TGIF -  Thank God It’s Friday!  Do you feel like that this week? You don’t have to.  Let’s make today – FUF!  Follow-up Friday. 

Fridays are great days for follow-up.  Many people are at their desk today trying to wrap up their week and tie up loose ends before the weekend starts. It’s often a GREAT opportunity to for you to catch them!  You can make it a very productive day to:

• Send information of value to a prospect
• Telephone contacts in your pipeline – prepare in advance what to leave as a voicemail message (just checking in doesn’t cut it)
• Respond to emails that have been sitting for days
• Complete the paper work that you have not had time to do the rest of the week
• Prepare for next week’s calls
• Set appointments for next week and the week after
• Review your goals and decide what you will focus on next week
• Take 60-90 seconds and just sit and breathe thinking about what you HAVE accomplished this week.

For me today is about preparation and opportunity.  I have a really great sales appointment this afternoon that I am excited about.  It’s with a long-time customer of my sales training. Today we are broadening our discussion to see how I might help them meet their broader human resource objectives of recruiting, training and coaching a top notch sales team. I know I can help them move that needle to save time, money and their effort! 

A good sales appointment today will mean I have a follow-up Monday

What do you do on Friday to wrap up your week?

It’s Monday morning.  I’m tired.  The weekend was long and ended with a funeral for a 39 year old mom with young kids.  What an energy zapper.  And I have a long To Do list for today including an important sales call (aren’t they all important?).

How about you?  Ready to go this morning?

Sometimes its hard to be productive when you have ZERO pep.  Isn’t it?  So what to do?  Going back to bed is not an option.  Taking the day off isn’t either.  So I need to find a way to dig in and find ‘it’ today!

Here’s my plan to find ‘it’:

1. Before looking at my long To Do list, I am taking out my goals.  I am going to read through them and remind myself of WHERE I am headed.
2. Then I am going to really think hard about the rewards I am seeking by achieving the goals.
3. And next I am going to look at my To Do list for today and this week and make sure I have activities listed out that will move me forward.
4. Then I am going to start with the #1 priority (this blog post was the first #1 and I am almost finished !

Just writing these actions has me feeling more energetic!  I think it is because I have a plan now.  That works for me. I will have a productive day

What you need to discover is what works for you? How are you going to get ‘it’ going today so that THIS week is productive and powerful?

If you want help in being more productive, starting with your goals can help.  I did complete the Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals eBook.  It’s a quick process to help you write and plan to reach your goals.  An easy-to-use goal planner is included!  All you need to do is sign up for the Timely Tips ezine here to get your copy.  If you are   already a Timely Tips subscriber, I sent you a link over a week ago to access yours.  If you don’t have it – send me an email. 

Last night I returned to Wisconsin after 3 days working with my Sharpenz.com partner in Boca Raton, FL. (Don’t be jealous, it was cold and I was working.)  Traveling always provides interesting situations and sales lessons, and this trip provided a GREAT tip on stalled sales.  The lesson? Don’t be a lemming.

AirTran is the only direct flight and I arrived to check in early. This isn’t a bash on AirTrain, in fact my “TO” flight was smooth and 15 minutes early and the return last night arrived 28 minutes early!

As I entered the Check-in line, there were about 10 passengers in front of me and the line was stalled.  I could see the self check kiosks…without anyone using them.  I asked the man in front of me why no one was using them and he said “Looks like you have to go through one of the agents.”

I waited.

Now there were 6 people behind me and we were still stalled.  I saw an AirTran employee and asked him “Can we  use those kiosks?”  He said “Do you have your confirmation number handy?”  I replied, “No.” (It was buried deep and I didn’t need it on the way out.)  He told me ‘Sorry, then.” and moved on. 

The next 15 minutes were Wait. Move a little. Wait. Stall, stall, stall.  I watched the other people in line (20 or so).  One gentleman really in a panic that the was going to miss his flight.  But he stood in this stalled line like everyone else.

When I reached the front of the line there was another AirTrain employee. I asked her, “Can’t we use the open kiosks?” She said “I don’t think so unless you have your confirmation number.”

Okay.  But I kept looking at them and they LOOKED just like the one I used in Milwaukee three days earlier – you just swiped your credit card and it brought up your itinerary. So I said to the agent, “I think I just need my credit card. Can I try?”  She shrugged her shoulders like “Go ahead’.

As I approached the kiosk I thought “If this works, how many people waited needlessly?”  

Guess what?  It took me about 2 1/2 minutes to swipe my card, move through the screens and pick up my boarding pass.

