How well do your “check in” follow-up calls work for you? You know the calls to the prospect or customer who was not ready to act or change yet? But you know there is future opportunity.

So, you have reminders set up so you can regularly keep in touch and you ‘check in’.  Most check-ins sound like this:

• “Hi Greg, it’s been a while since we connected. Thought I’d check in and see if  you’d like to talk.”  or
• “Hello Cheryl, how are you? You had mentioned I should check back with you this week to see where things are.”

Ever made calls like this? Or been the recipient of a call that sounds like this?  How effective is this approach?  Does it move the sale along? More often than not, it doesn’t.

What to do then? You need to ’stay in front’ of them, keep your name out there, identify when it is time, right?  Of course! 

What’s important is to vary your message and method to keep it interesting.  My colleague, Melissa Blair, of Cultivating Sales, reminds me often that NURTURING is the process that works.

What does it mean to nurture the prospects in your pipeline (or pre-pipeline)?  Nurturing or Drip Marketing are the terms used to STAY IN TOUCH with leads and customers.  To ‘drip’ regular messages and value to these people that keeps you top of mind, share valuable information with them and stops the ineffective ‘ check ins’. 

Think about a dripping water faucet. It seems insignificant, but over the course of a few hours, all those drips add up – filling a glass!  it’s the same with drip marketing. Each ‘touch’ is small and seemingly insignificant, its the cumulative effect that pays off!  

It only takes a few hours to initially identify your plan and get started, then the process is ready for auto-pilot leaving you valuable time for your other sales activities!

It works for Sales Pro Insider, Inc.  – we are a sales organization too!  We need to keep in touch with our leads and pipeline.  Last December, we put together a 12-month Drip Marketing plan. One ‘touch’  each month to our top 50 prospects. The pieces of the plan included:

1. HOW we would connect: we challenged ourselves to think of mixing up the ways to stay in contact: email, regular mail, and phone calls.
2. WHAT we would communicate: helpful tips, quotations, free tools, etc.
3. WHEN we would connect: one ‘touch’ each month.
4. WHO we want to stay in contact with: our top 50 prospects.

Then we put the plan into action. After just 3 months I am thrilled with the results! Three of the 50 have asked for us to move forward in the sales process!  That’s a 6% return after just 3 of our non-pressure filled ‘drips’!

The next post will include all the different free or inexpensive tools available to help you Stay In Touch.  There is a strong interest in nurturing – the proof is that the article Melissa Blair wrote a year ago for this blog is one of the most accessed posts!  Read 10 Ways to Increase Sales Using Drip Marketing.  You can follow Melissa on Twitter.

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What does it take to form a great first impression?  Lynn Zimmer, of the Sales Pro Insider team, shares a quick tip today:

The Rule of Twelve

 If people make “snap” judgments about you in the first 7 seconds, what are they saying about you?

Focus on the “Rule of Twelve” to make your first impression favorable.

• The first twelve inches from the shoulders up – Smile, make eye contact
• The first twelve steps a person takes – Project confidence, be alert (not focused on your notes or phone 
• The first twelve words a person states – Be friendly and sincere – make your greeting about THEM

 “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

                                                                              Credited to Oscar Wilde

Thanks Lynn for an insightful tip on how we can use twelve as a measure for making the best FIRST impression!

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Tags: Sales Tips

How excited are you about the ‘pieces’ of your job?  Are you in the ‘fresh’ stage of finding it all exciting? Or a ‘stale’ stage where most days you think ‘Been there, done that?’

For me, the travel part of my job has become a bit stale. I didn’t even realize this until my flight this week. I was on my way to Florida to work on Sharpenz. The process was like many other trips until I sat down behind a dad and his daughter. These two strangers reminded me the true joy and wonder of flying!

The girl was bout 12, and from her comments, hadn’t flown since before 9/11 (she must have been a toddler!).  The dad was patiently, and with animation, explaining what was happening from the time we boarded.

He explained:

• How the seats recline – and that if you move them all the way back, it affects the person behind you – so be careful (love his consideration for meJ behind her).
• The de-icing process (it is still cold in Milwaukee in the mornings).
• How the light and air controls work.
• And on and on.

But the magic was at take off – the wonder she expressed as 100+ passengers, in a big ‘metal box’ lifted off the ground!

I smiled the whole time thinking – YES! This is awesome!  We can get from HERE to THERE so quickly in the sky!

