Dial Up Your Sales Efforts

Tired of endless Prospecting without Results?

Hundreds of thousands of people try and fail at sales every year. Ever wonder why?

Some people are just born sales professionals.  Most have to learn the trade and work hard every day learning new techniques.  With today’s social media, there’s plenty of material to choose from when looking to expand your knowledge and understand what has made others successful.

Here’s my 2 cents for this week…..

There’s really 4 phases to sales, regardless of product line:

1.       Prospecting

2.       Discovery

3.       Presenting

4.       Closing

I’m going to focus on #1…Prospecting.

Prospecting is merely finding people or businesses to sell your product to.  It involves deciding who is the proper contact and how to best engage them.  In my 25+ years of sales, I’ve learned many techniques to open doors.  Regardless of the methods you choose, one thing remains constant:  You MUST develop and stick to a consistent outreach plan.

Most sales take multiple contacts before a prospect will listen to your offer.  I have had the best success in the last 5 years using a combination of electronic messaging (includes email, Twitter messages, Linkedin inmails, and videos) and the old fashioned phone call, spread out over a 2 week outreach period.

My style has been electronic message of some type (your choice, email or Linkedin) on Day #1.  Day #2 involves a live phone call, including leaving your name and general message (practice your pitch!) if you get voicemail.  I often use Day #3 as on “off day” with no contact.  Day #4 is another phone call, with no message if I get Voicemail.  (Everyone has Caller ID so you get your message across without actually leaving one.)  Day #5 ends the first week with a different form of electronic message.  If you emailed the 1^st time, try Linkedin the 2^nd.

During week 2, I will try the more "social media" style contacts.  I have had great success using Twitter.  Many professionals will not have their work email on their phones, but will get a notice if they receive a Twitter message.  Twitter is an underused ace in the hole.  Since it is so rarely used in business, people find it differentiates you from the crowd.  It is my favorite technique.

The next few days can be designed however you feel most comfortable, combining all the mentioned contact techniques in a pattern.  Try mixing it up, and see what works best for you.

After two weeks of attempts, I’ll put the prospect into a follow up stage, giving them a break for 2-3 weeks before starting another round of communications.  It is not uncommon for me to go through 4-5 rounds of outreach before I am able to actually engage a prospect.  Persistence pays in sales.  That is a common trait in all successful sales professionals.

There is no golden rule that guarantees a prospect will talk with you, but following a designed outreach plan can help increase the odds of engagement for you.

Happy Selling!

Phone calls? Emails? On site visits?

A lot has been said about sales prospecting techniques over the years and what works and doesn’t work…..

Sales Cold Call?

Having worked in sales for more than 25 years, both in front line sales and executive roles, I have my own personal opinions on what works best and what is really a waste of time.   But I’m not here to give my two cents worth, because I’m a strong advocate that everyone’s sales technique will be different.  And you should do what brings success to YOU, not what someone who says they are an expert in sales is telling you to do.  I liken it to a baseball player…..some players can hit a fastball better than a curve, and other players are vice versa.  But both players can end up being Hall of Famers.

What doesn’t change is what’s important…having a meaningful conversation with a decision maker.  So how do we accomplish that?

Do you prefer email?

There a 3 main goals to accomplish when prospecting a new client. 

•      Be Brief – no one likes to read a long email or listen to a long drawn out message 
•      Do your homework – have some direct knowledge of the business or person you are reaching out    to….it shows you’ve taken the time to do research
•      Bring Value – it’s wonderful you have a great product, but that doesn’t mean someone is going to buy it. Turn it around to show how you bring value or cash flow to your prospect

“Sales” is a profession and it takes a professional to succeed at it.  Sales rarely come on the first contact with any prospect, and often don’t close until the 5^th, 6^th, or even 10^th contact with the customer.  Bottom line is you have to be creative and find ways to stay engaged with your prospect even when you don’t have a meeting or call scheduled.   It is here where the “Email, phone call, & site visit” come into play.  All great ways to stay in front of the customer.  Another easy, yet often overlooked method is social media.   

Here's a tip that works great for me.....Many companies maintain blogs today and even if your prospect isn’t the writer of his company blog, you can be sure they follow it and would see a comment on it if you were to make one.  I have personally had great success with this method over the years.