Wow.  Of course being a trainer I always like to share tips and tools that help others so I turned to the Airtran agent, held up the pass and with a big smile said “It DOES work with a credit card!!”  She looked disinterested.  But the man behind me in line, quickly walked up to the next kiosk instead of waiting.

As I was on my way to security, I was thinking:  How inefficient that was!   How many people were just going with the flow and stalled because everyone else was? 

All because they didn’t:

• Want to ask questions.
• Weren’t paying attention to the details. (One half the kiosk were on and unused)
• Were given wrong information and they didn’t question it.

And that’s how this ties into a sales lesson.  How often do salespeople get stuck in the stalled sales line?  And wait it out without finding out why there is a stall and if there is a way to speed it up?

What, if instead of stalling we:

• Looked for other ways to approach the situation and take action?
• Asked questions on why and how?
• Took a chance by trying something – even if others weren’t willing to?

I think we would move the sales process along more quickly, learn something useful (I’ll never wait like that in line again with open kiosks) and be able to share the idea with others!

Last year was a perfect example of this.  While MANY salespeople ‘waited out’ the recession and followed other non-active msed that stall, kept moving forward and had great sales results!

How have you avoided being a leming and moving a stalled sale?

P.S. I’m not sure if everyone knows the leming reference:  Lemings are rodents who are ‘mythed’ to follow one lemming no matter what, even to death (going over a cliff).  The Urban Dictionary says it is a person with no originality or voice of their own.  They follow what others do.

What is your toughest sales situation?  Is it Prospect A?  The Gatekeeper?  Or the ‘new’ guy that needs to prove his worth by making your sale tougher?  Though these might all be REALLY tough situations, many times our toughest sale isn’t to a paying customer, it’s with the internal folks in marketing, customer support, operations and leadership.

Whether we like it or not, collaborating or working WITH others  IN your company to ‘win’ their assistance and support will help you sell more.  Having them on your side makes all your sales activities from marketing, prospecting, presentation, order fulfillment, and customer relations easier and more efficient.

John Miller, author of QBQ! and now Outstanding! uses a phrase that still makes me chuckle, he says that some sales teams call the ‘insiders’ at their company, the Sales Prevention Department.  Now come on!  Are the operations and marketing people really trying to keep you from making sales?  Probably not.  

Like an ignored or unhappy customer, though, they can make our jobs more challenging.

This week I am in Florida working with my Sharpenz.com partner, Alice Kemper.  Watching the support of her Administrative Manager  reminds me why she is so successful.  Alice takes care of Gloriann Perque at work and as a person. In turn, Gloriann will do ‘anything’ (she told me so) for Alice.  And that pays off in business.

With my associates at Sales Pro Insider, Inc. I am fortunate to have Lynn Zimmber, Kayla Kutz and Claire Ziffer help me with so many things – even at last notice.

I see this with many successful sales professionals. They know who to go to when they need to get something done.  They may be demanding, but they also take care of their internal folks.  Some even give gifts or money at year-end to share their bonus and commission that they couldn’t have earned without that support.  Others are thoughtful throughout the year and verbalize their appreciation often.

So today I challenge you collaboratively sell with your internal people:

• Build a relationship with your internal associates
• Ask them questions - understand what THEY do and why they do it.  Find out what they need to be able to serve you better
• Listen – really listen
• Appreciate them and what they do
• When giving them something to do, ask for any potential obstacles and work with them to remove them
• Ask for a decision or commitment. 

Identify one person on your team (it can even be your manager) that you want buy-in from for you and your efforts.  And then begin today to sell with them and win them over.  An easy way is to show genuine appreciation TODAY!  Your benefits will be huge!

What do you think?  How have you turned an internal associate into a huge advocate that helps you?  Who is the internal person that you want to recognize and appreciate? 

I hope the series of Sales Predictions for 2010 that wraps up today has given you some ammunition on actions, strategy and maybe a boost of hope and confidence that THIS year can be whatever you want it to be.  As we wrap up the first full work week of 2010, I share my predictions for sales leaders and sales professionals. 

I am optimistic about this year – with a caution.  The business landscape is different.  There is hesitation on ‘is it over yet?’ and maybe a lack of commitment to MOVE.  This leads all of us in sales – really the driver of our economy in so many ways – to need to think differently, find different paths and collaborate more consciously.  And it will be worth it because there is a LOT of opportunity to ‘light up the sky’ with and for our customers!

My specific predictions:

Sales Leaders

Leaders at all levels will continue to have to do more with less.  Problem solving and finding proactive activities to equip and engage their sales team will be critical.  Retaining top and average performers will need attention as the markets start to show signs of strengthening and sellers realize there are new opportunities. 

