an emotional connection between two people. For me, I take that one step further, and add an emotional connection between two people where each derives value and feels trust.

To build a relationship like that, you have to get to know people. And I would argue get to know them outside of your business environment. Give them a chance to connect with you and you with them on a more personnel level.

This leads us right back to networking. In the last blog entry we talked about identifying our perfect client - in detail! Assuming you have done this, your next step is to identify where those clients might be. Where do they spend their time? What organizations do they belong to; what events do they attend? and where do they go for leisure and pleasure? When you can answer these questions then you know where to meet your best prospects and more importantly where and how to begin to build relationships.

I have a friend who specializes in selling high end real estate. She also loves golf, horses and travel. Her passions both professional and personal fit together perfectly. She is a member of several country clubs, is quite active in the horse community both riding and showing, and through both of these activities she has met several individuals who share her passion for travel. The shared interests and time spent together make building relationships an easy and enjoyable process. Naturally, when those individuals want to buy, sell or have friends who want to buy or sell real estate to whom do you think they turn? That is right - their friend who is easy to find at the golf course, the riding stables, or at the local horse show.

If you want to turn your prospects into clients, you have to start early. Build those relationships, invest the time to allow people to get to know you and for you to know them.

Networking - Turning Prospects Into Clients

2009-11-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

There is nothing hard about networking or sales; both are basically simple tasks to perform. But to be effective at networking and sales - now that takes some skill. To be effective I like to say is simple but it is not easy.

If you want to be effective at networking (and to be effective I mean have the ability to identify prospects and ultimately turn those prospects into clients) you must first understand the basics.

Rule number one in networking is identify with whom you want and are trying to network. You have to know whom you are looking for. Why? here's a newsflash - not everyone wants to buy your product or service. Not everyone can benefit from, pay for, or has a need for your product. Your job as a master networker is to clearly understand they type of client you stand the best chance of building a relationship with.

If you sat down right now and analyzed your perfect customer - I mean really analyzed your perfect customer - you would find that description fits a very distinctive niche. There are unique and specific things about the individual. The better you know, understand and can describe this niche the better you will be able to identify who truly wants what you are selling. And imagine a sales process where you spend the majority of your time in front of and working with prospects that want, need and desire what you are selling!

Defining your target market is a fun exercise. Think about things like gender (do you appeal more to men or women) age, hobbies (what does your target market like to do), geographic location, their interests, what they like about you; what is important to them, their values, what motivates or drives them etc.. There is no end to what you can identify - magazines they like to read, movies they like to see, products they like to buy. Gather as much as you can and find out what your ideal clients have in common. The better you know, understand and can describe your niche the better you will be able to identify the type of customer who truly wants what you are selling.

I have a client who is a master at this. Every quarter she updates her Target Market description - constantly tweaking, changing and adding information to her client data. She knows her ideal clients are successful men, between the ages of 45 and 55, who are professionally driven, well educated (master degrees and above), athletic and dedicated to physical fitness, married with high school and college aged children; demanding, value success, their reputation and their families; looking to continue to advance in their careers and chosen professions; and they will choose slowing down rather than retirement; they hire her for her reputation for effectiveness, accountability, and drive.

Where does she network? Professional associations and sporting events - those she can participate in as her potential clients are active. Her prospects are dedicated to advancing in their careers, so they attend meetings, are continuously seeking knowledge and enjoy networking among their own peers. They are also active, and by participating in these events she has a very natural way to meet, connect and build natural relationships with her prospects. She also understands why they choose her - her effectiveness, accountability and drive. So when making new proposals she makes sure to emphasize those qualities. Needless to say, even in a tough economy she has a thriving practice and constant flow of new business.

Knowing this she is able to shape her networking and prospecting efforts to events, organizations and referral connections that put her right in front of the very prospect that is most likely to hire her.

If you want to be effective at networking. If you want to get results. Then you must first understand who is the type of customer you want to attract. What do they look like, what do they do, what do they value and why do they choose you? This is rule number one if you want to turn your prospects into clients!

Do You Really Know How To Network?

2009-11-22T02:13:00.000-08:00

How do you know if you are good at networking? How do you measure if you really understand how to network? It is easy - you are consistently seeing results - bottom line! The bottom line - always the perfect measurement.

