The Sales Pro Insider Building Performance Profits and People

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?

Filed Under: Uncategorized, focus, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

Today is a happy day for many parents in my area…the first day of the school year!  It seems a long time ago when we were all singing School’s Out for Summer (this might be an age thing), the song by Alice Cooper that celebrates summer and “no more pencils, books or teachers’ dirty looks.” 

And though the school’s out mindset works for students in traditional schools, what about us professionals?  Is school ever OUT for us?   

Would love your comments…is “school” or learning about how to do things more effectively, information that helps our customers, information about our customers, technology, etc. ever done?  In what ways do you keep yourself IN school? 

We could rephrase the song title to “Schools in Forever” (compliments of Maggi Franks of Harper College for Businesses).

p.s. Feel like rocking to Alice Cooper?  A You Tube version of the song is here.  

Filed Under: Uncategorized, learning, sales tips

Top Sales Experts continues to offer a one-stop outlet for all things sales.  My article, Increase Your Productivity in 60 Seconds or Less, posted on Sales Gravy is a Top 10 for August 2009.  Yeah!

Please vist the Top 10 Sales Articles site and vote for my article - if you find it helpful!  It will take you less than 60 seconds to do this!  While you are there, check out othe other excellent tips from global sales experts.  It’s a great way to get you going for the week!     

Sales Article TSE

Filed Under: Uncategorized, sales tips

Email prospecting is on the rise.  And it has a bad rap because we are inundated with spam emails to collect money from long-lost relatives in Syria, send money to save the orphans, save money on designer watches (I just counted 31 “designer watch” emails in my Junk Folder).  So if you want to use Email as part of your prospecting approach, how do you make it stand out from the junk?

Kendra Lee offers great tips on writing a compelling Subject Line.  One tip:

If you’re attempting to secure an appointment or invite a prospect to a web event, try:

• Shall we meet Tuesday?
• Can you talk Wednesday at 2pm?
• Can you attend Friday at 12?

What makes this work when the contact doesn’t know you? It feels personal to him.

Read the rest of the article Create Email Subject Lines that Draw People In for more tips.

I paused to think of whether Kendra’s tips would get me to open the message if they arrived in my InBox.  (Really they would end up in my Junk Folder   And the answer is YES. I never delete the entire Junk Folder without skimming the subject lines.  I do think these types of Subject Lines would catch my attention….before I hit Delete!

What types of emails will you open if you don’t know the sender?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Following my last post about my Social Media learning points after 8 months of activity, comes this post on 10 Stunning and Useful Facts About Twitter from Rohit Bhargava, Influential Marketing Blog, with 10 Standout Findings about Twitter.

One of the useful facts he writes about:  Twitter is being led by the social media geeks. This particular finding should likely come as no surprise, but 15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2000 people identify themselves as social media marketers. These individuals are more likely to post updates every day (sometimes more than once per day) and also use Twitter more actively for direct communication.

This gives me another learning point to add to my list from Friday’s post…it is OKAY to Unfollow people  on Twitter that do not fit into your “world”.  In fact, the referenced study’s stats on percentage of social media marketers seem low to me. 

One of my newer strategies for Twitter is to remove the obvious over-marketers!  Having 400 healthy Follows is better than 800 that dump useless information that I need to filter through.  This morning I noticed one Twitterer had sent the same marketing tweet 6 times in a minute…and that seemed to be their pattern.  It was empowering to Remove my Follow to them!

Maybe there should be a Twitter-police???

Thanks to Colleen Francis of Engage Selling for her post referencing Rojit’s blog!

Filed Under: Social Media, Uncategorized, sales tips

A sale is not something you pursue, it’s what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.

This quote from a source “Unknown” is very relevant.  In today’s business climate, serving your customer is the key to sales success today and tomorrow.  Our future is in our hands…if we don’t get bogged down in believing no one is buying.

Make your contacts this week with the intention of finding a way to serve your customer … the “sale” will follow.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

There is still time for you to hear from Top Sales Experts who will share with their vision for the future of  selling in the Kick-Off Event of Sales Experts Roundtables. 

The details for this roundtable called the Future of Professional Selling are below…

Join sales experts  Jonathan Farringon, Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein, Nigel Edelshain for this can’t-be-missed event.  They will explore what professional selling will involve in five, ten, and even twenty year’s time

•      Does professional selling as we know it have a future?
•      What impact will Sales 2.0 have on the way we sell?
•      How will organizations train and develop their sales teams?
•      Today, what is the relative value derived from sales training courses versus coaching?
•      Will “one-size fits all” classroom training, be consigned to the annals of history?
•      Which industries are more likely to witness the death of selling as we know it today?
•      What can front-line salespeople do to protect themselves from possible extinction?
•      After this current financial meltdown, will lost jobs be re-created?
•      Will the rapid growth of online sales training and coaching continue?
•      Ongoing research shows that sales performance has been declining year after year.  Why?
•      Quite simply, will selling ever be the same again?