Sales Reps:

The gap between high performers and mediocre performers will widen.  Top performers will seek skills, habits and tools to sell even more.  The ‘noise’ of social media and the internet will become louder.  Filtering to find the right tools and right information will be key to focus on what sales people need to do:  get in front of prospective buyers to determine how they can provide value with and for them.  Collaborative approaches in marketing, nurturing, selling and account management will reign.

And there you have it.  A full week of 2010 sales predictions from credible sales expertise sources - Jill Konrath, Nancy Nardin, Jonathan Farrington, Jeb Blount, Anne Miller and Alice Kemper.  What they’ve learned from their contacts with many companies and sales reps globally, and their attention to the economy allowed all of us a glimpse into what we can focus on this year to capture more sales.  If you’d like to have all the predictions in one, easy to access document for your review, click here.    

Now what?  Well, that’s up to you!  Your focus on setting your targets and goals for this year and then acting to achieve them is critical.  That’s why these next sales resources might be very helpful!

Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals  – a new ebook I’ve written with a turn-by-turn route for you to set and achieve goals.  It even includes an effective Goal Planner!   

I’ve put all the best tips I have shared over the last 18 months into one easy to follow document.  I’m putting the final touches on Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals and it will be available next Tuesday FREE!  Come back for the link.

The eBook will be ready in time to be a companion to the upcoming Top Sales Expert Roundtable on Tuesday, January 12th on Time to Get Into Gear Early!  (This roundtable can be free if you are a VIP member – only $25 a year! for dozens of sales sessions and tools.)  Plus, as a presenter, I have a free seats to offer you today!  (Who says the holiday gift-giving is over?) Click here to be a part of this roundtable that is sure to be helpful and entertaining.   

 One final FREEbie today, a FREE Ready-to-go sales training booster kit for you now.  Sharpenz…Half Hour of Power boosters were designed to help EVERYONE in the sales profession efficiently stay at the top of their game!  And YOU can get a free booster to equip, engage and energize your sales team!  Visit theSharpenz site for the FREE booster. 

It’s January 7th and Day 4 of the Top 2010 Sales Predictions.  So far the predictions include hope that the economy is on the upswing and what sales leaders and sales reps should focus on to build their sales, company and market share.  Today we have two sales experts with a more years of combined experience than most of you have been on this earth. 

Anne Miller, author of Metaphorically Selling and the Make What You Say Pay blog and Alice  Kemper, President of Sales Training Consultants and Principal of Sharpenz, Inc. share their predictions.

For sales leaders:

A slow rebound in business as companies will still be gun-shy about spending money until employment picks up. (Anne Miller)

Leaders in any industry are going to see that they can gain market share from the weakest competitors.  Cream will continue to rise to the top with the inferior companies suffering greater than average loses and in some cases, going out of business altogether. (Alice Kemper)

Sales Reps: 

Success will come to reps who develop (prudent) pit bull persistence with clients; who think out of the box like Steve Jobs; and who  become MBAs on their clients’ business. (Anne Miller)

If they survived the last year and a half then they have developed skills to navigate the new terrain of this economy.  The most successful sellers will continue to seek opportunities within the new terrain.  Q3 and Q4 will reward sellers who have intelligently “laid pipe” through the tough times. (Alice Kemper)

I guess the messages here are that we need to help our prospects aim and fire and MOVE from ‘wait and see’ to leaders in their markets.  This is only possible by differentiating the sales force with great information, skills and tools. 

If what you realize you need to do is find more viable prospects, A resource for today - Ardath Albee shows you how to: 

• Build a foundation for eMarketing based on buyer perspectives.
• Develop contagious content to engage prospective customers.
• Increase your pipeline and nurture prospects till they’re sales ready.

You can click here to download two free chapters of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale for some great ideas to get you started.  And if you are ready to order the book that is full of examples, tools and exercises to help you translate the strategy into practice to achieve dramatic results?  You can order on Amazon: http://bit.ly/6KfVM5

 It’s Day Two of the Top Sales Predictions for 2010. 

The answer posed to international sales experts: 

• What will the new year bring for sales reps?
• What will the new year bring for Sales Leaders?

Today, Jonathan Farrington, a British bloke yet all-around collaborative and intelligent chap who happens to be the CEO of Top Sales Associates and Chairman of The Sales Corporation – based in London and Paris. Jonathan’s personal site The JF Consultancy, offers a superb range of unique and innovative sales solutions and you can also catch his daily blog at The JF Blogit .

What is the New Year is going to bring for our sales leaders?