People ask me quite a bit why I "teach/coach" networking? I teach/coach it - because I am passionate about it, and I believe it is one of the most under utilized skills. When done well, networking has more power to potentially positively impact your professional (and personal) life than any other thing you do.

So what are networking results? How do I measure it? Well you know you are good at networking if:
1. You find you are working with those businesses at the very top of your prospect list
2. Doors open easily for you and meeting with decision makers is a breeze
3. You are as much a source for referrals as a giver of referrals

If you answered no to any of those questions then congratulate yourself. You have room to grow with your networking and opportunity awaits you! When you invest in this all important skill, you find that you have the potential to make work more fun, a whole lot less stressful, andyou see more revenue driving to the bottom line.

If you answered yes to all of those questions then congratulate yourself. You are reaping your rewards and now is the time to push your networking efforts to the next level. You are already good at networking why not invest the time to become a great networker?

So where do you start? With the basics! Next series of blogs will cover where, when and how to get started. Again, I believe so much in the power of networking. And in an economy that values trust and relationship, putting your efforts in laying the groundwork for future business is a smart investment.

Sales, Networking and a Few of My Favorite Reads!

2009-11-18T17:57:00.000-08:00

I read everything! I love to learn - especially about sales and networking.

For me, reading learning and dedication to continuous improvement in sales and networking is a definite competitive advantage. Anyone who works with me, follows me, or is just kind enough to listen as I (constantly) share my thoughts and opinions - understands that I passionately believe that sales and networking are complex skills that require constant attention, reflection and enhancement if you are to be successful.

Understanding the economy, your clients, future projections and trends is critical to helping you make the right adjustments to your sales style, your product delivery and your choice of follow-up. For many of us, we are competing with people that have not adjusted their sales styles since the mid 1980's, and as we head into 2010 knowing this could be just the lift we need to put ourselves out in front.

So what do we study, and where do we start? There are countless ways to learn and study sales and networking - books, CDs, DVDs, articles, blogs etc.. You name it, it is out there. While I study and read all of the above, I will have to admit I love books and there are some books I have read along the way that left a huge impact on me. First is Dale Carnegie's, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" timeless classic; Second, if you want to become a master networker (and believe me this is an art and a science, and something most people never truly learn how to do) read Keith Ferrazzi's "Never Eat Alone," and lastly just to help you understand how our world, our economy is changing reading Dan Pink's "A Whole New Mind." Increadibly insightful and eye opening.

Sales and networking are one of the most important skills anyone can possess. Everything starts and ends with getting the client to commit to work with you. Take the time to study, grow and learn the skills - I promise you will love sales and networking as much as I do! (Okay, maybe not as much as I do, but you will learn to enjoy the process and reap the rewards.)

2009-11-17T17:23:00.001-08:00

Spent time w/ amazing generation expert Misti Burmeister - amazing - ck out her book http://tiny.cc/WCQdj

2009-11-14T03:28:00.001-08:00

Heard Will Jolly speak Going Up in Down Times! Am in trainings all weekend - Fantastic/Motivating! Can't wait to share

New Rules Of Networking

2009-11-13T00:40:00.000-08:00

You've heard the ole networking sayings, "It is not what you know, it is who you know" or "It is not who you know, it is who knows you." When it comes to the new rules of networking, "It is not who knows you, it is who is GLAD they know you."

Networking used to be about getting out there, getting to know as many people as you can and letting them know who you are and what you do. Today, given our economy that goal has changed. The purpose of networking now is to get out there and meet people to build relationships that lead to trust - period!

Why the change? When our economy changed, the rules of networking changed. You no longer want to be just someone that people know, you want to be the person that people trust, refer and believe cares and adds value to their lives. You want to be the person that people want to know, feel they need to know and more importantly tell their friends they need to know.

Our economy is not down it is different. Forever changed, and consumers have made a fundamental shift in the way they buy, when they buy and from whom they buy. We are moving out of a push economy (when companies are in control, anticipate consumer demand and provide products, services they feel consumers need) and into a pull economy (consumer control and consumers decide what they need, when, why and from whom they need it.)

Trust and value have become the new return on investment. Face it - we all sell commodities. Our customers can get the "widget" we sell anywhere. Consumers are looking for and want to deal with someone they trust and who can add value. Consumers rely less now on information and more on influence. While advertising remains important from an awareness standpoint, less than 14% of people trust it, while 76% of people trust what their friends and peers say about a product or a person. You want to be the person "others" are recommending.

