Follow me on Twitter here.

“Should I be tweeting, Keith?” This question comes up more and more when speaking with clients. Since there are several factors to consider when answering this, my response to this question are additional exploratory questions that guide a conversation to help individuals and companies determine whether it makes sense for them to become part of the Twitter universe or, twitterverse, which according to the urban dictionary is defined as, “The cyberspace area of twitter. This naturally extends beyond twitter.com to anywhere you can twitter, which includes cell phones.” (Yes, be prepared for more jargon and a new language.) Here are a handful of those questions:

1.“What do you already know about Twitter?”
2.“Is this something you’re setting up as a personal account or for your business?” (What are you using it for? Staying in touch, for fun, to achieve a certain goal or objective, to make money, etc.”)
3.“Tell me why you feel you want to/need to be tweeting?”
4.“What are your goals and expectations?”
5.“How much time do you have to devote to this?”
6.“If this is for your business, who will be doing the tweeting?”
7.“What message are you looking to deliver?” (Around your personal brand, corporate branding, certain theme or platform, marketing messages, notifications, events, special offers, attracting prospects, nothing specific, etc.)
8.“What results are you expecting?”
9.“How many followers do you want?”
10. “Who do you want to follow you?” (“How many people, what audience, why do you want them following you,” and so on.)
11. “How will this complement your current marketing campaign and align with your social media strategy and objectives?”

Once we siphon through the answers to these questions, we can then start mapping out whether or not it makes sense for them to invest their time tweeting and a strategy to go about doing so that would achieve their objectives.

I know it’s easy to get caught up in trying to get as many people as possible following you on Twitter, and social media is all the rage. (Just Google “social media” and you’ll get 203,000,000 results. Probably even more since this blog went live.) For some people, Twitter has become a downright obsession, an ego stroke, a validation, a need to be needed, a way to feel ‘connected.’ (I’ll have to address what ‘connected’ means in another blog.)

Sure, there are those people out there that have earned the bragging rights to say they have tens of thousands of people following them on twitter, but I can tell you this with great certainty, if you’re looking at it from the perspective of what the financial benefit or monetary impact could be and how much personal income has been generated, I wouldn’t run out to swap your W2 statement with most of them. That being said, there’s always the few exceptions.

Like any new strategy you’re considering adopting, if you’re looking at Twitter as part of your overall marketing campaign in order to leverage it as a social media communications tool, there needs to be a healthy balance between the quality of your efforts and the quantity of them. There’s no, “one solution.” What’s needed is a holistic and well balanced approach to utilizing a variety of marketing vehicles that would reinforce your brand, provide further exposure and put you in touch with your target audience which, collectively, would achieve your marketing objectives.

Just think of selling; if you look at selling as a numbers game rather than a science or strategic benchmarking process, you’re in big trouble. After all, you can have thousands of prospects in your pipeline but what are those prospects worth if they’re not a fit for your product or service? The costs are significant: time and money wasted on engaging with the wrong people multiplied exponentially by the time you are not spending targeting, calling on and following up with the right prospects.

Depending upon your goals and the responses to the questions I posed earlier in this blog, Twitter may certainly prove to be one very important spoke on your marketing wheel that’s worth leveraging (it’s been worthwhile for me), that complements the other marketing platforms you utilize.

To reinforce this point, here’s a short movie aligning the values of legendary Zig Ziglar and his son, Tom Ziglar with Twitter. In this movie, you’ll find some great, classic quotes from Zig Ziglar, as well as a handful of guidelines from Tom on how to leverage and maximize Twitter to your advantage.

And yes, I do tweet as part of my overall social media strategy. So, feel free to follow me on Twitter here.

Enjoy the new Ziglar Twitter Movie. Click here to watch.

We just launched a new Facebook page and I’m excited to invite you to connect with me here. The plan is to offer some additional resources, videos, pictures and materials that you can find exclusively on this new Facebook page. I look forward to connecting with you here! Here’s the link:

Keith’s New Facebook Page.

One thing this Facebook page already has that you can’t find anywhere else are all of the pictures I’m taking documenting my eight country tour, of which you can already find pictures from Ireland and Prague.

It’s been an incredible journey filled with new experiences which I can’t wait to write on. While I’ve certainly built in the additional time to explore the richness and culture each country has to offer, the primary objective is to deliver my management coach training program to CEO’s, Directors, VP’s and managers, especially sales managers; based on my last book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions. (Currently we’re also doing a huge book event this week which you can find more about here and how you can get additional Bonus Gifts from The World’s Top Thought Leaders.)

The result so far? My peripheral vision has been expanded exponentially, as I continue to be fascinated by the subtleties and nuances in cultural differences, in management style and in organizations across the globe.

However, one thing has been consistent: People are people; wherever you go. People share the same core needs, same dreams; our core values still remain. And one thing is for sure; coaching is a UNIVERSAL language. (Maybe this can be a conduit to world peace? No, I haven’t lost my mind fully as of yet!)

Next stops, Dubai, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Columbia! A few more countries to be added shortly. Looking forward to connecting and sharing this amazing and ongoing journey with you!