One of the very few things to come out the deepest recession in living memory was that sales leaders in most industries, faced with decimated training budgets, were forced to roll up their sleeves and coach their teams themselves.

They no longer had the option to abdicate sales team development to external providers – and do you know what? Many of them actually enjoyed it – in fact they discovered they were pretty good at it.

As a consequence, I believe that in 2010, more and more sales leaders will develop their coaching skills, and look for external mentors themselves, because it is highly likely that sales skills training budgets will never be the same again – ever. An item that appears as a cost on the balance sheet with no tangible return is now going to be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny – shareholders will insist on that.

What is the New Year is going to bring for our sales reps?

I believe that top sales professionals will accept greater responsibility for their own development in 2010 – in fact the most successful already started doing this in 2009.

With massive cuts in training budgets, they had no choice. They were not prepared to sit around in the vain hope that someone else might eventually make them successful: They work with the mantra “If it’s to be, it’s up to me”

Traditional generalized classroom training will be consigned to the annals of history as organizations look to adopt a more blended approach, which will include tailored in-house coaching, together with the more cost effective online training and mentoring.

Whichever way you look at it, 2010 is still going to be tough for front-line sales professionals in most market sectors, but providing they remain focused, diligent and committed to their ongoing development, they will win through.

Thank you Jonathan, and while I love the “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” motto – I’m still very hopeful that organizations will dig in and demonstrate that they value their sales team and invest in their development.  Getting people together in person - especially sellers – has so many additional benefits than the training curriculum!

What do the rest of you think?  What do you predict is ‘up’ for sales professionals this year?

More predictions by the ‘experts’ tomorrow. 

Ready or not, it’s here!  2010 has arrived and today is the first official business day for many.  This is also the time of year for Top 10 lists from ‘things’ last year and predictions for this year. So, nothing we can do about 2009 any longer, except learn from the results.  We can look for what this year might bring as we begin anew!

I don’t have a crystal ball to tell us what is ahead - but what I have are connections with AWESOME people in-the-know!  I asked several international sales experts to share their top sales predictions for 2010.  What do we have to look forward to?  What do we need to plan for?  What opportunities should we seize?  This week I will share the predictions with you.  You might agree, you might disagree, that is up to.  I’m hopeful that the information helps you strategize your annual approach.

I asked for predictions in two sales areas:

• What will the new year bring for sales reps?
• What will the new year bring for Sales Leaders?

To begin the 2010 predictions, two savvy women!

Jill Konrath, of Selling to Big Companies, Get Back to Work Faster and Sales Shebang and Nancy Nardin of Smart Selling Tools predict.

Sales Leaders:

• In 2010, a salesperson’s ability to personally bring value to the relationship will become the primary factor in determining which company wins the business. In a world of minimally differentiated products and services, customers will choose to work with sellers who continually bring them relevant ideas, insights and information. If no salesperson stands out in this area, pricing will become the de facto determinant. (Jill Konrath)
• A new enthusiasm and focus for knocking down barriers that stand in the way of their sales team. (Nancy Nardin)

Sales Professionals:

• In 2010, sales leaders will finally realize that investing in Sales 2.0 is essential to increase sales productivity and improve sales effectiveness. It’ll become glaringly apparent that sellers who leverage Sales 2.0 tools significantly outperform their colleagues. On the downside, sales leaders will mistakenly assume this success is due to technology and overlook the substantial skill differential among their reps. This failure to invest in training will result in much lower ROI than initially projected. (Jill Konrath)
• The trend will be “back-to-basics”.  Build relationships, focus on the customer, and provide value.  (Nancy Nardin)

More predictions each day this week – with mine on Friday.  Along the way I’ll also share some great complimentary (as in FREE) resources to help you in 2010 and beyond.

The first resource?  A FABULOUS eBook on Smart Selling Tools – Free and full of lots of tools that are no cost or low-cost.   Maximizing your time and energy will be key this year!

A few days left in 2009.  What are you doing?  From the number of Out of Office notices to messages sent yesterday, many of you are enjoying time OFF!  Yeah for you.  I hope you are rejuvenating yourselves!  For those still ‘in’ this week- its a great time to to close 2009. 

 How?  If you aren’t able to get in front of prospects and decision makers (though I do have 2 sales calls via telephone tomorrow), its the PERFECT time to do all the activities that we say we are too busy to do the rest of the year.  A recap of the actions and then tips follow.     

1. Organize.  Yes, the dreaded organization.  Take time to go through files, drawers, stacks of paper.  
2. Set goals.  Many say there is no time to do this the rest of the year.  Today is the day!
3. Plan. Once the goal is set – putting together the plan is next.
4. Rest.  Give your body and mind time to regenerate.