To become a person of influence we have to understand - relationships are back! People do not want to be sold or told what to do. They want someone who will listen to them, someone who cares and someone who is actively engaged in their success. And if you are not that person, you are automatically filtered out - consumers are becoming conditioned with an automatic information filter. Bombarded with so much information everyday, anything that does not benefit or add value to our lives we filter out. Face it, the consumer is in control of the buying cycle. Our job - if we want to be successful - is to take the time to invest in the relationship and take the time to add value to our prospects business and personallife.

How do we do that? By following the New Rules of Networking!
1. It is not about you! So many people tell me they hate to network and sell because they never know what to say. Well, I have good news for you. You do not need to talk about you - you need to get to know others. Listen to what they are saying, so you can learn who they are, what they do and how you can benefit them.

2. Be a farmer not a hunter. When I first got into sales - we were hunters/skinners. Great idea if hunters are few, prey is plentiful and you only need one time return from the kill. Not the world we are living in. Hunters are plenty, prey is few and we all need these relationships to yield multiple fruit! So, think like a farmer - over plant your seeds, give first - nurture, nurture, nurture. Then sit back and reap a plentiful harvest when the plant grows big and strong.

3. Introduce yourself effectively. If you are good at networking this is important as it will be the last time you talk about you. You have to tell people who you are and what problem you solve. Why you are different. You want to be memorable. For example, if I tell people I am Meridith Elliott Powell owner of MRP Profit Strategies, I am strategic coach, trainer and speaker. Well that does not tell them a whole lot. But if I say, I am a strategic coach, trainer and speaker specializing in sales and networking. Basically, I help people turn their prospects into clients - and their clients into champions. Well now I have made an impression!

4. Ask Questions. Again you want to find out about people - who they are, what they do, why they do, what their biggest challenges are, how their business is doing in this economy. Why? so you can determine if this is someone you want and need to build a relationship with and how you can add value.

5. Add Value. What does this person need? Introductions to other people, articles on specific topic, an invitation to an event? How can you begin to build a relationship? Making a sales call is a right you earn. You have to invest and build before you can sell.

6. Follow-up. Any relationship you want, you need to understand you are responsible for making it happen. Do not get discouraged when people do not return phone calls or offer to meet you. They may be busy or you may not have truly added value yet. Rejection simply means, that your prospect does not understand the benefit for them - you have not yet tapped their interest. So, you simply have more work to do, but trust you will find the answer and the relationship will unfold, healthy, strong and plentiful.

To be successful in this new economy, you need to play by these new rules. Market first - build a product, brand so strong people want to meet with you, they seek you out. Then and only then have you earned the right to sell.

The Power of YOU! Learning to sell your most important business asset - YOU!

2009-11-10T04:06:00.000-08:00

One of the most important skills you can have in life is the ability to sell yourself. Whether you area a sales professional, company leader, small business owner, parent, volunteer, or friend; it doesn't matter what you're role, possessing the ability to get people to buy-in to your ideas, hear what you have to say and want what you have to offer all boils down to your ability to sell yourself.

Why then, if this skill is so important, do few people really know how to do it? The answer is simple, demonstrating the ability to sell yourself starts with admitting your role in the process. To effectively sell yourself some things have to change - the challenge is those things start with- YOU!

Step 1
You need a plan:
Determine who you want to be and how you want others to think of and describe you. For those of you just starting this will be an ongoing process, but to begin simply write down ten ways you would want someone to describe you. Would you want them to say - that you are smart, funny, responsible, caring, high energy - you get the idea. Just simply write down your thoughts, stop and review and when you are happy with what you have there - grade yourself.

On a scale of 1-10 - 10 being the highest - at what level do you believe you are each of those things, and at what level do you believe others think of you this way.

Then determine your gap - how far away from ten are you? And what specific actions steps could you take to close those gaps. This is your weekly plan - taking those steps to close those gaps.

Just simply looking at this list every morning will begin to move you forward and much closer to becoming the person you want to be and a person you can easily sell!