Listen to this podcast here.

Enough theory for a moment. People need answers; granular, tactical, “How do I do this the right way and what do I say when I finally connect with a prospect when cold calling?” type of answers.

Those proactive souls who happen to cold call me and reach me live in an attempt to generate another prospects to fill up their rapidly drying pipeline certainly deserve the acknowledgment for putting forth the effort.

Unfortunately, with the opening statements and cold calling approaches that I’m hearing, their effort is more of an exercise in futility. Simply, they aren’t well crafted and are far from compelling or unique, and as such, these salespeople are doomed to have to make far too many calls where their success is often limited to finding that one prospect who’s simply ready and willing to talk to them regardless of how poor their approach may be; the proverbial low hanging fruit. (After all, even a blind squirrel is destined to find a nut every once and a while.) This strategy of stumbling onto a qualified prospect is far too time consuming of an activity to often make it worth your while.

In this podcast, I share one proven and powerful example of the type of opening statement and cold calling approach you can create that’s sure to generate more qualified prospects for you. Becoming more strategic and effective when cold calling will yield more measurable results making fewer calls by leveraging every conversation you have.

This example was one that a cost reduction company used when calling on the C suite of prospects, such as the controller or CFO.

You can tune in and listen to this podcast here.

NOTE: Given this page is updated often, this podcast may not be listed as the most current one on the top of the list of podcasts.

To complement my last blog where I shared some valuable tips on how to generate more referrals that were provided by my colleague Dr. Tony Alessandra, I felt we needed to get even more tactical by revisiting the positioning, language and the dialogue you need to be mindful of when actually asking for a referral, as well as the proper time and place to do so. Below is a strategy that has helped many salespeople and non selling professionals build their pipeline and their practice by knowing when and how to ask for referrals. What follows is a dialogue you can use that honors the permission based selling model that I’ve written about in my cold calling book.

What exactly classifies as a referral? If we were to create some parameters that define what a referral is, this is what it would look like.

Synonymous with “recommendation” and “testimonial,” a referral is a potential prospect that is directed or given to you by someone you know or someone you don’t know who feels that you are the best source for help or information regarding a specific, subject, product, or service.

What makes a referral so incredibly attractive and desirable is that it is, for the most part, a warm lead. That is, when you approach a referral, there is less of a need to convince or sell them. A certain degree of interest, credibility, and comfort has already been established. Chances are, there’s already a need present. All you have to do then, is turn that need into a want or a desire for your product using the questions in your needs analysis.

Typically, your clients are going to be the top source for referral business simply because they are the ones who actually utilize your product, making them the most effective testimonial you can find to endorse your product.

The following dialogue illustrates how you can establish a referral agreement with your clients. This way, you will be able to identify the clients who are willing to become a referral source for you and the most appropriate time to ask them for referrals. This is a great example of how to set up your strategy to increase the amount of referral business you currently generate.

You: “Mrs. Client, may I take a moment to share with you how I build my business?”

Client: “Sure.”

You: “Well, what I enjoy most about what I do and where my time is best served is working with my clients. I want to spend as much time as possible serving my clients and exceeding your expectations. In order for me to spend more time with my clients and less time marketing or prospecting for new business I really need the help of my satisfied clients.

Please understand, I’m certainly not asking for any referrals from you now. Personally, I feel that would be incredibly presumptuous to ask you to introduce me to other potential clients before you even have a chance to truly utilize and benefit from my services. After all, we just started working together!

However, in a couple of months or even weeks, when you are clearly realizing the benefits of my services and have gotten even more value than you expected, would you be comfortable sharing the results you have experienced with others and introduce me to those people who might also benefit from my services?”

Client: “Sure, I don’t see why not.

You: “That sounds great. Thanks in advance for this consideration. Just so I know what it will take to make you a raving fan, what can I do to make you comfortable enough to actually want to refer business to me?”

The most effective way to earn referrals is to over- deliver on the value your clients expect so that you actually exceed their expectations. Once you confirm this to be true, it now becomes a great time to ask for testimonials or a reference from a happy client.

If you find that you are having difficulty asking for referrals, then question how strong your belief is in your product, your commitment to serving your clients, and the value proposition you can deliver.

Setting up a referral agreement with your clients will remove any reluctance and make you feel much more comfortable when asking them for referrals. Since they now know this is something you will be asking of them, it’s okay to ask.

Lately, I’ve been getting a high volume of calls from sales managers and their salespeople struggling to meet their sales goals. So, let me paint you a visual of the typical scenario being played out through the eyes of a salesperson; one that you may be intimately familiar with.

You’re on your way to work and during your commute, you’re thinking about what you hope to accomplish that day.

You get to your office, sit down at your desk and open up your calendar. A concerned look sweeps over your face. “Only one appointment this week.”

You look at your pipeline and get that squirmy feeling inside your gut, as you realize your pipeline is not as full as it used to be. You’re wondering where you’re going to find your next prospect.

The uncertainty begins to sweep over you. The stress starts creeping into your body, for you realize you can’t keep procrastinating making the cold calls you need to in order to book more appointments with key decision makers.