Tips for each action:

Organize – it’s more than straightening and getting things out of sight.  Start with this 3-step process:

1. Review.  What is in your hand?  Scan it over and then,
2. Decide what to do with it.  Is it something you will need again?  If you discard it, would you have access to it in some other way without it taking up your ’space’? 
3. Keep, toss or file.     Yes, each item – once you get started this is only seconds per paper, item, etc. 

Once you have control of the stuff – set up your files for next year – electronic or paper files.

Set goals.  I’ve written about goals many times, they are THAT important.  A few posts to help you: Ready, Aim, Action and  4 Rs of a  Great Goal Process,  

Plan.  Planning is a different activity than setting the goals.  The goal is the target, the plan is the how you will get there.  If you would like a copy of an effective goal planning form, email me and I’ll send you a Word document.  This document not only allows you to write your goal (an important part of goal achievement) it also has places to write your actions and planning considerations. 

Rest.  As a person who ‘gos’ full steam all the time.  The resting is something I have had to condition myself to.  And I realize the benefits every time.  Make time to get enough sleep, get your ‘head’ out of work, enjoy yourself and others without work pressures!  A previous post speaks to the benefits of rest.

And there you have it.  Make these days work for you!

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Special Note:  If one of your goals for next year is a more productive sales team – we have a great resource for sales boosters!  Sharpenz…Half Hour of Power sales boosts.  Get a FREE Booster here.  And then take advantage of the 30% off sale through 12/31/09- a full robust training library for under $1000!  A great way to use year-end budget dollars. 

2009 was an interesting year for many businesses.  It was also an interesting year for many salespeople!  Some have ‘made it through’, some have soared, some are without jobs as we head in 2010 and most everyone is working harder than ever to maintain.  In trying times, the lessons we learn can serve us well in the future. 

Some of what was hard these last 18 months was that many professionals had not experienced this type of economic stall.  They didn’t know what to do.  So, as the year ends I put together the top 5 Sales Lessons we can take away from 2009.

1. Rules have changed.  Sales cycles are longer, the need to know your business, not just your products is key,
2. ‘Winging it’ grounds you.  If you need to soar to succeed, lack of preparation or ‘winging it’ weighs you down.  Preparing to make the most out of every contact is what makes the difference between long-term success and possibly being out on the street.  Use the Internet and relationships to find information on the person, the company, the industry that you are calling on will make a huge difference in your sales conversations.
3. Performance  (something about .    Many companies cut people. With few exceptions, they cut under performers or people that didn’t fit. 
4. Nurturing is necessary.  Staying top of mind with your prospects or customers was key in 2009.  They might not have had the budget or been on hold for a large part of the year.  And as they start surfacing again looking at 2010, they will go with the people that have kept in touch and tried to provide some value this year.
5. Creativity and flexibility mattermore than ever.  Creativity in approach, in how to give value, in other uses for your product or service, in gaining leads, are needed.  Flexing the way you’ve always done something could have been the difference between a sale or a stall.

Learning these lessons and defining a plan for capitalizing on them for 2010 is necessary.  What can you do? A few things:

1. Find a winner (or two).  Who has succeeded this year?  Ask them how they did it. Determine what you can replicate in your business.
2. Process and prepare.  What type of process works best with your customers and prospects now?  What are all the touchpoints, the objectives, the information you need to learn and to share?  Lay out the process and then prepare for each visit.
3. Perform!  No excuses.  Make the time, take the actions, get the training you need.  Companies more than ever will pay for performance.  If you don’t have the results, your earnings will take a hit.
4. Stay top of mind.  Drip marketing is huge these days.  Identifying the right tools and ‘touches’ to communicate and keep yourself, company and solutions in front of people -even if they aren’t buying now – will continue to differentiate you and position you to be “the” first call when the time is right.
5. Measure and evaluate what you are doing and the results you achieve.  Numbers will tell the story if they are regularly looked at.  Then you can constantly tweak and refine HOW you operate.

Each of these alone will help capture more sales in 2010.  Focusing on all of them will provide you a foundation for more sales in 2011 and beyond, no matter what the economy.

What do you think?  What lesson did you learn in 2009?  What are you going to do about it in 2010?

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And if you wouldn’t mind voting one more time for me at Top 10 Sales Articles. Voting ends on Monday for the Top Sales Article of the Year!  I’d like a good showing – the article, Sign of a True Sales Pro has now been read by over 3500 people in the last 6 months – the message also contains another sales lesson.