marketing - Better Closer

Negative Words Kill Sales. Stop Using Them!

August 20, 2010 By Bill Rice

Kill Negativity in Sales Conversations

Negative words kill sales.

My guess is that you have enough objections to deflect without introducing new challenges. Of course you’re not doing it on purpose, but they have a tendency to slip into our sales discussions all the same.

Surprisingly, most negative words come from your own mindset. And the last thing you want is negativity entering into the mix when you are trying to open the door with new prospects.

Striking negative words from sales discussions probably means restructuring your mind, your behavior, and how you respond to the prospect’s own negative vibe.

Have Confidence in Yourself

Nothing is more important to crushing negative words than your own self-confidence. Sales people that are comfortable and confident in themselves, their products, their services, and their company are the most likely to deliver sales.

You need to be committed to the fact that you are the reason your product or service will sell.

Product development and marketing has taken you as far as they can. Now it is all about you and you should be excited you have the ball. When you look around your sales floor you need to be thinking like the star of the basketball team–if we need to hit a goal, I need to be the one with “the rock.”

If you have confidence that you can get the sale it will be very hard to turn your conversation negative.

Visualize Positive Results

Most star athletes talk about the positive effects of visualize on their amazing performances.

Sales is no different. If you practice and visualize what it takes to get results, then it’s guaranteed to happen more frequently.

Go into every sales conversation with a clear visual of path you need to take to get the sale. Again, this will make it hard to throwing up negative barriers with this picture in your head. Even with the prospects throws objections and negativity at you it will be much easier to overcome them and get back on track.

Smile When You Present

This may sound like a silly trick, but it works. Pause from reading this for a moment and try it. Smile. Now, try to have a negative conversation. Both your tone and your words will adjust with a smile on your face.

And don’t think this is just for face-to-face sales encounters. Your smile plays through very powerfully on the phone as well.

Avoid Negative Influences

In my experience, this is the top killer of a good sales person–a negative entourage. They don’t just introduce a negative mindset and vocabulary, they drag down your whole outlook. You can’t see hope or positive outcomes.

Rid yourself of these people and you will see an immediate increase in your sales–guaranteed.

Negative words kill sales. The good thing is that negative words are most likely more the result of your mind and environment, not any weakness in your vocabulary.

Get positive and your words will follow. (So will sales!)

Filed Under: Social Selling Tagged With: marketing, Salesmanship, Social Selling

How to Use Social Media to Boost Your Sales

July 26, 2010 By Bill Rice

Social Media & Sales Fuel

Really social media isn’t so different from the skills you use daily to sell. The anxiety comes with learning to use those skills in a new environment. For many of us in sales, technology beyond our cell phones and email is a bit intimidating. However, if you straight arm social media you are giving up opportunity in your sale pipeline.

Social Media 101 for Sales

The name itself makes social media sound like a marketing thing, but rest assured its more like a telephone–definitely a sales thing. The difference? Marketing is good at blasting and broadcasting. Sales is good at connecting and having conversations.

Social media is about good conversations.

So, lets start with the mind-set that social media is for sales. And we are going to use it like any other sales tool. We’re going to learn it, exploit it, and generate as many good conversations as possible.

Here are the basic social media tools sales people should learn:

Linkedin - More than a resume, this social network is full of information on prospects and competitive intelligence. Plugging in and connecting your existing database of contacts will certainly reveal previously unknown connections and relationship, ready to be leveraged.

Facebook - Don’t underestimate this as simply a venue for neighborhood busy-bodies and teenagers. Facebook is increasingly becoming the primary destination of a large percentage of the Internet community. Although it is not a big player on the business front it will be–get acquainted now.

Twitter - Often described as micro-blogging or instant messaging on steroid, Twitter is a powerful tool for collecting competitive intelligence, sniffing out opportunities, and breaking through corporate firewalls (i.e., voice mail, email, and other gatekeepers).