You remember what your boss told you. “Your funnel is drying up,” he says. “You’ve got to get on the phone and make more calls to your existing clients and to new prospects if you want to meet your goals.”

“Okay I can do this,” you tell yourself.

You find some people to call.

You take a deep breath and start dialing their number. “C’mon just answer the phone,” you say to yourself.

“Voice mail.” You don’t leave a message because you never get your calls returned anyway.

You dial the second number on you call list. Someone answers the phone and you hear, “Mrs. Johnson’s office, how can I help you?”

“Great, another gatekeeper,” you mutter to yourself. You’re actually caught off guard that a live person answered your call. Thirty seconds later, after your valiant, yet ineffective attempt to connect with your prospect, you hear a pleasant but well trained, “No thank you. We’re not interested.” You’re off the phone with the gatekeeper in less than one minute, as she’s been conditioned not to take unsolicited calls, especially cold calls.

You dial the third and fourth number. No luck. “More gatekeepers,” you say. “Why can’t I get past them?” you ask yourself. You start questioning if luck is actually what you really need or if there is more to cold calling than you originally thought.

“Okay one more shot.” You push yourself to dial the fifth number on your call list.

Someone picks up. Shockingly, it’s the prospect! Maybe you’ll get ‘lucky.’ And knowing that you need to open up this call with something gripping and compelling to grab this prospect’s attention to the point where they stop what they’re doing and want to engage in a conversation with you, you say, “Um, Hi. Mr. Smith? Uh, this is Chris from ABC logistics. How are you today?”

“Busy!” he says. And with that, he hangs up the phone.

Now, you’re depleted, frustrated and annoyed. You don’t understand why you’re unable to set the appointments with the prospects who you know you can help and therefore need to meet with. In a discouraging tone, you ask yourself, “Why won’t they talk to me? I know I can help them. If only they’d give me some time on the phone.”

You feel you’ve just wasted three hours of your day that you’ll never get back. In desperation, you cry out, “This cold calling thing doesn’t work for me! What else can I do to schedule meetings with more qualified prospects who can buy from me?”

And that’s when you ask yourself this toxic question which is often followed with a ‘yes’ that feeds the justification of your performance. “Is cold calling really dead?”

No, I did not have a hidden webcam secretly installed in your office, in case you’re wondering how I’ve been able to paint such a vivid picture that so closely resembles what you may be experiencing yourself. If anything, take some comfort in knowing that you are not alone and you can do something about it.

So, what is the answer? Is cold calling really dead? The answer is a resound, “Not even close.” Therefore, do not abandon cold calling! Cold calling is far from dead and I see evidence of this every day. After all, a majority of all Fortune 500 companies utilize some form of telephone prospecting every day.

Sure, I realize for many people cold calling and prospecting ranks right up there with getting their teeth pulled without the gas.

However, as an executive sales coach who has coached and trained thousands of salespeople over the years, here’s what I’ve learned very early on. It’s not that cold calling doesn’t work. Cold calling works fabulously well. It’s the way you’re cold calling that doesn’t work. In other words, consider that it’s more about your approach and cold calling strategy; what you say and how you say it – that is ineffective and what your prospects are unresponsive to.

So be careful. Most people who feel cold calling doesn’t work in actuality, have learned the wrong lesson.

For example, if I asked you to go outside and dig a ten foot deep hole with a spoon, do you learn the lesson, “Well, I guess I can’t dig holes very well” or is the real lesson; “If I had the right tools I would have been able to accomplish this goal faster, with less effort.” You see, it’s all about the tools you’re using when cold calling. Even if you handed Tiger Woods, one of the greatest golfers of all time, a pair of lefty clubs, while he still may outperform most golfers he would not be able to operate at his best, at the pinnacle of his potential, simply because he’s using the wrong tools. The same philosophy applies to your career and to cold calling.

Most salespeople sound exactly the same as every other person when calling on the same prospect, rather than develop their unique and compelling message that grabs someone’s ear to the point where they are interested in what you have to say. Why should a prospect want to hear the same approach time and time again? How can that possibly distinguish you?

So if you’re not getting the results you need, instead of abandoning a proven selling strategy, it’s time to upgrade your cold calling and follow up system. With a strong prospecting and cold calling model that is mapped out step by step; which also includes the compelling opening statement you need, the reasons why someone should listen to you in the first place (rather than opening up a call by asking for an appointment, demo, proposal, etc.), well crafted questions to determine if there’s even a fit between you and your prospect, as well as a strong voice mail and follow up strategy, you will see what a competitive edge “cold calling” can give you.

Side note: Over the last year, my cold calling book has been gaining more popularity as competition increases and the need to find more qualified prospects to fill your pipeline intensifies. So, if you’re ready to develop a permission based prospecting system that will enable you:

Here’s the link to Amazon to read all the five star reviews or you can go to my website here to learn more about this book.

More great news about a company I happen to be a raving fan of. Press release below. Recognition they rightfully deserve.