As I overheard this exchange between father and daughter – I started thinking about other ‘pieces’ of what I do that might feel a little stale right now. How can I recapture some of the wonder about this career I have chosen and am honored to have!

What about you? What ‘pieces’ of your job might feel stale?  Want to try and capture some wonder too?

I came up with several tips:

1. Look at your job with wonder. I know CRM and sales reports aren’t fun…but imagine how that process worked just 20 years ago!  Faxes, handwritten reports, overnight mailings to the manager, etc.  What technology has done for so much of this is truly amazing!
2. Talk to a ‘Rookie” – ask them what they are enjoying or what pieces of the job they are trying to understand better.
3. Mentor someone! Taking on a mentor role can change your outlook. That’s why mentor programs are still growing –mentors get as much (if not more) out of the arrangement than the mentee!
4. Think about ALL those people without jobs right now – how excited they would be to have your job – even with all the stale pieces that come with it.
5. Make a list of why you do what you do. What is the value to others, the world, your family, yourself for the job you do?  Look at the list – would these people be better or worse off if you weren’t doing these things?

If none of these work to bring some energy and excitement (even a momentary glimpse) then it may be time for a new career for you.  We spend too much time in our careers to be stale for long. Rejuvenate, revigorate and rejoice for yours!  You might find some wonder in the process.

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Tags: focus, Sales, sales success, Sales Tips

Prospecting has never been harder – or easier. Yes, it’s hard to get responses, but you have all the tools at your finger tips to increase your odds of grabbing the attention of your top contacts and getting a reply.

One real bonus of staying ‘connected’ in your industry, is that you will have access to lots of great expertise!  You will also have comrades to share ‘your stories’ with and find out information that will help make your work more efficient and productive.  These ‘tools’ will make everything easier! 

That’s why I so appreciate sales experts like Kendra Lee of the KLA Group. Her article, Cool Sales Tools to Make Prospecting Easier, is so packed with great ideas and links!  Below is the article in its’ entirety.

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Cool Sales Tools to make Prospecting Easier by Kendra Lee

Gone is the dialing for dollars mentality. You can do better than that.

You can use these tools to do everything from identifying who your best-odds prospects are to deducing why they’d want to speak with you, writing a powerful email, and ultimately attracting them to you. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Identify the who. Once you know the profile of the types of contacts and companies you want to approach, use Zoominfo.com, NetProspex.com, Insideview.com or Hoovers.com to search and get the names of the best contacts to talk to.
2. Delve in. Go a step further and do some research for the contacts you’ve uncovered on those same sites. What have they written? Where have they been quoted? You can quickly get a feel for what’s top of mind with them and where their passions lie. Use this information to craft your grabber value proposition for phone calls and emails. Use it to write blogs or articles that’ll attract their attention and peak their interest. Comment about your ideas on social networks.
3. Secure contact info. Start with these same sites to find the most current contact information for your target prospects. Jigsaw and NetProspex are maintained by people like you and me, so they’ve often got very current information. While you’re there, add a few contacts of your own and earn points for free contact information downloads. You can also use LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks as a tool.
4. Find elusive email addresses.  If you still can’t find an email address here’s a trick to try. From your search engine type “@their website domain” and it’ll pull up anywhere on the web where email addresses for that domain appear. Now you’ll have the email protocol for that company and can more effectively guess your contact’s email address.
5. Watch your prospects. No, we aren’t talking stalking. Watch what your top prospects are doing using alert services like Google Alerts for free. Set up a daily alert and see all the tweets and comments they’ve made and where they’re mentioned. You’ll know what to talk about when you call and more importantly, when they need you to call.
   Make your emails stand out. Use Gobbledygook.grader.com to pick out trite or hype-filled words and phrases you don’t even know you’re using. It’s a great tool to increase the impact of your brochures and online copy, too.
6. Know if they’re listening. One of the biggest challenges with email prospecting is knowing if anyone has read what you sent. Use ReadNotify.com to trace email opens and forwards, numbers of times read, and URL clicks. Use bit.ly to shorten long links for social network comments and emails. You can track how many times the links are opened, forwarded and by whom.
7. Increase your own productivity. If you’re a Microsoft Outlook user Xobni.com is a plug-in that makes searching your inbox and finding information about your contacts fast and easy. You can even search social networks for information about your contacts.