Step 2
Add value
We add value to relationships in many ways, but the top four are through our appearance, our actions, our words and our attitude. I will be the first to say appearance matters! We live in a prejudice world - oh I do not mean prejudice in the manner it is typically used - I mean that people derive confidence, comfort and belief from our appearance. Do you want to go to a doctor who has grease under his/her fingernails? Do you want to go to a hairdresser with bad color and bad hair? Do you want to go get a tattoo from someone in a three piece suit? Typically no - our appearance says quite a bit about us. Do not underestimate appearance - it matters.

Next are your actions - they speak so much louder then your words! Do you tell people you will call them and get together - then never do. Do you say you care about your clients - then do not follow-up with them in a timely manner. Do you tell people you are a relationship organization, but only talk with them when they contact you? Think about your actions and if they reflect the person you say you are.

Words can be powerful - they have the ability to add energy and motivate someone or completely crush them. Think not only about what you say but how you say it. You say quite a bit about yourself with the words you choose. And your words have the ability to create both a positive and negative reaction and feeling about you.

Lastly is your attitude. Are you someone people want to be around or someone people avoid? We all know both kinds of people. We look at our daily schedules and either get excited that people are on our calendar that day or grimace because we have to spend an hour with someone whom we feel will ruin our day. Ensure you are a person others want to be around, but also someone that people seek to be around.

Step 3:
Ask Questions
To keep pushing yourself to another level and make you continuously desirable in the market place question yourself. Questions such as: Am I the best at what I do? Do people see me as a resource in my chosen field? And am I committed to life long learning? Do I seek to consistently better myself?

If you take the time to invest in doing all three of the above steps you will be very good - way ahead of your competitors - at selling yourself. To reach the level of "great at selling yourself" you have to strive to be authentic. For me, this means open, honest and most of all transparent. Buying is emotional, people are responding to your confidence and your energy. To project positively in those areas you must be at peace in all areas of your life:
Personal/Self
Physical
Professional
Relationships
Financial
Spiritual

Doesn't mean all areas are perfect - it means that you have been honest with yourself about what is working and what is not in all areas. You have taken personal responsibility for what you have learned. And you are committed to asking for help and doing the work you need to do to grow and expand in each area.

As you can see, learning to sell yourself is a simple process, but it is not easy. However, it is one of the greatest investments you will ever make.

2009-11-07T01:59:00.001-08:00

In Greensboro today - speaking on sales - Women In Business Conference

Making Networking Count - Developing a Networking Strategy

2009-11-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

When I think about someone who is exceptional at meeting people, making solid contacts and increasing their sales and profitability the term "effective networker" is how I would choose to describe them.

So what makes them effective? Well a number of things, but the first that comes to mind is they know what they want and whom they want to meet. They have taken the time to create a plan.

If you want to take your networking to a whole new level, than invest your time in developing a networking strategy. Your first step is to define, very clearly exactly who you want to meet. Who is your ideal client? How would you describe them? Male or Female? How old are they? Education level? Income level? What is important to them? What are their hobbies? Why do they buy from you? What do they do for a living? The better you know and can define your target market, the more successful you will be at meeting the right contacts to build your networking and increase your sales.

(This is especially true the higher the cost of your product or service. To be effective you need to meet and network with the decision makers - and often decision makers do not participate in traditional networking events. You have to understand your ideal client in order to know where to meet your ideal client.)

In reality there is only a small group of people that want, desire and need your product or service. You make your job, your life and your stress level so much less complicated if you take the time on the front end to clearly define who is "your ideal client." The better you know that - the more effective you will be at networking.

2009-11-06T01:29:00.001-08:00

Great info in FASTCompany learning to love networking http://ping.fm/mZJA6

Networking Simply to Add Value

2009-11-06T00:57:00.000-08:00

FASTCompany Magazine FASTCompany recently ran an article with a terrific definition of networking - the article described it as more like farming then hunting.

I love that! It is such a wonderful description of the difference of how you approach and get the results you want from networking. To network effectively you have to be much more like a farmer than a hunter.

A hunter knows what they want and they go out find it, kill it and bring it home. Not a bad tactic if you are in complete control, stronger and can force your target to do what you want it to do.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for most of us - our clients are free to make up their own minds and free to choose who, what, where and when they want to do business. So taking the farming approach works much more effectively - we plant the seeds, nurture the relationship and allow the plant to grow at it's own pace. We do however, mitigate our risk by over planting our seeds knowing that some plants will sprout, grow strong and reproduce while others will (through no fault of our own) fizzle and die.