Don’t overlook Linkedin.  Send an invite to your prospect after a couple contacts; I wouldn’t recommend sending it too early in the process.  Too presumptive for me….

ALWAYS Follow Up!

 Don’t give up!  ......Often it takes me 2 or even 3 cycles of 6 to 7 unanswered contacts to finally get in front of a prospect.  If they don’t answer you in your first go around, push a follow up out 4 months and try another cycle of contacts.  If that doesn’t work, push it out another 6 months and try again.  Using a CRM tool will help you keep your schedule on track.  Salesforce, Outlook, ACT!, and any one of a number of more systems will do a nice job.

Remember my earlier baseball reference?…..My favorite quote that I post in my office to remind me to follow up, follow up, and then follow up some more:

 “ It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up”  -- Babe Ruth

Let me know how you run your sales business?  I try to learn a new technique every day….you should too

A Friend’s Perspective on Your Business

A Friend’s Perspective on Your Business

Over my 25+ years as a sales professional, I’ve come to realize that none of us will ever know all there is to know about any of our professions…..and sales may perhaps be the hardest one of all to conquer.

I’ve attended dozens of conferences and seminars, hundreds of webcasts, internal training, external training, new hire training, I even once took a course on how to train.  Still, with all this training, I will never fully understand all there is about selling.

I have worked with loads of other sales professionals…. some old, some young, many my age, and learned something good or bad from each and every one of them.  In our early years, it seems easy to pick up closing techniques, prospecting tricks, and perceived shortcuts to success.  Later in my career, I’ve found it more likely to observe people using methods that involve new styles, like social media, SEO, self-branding, and using other modern systems to succeed.  Today, the information available to us through the internet is almost infinite.

But to put this all into perspective, is using Hoover’s or Jigsaw or Linkedin to research companies and prospects any better than the old school method of “dialing for dollars” out of the phone book?  I’m not sure; I guess it would depend on what works for you….

But over the years, I have learned that the best method to get a neutral perspective on how your sales pitch works is to simply run it by one of your personal friends.  I have a lot of friends outside of sales and many work in fields completely removed from my product line.  There is no better test for your pitch than running it by one of your friends who has no idea whatsoever what you really do for work and what you really sell.

If you can maintain the interest of your friends with your sales pitch and at the end of your five minute pitch, they understand your product,  you’re on the right track.  I have even had the pleasure of hearing some great ideas from some of my friends which I have put into play and had great success with.  I consider this a bonus, but it happens more than you think.  It just takes you to practice perhaps the hardest sales skill of all…Listening!

So the next time you’re at a lunch, a ballgame, a cookout, or perhaps on the golf course with one of your friends, take a couple minutes and give him or her your pitch.  You might be surprised at what comes of it…and you might even discover they have a great contact or two for your to reach out to.  They had them all the time but never truly understood what you did or what you sold?  

But be prepared...good friends are brutally honest.  Just as quickly as they'll tell you your clothes don't match or you car is filthy, they'll tell you your delivery stinks!  If after you've finished, they still have no idea what you sell, you need to go back to the drawing board and rework your story.

I'm looking forward to hearing how successful you are in the coming weeks after you try this technique.  If there's someone's friend out there who's had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of someone's sales speech, I enjoy hearing about that too.

So let's get out there and engage our Friends!

Learned Something Today…Keep it Short!

While working on my prospecting today, I decided to take advantage of a training perk my company offers and signed up for a 30 minute 1 on 1 with our sales coach, Lori Richardson.  

Considering myself a pretty polished sales professional, I thought it would be worthwhile to exchange ideas with Lori and see if I could tweak some of my intro emails.  I had been getting some pretty good results, receiving responses on about 1 out of 10 intro emails.  10% response isn’t bad…….

I had sent my templates to Lori prior to our discussion and awaited my feedback.  We talked back and forth about certain verbiage, much of it surrounding our individual styles.  I have always felt that if you can walk away from a training session or seminar with one concept or technique to help improve your skills, it was a worthwhile expenditure of your time.

Lori gave me a great suggestion.  After I expressed my concern over the length of my emails, Lori pointed out that today’s buyers are typically getting the first view of my emails on a mobile device.  In order for me to gauge the effectiveness and impression my emails were making on my prospects, she  suggested I send them to myself and see what the message looks like on my own mobile device.

