Sales Blog with Sales Tips

Below is a list of 5 tools that will make you more effective in 2010.

I looked through my extensive list of sales tools and these are 5 of my favorites. The providers of these tools have not compensated me in any way (but if they want to buy me a new car or something, I wouldn’t mind).

5 Top Sales Productivity Tools
Xobni (xobni.com) lets you quickly find emails, attachments, appointments and contacts in Outlook. Additionally, it will simultaneously find matching information on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Hoovers (pretty cool). Price is a one time fee of $29.95 with a 30-day free trial version.

ConnectNote (connectnote.com) allows you to easily send videos and attachments to a customer or prospect. All you need is a webcam. It’s great for delivering proposals when a personal visit is not possible or economical. There are a million uses. It makes you stand out from the crowd in a big way. Cost is $25 per month per user.

Jigsaw (jigsaw.com) is a website that allows you to receive free information about companies you’re unfamiliar with when you reciprocate by providing information about other companies you are familiar with. You also have the option of buying leads for a reasonable fee. This service is different from conventional list providers because sales professionals – like you – are populating the information. Jigsaw provides 20 free points for subscribers of this sales blog. This link will credit your free points when you sign up.

Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) are email updates of the latest relevant Google search results based on your choice of topics. It’s a great way to stay on top of decision makers and companies. It’s free, and it’s easy to use.

Salesforce.com (salesforce.com) is a simple to use web based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Salesforce.com provides campaign management, follow-up, collateral management and knowledge sharing. If your company doesn’t have a CRM tool, then get one for yourself. You have too many prospects and active customers to try and juggle everything with file folders and Excel spreadsheets. Costs start at $25 per month per user with a free 30-day trial version.

Prepare For 2010
2010 looks to be a promising year for sales professionals. Make sure you’re taking advantage of the tools already provided to you by your employer and add the ones they don’t.

Further sales blog reading:
Digital Sales Proposals
Jigsaw CEO Tells Me Why You Need His Website
Direct Sales Tips: A free tool that every salesperson needs on their computer.
A Powerful Sales Tool You’ll Use Every Day – And It’s Free

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
—
Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
—
—

If you aren’t a “connector,” no problem. However, make sure you have three or four of these people in your business network.

Connectors 101
When I define what a connector is, you’ll immediately recognize the concept. Connectors are individuals who absolutely love connecting people. They are energized by it. They have a smile on their face when they introduce one person to another.

We all know people like this. What’s important is that you have a small handful of these people in your network.

Connectors can greatly magnify your ability to meet people, build relationships and ultimately write more business. There are certainly benefits to having connectors in your inner circle, but there are also limitations. More on that below.

Connectors, The Good
Connectors allow you to bypass all of the time you’ll waste at Chamber of Commerce meetings and their ilk. A few good connectors in your network are exponentially more fruitful in helping you find new decision makers.

If you’re not already a connector and want to become one, you’ll have no problem finding one who will gladly mentor you. Think about the power of not only knowing a few connectors, but actually being one.

A handful of good connectors in your fabric of business relationships can virtually end cold calling.

Connectors, The Bad And The Ugly
They’ll occasionally introduce you to people before they know your full name – I’m not making that up.

They’ll introduce you to someone they really don’t know. This can be awkward, but it breaks the ice nonetheless.

Connectors can be fickle at times. The very thing that makes them connectors is the same reason they’ll forget about you. This is one of the reasons you want three or four in your network.

Sales Tips On Managing Your Connectors
They’re easy to find. They’re always “working the room.” They can’t help themselves. If they don’t get to you first, make sure you meet them. When you find a connector who seems to be a good fit, develop the relationship further by meeting him or her for lunch, etc.

You can also find connectors on LinkedIn. In fact, LinkedIn is a tool that was created just for them. They love it. Look for people with 500+ connections (they’ll have more, but LinkedIn only shows up to 500). Take it beyond a virtual acquaintance and meet them for coffee or lunch if there is a mutual business justification.

An Important Final Note About Connectors
Connectors who have their Ph.D. in networking don’t necessarily need you to introduce them to more people. They know everyone already. However, don’t naively believe they’ll just feed you names indefinitely.

As you develop a relationship with your connectors, they will reveal how you can help them. They may need you to educate them about certain industries. You might assist them in being part of their brain trust by advising them on sales strategies for specific customers. Networking always involves reciprocity, but in the case of connectors, they don’t need you to find people.

Further reading:

• 6 Basics For Potent Face-To-Face Networking

>You can automatically receive this sales blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Advertisement

Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com

We feel that buyers have tremendous pricing leverage over us right now because of the recession. In most cases, I believe we give them this power because we don’t view our pricing, and all of its ramifications, from the purchaser’s perspective.

Budget And Price
After many years of selling, I learned that “price” equates to what a product/service costs and “customer budget” simply means what the prospect or customer is willing to pay for it. This is nothing more than basic price negotiation. If our conversations with customers don’t get past this, are we really selling? No.