So if you want to be an expert networker take a lesson from the farmer - work it consistently, over plant, nurture and allow your plants to grow at their own pace and in their own way. Your rewards will be plentiful and chances are you will wind up with a much larger harvest than you had anticipated.

Turning Prospects Into Clients - Step One!

2009-11-05T00:20:00.000-08:00

People who know how to network know how to turn their prospects into customers. These are the people we call lucky - they are always making their goals, closing sales, gaining new customers and making it all look effortless and stress free. They have fun!

Well let me let you in on a little secret, these people simply understand the value of networking and the role it plays in turning your prospects into customers. I call these people the Master Networkers! Individuals who have embraced and consistently practice the art of using networking to turn their prospects into customers.

So how do they do it? How do they make it look so easy? The make just one simple adjustment and use one little tool. The rest comes easy.

First, they embrace networking as a lifestyle not an event. That seems simple enough, yet this is where most people get derailed. For most of us, networking is simply something to be done and something to marked off a checklist. When in reality, to be good at networking you need to recognize it is a skill, something to be learned and consistently perfected. To truly master the art you have to embrace it as part of who you are and the way you live.

Secondly, they network first to serve others understanding that this process develops a bank of people that will eventually work together for the benefit of the master networker and each other. They approach networking with a servants heart, ask questions to learn about whom they are networking with and keep in touch to build the relationship.

If you approach each day and each event as an opportunity to connect and add value to those you meet and your relationships good things start to happen. You encounter many interesting people, and you begin to get a reputation as someone people need to know, want to know, and want to be around. You become a person who is well connected, is "in the know", and a valuable resource. Think this might make selling easier down the road? But most importantly, you become someone people are familiar with and someone they trust. In today's world, in a changing economy a reputation defined by familiarity and trust is a very valuable reputation to have.

Meet John Locke, head of a major foundation in our community. I call John, the master networker and he is an amazing man. Everywhere we go and every event we attend John really connects with people. More importantly, it is evident by his conversations he is interested and cares about people. He asks questions and he listens. He learns about people - what they do, what is important to them and what they personally need to be successful. He is a master connector.

People describe John as the resource of Western North Carolina. If you need help, support, a connection then John is your guy. The result? He runs an thriving foundation, he serves on the boards of several he very successful organizations, and he continually has his pick of career and job opportunities. While other foundations struggle to raise funds, while many individuals are unable to find jobs, John's foundation and his marketability remain in demand. Why? because in any economy, but especially in a changing economy, people value trust, support and authenticity.

The art of turning prospects into customers begins with the simple step of networking to help others. Let this type of networking become your way of life and sit back and watch good things start to happen - from business results, the more satisfaction in your profession and less stress in your life!

You can LOVE to sell!

2009-10-31T03:03:00.000-07:00

I find it fascinating that so many people hate to sell. Yep - those are the words they use - the ones I hear over and over again "I hate to sell."

Why? I find that so intriguing. The only answer I can come up with is somewhere in their professional careers they have come into contact with a book, sales training or a coach that made them believe that sales was high pressure, me focused, and high stress.

When in actuality sales is nothing like that (if you are good at it - if you are at the top of your game.) Sales is about helping people - period, bottom line, end of story. It is about listening, asking questions and learning what people need so you can help them identify the product or service that will more than satisfy that need. (Okay - perhaps over simplified but you get my point.)

If you fall into this category of people who say they hate to sell; take a moment and ask yourself do you care about people and do you genuinely want to help them? (I know for most of us the answer will be yes).. Then follow these simple steps - found in this great article - http://tiny.cc.bhgkB to begin the shift from someone who hates to sell to becoming to someone who loves to sell!

1. Win more sales, stop selling – focus on helping

2. To speed up your sales, slow down – series of small closes – know your customer and let them set the pace

3. To make decisions easier, offer fewer options – start with the small pain point

4. To be more natural, prepare like crazy – customers suffer no fools – do not waste their time

5. To get bigger contracts, start smaller – Let the clients try

6. To speed up your learning curve fail fast – embrace mistakes - don't wait to be perfect to get started

7. To differentiate your offering becoming the differentiator – you sell a commoditity – know your value and how to share it

Now get out there and sell!

