I am constantly amazed at the transparency that now exists in our world. The likes of  LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. allow us to find out nearly anything we want about others.  That is why when people act without integrity, their surprise at people’s reaction to their action is always interesting.

Last fall I had a plagiarizer take my Do Your Sales Meetings Stick article published on Salespodia and use it as her  own. My reactions included:

• How dare she?!
• Really, didn’t she think I would ever find out?
• Who does this in today’s world?
• Wow, I must write good articles if someone is willing to claim them as their own

And then I thought, how easy is it to ‘steal’ from others without really knowing it? 

In the late 1990s, early in my consulting career, I emulated a successful consultant – the way he talked, his approach to all things sales, etc. His style was not quite like mine – but I thought that was how I needed to act. In essence I was stealing his style.  And I did earn business with HUGE companies.  But months into most engagements, I would hear a comment like “I never realized you were so funny!” or “Your expertise or advice is so much more than we expected.” Not bad comments, but it seemed there was more to the words.

I finally asked a trusted client what she meant.  Her response – even 10 years later – is still embarrassing.  She told me that during the sales process, they loved what I was offering, the results that had been achieved, etc. but that I was seen as a “Vanna White’ without much additional value. And that the product/service was what they bought, not me.

Huh? They saw me as a TV game show side-kick? Wow!  Then she went on to say that I need to be myself because my expertise and personality were truly valuable and she is sad that she almost missed out on it.  I thanked her for that information and took time to reflect on it.  I was putting all my efforts into showcasing WHAT I offered in a manner that was not genuine to me.  Though I was winning sales, what was I losing that I didn’t know?

In addition to losing my ‘self” I was probably losing sales as well.

And that is when my resolve to help sales professionals stop FAKING it and be themselves was solidified.  That in this transparent world, the more you are yourself, the more successful you will be.  Acting like someone else or taking the words of someone else will STOP you at some point. It might not be as swift and public as Michael J. Roman – but it will happen.

Now, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn from others and ethically borrow best practices. What it means is that we need to give credit where it is due and then use the ideas and actions in a manner consistent with who we are.

Being yourself – even if that means showing some of your quirkiness -  will win you more friends, loyal customers…and success in the long run.  And these are biggest WINs of all.

Print Friendly

Filed Under: Sales Tips, Success Tips
Tags: sales success, Sales Tips, Social Media

Yesterday’s Twitter blackout had people all in a Twutter (maybe that is a new “Twitter”word?)… Some people and companies have come to rely heavily on this tool for marketing and communication.  Incorporating Twitter and other social media into your sales process is good strategy in today’s e-world.  But what do you do when the “lights go out”?

What is your back-up plan if you are disconnected from all things electronic?  An earlier post about Social Media covered my observations about the use of Social Media.  I’m still learning how to best use it in my own business and sales.  Now I have another consideration – what is my power “generator” if I don’t have accessto my electronic life-lines for a while?  Can we really get rid of the need for the telephone and hard copy communication? 

What would you do if you couldn’t access your Twitter, LinkedIn, email or BlackBerry (or such) device?   

Let’s open this discussion…what are your back-up plans for a black out?

p.s. I’m still gigglig about the word “twutter”    Of course I intend it to mean “all a flutter”.

Print Friendly

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tags: Communication, sales tools, Social Media

What does it take to engage in mutually beneficial networking these days?  It seems more and more confusing.  In the “early” days sales pros met one-on-one with prospects, including potential business network possibilities.  Today networking has a whole different set of rules!  And sometimes it is easy to forget what set of rules we need to play by in the moment.

That is why when I was asked to actually meet face to face with a potential prospect this week, I looked forward to it.  Wasn’t it easier to make decisions and connections “live”?

During the meeting, this person let me know that he is a networker.  That he believes in reciprocal business.  I’ll do business with you, IF you do business with me.  It kind of took me by surprise.  I mean…doesn’t building relationships take time, was I supposed to jump on this “opportunity” within 20 minutes?

I didn’t feel I should have to decide right then.  I found myself doing a bit of backtracking.  And lots of questions were flying through my head:

• Was this the type of business relationship that was going to be worthwhile? 
• What is the upfront and back-end energy going to be? 
• Was I being open-minded or closed-minded?  This was a hard close to make a decision now.
• Do I have time for this?  After all, we only have so many hours in the day – and as I like to add – only so much energy within those hours to expend!
• How badly do I want this business?
• What’s the buzz about this person and company in the e-world?

As I’ve learned with other networkers, taking time to step back and ask these questions is really important.  There are a lot of opportunities to build relationships and it is up to us to make the time for due diligence so we can spend our time/energies in productive relationships.

So, the  ”live” meeting was interesting.  I was able to be direct and let him know that I have good information to consider. And now I have more work to do before jumping in.  So help me out please….

When you look at professional networking opportunities, what are some of the questions you ask yourself before deciding how to proceed?  What are the “rules” of getting good information to make a good decision?

Print Friendly

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tags: networking, prospecting, Sales, Social Media

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!

Print Friendly

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tags: Sales Tips, Social Media

Social Media experts and gurus are EVERYWHERE these days.  They tell us we MUST do this and we MUST do that.  And if we aren’t yet on Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo, LinkedIn and all kinds of Forums EVERY day, we must be losing out.  But are we really losing out if we aren’t using ALL of these tools ALL of the time?

After more than six months of being bombarded with all of the hype and quite frankly, pressure, and getting involved in most of the social media tools, I’ve taken a step back to evaluate.  And I found that I need to make some modifications so that social media best fits WHAT I do and WHO I want to be friends, fans, and follow with.   

Observations:

1. Its’ okay to be choosy.  There are a LOT of people on all the Media tools, just like the hype says.  For my potential prospects though, they aren’t on ALL the sites in droves and droves.  Identifying where they “hang out” and focusing my energies there will allow what I share and what I can learn to be more meaningful.
2. Spending hours every day plugging into these sites is NOT necessary.  More important is finding a good pattern and frequency that realistically works for me.  And there are great tools to help me “stack” messages to be dripped out when I doing my “real” work and am not available.
3. A long list of YOU MUSTs is frustrating.  I’m a small business owner, like many of you, and adding MUSTs to my daily lists became overwhelming.  I experimented and found that I could easily spend 4-6 hours a day just keeping up with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  When does my “real” work of selling and servicing get done?  And when do I communicate “live” with anyone (including my children?)
4. Stepping back to evaluate how these tools fit into the overall strategy – for both marketing and sales is extremely important!  it was really easy to get into task-mode and just DO all the things the experts said I should.  One day I actually said “Stop the craziness!” and stepped back to evaluate. And I made adjustments to my social media strategy.
5. Social media helps some people hide from other sales activities.  Its easy to feel that we are being productive when we are so busy…but are we picking up the phone and advancing the sale?  Many products and services cannot be sold well without something more than hoping social media sites drive people to say “yes”.  Of course e-marketing and selling does work  – but it needs to be a piece of a sales and marketing plan.
6. Like most “tools”, social media tools need to be in the right hands and used for the right job to be most effective. 

Those are my observations at this time.  With an emerging trend and tools, things might be very different a few months from now.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not negative on social media at all.  I think it is VERY powerful when used appropriately and within a strategy.  I see that to use it effectively takes planning and then the best results will follow.

What do you think? What are your experiences and observations with social media?  Am I on track or full of smoke?

And if you would like to  follow  me on  Twitter, click on that link for my details (I promise not to bombard you with meaningless messages.) 

Print Friendly

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tags: Sales Tips, Social Media