Landslide Technologies Named Top 100 Private Companies in Eastern U.S. by AlwaysOn

Company Selected as Technology Innovator in SaaS and Enterprise for 2009

Landslide Technologies today announced that it has been selected to the 2009 AlwaysOn East 100 List. The AlwaysOn East 100 winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists and industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2009 list. Landslide was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on demonstration of growth, market opportunity, quality of innovation and customer traction

Landslide Technologies was selected for its solid customer traction and focus on helping companies build world class sales organizations. Landslide’s Sales P3 System is the only cloud computing offering that combines powerful sales process software with live personal sales assistants to provide salespeople a complete environment for increasing sales.

From providing the ability to embed proven sales processes in the day to day lives of sales reps, to providing the right job aids at the right time and personal assistants to offload data entry work, the Landslide Sales P3 System is purpose-built for the sales organization.

“We selected Landslide because of their single-minded focus on increasing sales,” said Chris Roussos, CEO, OrthoSynetics. “We expect to see significant improvement in our sales team’s productivity by supporting them with best-practice sales processes and the personal live assistants.”

Since its launch in 2006, the company has received awards from industry experts including the ‘Cool Vendor’ award from Gartner Group, the Product Innovation Award from Frost and Sullivan, the ‘One to watch’ by CRM Magazine two years in a row and has been twice included in Gartner’s SFA Magic Quadrant as a Visionary company. In addition, the company’s focus on sales process and the needs of the salesperson has won it endorsements from leading sales experts such as Michael Bosworth, Jill Konrath, Gerhard Gschwandtner, Keith Rosen, Dave Kurlan and many more.

“The AlwaysOn selection of Landslide is a validation of what our customers have known all along: that Landslide is the first true sales-centric offering built with a mission to help salespeople succeed,” said Razi Imam, CEO, Landslide Technologies. “Our focus on helping salespeople close more deals rather than just capture more data is what distinguishes us from traditional sales offerings.”

Landslide and the other AlwaysOn East 100 winners will be recognized at the Venture Summit East Conference at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Boston, MA, on May 20-22. This two-and-a-half day executive conference is co-presented by J.P. Morgan and Forbes and will feature presentations and high-level debates from the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers and research analysts in the Eastern U.S.

“It’s no secret that technology and innovation are vital to bringing our country out of economic recession,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “The companies on this year’s list have not only created innovative technologies that solve real business problems, but have stimulated economic growth through the generation of new jobs. I congratulate every winner selected for this year’s award and wish them all tremendous success in the future.”

A full list of all the AlwaysOn East 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/32212

About AlwaysOn
ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (Summit at Stanford, OnMedia, OnHollywood, GoingGreen East and West, Venture Summit East and West) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.

About Landslide Technologies
Landslide Technologies is the provider of Landslide Sales P3 System, a Sales Production System that helps BtoB companies increase sales volume. Landslide Sales P3 System is the first system that combines sales process consistency with sales performance technology and outsourced administrative services to transform individual performers into a world-class team of consistent sales. The company is privately held with headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA. Additional information can be found at landslide.com.

Stop. Just stop for the next several minutes that it’s going to take you to read this. Okay, now take a breath. Get off the treadmill for a moment and ask yourself these questions. Yes, these questions are that important. So important, in fact, that they could change your entire perspective around what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and how much you really need to be doing in order to generate the worthwhile results you’re looking for.

Because the truth is, you just may be running so fast in an attempt to catch up on your sales numbers, that you didn’t recognize the blinders you’ve developed which are obstructing your view of the fuller picture; the landscape you’re trying to farm and manage when it comes to selling and driving the right sales activity. Here are those questions you need to ask yourself (and your sales team).

“With all the effort I’m putting forth in an attempt to generate more prospects and selling opportunities, following up and retaining existing clients to ensure that I’m bringing in as much business as possible:”

• Am I acutely aware of the activities and benchmarked proven practices (both the activities and the dialogue/message I need to communicate) that I need to engage in daily that would secure my success?
• Am I measuring the numbers and the results of my efforts and allowing these statistical data points to be the driving force behind my sales activities?
• Do I know how much cold calling and prospecting activity is actually enough (emails, voice mails, live calls/connections, letters, and so on) and when to call it quits and move on when attempting to convert a contact into a qualified prospect?
• Do I know how many calls/contacts I need to make each day, each week and how often I need to follow up with a qualified prospect in order to earn their business or move them to the next stage of my sales process? (And have I even defined those specific steps in my sales process to begin with?)
• Am I holding myself accountable when it comes to engaging in the right activities in the most efficient way possible through the effective use of a daily routine?
• When calling on or meeting with prospects, do I have a clear set of outlined objectives that I need to accomplish on every call and during each meeting, especially when delivering a presentation?
• Have I identified the lifetime value of each client or account in order to classify customers according to their sales potential? (What’s the economic impact of the time you invest?)
• Do I have a detailed strategy for each of my clients to ensure that I’m maximizing every conceivable up selling and cross selling opportunity?
• Am I fully leveraging the power and potential of my CRM solution for prospect, client as well as territory management? Do you have a call report system?
• Do I have the right questions that provide me with the critical intel I need in order to qualify each person as a viable prospect so that I can most effectively determine where my limited and precious time is best invested?