Sales Leadership

2009-10-11T03:01:00.001-07:00

How do you know if an employee is a "keeper"? Great question! In these tough economic times we definitely want the best employees on our team, yet we all understand employee turnover comes at a huge cost and impact to our bottom line. So how do we know is it them (lazy, unqualified, bad job fit) or us (our leadership style)?

I recently attended a great workshop on leadership, and while I walked away with several nuggets of information, the following really stuck with me.

Business thought leaders have determined there are "only" seven reasons an employee is not performing:
1. Lack of task clarity
(i.e. they are not sure of exactly what their job is)
2. Lack of task priority
(i.e. they are working hard doing one thing you are mad because they have not done what 'you' understand as the most important part of their job)
3. Lack of competence
(i.e. you are coaching, directing or leading them at a level in their current role they have not yet achieved)
4. Real or perceived obstacles
(okay sometimes their excuses are a little thin - but as leaders removing that perceived obstacle can help us determine their commitment to success)
5. Great perceived reward for failure (my personal favorite on the list - simply means they get bigger reward for not doing their job well - then for doing it well. Think as leaders we are all guilty of this - forgetting to give praise, recognition and reward for duties done well)
6. Lack of performance feedback
(i.e. you are not consistently coaching)
7. Lack of skill
(i.e. bad fit - good person wrong role)

What I loved most about this list is that only number 7 is final. The other six are actually things you can first test yourself as a leader - am I providing the right environment, skills or tools that this person needs to be successful. Second, they are things you can work and talk directly with the employee about. Third, they are tangible, once you do your role as the leader in any of those six and the employee is still not rising to the occasion than you are able to make an unemotional decision about whether or not to let that person go. Peace of mind in a firing situation isn't that fantastic!

And number 7? Well that is actually doing someone a favor. I am a firm believer everyone has the ability to be successful in the right role. And as leaders, we are doing people a kindness when we recognize our employees are struggling, the fit is a bad one and we help guide them to a role more suited for their talents and abilities.

Strategies of Networking

2009-09-03T01:28:00.001-07:00

I just finished a terrific week - highlight was the networking course I taught at Western Carolina University. Obviously because anyone who knows me knows I am passionate about networking and I love to share my ideas; but in addition I had a big surprise in how interested and engaged these students were. I seem to be finding that a lot more these days when it comes to sales and especially networking.

Why networking? I find that networking is something people either love or hate, do or don't do, but either way in this new economy people are finding that love it or hate it - it is the most dependable road to effective growth.

In my opinion, the term networking is misunderstood. Many people simply don't like networking because they do not understand how to do it effectively. Networking is one of those terms we throw out without any real explanation of what it is and how to do it. I mean think about it - when have you ever really been shown how to network? We have all taken plenty of sales classes, negotiating classes, the "art of the close" classes - but rarely if ever have we had instruction on the best ways to make the connection in the first place. So no wonder it frustrates people - without a networking strategy, without a networking plan, how can you possibly really get good at turning your connections into your customers?

Networking is one of the those wonderful skills that is simple enough that you can grasp quickly and implement an effective strategy immediately. And then spend a lifetime perfecting and mastering the art - all the while making your life more fun, interesting and productive!

So how do you get started? The simple strategy of networking is as follows:
1. Define who you are trying to networking with - as clearly and describtively as possible. Who are you looking for? Who do you want to meet?

2. Once you understand that - then define where you think you could meet people that fit that description. Are they at Rotary? are they at church? Is joining a basketball team at the YMCA the right place to bump into this type of individual? Perhaps volunteering? or taking up a new sport and joining and active group? It doesn't matter - it is just important that you put yourself in the right group to meet the people you want to meet.

3. Pre-plan - define what to say and what to talk about. This is people's number one fear of networking - what do I say? First, remember the conversation is not about you - you are there to learn about the other person and determine how you can help them first - then to determine if they are a good/qualified connection for you. So you need to develop a set of questions that will help you arrive at these conclusions. The most important things are to ask open ended questions, ensure you do it in conversational form, and prepare and practice.

4. Follow-up - networking is the first step - making networking effective only happens when you follow-up. You need to develop a follow-up strategy to win at turning your connections into your clients.

These steps are easy to understand, easy to prepare for and even easier to implement. You can draft your own details and descriptions to each step or for a complete outline, some proven techniques and some support, join us at the chamber of commerce in Hendersonville on September 23, for our Selling In The New Economy Series. This month we will be covering the art of turning your connections into your clients - details of effective networking and effective sales calls.