Blogs - They’ve been around for years now, but they are still great ways to get closer to influencers in your market. Everyone reads them, your customers trust them, you’re smart to meet these important online publishers–they can help you land deals.

How Social Media Works

Think of social media as a blend between a contact database and a CRM system. If used correctly it will feed you a steady stream of news and updates that are important to your prospects.

Most social media tools immediately ask you to load in your contacts (i.e., from Outlook, GMail, or other email address book). This gives you a head start on find who in your sales database or prospect list is already actively participating in social media.

I guarantee you will be surprised.

Once you have your contacts loaded a few minutes a day reviewing Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter will give you more than enough inspiration and opportunity for calling on these folks. Taking it to an advanced level you can use the tool itself to engage and interact with these folks–commenting and promoting their own agendas and credibility in the social media channel.

Very possibly you will see opportunities to help these sales prospects advance their own objectives. Can you introduce them to people they want to meet? Can you help them with advice or expertise before you even discuss a sale? Can you help increase their standing or credibility in their industry or peer group?

Searching Social Media Content

Finding sales opportunities in the sea of disconnected social media tools and networks used to be complex. Not so anymore. A little time spent practicing with Google Advanced Search can bring you all the sales leads you can possibly work. However, you do need to practice and refine your social media search techniques.

Start by thinking like a customer, not a sales person. Stop using your language and use theirs to develop your searches. Think through the characteristics of your ideal sales lead.

Here are some ideas to fuel your quest for opportunity, search for:

Competitor’s names, products, and sales people
Common problems your product solves
Frequently asked questions you get on sales calls
The names of influencers in your industry or market

Creating these simple searches and then toggling between Google’s News, Blogs, Updates, and Discussions searches will bring you a 360 degree view of your sales opportunities and angles.

Give social media a try in your sales process.

What do you think are the good and bad aspects of using social media as a sales professional?

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: facebook, linkedin, marketing, Social Media, Social network, Social Selling

7 Reasons Social Media is for Sales Too

July 21, 2010 By Bill Rice

Social Media Sales

So, you’ve finally heard enough about social media. You’re to the point you actually think you might be missing something. You might even be hearing whisperings around the sales floor that this might be some of the top producers’ secret weapon to grab a few extra wins every month.

I’m glad you took the initiative to be here. We’re going to do a little equalizing.

You’re going to learn some of the basics of social medias. However, much more importantly we’re going to show you how to get value from it immediately–long before you’re a guru.

Why Try Social Media?

Okay, not quite convinced this is going to be worth your time to figure out? Let take a little walk down memory lane and talk about sales history.

Back in the day it all started with carrying a bag and walking door to door, getting a foot in the door, showcasing the product, and selling belly-to-belly at the kitchen table. (Notice all of our cliches come from old school sales).

Then things changed a bit. We started to send sales letters, picked up the telephone for a little cold calling, and blasted a few emails to stay top of mind. That’s right took a few marketing tricks to help us cover our prospects and sales pipeline a little more thoroughly and efficiently.

Social media is the next trick for personal lead generation. Think of it as the new telephone and the email of the future. Believe it or not surveys show that youngsters under 20 never use email–it’s Facebook or text message if you want to pull their chain.

7 Reasons Sales Should Be Using Social Media

Enough coaxing, you either want to learn this or you don’t. Here are 7 specific ways social media is going to immediately improve your sales process:

1. People hang out on social media - The fact of the matter is that millions of people are now congregating on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and hundreds of other social networking sites to stay connected and share ideas. If you’re in sales, why would you hang out on the Internet alone? (It’s kinda like eating alone).

2. Social media is stitch the fabric of referral networks – In the real (physical) world it is really hard to refer business. When someone hears a friends ask, “Do you know a good…” You have to recall the name of the great person you used, search around for a crumpled business card or a scribbled down number, and then you need to get it back to the person who asked the question. Most often these referrals don’t happen–in social media these friend just search the profiles of their Facebook friends and connect to the expert.