There Has To Be A Better Way
This kind of one-dimensional price-centric dialogue puts us in a weak negotiating position. There is another variable that is ultimately more important to the customer than price – whether they know it or not. It’s called ROI (Return on Investment).

When we fail to introduce ROI into the selling process, we’ve inadvertently made the purchase price the number one issue. This is not the way to sell in 2009, especially if you’re selling a product that includes a service.

ROI 101
ROI allows the customer to have a 360° view of the costs versus benefits of purchasing your products and services. Your initial purchase price is only one of many variables.

Every product/service will have different variables, but the high level ROI formula is:

ROI% = (Benefits of your product/service – Total Cost of Ownership) ÷ Total Cost of Ownership

Your company should have a template or software wizard tool that will assist you in gathering and presenting a legitimate ROI to your customers. If you are selling a product/service combination, this is an especially important tool to have.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
By doing even a simple ROI assessment for your customer, it will require that you get involved in the operational and financial aspects of their business. This is a good thing.

This will definitely take a greater selling effort, but it is a game changer because you have moved well beyond just talking about price with your customer. You’ll better understand your customer’s business while simultaneously justifying your pricing.

Further reading:

• Rise Above Commodity Style Selling [Sales tips to keep you from becoming a commodity salesperson, regardless of what you're selling.]
• Training Your Customer, Part 1 of 2 [Sales blog post on how to break out of the discounting merry-go-round.]

>You can automatically receive this Sales Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Advertisement

Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com

Social media (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) can be used as a selling tool and it’s not nearly as difficult as you may think. It’s a 5-step process and you’ve probably already completed some of them. The fifth step is where it all comes together.

The Basics
Social media is a great way to build rapport with prospects and customers. It can also be a way to gather and give information. Isn’t relationship building and information gathering/giving the holy grail of what we do? Social media can be a powerful tool to help us.  Please see my May, 2009 article in Training Magazine to learn more about the essentials of social media.

Step 1
Sign up for a Twitter account. If you haven’t already done this, please don’t tell anyone and just do it.

What’s cool about Twitter for sales professionals is that the public can only see your tweets and replies (i.e. updates you make and your responses to others). Others can’t see the direct messages (i.e. personal messages) you are getting or sending, nor can they see replies to your tweets. This is important because it lets you control what your customers are seeing.

You’ll use Twitter to provide and receive tidbits of information that fit in the “short, fast and frequent” category. Twitter is weak in the biographical area. I’ll discuss what kinds of things you can include in all of your sales social media efforts at the end of this post.

Step 2
Set up a LinkedIn account – surely you’ve done this already. LinkedIn’s real intention is for professional networking and collaboration.

Don’t worry so much about status updates here. LinkedIn allows you to post status updates and send and receive direct messages, but that’s not its strength. Think of it this way: Twitter is a microwave oven when it comes to instant communications whereas LinkedIn is a conventional oven.

What’s important about LinkedIn is that it provides the best place for you to brag about yourself and your qualifications. It also allows you to easily create a substantive professional network in your industry.

Step 3
The final social media site you need to set up is Facebook. I can almost forgive you if you haven’t done this already because Facebook used to be somewhat of a kid thing – not anymore.

A convenient way to define Facebook is to place it right between Twitter and LinkedIn. It allows for status updates and direct messaging while simultaneously providing a place to put all kinds of biographical information about yourself.

Direct messages are completely private on Facebook but responses to your status updates can be seen by others. Paying attention to this fact and correctly setting Facebook’s privacy settings will keep you in control of the content on your Facebook page.

Step 4
What kinds of things should I include on these 3 sites that would give me credibility in my industry and with my customers?

Biographical

• Your tenure with your company
• Years you’ve been in your industry
• What industry groups or associations you belong to
• Awards and achievements you’ve earned
• Your education and training
• Reference customers (be careful to check with these companies first and know that your competitors will call on them)

Status Updates (usually done with a short comment and an informational link)

• Industry trends and announcements
• New technologies
• “How To” information
• Articles and white papers from “thought leaders” in your industry

Step 5
When you’ve completed the above, put your unique Twitter (e.g. http://twitter.com/scottsheaffer), LinkedIn and Facebook URL’s on your business card. This makes you transparent, available and current. Your competitors aren’t doing this – yet.

Gotchas To Be Aware Of

• Remember that everything you put on these sites will be viewed by your customers. You want to look as professional as possible while remaining approachable.
• Don’t spend too much time on these sites each day (15-30 minutes maximum) and do so during non-selling hours.
• Social media represent virtual networks. Be sure to reach outside of these networks and make person-to-person contact. This can be where virtual translates to financial.
• Social media can’t be a one-way street. You have to play with the kids in the neighborhood. In other words, don’t just make status updates, respond to updates you are receiving.
• Check with your employer to ensure this complies with your corporate communication guidelines.

Further reading:

• Use Social Media To Improve Your Prospecting Right Now
• Customers in 2008 vs. Customers in 1993. Are they really different?

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Advertisement

Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com