And to clarify further when it comes to the type of questions you need to be asking each prospect, this isn’t limited to Selling 101 – Uncovering a Need. I’m also referring to understanding how they buy, how they make decisions, the internal workings of the company, the people and egos involved, the process they are going to go through when they hang up the phone with you or end the meeting and then attempt to solve the problem or find a new solution on their own using the resources or venders they currently have, the concerns or roadblocks that you could encounter down the road that would stall or destroy the potential for a sale, the timely and relevant issues that are going on internally, the overall mood of the company and its leaders, and so on. (Hint: Low closing percentages = misalignment in who you should be presenting to and following up with in the first place.)

If you don’t have the answers to these crucial questions, you’re robbing yourself of the opportunity to enjoy the certainty and peace of mind that comes from utilizing a formulaic approach to selling. After all, if you define it, you can then refine it. So, if you’re ever wondering why you or other salespeople fall into what’s known as a ‘sales slump,’ here’s the main cause of that. They aren’t honoring their sales process by the numbers and as such, those who continue to ‘wing it’ as their overall selling strategy are destined to experience the ups and downs in performance and in their stress level, as well as the waning sense of satisfaction and confidence that’s sure to follow in its wake when this amount of ambiguity and uncertainly is present.

I’ve decided (and many of my clients and readers are on board with this as well, so I hope you’ll join us) that it’s no longer as tough as it was out there. That’s right. Strip away what you hear in the media, and look objectively at what you can control; this one telltale sign that something in your selling formula needs to be developed, modified or redefined:

If there are people in your organization, even in your industry or profession who are currently performing like rock stars, that should provide you with one very critical insight. That is, it can be done because it is currently being done by someone else!

Of course it is going to remain “tough out there” if you don’t have your defined best practices, data points and numeric formula to help support your selling efforts. After all, it’s one thing to up your game and work on developing and refining your selling skills as well as your sales management skills. However, to complement this so that you have a comprehensive solution to better performance, you need to have your finger on the pulse of the numbers that will drive your activities in the first place as you exercise your newfound selling and leadership strategies and newly developed competencies. Use these questions I’ve posed to help uncover the gaps in your data pool that in turn, will help refine your overall approach to how you prospect and sell and the measurable effort that’s required for you to do so successfully.

Here’s a very clear insight into one example of some general statistical information about the selling profession that will help you begin the process of fine tuning and developing your own data driven solution to increasing your sales.

48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect.
25% of salespeople make a second contact and stop.
12% of salespeople only make three contacts and stop.
Only 10% of salespeople make more than three contacts.

Now, get this:
2% of sales are made on the first contact.
3% of sales are made on the second contact.
5% of sales are made on the third contact.
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact.
But 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

Now, these numbers may change depending upon your selling cycle, geographic location, the dollar amount of your deliverable, target audience as well as the service or product you’re selling but the essence of this message still remains in tact. That is, do you have your own set of data available which you have used as the cornerstone to constructing your prospecting and selling strategy? If not, it’s the same as getting into your car and saying to yourself before embarking on a trip, “Okay, I need to get to a specific destination, but I’m not exactly sure which direction to travel nor how long it’s going to take me to get there.”

It’s no longer about simply ‘doing more’ but about doing more of what’s right. In our new marketplace, going out in the field and just doing more of what you did yesterday would be the same as trying to sell VCR’s, pagers and CD’s today. (Even my youngest asked me the other day, “Dad, what’s a CD?”). Your product has changed over the years and while your selling and management strategy needs to evolve as well, this evolution must be guided by the numeric benchmarks in order to see the full, panoramic picture of the truth that surrounds your current situation. This will eliminate the costly oversights I’ve detailed earlier and ensure your future success.

We all need to be reminded of this universal law, “We resist what we need to learn the most.” And interestingly, while salespeople and sales managers are more inclined to take the reactionary, visceral attitude, “Lets just get out there and make it happen,” we need to pull back the reigns before engaging in blind sales activities and instead, start with doing what is often perceived as the more mundane, often boring task of benchmarking the right practices and then measuring their effectiveness by the numbers before embarking on these activities. Empirical data will provide the blueprint you need to succeed as well as the certainty, confidence and conviction necessary for a healthy sales mind and attitude.

After all, the greatest rainmakers realize the importance of checking the weather first so they know where the best locations are to make it rain, and have the tools to do so.

Note: If you’re looking for a great tool to help develop your prospecting formula and the measurable efforts needed to achieve your sales goals, check out my Prospecting Calculator here and enjoy the confidence and certainty you’ll experience when you prospect by the numbers.

Here’s the link to the Prospecting Calculator.

Where do buyers go when they say, “I’ll call you back?”

Why do buyers seem so foolish through our eyes for not making a buying decision, when it’s obvious that they have a need that our solution can resolve?