3. Trust is already inherent in social networking - Normally when we find people on the Internet or and advertisement for a service we start skeptical. Will they treat me right? Do they care about my business? Will they screw me over? There’s none of that in social media. If you’re in my social network and my friends vouch for you–that’s good enough to get started.

4. You can spot opportunities without cold calling – Cold calling is hard work. You have to break through the firewall and then start peppering the prospect with questions to see if there is a fit. Incorporating social media into your sales process lets you do most of the pre-qualification of a lead long before any call is made or email sent. Just read their profile and content. Is there a reason to do business, or not?

5. If you’re connected referring you is much easier – Outside of social networks you rarely refer someone you’ve never used. It’s too much of a risk and you probably don’t even know about these people and their services, unless it pops up in a random conversation with friends. However in social media you can search for great people to refer by seeing who your friends are endorsing, referring, and raving about. So, there are many times with social media you may get a referrals and endorsement from people you’re never even met.

6. Social media makes finding the right angle a snap – Starting a conversation is the hardest part of sales. What will trip their trigger? What is their burning objective right now? How can I make them a hero in their own company? These are the questions we love to know the answer to–they makes getting an executive’s ear easier. Interestingly enough managers and executives talk about these things all the time in their social networks, using them like advisory networks. And it’s all there for you to read and plan the perfect angle of attack.

7. You are going to find ins you never thought you had - Here’s my favorite. One of the first step in signing up with a social media or networking website is to automatically load in your address book. You will be floored by how many of your friends, colleagues, and prospects are already in the social media channel–instant ins and referral networks.

As you can see social media is not necessarily about engaging and Twittering all day. It’s about observing, listening, and searching for folks that need your products and services.

Then you can use all the user-generated chatter to guide you in the right approach to doing some of your traditional sales stuff–like cold calling, emailing, or even belly-to-belly selling.

Sales is Personal, Why Isn’t Your Lead Generation? (bettercloser.com)
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Filed Under: Featured, Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: facebook, linkedin, marketing, Social Media, Social network, twitter

Sales is Personal, Why Isn’t Your Lead Generation?

July 15, 2010 By Bill Rice

I always think it odd how disconnected most sales people are from marketing. In most cases we sit back and wait for (hope for) marketing to feed us leads. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been comfortable trusting my sale number that completely to anyone.

I’ve also thought sales leads generated by marketing are often some of the hardest to convert. Most of my big sales have come from referrals or people asking for me by name.

Good Sales is Personal, Conversational

So, after looking at all this (highly scientific) data I come to an interesting revelation–selling is personal. Your customers value the personal touch and familiarity as much as you do. No one wants to be tossed into the sales blender. They would much prefer the insider treatment.

Think about it…Isn’t this why you ask your friends and neighbors for their mortgage broker, plumber, tax expert, or (insert other) person. We’re always trying to find someone who knows someone in the business.

We, in sales, like this too. There’s nothing better than getting a call for Bobby or Susie and hearing, “I gotta a friend who’s looking for someone in the (blank) business.” You know you have at the very least an easy sales call ahead. No need to rehearse your cold call intro or how to hook their interest–they’re expecting you.

What’s more, conversations that start on a first name basis dramatically increase the probaility f closing the deal.

The Best Lead Generation is Personal Too

Why are you relying on marketing to pump you full of impersonal sales leads?

It time to get off the sidelines and make lead generation personal. There are lots of ways to get you and your value proposition out there. Pick one or two channels and perfect your attraction strategy.

Start with what you sell and think about what makes your customer the most comfortable opening up a conversation. Usually this requires some level of education and trust.

This is why social media, social networking, or a blog can be a perfect personal lead generation platform. And the good news–none of these options take a lot of technical know-how any more.

Personal Lead Generation Tools

We’ll talk more about strategy and tactics in upcoming personal lead generation articles. For now (if you haven’t already) I want you to dig into these specific tools.

Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
Blogging

You’re first reaction might be to think there isn’t much to dig into, after all you probably already have accounts or maybe even a blog. Here’s the twist I want you to noodle on until my next post:

Who are the people you’re most familiar with in each of these venues?
Why are you so aware of them? What did they do to get your attention?
What do they do? What is their expertise?
How do they spend their time in these channels? What’s their angle/objective?
What seems to work and what doesn’t in attracting fans?
Who seems to be able to rally the community or start trends?

Save these notes. I’d love to see some of them in the comments below. We’ll use them soon.

Bettercloser.com - Personal Lead Generation

Filed Under: Lead Generation Tagged With: facebook, Handshake, marketing, Social Media, twitter

10 Secrets to Blogging for Sales

June 14, 2010 By Bill Rice

Bettercloser.com - Blogging for Sales

One of the hottest topics in the sales community right now is lead generation. Not just the big marketing programs that your company runs (and you rarely get any good leads from), but personal lead generation. Marketing efforts that you can start, manage, and see results from without any significant investment of time or money.

One of the best forms of personal lead generation is blogging. It can be, and probably should be, the anchor point of all your sales lead generation tactics.

You may be under the false impression that a great lead generation blog is all about being a great writer. That’s wrong. Of course with practice you will become a better writer, but there are a few steps that will connecting with you compelling enough to overcome the fact you’re not an award-winning author (yet).

1. Get Started

There is a reason Get Started is number one on this list. This simple point can’t be overemphasized. You won’t generate a single lead thinking about blogging, imagining a perfect logo or theme, or wishing for all the fancy gadgets on bigger websites.

Your customers don’t care anyway. They came there for one thing–information. If they wanted beautiful design they would have gone to a marketing blog.

2. Keep Going

Starting is half the battle. Keeping your blog going is the only way to win. Put blogging into your schedule. Make it a necessary element of your sales process and routine. Determine a good rhythm and stick to it.

Frequency isn’t all that important as long as you’re consistent. You can blog once a day or once a week. Just find a pace that works well in your schedule and stick to it.

3. Write to Prospects

One of the biggest mistake I see lots of bloggers making is writing to their industry peers. Unless you selling products and services to these people…knock it off! Write to your prospects.

When you sit down to write visualize your customer. Write the conversation you want to have if you get that appointment you so desperately seek. You might be surprised how many prospects call you to have that conversation–in person.

4. Write About Customers

(Hopefully) you work with customers everyday. Share these stories. They’re references and give your readers, your prospects confidence that you can help with their problem too.

Customers often feel like they have a unique and complex need. In reality, that is rarely the case. Chances are you’ve seen the problem and solved it many times.

The really neat thing about this misaligned reality is that when your prospect reads or hears your perfect representation of their problem, they often assume you must be the only one that can solve it.

How cool? Your blogging probably just remove some competition.

5. Answers Customers

How many questions do you get from prospects, customers, partners, and friends everyday? Take a second and stroll through your email inbox. How many of those unanswered emails are asking the same question? How many of them would make a great blog post?

One of my favorite tricks is to take an email and answer it, in great detail, on my blog. Then I can point this and all future emails like it to my new blog post.

This yields two benefits: First, your customers get a far more thorough answer than you whave time to give in an email. Second, you’re going to attract several people that have the same question, but would never know to ask you.

6. Be a Storyteller

How-to writing is usually boring. First this, then this, step one, step two, and if all goes well you get this. Yawn! Learn to tell stories.

People are captivated by reality. People love to hear war stories. People often internalize these stories into their own vision of the future. Stories get you calls like, “I read your article. Can you do that for me? I have this similar situation…”

7. Bring them Value

This is another secret that often gets mangled in translation. I will try to be really clear about what value is to a blog reader or online community member:

Value is educating people about things you are an expert in
Value is bringing your readers special offers
Value is introducing your readers to complimentary products
Value is asking them to buy things that will improve their life, business, paycheck

Value is not equal to free. Sure you might give away free advise or stuff from time to time. However, real value is bringing your readers a distinct advantage because they know and read you–even if they have to pay for it.