Building a referral network

2009-08-27T00:49:00.000-07:00

I had a client ask me just last week, "how can I become more effective at cold calling?" My answer - "severely limit the amount you have to do."

Calling someone out of the blue that you don't know, who does not know you is - in my opinion - a tough way to go about building your business. Now understand I am not against cold calling, I just personally do not recommend it as a lead sales strategy. I mean why cold call when there are so many other more effective, less stressful and quite frankly more enjoyable ways to grow your business?

One of my personal favorites is building a referral network. When new business comes to you via referral you stand a much better chance of the sales cycle ending in a closed piece of business. Why? because trust and needs identification have already been established. That means someone else did half your work for you - you have to love that!

So how do you go about building a referral network and/or system? Here are the seven steps that I follow:

1. Do an exceptional job! If you want referrals you have to give your client's something to talk and brag about. If you follow Seth Godin, this is what is known as the "Purple Cow." Godin's explanation - if you're driving down the road and see a group of cows that would be no big deal and you barely even notice. But if you're driving down the road and you see a "Purple Cow" well now that is something, and you simply have to tell everyone you know. So understand the little things matter - people love to brag and tell great stories - so ask yourself what are the little extras I do that set me apart from my competition and are they having the intended impact on my clients? Do I give my clients something to talk about? Assessing how well you service your clients is rule 1 in asking for referrals.

2. Clearly, simply and effectively communicate who you are and what you do. People will refer to you if they understand who you are, what you do and what you are looking for. Most of our existing clients use one or two of our product and service offerings (we'll talk about effectively increasing production/profitability with your existing clients at another time!) simply because they are not aware of the range of services we offer and how those services benefit clients. The same goes for traditional referral sources - those peers and professionals who do complimentary work and would be perfect candidates to send us business. So work to define and explain very simply and clearly who you are, what you offer and who/how you can help.

3. Ask for referrals. I firmly believe people want to help you, but you have to ask for the help. Get in the habit of asking your clients for referrals. No - not an aggressive strategy. Simply let people know you are looking to grow your business and to please feel free to share your name and your contact information with anyone they feel you could help. This should be a regular part of your conversations. I work with a lot of doctors, and it never fails when we invoke this type of strategy how many times an existing patient says "I would be happy to recommend you - I just assumed you were not taking new patients." The same is true in most industry - if you want it you need to make sure you ask for it.

4.Focus on your top 20%. While I casually mention to all of my clients that I am looking to grow my business and that I welcome new clients and referrals. I focus my referral relationship building on my top 20%. These are the clients I have that are my "raving fans." They love the work I do, they believe in my products and services, and they above anyone else understand why working with me is so effective. They are not only enjoy sending me referrals; their referrals result in the types of clients with whom I most want to do business.

5. Seek out professionals and peers who offer complimentary services. One of the best ways to increase your referrals is to find other professionals who work with your target market. Call them on the phone - offer to take them to lunch or for coffee and have a sales conversation. Ask them all types of questions about their business, find out specifically what they do and what type of client's they are looking for. Then offer your short, simple and very clear explanation of your business. Then suggest if and when the opportunity arises to send each other referrals. Do not expect this to work with one visit. Just like a sales call this takes time and is based on comfort, trust and relationship. So identify four or five professionals and work consistently to build those relationships.

6. Send referrals. If you want to get referrals you should be the first to send referrals. This is just smart business, but in addition it is such a win/win strategy. Your referral source is thrilled and now feels obligated to find some business for you. Second, you have helped your client or potential client out by filling a need that they had. You come out the hero on both sides as you are adding value. (Tip - if you send someone a referral call and let them know you did. Just in case your referral does not mention taht you made the recommendation. Plus if gives you another opportunity to 'touch' your referral source and let them know you are working on their behalf)

7. Say thank you - Many sales experts suggest reward systems for sending referrals. And while I feel that is a personal choice and should be an individual strategy, the one thing I am dedicated to is the importance of saying (and writing a note to say) thank you. These are incredibly powerful, powerful words. And whether or not you close the business thanking that person for recommending is not only the right thing to do it will ensure you receive more referrals down the road.

While there are many more tips and ideas on how to develop, build and capitalize on a referral strategy, implementing these seven will go a long way in increasing your referrals, your reputation and most importantly your percentage of closed sales!