Getting people to reply is the most difficult aspect of prospecting. These tools give you new levels of information and insight to increase your odds of success.

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Thank you Kendra for all the great tips – and the links to these tools!

If this isn’t enough – the Smart Selling Tools site lists dozens of tools to help make your sales life easiser.

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Tags: maximize sales productivity, productivity, Sales Tips

Well the calendar declares it to be spring. And spring brings the message of new life, freshness, and light.  Couldn’t we all use that in our daily lives?

That’s why I share the Optimist Creed by Christan Larson with you today.

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself …

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the great achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

What a GREAT promise to make to yourself!  And think about it, with this optimism, how would your sales be affected? How many people would SEEK to work with you? How many loyal customers would you have? How many sales would you make?

Most people like to be around people that make them feel better – for those that don’t - well, i think they are in the minority.

Today – find one part of this creed to focus on and enjoy the day!

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Tags: customer loyalty, Sales Tips

Earlier this week I read an article by Jill Konrath, sales expert and author (see more on Jill at the end of this post), about the REAL decision making process of buyers.  I just hung up the phone and experienced this – as the buyer! 

The call was from someone referred to me. I didn’t have the time (vacation awaits), and yet before hanging up, I asked HIM a question that ‘connected’ us.  As I hung up, I thought “I bet he thinks he is ‘in’ – just like Jill wrote about in her article!”  So, I share the article with you so you can see what I am talking about and more importantly, so that you don’t go too far in your sales call. Finding the right distance will get you to the finish line faster! 

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Are You Going Too Far on Sales Calls?
By Jill Konrath

Call me a prude if you will, but I’ve had it with sellers who are totally clueless that they’re going too far, too fast in their initial meeting with me. The worst thing is, they have no idea how their actions are perceived.

Could you possibly be guilty of this promiscuous behavior? If so, do you have any idea what it’s doing to your reputation?

The Fantasy

Let’s say I’m your ideal prospect. You call me up, catch me on the phone, deliver a message that piques my curiosity and I agree to meet.

Sounds like the perfect scenario, right? If you’re like most sellers, you’re probably pretty excited about our upcoming meeting. After all, I’m one hot prospect who’s interested in what you’ve got.

So what happens when we finally get together? Initially you focus on building a relationship with me. You thank me for agreeing to meet. We chitchat for a few minutes about little things. Then you ask me about my company to get me talking about business.

After you’ve warmed me up, it’s time to get serious. Since I agreed to meet, clearly I want to learn about your company and offering, so an overview comes next. You want to make sure I understand all the salient details about your organization, its history and more.

Then it’s time for a few questions. Perhaps you start by assessing if I’m a qualified buyer with money in my budget. Or, you might focus on my very specific needs so you can determine the appropriate solution.

Following that, you present information on the products or services you think I’d be most interested in. When I start asking questions, you get more excited. We’re connecting, bonding, getting closer to consummating the business relationship.

The Reality

But the truth is, you are dead wrong! You’ve totally misjudged my interest level and thus, lost the opportunity to do business with me.

Why? You don’t understand how I (your prospect) think. You assumed that my interest meant one thing, when it fact it signifies something entirely different.

In SNAP Selling (coming in May), I’ve structured the whole book around the three primary decisions your prospects make:

First Decision: Allow Access
When you approach a prospect with an enticing message, they’ll agree to meet-perhaps by phone, web conference or in person. They’re willing to invest a small bit of time with you. You’ve moved them from being oblivious about your existence to curious.

Second Decision: Initiate Change
In the second decision, your prospect evaluates if it’s worth it to change from the status quo. They’d prefer not to because it takes a lot of extra time and effort. But, if they can see that all the hassle and pain leads to a better outcome, they’ll do it.

Third Decision: Select Resources
Once your prospect decides that change is worthwhile, then they want to learn about your product or service. Understanding your differentiators becomes important to them. Even the risk of doing business with you is considered. At the end of this decision, they pick the option they determine is best for them.

Understanding the difference between these three decisions is imperative to your sales success. At each stage of the process, your sales behaviors must change if you want to keep advancing your relationship. Failure to get it right means you get dumped.

So Here’s the Deal

Over 90% of the people you meet with are in the Second Decision phase. They’re trying to determine if they want to change.