I followed her advice, sent myself the message, and was I surprised!  While I thought my messages may have been a little long, when I saw them on my mobile device, I almost deleted it myself it was so long.  I immediately began revising the messages and by day’s end I had crafted a new, condensed message, with far less substance about my own company, and left more anticipation about my company’s “Story” that I couldn’t wait to share.

I sent out about 15 of the new version this afternoon and the results were wonderful.  I received almost instant replies on 6 of the 15.  A response rate of 40%, compared to the 10% I was getting with the longer message.  

My next 2 days are already booked with intro calls with qualified prospects.  I have ample time blocked off to send another 20-30 “feeler” messages tomorrow, hopefully filling up my calendar for the following week.

If you want to improve your prospecting results, try this simple exercise and send yourself your message and review it on your mobile device.  You might be surprised what you find……

If your company offers a similar benefit and make a sales coach available, use it.  No matter how good you think you are in sales, you can always learn something new.  I did.  You will too.

Lori Richardson is a professional sales coach and the President of Score More Sales.  She can be reached at lori@scoremoresales.com

To "InMail" or not to "InMail"

I wanted to touch on a controversial topic in this edition of my blog.  I’m sure this will generate some great comments for all of you to enjoy.  

With the explosion of social media outlets these days, we’ve all become familiar with mainstream sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and You Tube.   These are all personal sites and while they are sometimes used for business purposes, they remain predominantly for personal use.

Linkedin on the other hand, has become widely accepted as the professional version of Facebook, currently used by more than 200 million business professionals to stay in touch with other business professionals.  Like on Facebook, Linkedin users build a network of “Connections”, and have the ability to send private messages to our connections.

One of the cool features of Linkedin is the ability to send an “InMail” to a professional who you are not connected to, looking either to connect or begin a business relationship.  It is this feature of Linkedin I want to cover in this segment.

I have read multiple articles both supporting the use of “InMails” and despising the use of “InMails”.  I will try and recap both sides and then give you my perspective on it.  After that, I’m sure the comments will provide a lively debate on the topic…….

For many C-Level’s, receiving unsolicited “InMail” seems to be a turnoff and is considered “Spam”.  Suggestions on contacting them range from connecting first, then sending a direct message, to submitting your request via their company website, to getting an introduction from a mutual acquaintance.  “InMails” are just another method to cold call someone, and “I don’t take cold calls”.   Hmmm…….interesting position.

From the “InMail’er” position…..InMails are not on free Linkedin accounts.  I pay for InMails, people should respond to them.  Yes, I’m trying to connect with someone I may not know but I’m doing it in a professional manner, on a network designed for professionals.  If someone doesn’t like the InMail offer, they can reply “Thanks but no thanks”.  No harm no foul. …….OK, different thinking from both sides.

Here’s my take on the “InMail technique.  Yes, I have been a business professional for more than 30 years and spent the last 25 in various sales and sales management positions, so I could be a bit biased.  Referring back to some of my previous posts on the art of cold calling, most of today’s C-Level decision makers were yesterday’s sales professionals.  20 years ago, executives would answer their own phone, or take a walk in visit from a sales person.  Not today though.  “Too busy.”  “Make an appointment.” “Talk to my assistant.”  “Send me your info via my website.”  We’ve all heard the objections.

Linkedin provides a medium to contact the C-Level prospects that we all want to reach and have the opportunity to speak with.  If you have taken the time to join Linkedin, I think you should use it to its fullest extent.  And that includes InMail.  If you don’t want to accept InMails, there’s a field in your account setting where you can shut them off.  If you have them turned on, then be professional and respond to them.  Remember, the sales person has a job to do, and that is SELL.  If InMails work for them, I say all the luck to them.  

Next time you receive an “InMail”, remember, your company has sales people who are probably using the same prospecting methods and you expect results from them.  If you are not responding to other companies’ professionals, how can you expect any different results when your sales staff is reaching out to your prospects?

And while I'm on the subject, my last personal pet peeve……..please get rid of the “Send your inquiry to info@abccompany.com” on your company website!  At least give the sales professionals a fighting chance to get their foot in the door…….give them at least a name to f/u with rather than a dark hole.

I look forward to what should be an interesting collection of comments……..