For specifics and to register, click here.   And look around the TSE site – there is a LOT of great information for sales success by worldwide sales experts – including me!  …Nancy Bleeke

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How can Jerry Seinfeld help us sell more?  This guest post by Lynn Zimmer of the Sales Pro Insider team shares this tip on building habits (Seinfeld lovers will appreciate this):

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -     -    -    -    -    -    -    -

Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show and Jerry Seinfeld a touring comic, he shared one of his success habits during an interview.

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. Here’s his secret revealed:

Using a big wall calendar (whole year at a glance) hanging on a prominent wall that he saw daily, he put a big red X over the day when he completed his task of writing.

 “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

 ”Don’t break the chain,” he repeated.

Daily action builds habits. It is consistent daily actions that build extraordinary outcomes.  Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day.

How does this relate to your sales success?  Determine what action would make the most profound impact on your sales if you worked it every day.  Then take that action and mark your first big red X on your Seinfeld calendar today.  Continue taking that action each day, and as Jerry Seinfeld says:

 Don’t break the chain!

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -     -    -    -    -    -    -    -

Thanks Lynn – if we identify the actions that will move us forward and follow this process, we will sell more!  After all, Jerry had huge success with his “show about nothing.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Ever  listen to a top-notch athlete talk about their success?  Most of the time they mention their ongoing conditioning, goal setting, coach and breaking new barriers.  That’s why sports analogies are used so often in training top-notch salespeople.  To truly stay on top of your sales game you need to keep your skills toned and your mind sharp.

Today’s “new” business environment has created more complex sales, tighter budgets,and competition which have changed the rules for sales success - what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow.

What can you do about it?  Strengthen your skills and knowledge!  There are many opportunities for learning – - whether your company provides them or not.  Top Sales Experts has tapped the top world-wide sales gurus to provide GREAT informatoin for you to be more successful in your sales.  The topics cross the breadth of sales – prospecting, networking, Sales 2.0, sales skills, leadership – you’ll find options that will help you sell more!

I highly recommend you click here to learn more.  Each webinar is less than $45 if you are a member (which is only $25 a year and you receive $2000 worth of free resources when you join – click here for more details).  Are you ready to make an investment in sharpening your skills and knowledge? 

Filed Under: Uncategorized, sales success, sales tips

Top Sales Experts – a group of which I am a proud member - is starting Sales Roundtables.  The TSE Roundtable Program will deliver the best sales practices of some of the most successful and globally recognized sales gurus in the world.

The Roundtable Kick-Off Event promises to deliver so much value in helping you understand the Future of Professional Selling.  Details below:

Join the debate, as five of the world’s leading sales gurus, discuss what professional selling will involve in five, ten, and even twenty year’s time

•      Does professional selling as we know it have a future?
•      What impact will Sales 2.0 have on the way we sell?
•      How will organizations train and develop their sales teams?
•      Today, what is the relative value derived from sales training courses versus coaching?
•      Will “one-size fits all” classroom training, be consigned to the annals of history?
•      Which industries are more likely to witness the death of selling as we know it today?
•      What can front-line salespeople do to protect themselves from possible extinction?
•      After this current financial meltdown, will lost jobs be re-created?
•      Will the rapid growth of online sales training and coaching continue?
•      Ongoing research shows that sales performance has been declining year after year.  Why?
•      Quite simply, will selling ever be the same again?

The Experts in this Roundtable include:

Speaker		Jonathan Farrington Chairman of The Sales Corporation and CEO of Top Sales Associates based in London and Paris. He is also the author of the upcoming “So You Really Want To Be A Top 5% Player In The Game Of Sales?”
Speaker		Jill Konrath A leading-edge sales strategist … author of the instant sales classic, Selling to Big Companies … an in-demand sales speaker who provides a much needed wake-up call to sales organizations.
Speaker		Linda Richardson Linda is the Founder and Chairman of Richardson, a global sales training business. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence for 2006
Speaker		Dave Stein Dave Stein is the founder and CEO of ES Research, an organization that provides on-line, membership-based analyses of, and recommendations about, the sales training and sales performance and consulting marketplace and the companies that serve it.
Chairman		Nigel Edelshain Nigel is CEO of Sales 2.0 Companies use Sales 2.0’s telesales and consulting services to take their sales to the next level, typically boosting results 3 – 10 times.
Host		Paul Simon Paul is communications director for Top Sales Experts. Through TSE, and as contributing sales editor for AllBusiness  and content manager for CanDoGo, he works closely with sales experts throughout the United States and in other countries.

You really can’t go wrong.  I’ll be in Aruba “unplugged” so join the Roundtable and send a note on your top learning tidbits!

Filed Under: Uncategorized