But there you are, trying to seduce them with all the cool things about your product, service or solution. That’s Third Decision behavior. It’s way too much information about your offering much too quickly. And, it’s coming at a time when the focus should be on helping your prospect assess the ROI for moving off the status quo

When you prematurely elaborate, you set up a lose/lose situation. Prospects don’t want to have anything more to do with you, even if you could have made a difference to their business. From their perspective, you’re only concern is making a quick sale. While that wasn’t your intent, that is how you’re perceived.

Anytime you meet with new prospects, first find out if they’ve already decided to change. If not, don’t talk for more than a few minutes about your offering or company.

Instead say, “While many of our customers have realized significant value from changing, what we really need to do is determine if it makes sense for you.” Then, be prepared to ask questions that lead to that outcome.

Don’t sabotage your chances of sales success by trying to move too quickly. Slow down. Way down. Ensure your prospect has made the Second Decision, before you jump into Third Decision behaviors – or suffer the consequences. You can’t rush a relationship!

Thanks Jill for a very timely message – I personally CAN’T wait to get my hands on your SNAP Selling book!

More on Jill:  Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings and association events.

For more articles like this, visit http://www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com . Get a free Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95 value) when you sign up for the Selling to Big Companies e-newsletter. 

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: prospecting, sales expert, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

Ever notice how your ongoing ‘check in’ calls seem to go no where?  Or the “I’m following up to see if you made a decision.” Seems flat?

Well, Alice Kemper at Sales Training Consultants, takes a different approach!  She uses creativity to give them a WOW reminder.  The picture shows her latest effort.  A health care prospect is considering using the Sharpenz sales workshops for their team.  Alice knows she has competition and has strategically decided to have this First Aid kit arrive the day of the competitor’s presentation! 

If history is any indication Alice will seal the deal with this clever way of staying top of mind – and reminding the prospect of the value she will bring.

What accounts do you have ’stuck’ in the pipeline? How important is it to move them forward? Might it be worth a $10-15 creative approach to get back in front of them and move the sale to a close?

And let’s share – what ideas have you used to get the attention of a stalled sale?

p.s. I’m a weather information junkie. I was THRILLED to see that in Wisconsin today – our ‘lenght of day’ is 12 HOURS!  Yahoo!  That, combined with the crocuses blooming yesterday and 62 degrees temps has me feverish with spring!!!

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Tags: Creativity, Sales Tips

Last week I was a buyer. I needed to purchase new ‘pieces’ for my training programs - binders, tabs, etc.  After hitting the local office supply stores and not finding what I needed. I surfed the Internet.  

In my search for just the right tabs, I found The Tab Store.  Who knew such a store existed?  I was kind of excited as I went through the selection process, customized my order and added it to the Shopping cart. Before hitting Submit, I ran an idea by Lynn Zimmer and then was confused about the tab order and just left the shopping cart.  I figured I’d get back to it later.  But I never did.

Two days later I received an email from Judy in customer service. It was a simple email -

Thanks for registering with The Tab Store.  We noticed that you didn’t place an order. We were wondering if there is something we can help you with.  Did you find everything you were looking for?  Is there an issue we can help you resolve?

Please let us know.

Thanks,

Guess what?  It came at a perfect time when I was unsure and needed a little hand-holding so I responded. “Yes you can help me. Please call me at 414.235.3064.”  A little while later the phone rang.  I explained what I was trying to do, the rep helped me and even placed the order FOR me!  Yeah, something off the To Do list!

You know what? If she would not have acted on that ‘little extra’ and sent the email, I would not have ordered through them. The little touch of follow-up worked perfectly to close the sale! 

And now it’s your turn.

How many people are sitting now in your pipeline (or worse on your prospect list) with an unresolved want or need because they are not sure what to do. And that with a little nudge or offer of help – you might bring them GREAT value?

My challenge to you this week is to look at your list. Who maybe showed some interest and is just stalled. Who could you contact with a SIMPLE message to see if there is something ‘you can help them resolve’?  Maybe you’ll close more sales this week because of it!

Look at how The Tab Store benefited. They did receive my order AND they now have many hundreds of people hearing about it.

What would that kind of word-of-mouth do for you?

p.s. If you have a company you want to ‘hold up’ as the example that did the little extra that earned your business OR an example of a little extra you gave that paid off big – leave a comment! We can all benefit from knowing great ‘go to’ companies!