8. Be Direct!

This secret flows directly from number seven above. Don’t be shy about telling your prospects what you want them to do. Be direct. Tell them what websites to visit. Tell them what products to buy. Tell them when you are bringing them the best deals and exclusives.

9. Be Brief

No one has extra time. And even great authors like Hemingway knew the magic of brevity. Part of the value of your blogging should be to deliver what your customers need to know clearly and quickly.

10. Leave the Ending to Readers (Customers)

Your ultimate goal in blogging for sales is to engage your readers. Maybe even engage them in a sales conversation. That means drawing them into the conversation.

Try this by leaving the ending to them. Like this…

Do you blog for customers? What are your tips and tricks for bringing in prospects? How would you end this blog post?

Filed Under: blogging, Lead Generation Tagged With: Advertising and Marketing, Blog, business, FAQs Help and Tutorials, marketing, Money, Sales lead, social selling

What’s in My Sales Stack?

June 1, 2010 By Bill Rice

: Image via Wikipedia

Glance, one of the software tools in my Sales Stack, introduced a very interesting Sales 2.0 concept in their post on Building a Custom Sales 2.0 Toolkit. They framed it in the analogy of the more traditional software stack. My simple definition: the combination of multiple software to create a full-featured, consistent, and stable platform on which you can build solutions.

I think they created a very useful analogy. It structures our thinking on how to enable our sales objectives, not just chase hope-filled sales tools. Using this framework you can quickly identify and setup your sales 2.0 platform and get to selling, confident you have the tools and the platform you need to win.

Here’s a peek into my Sales Stack:

1. Lead Generation: It’s always nice to have a steady flow of new conversations coming into your sales pipeline. Online lead generation is a great way to automate that consistent flow. For me I use a tight combination of blogs (Sales, Lead Buying, Lead Generation), eBooks, and email marketing for demand generation.

Specifically, I use the following software tools:

WordPress – Some still think WordPress is simply blogging software. I submit that it is a feature-rich, but easy to use and maintain content management system. Don’t just run your blog on it run your entire website on it. Make it your lead generation foundation and home base.
Thesis (WordPress Template) - Thesis is the WordPress theme that I use [affiliate link] on all my lead generation websites. Again, it is more than a theme. It’s a foundation for good design and SEO. A simple, unmodified base install will get you ahead of 90% of the websites out there in terms of clean design and traffic generating search engine optimization. It gets your lead generation game started with good fundamentals.
AWeber – I’m continually amazed at how many people neglect this critical component of traffic generation and lead generation. Email marketing is still, hands-down, the most responsive Internet marketing technique. If you don’t have a mailing list start one today. If you start one use AWeber [affiliate link].

2. Prospecting & Sales Intelligence: Attracting sales prospects and generating demand is one channel of opportunities. However, I think you also need to actively engage your market. This means seeking out those prospects that need your products and services, but simply don’t know it yet. That’s right, cold calling. This part of the sales stack also prepares you with better pre-call/pre-appointment preparation.

These are the tools I use:

Google - Surprised? You shouldn’t be Google is probably the most incredible advance in sales prospect since the telephone. I think of Google as my interface to an enormous database of sales prospects [grab my PDF on Google prospecting] just waiting to be discovered. My clients are continually providing data and information about themselves, their preferences, their needs, and their wants. Selling to them is as simple as segmenting their data and engaging in their own dialogue.
Linkedin – A big part of any sales person’s success is networking. Linkedin is the de facto giant in networking business people and is my default database for B2B sales prospecting. It allows me to find and analyze companies and individuals I want to engage. It also does a fair job of generating new leads, with a few special Linkedin tricks I use.
Gist - This is one of the latest tools I’ve added to my sales stack. Gist is a simple way to keep me aware of what my relationships are doing in pursuing their own interests and goals. Using their direct interface and the plug-in for my email I never go into a conversation with a lead or contact without a quick snapshot of their latest activities in social media. As an extra bonus it gives me the opportunity to help them more efficiently, if I see them promoting or requesting something I can assist with on the spot.
Twitter - People needing immediate help are turning to their social networks. This provides great “targets of opportunity” for sales. And there is nowhere better to find these than on Twitter. I continually jump into discussions and conversations that net new relationships and sales via Twitter. Twitter is always a great place to gather a little intel on the personality of people you are planning to call or meet with–making breaking the ice much easier on cold calls and meetings.

3. Sale Enablement & Execution: At this point in your sales process you have a few prospects on the hook. Now you have to convince them to move forward. This is where the good conversation happens–telephone calls, face-to-face meetings, web demonstrations or webinars. In my business, I do a lot of showing, helping, and teaching. That means making contact and sharing.

Here is how I share:

Glance - I mentioned Glance at the top of this article, but they need a prominent mention in my Sales Stack as well. I’ve used all the regulars WebEx and GoToMeeting, but most have failed me regularly. Demonstrations are so critical to the Web 2.0 sales process and I often find myself giving impromptu demos. Doing a quick on-the-spot demos really shows off how well you know your stuff or have a software product that immediately adds value. Glance makes this simple. It works in all browsers, on all operating systems, and its simple URLs make it easy to give over the phone–getting my prospect and me quickly into a sale demo.
Skype - This is an old stand-by that I find creeping back into a more significant role again. Much of my company is virtual (we hire where the talent is–sort of silly to do it any other way, right?) so this is our primary means of communication. However, as our business grows I find myself engaging more internationally and Skype is really the simplest and most universal way to do this.
Google Voice – Much of my time is spent with clients and traveling. I certainly don’t want to have prospects waiting on me to get back to a desk phone in my office. So, I long-ago abandoned that relic and replaced it with Google Voice. Now my leads and prospects come to me wherever I am and get my live voice, not a voicemail. This is a powerful sales converter in this world of voicemail roulette.
Twitter – Again, Twitter pops into the stack. Twitter has become an increasingly primary means of communication, fitting in with email and phone. I am just as responsive to a prospect or client here as I would be in these more tradition modes of communication. However, I like the advantage of being able to share valuable (and lead generating) discussions beyond just one person. If I’m giving free advice or counsel away, which often the initial contact involves, I want as big an audience as possible–that’s lead generation! This is why I try to have much of my initial conversations with suspects on Twitter.
iPhone - This has become my communication command center. Since I spend as much time as possible away from the office. This is the nerve center for email, telephone, Twitter, Linkedin, and Gist. I can manage it all from this little workhorse.

4. Lead Management & Nurturing: Not every lead or even contact turns into a sale (at least not immediately) that where lead management is a secret weapon. Getting every one of your leads into a lead management system and learning to automate the nurturing process is a huge competitive edge.

This is even more significant when you generate many of your leads online. These leads are generally new suspects–they rarely close quickly. In addition, these leads will be at all stages of the buying cycle. Without lead management it will be impossible to manage any reasonable amount of these diverse prospects.

I use (of course) Kaleidico’s Sales Manager. It was one of those “scratch your own itch” projects and has become even more powerful with a strong, serious sales customer base.

Building a solid Sales Stack is critical in a Web 2.o sales world. There is so much data and the prospects coming from online sources are so diverse–you need help. Take some time today and carefully evaluate your Sales Stack–cut what you don’t need and integrate what you have into a seamless sales process.

What’s in your Sales Stack? Can you help me improve mine? I would appreciate the feedback.

Filed Under: Sales Management, Social Selling Tagged With: Advertising and Marketing, business, Customer relationship management, Google, Lead Generation, linkedin, marketing, Social network