The sales model only handles half of the buying decision – the solution resolution phase. But it has never managed the buying decision phase – that place that buyers go when they go inside, figure out the internal issues they must manage to bring in a new solution, and make sure that there is buy-in for adopting a new solution. And the internal issues are not necessarily related to what we think of as the Identified Problem, or ‘need’. It might involve an historic fight between two departments that have duplicated staffing rather than clean up the fight. It might involve a set of rules that render your solution prohibitive, regardless of the need. It’s the sort of knowledge that only insiders can handle because it’s idiosyncratic to the culture. And as outsiders, we are not privy to it.

Indeed, a buyer’s need sits within a tangle of elements that have created the Identified Problem over a period of time, hold it in place daily, and fight hard to maintain the status quo because otherwise the system would be out of integrity. Think of an iceberg that has a problem with the tip: until the entire iceberg gets engaged, no change will happen. And in the process, it will fight hard to maintain all of itself rather than be diminished or changed.

Sales hasn’t known how to go inside a buyer’s environment and help manage all of those issues. It’s pure systems theory: systems fight to maintain themselves rather than change. And until or unless the system is able to manage the elements that would threaten the rest of the system, no change can happen. That’s why we don’t close 100% of our obvious sales; that’s where buyers go.

And even though we understand the area around our buyer’s Identified Problem, we have had no way of making sense of those idiosyncratic issues that are outside of our solution space and awareness. And until buyers manage these issues, they cannot make a decision.

My friend and colleague, Sharon Drew Morgen, author of the NY Times Business Bestseller “Selling with Integrity” and 6 other books on her ground-breaking Buying Facilitation Method, has developed a model that gives sellers the tools to help buyers recognize, align, and manage all of those elements within a buyer’s environment that need to be addressed before they can make a purchase. It’s the area that sellers have never been able to influence until now. Through books and guided study programs, Buying Facilitation is available to learn. Consider adding it to the skills you already sell with. Not only will it help your buyer make sound, quick buying decisions, but it will make you a true Servant Leader to your buyer, working together to match their values and align their criteria so they discover the solutions that their cultures will accept.

After my conversation with Sharon Drew just yesterday, I strongly suggest making this part of your skill set as well as your mind set that’s going to offer you a competitive selling edge that you may never have considered before. You can learn more about Sharon Drew Morgen, her programs and incredible books at newsalesparadigm.com and buyingfacilitation.com.

Selling in today’s economy is tough and likely to get tougher. It’s time to work smarter not harder.

Here’s one solid investment in yourself and your future. Top Dog Sales Secrets, published by SalesDog.com is the ultimate “tough times” sales book because it gives you an advantage over your competition.

Here is some of what you will learn:

You also get over $3,000 worth of powerful sales tools with your purchase. Your sales toolbox contains downloadable e-books, audio programs, video sales training programs, income-increasing special reports and white papers, all yours at no cost from top sales and business growth leaders – including me. Some of these tools are worth far more than the price of the book.

Don’t stress over tough times. Action is the answer. Check it out here.

P.S. The publisher guarantees your “extreme satisfaction.” Take a few moments right now to learn more. It’s also available as an e-Book.

Times are challenging for many businesses, and sales professionals have to help customers and prospects manage risk so buying will continue.

Those salespeople who help businesses successfully manage risk will be able to elevate themselves above the fray of the marketplace to be seen as bringing greater value to their customers. Your customers need to minimize all kinds of risk in many different areas.

I mention this because I recently learned about a brand new eBook by the Sales Bloggers Union (salesbloggers.com) that deals with this very topic. “How to sell more by reducing risk” provides eight different perspectives of risk written by eight of the top international sales bloggers.

They’re actually giving it away for free. Click here to download the free e-book and see what you can learn to maximize your sales.

Follow me on Twitter here.

In case you’re one of the many who have joined twitter.com I just wanted you to know I’ve begun chirping in this new platform. Now, I’m not sure how long this is going to last, nor do I know how many times I’ll tweet. What I do know is, this is yet another venture into the social networking experiment.

I know what some of you may be thinking. Yet another responsibility to communicate in the social network abyss, another platform that you have to start assimilating to, more time on the computer and in the social network abyss when time is already in short supply and another strike against simplifying our lives and reducing information overload. The one thing I like about Twitter is that it’s not too much information nor a major time commitment. Twitter solves information overload by changing expectations traditionally associated with online communication. At Twitter, they ask one question, “What are you doing?”

Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter’s success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple. Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.

Finally, for those of you who are more discerning or protective of your Facebook or LinkedIn account and who you connect with, look at Twitter as your first step to start connecting with anyone and everyone, fast – sort of like the speed dating of social networking.
I hope you enjoy what I post and feel free to comment as I’d love to hear from you. Here’s the link to my twitter page in case you’d like to follow my chirping.

Refine Your New Business Development Strategy to Win New Business

Use this checklist here

Do you prospect effortlessly and have a steady flow of new business? We all need more selling opportunities. To find them, we need to connect with more qualified prospects.

Sometimes new isn’t always better. Here’s an incredible tool I created years ago when I came out with my cold calling book. I’ve used this countless times to help coach salespeople and companies to develop and fine tune their cold calling approach and strategy to schedule more appointments with the right decision makers that will accelerate your selling cycle and ultimately close more sales.