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As we hit March 15th also known as the Ides of March- the date Julius Caesar was killed – let’s add a happy spin to the date!  It’s half-way through the month (and getting close to quarter end for many of you).  It’s also half-way through the voting period for the Top 10 Sales Articles! My article on “The Three “I”s of Open Ended Questions is in 3rd place as of today and I would love to make a move UP and win!  Thanks in advance! 

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Want to be a top performer?  One way to up your game is to tap into the power of having a coach. Before you say yes/no – a few thingsto consider:

• What does a coach really do?
• Are you coachable?
• Where can you find one?

First, what does a coach really do? Well wikipedia states that “Coaching is a method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are many ways to coach, types of coaching and methods to coaching. Sessions are typically one-on-one either in-person or over the telephone.” 

Interesting. And I’m so glad to see that they note there are ‘many ways, types ad methods to coaching.’  From my experience a coach is someone who ASSISTS someone else in their development. This can be through asking reflective questions, guiding and mentoring, nudging, providing accountability, challenging – but ALWAYS helping the person commit to action and move forward.   The coach is not the person who gets ‘in the game’ – they help with preparation, cheering them on and debriefing after an event. 

Are you coachable? This might be the most important question of all.  As we help companies hire the best sales professionals and leaders, one of the attributes we assess and interview for is ‘coachability’.  It is a deal-breaker if the candidate is not coachable. Why?  None of us will become the best we can be without opening ourselves up to help and development. 

How important is coachability? Well, I’ll share a recent example with a sales leader. He had the skill, knowledge and experience. His coachability was low but the organization still thought he was ‘their guy’ and they hired him. Short story, he lasted 6 months. Why?  He wasn’t open to other ideas, to feedback, etc. He alienated people because it needed to only be ‘his way’. What did that cost the company? At minimum $200k plus a LOT of ill will in the culture.

Where can you find a coach? There are coaches for hire – but you might not need to hire one. How about your manager?  A colleague who is insightful and will give you the ‘truth’.  A friend or spouse or family member? The right person for you might not be in sales – if they are able to help you firm up your goals, offer insight and a ‘nudge’ (or kick in the pants) when needed and who will celebrate with you.

When I facilitate goal setting sessions – in classroom or with individuals – the goal plan includes identifying stakeholders. One of these can be a coach – the person who helps  you stay focused and on track to achieve what YOU want to achieve. 

Look at the highest level professionals – from sports to entertainment (even politics) – nearly all of them have a coach, an advisor or someone who guides them through their profession. 

Consider the 3 questions listed here…the most important is ‘are you coachable?’  Your coachability matters today – and it very much affects your tomorrow.

P.S. if you would to see the entire goal setting process, click here for the free eBook, Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals. The eBook is short and provides ‘how’ and a tool to get your goals written.

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If you live in the U.S. you may be hearing about March madness.  No, it isn’t people trying to hold on to their sanity as they wait for spring – its all about NCAA basketball!

As the hype begins and the country (or maybe its just the Bleeke family) gets ready for the tournament, we can all think about our own March madness at work. 

In March the reality of the year starts to sink in.  People have a lot of optimism in the month as companies and sales managers set goals.  February follows with lots of activity and a belief it will pay off.  And then March starts…and people start scrambling to make quarterly numbers, and wondering whether they have committed to more than they can deliver. 

Today I received an email from a professional friend wondering what I am noticing as a I talk with companies. Do I see ‘hope dissipating,’ he asked. Well, NO,  I don’t believe  hope is dissipating. I just spoke with two company presidents this week that said February ended with better than expected results. They believe the momentum will push the March numbers even higher.

The real question is, what do you believe?  Do you believe you are positioned for a great quarter-end? What you believe matters:

Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman -                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          not the attitude of the prospect.

W. Clement Stone

W. Clement Stone is a GREAT role model for those of us in sales. His story is told in his book “The Success System That Never Fails“.  W. Clement was also known to say that he never made a ‘cold call’, he made ‘gold calls’. 

But back to March Madness.  Strive to be MAD this month!

• Motivated
• Assertive
• Determined

With the right attitude and a MAD approach, you will succeed. And then your results (and your sales manager) will thank you.

P.S. Today starts a different March madness in my family. All three of my children’s birthdays are this month – starting with Jackson who turns 17  today.

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Tags: focus, Sales Tips