Managers love this checklist because they can leverage this as a tool to help coach their salespeople and uncover the more elusive gaps in their follow up, warm calling or cold calling approach. Remember, coach the process, not the result.

Use this appointment setting and new business development checklist to discover what it takes to cold call or prospect like a pro and see if you’re set up for success or failure. The Prospecting and Cold Calling Tune Up is a checklist that contains all of the components needed to develop a masterful prospecting and follow up system that’s been proven to bring in new business, fast.

If your prospecting system does not contain the listed components, then you can find everything you need to develop a masterful prospecting system by clicking here.

This prospecting and cold calling checklist will help you identify what you need to refine or develop in your approach to retrain more customers and get into bigger accounts, set up more qualified appointments with decision makers all the way up the C-Level chain to the CEO, get more voice mails returned, set up a step by step prospecting and cold calling strategy that works, close more sales and help your salespeople fill their sales funnel with more qualified prospects.

Make it rain more than ever before. Adopt to the new rules of engagement and win in today’s economy. Tune up your approach here.

When sales managers ask the question, “How can I get my sales team to bring in more sales,” the more obvious solution would be more sales coaching and more sales training. However, what are you coaching and training them against? What metrics do you have so that you can achieve world class sales performance or quickly turnaround underperformers? How do you even know that you’re offering the sales training and coaching in the areas that they truly need it most that will then demonstrate a measurable R.O.I.?

You can go to Yahoo Finance and compare your company’s financial metrics against others in your industry, even by organizational size. Yet, most companies can’t do the same for their sales force. Well, now you can.

Today, benchmarking best sales practices is more important than ever. The discipline of sales benchmarking has finally matured enough to enable executives, and even sales professionals, to compare their performance against best in class and averages of relevant peers. The results are revealing and typically lead to best practices solutions to close the gaps.

Does this sound a bit like sales research, sales analytics or sales reporting? It may, but it goes much deeper than that, offering valuable intel for any sales manager and organization to use in order to more rapidly deploy solutions for your sales team’s mediocre performance and provide the sales coaching around the discipline they truly need to develop and refine the most with pinpoint accuracy.

Greg Alexander is the CEO of Sales Benchmark Index and the co-author of Topgrading for Sales: How to Interview, Hire, and Coach Top Sales Representatives.

His firm focuses on one thing: benchmarking sales forces. Using empirical data to do peer review, his benchmarking process enables you to diagnose and address the root case of success and failure within sales organizations and amongst salespeople utilizing measurable evidence instead of relying solely on who has the loudest voice or the lowest sales. This enables managers to make the necessary changes not by their experience, instinct or gut reaction but by using objective data to drive measurable change.

Tune in to this pre-recorded webinar and learn how you can use sales benchmarking to expose opportunity and to subject the sales function to the same scrutiny as other corporate departments have had to face for years. Find out what significance this has for your business in terms of leading vs. lagging indicators, empirical data vs. sales surveys, and internal sales benchmarking vs. external sales benchmarking.

Need help? Lets face it. The majority of managers are not trained in metric analysis or how to benchmark effectively to bring in more sales and improve performance. This goes much deeper than tracking your general stats or closing percentages. If your company isn’t already doing sales benchmarking to this degree and you’re tired of shooting in the dark, trying to pinpoint the root cause of slumping sales and lagging performance, then email me to discuss the steps you need to take to effectively benchmark. Forget how pleasantly amazed you’ll be in terms of how cost effective and more efficient sales benchmarking is as opposed to attempting to do it on your own; this is a critical component for any organization. I’m such a huge advocate of this essential process, that Greg and I would be happy to help you personally, so feel free to reach out to me anytime.

View the webinar here.

The Big, Big, BIG question we posed to our board of top sales experts was this:

“What can we do to best support sales professionals around the world?”

We thought and we thought and then … we thought some more!

One member said, “I’ve got it. Let’s put all of the world’s best sales blogs together in one place for easy access to sales pros! One place on a web site where they can find rock-solid, up-to-date information on every aspect of sales – from cold calling to closing.” We all said, “Great idea.” And we compiled that list.

“What else can we give?” someone challenged.

“How about a job board – for those who for one reason or another want to seek opportunities elsewhere. A board for real sales-professionals looking for outstanding opportunities!” “Very cool!” we all chimed.

“What else can we give?” we wondered aloud.

“A regular Newsletter and one-stop-product-shop would appeal to me” said one of the experts “with discount coupons” she added. “Let’s do it” was the unanimous vote.

And on we went….

So Phase One of completing is here … let the trumpets herald … now announcing …..

The Top Sales Experts TSE 2.0 launch! Learn more about it here.

Where you get access to:

Now! MARK YOUR CALENDAR for Tuesday, February 10th, 2009!

We are going back to the drawing board to come up with even more goodies for your most-excellent-selling bag-of-tricks-tips-and techniques.

The excitement is rising – “see you” at Top Sales Experts!

Earlier this year, I was approached by the folks over at Top10SalesArticles.com about an article I had written which they were interested in republishing on their site entitled, While You Have Their Attention, Opt-In which initially appeared on Salesopedia.com.

Out of several hundred articles on www.top10salesarticles.com, this article won Article of the Month for November and now it’s up to possibly win the Sales Article of the Year for 2008. Thanks to your help, I won this award last year and hope for a repeat but I can only do it with your help.

If you go to this page www.top10salesarticles.com, on the upper left corner under the page header, you’ll see the poll box. Simply click on “NOVEMBER Keith Rosen” (second from the bottom) and click ‘vote.’ No registering, no entering any of your info, just click and vote in just three seconds.

Your vote counts! The poll closes very soon so cast your vote today. The winner will be announced here at midnight GMT (7pm EST) on New Year’s Eve. (At least that’s when they did it last year.)

Thanks in advance for your support! Enjoy my article as well as the additional sales tips you’ll find there from a variety of writers sharing their perspectives on selling, cold calling, closing the sale and becoming a top salesperson. Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season and I look forward to further contributing to your success in 2009. So, keep your eye out for some more great tools that I’ll be sharing with you soon.

Are you toxic? Take the toxic leadership assessment here.

Are you leading your team or slowly and unknowingly eroding it from the inside out? Do you still navigate your ship using old school motivational tactics? Do you have your people living in fear? Are complaints rampant, as well as turnover? Are you spending most of your days putting out fires? Are you oblivious to the role you’re playing in any of this?

Do you ever stop to think that some of the challenges you’re faced with now might have something to do with how you might be managing your people and your business? The rules of business have changed overnight and the areas most impacted – sales and leadership.

How good of a leader are you? Maybe it’s time for you to abandon your role as Chief Problem Solver. Here’s your chance to get real about the behaviors and strategies you need to abandon today in order to get yourself out of your own way of producing the results you need. Then, you’ll be able to experience what my clients do: A 30% gain in sales.

In this assessment, you will find a list of 27 toxic management strategies that need to be abandoned. And for those managers, executives and business owners who take this assessment and react with, “Wait, this isn’t me.” I applaud you. Either you’re really that good – or really that blind (clueless and disconnected also come into mind- well, then there are those egomaniacal megalomaniacs, but need I digress). And make sure you take the coaching assessment to ensure you’re most effectively leading and coaching your people.) However, just to make sure you don’t have your blinders on, feel free to share this assessment with your team and have them fill this assessment out this assessment on you, anonymously, of course. Can you handle the truth?

Finally, for those people who are reading this blog and feeling as if they’re being managed by this type of manager, I give you this warning. If you have any desire to share this assessment with your manager or boss, make sure you know how they’ll receive it – as a subtle gesture of good will and compassion or a threat and an insult? If the latter, consider doing it anonymously.

take the toxic leadership assessment here.

Now here’s an example of a presentation that grabs attention. It has all the elements of success. The right person, (Tom Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar, Inc.), the right intention, focus, the visuals and measurable results.

Take a look and watch him, um, strip? And for the record, Tom lost, what, 71 lbs! No kidding.

Here’s the link to watch the video presentation!

And congratulations again, Tom, on an extraordinary achievement.

A quick Wiki definition. (Would that be called a “Wiki-Wiki?”) A wiki is a type of website that allows users to add, remove, and edit the content.

Jigsaw’s Wiki is unique because it only contains valuable business to business information. Similar to Wikipedia, Jigsaw’s Company Wiki is a vibrant hub of user-generated content. However, any information and Wiki articles posted should contain only factual information and not opinions or marketing messages.

Jigsaw’s Wiki, however, is especially beneficial to marketers because all companies, big and small, are welcome. Unlike Wikipedia, “notability” isn’t required. It also features relevant, fresh business to business information, while leveraging Free Company Data- that business professionals turn to Jigsaw for Company information.

According to Jigsaw, any business can benefit from this free listing in a few different ways. First, linking to Jigsaw will help your search engine relevance, and as such, help your search engine results. And being a public domain, Jigsaw ensures the accuracy of your company’s public profile which you then get to promote to one of the largest business communities on the web today.

Give it a shot and let me know how it worked for you. It costs you nothing but a minute to sign up.

When presenting to a client or prospect, regardless of any steps you’ve outlined in your presentation, there’s a big difference between convincing or ‘selling’ someone and enrolling someone, especially when you’re at the point in your discussions where you’ve identified some specific problems within the organization or with them. Now, you may be at the point where you’re going to share the solution and enroll them in the solution and more so, taking action and making a change.

Convincing/Selling: Changing someone’s stand on something through the use of force or argument. This often takes the form of a complaint, or reiteration of the problem. If there are people who in involved in your discussions who may have taken a part in creating the problem in the first place, this can be construed as a “Make wrong” and they may then feel compelled to defend their stance. This creates an adversarial posture between you and the other person. Once this happens, people have tendency to further defend their position, which often results in them shutting down their listening for the remainder of the conversation.

Enrolling: Stating the current situation without making anyone wrong while sharing a new opportunity for greater results or what may be possible. Stating the benefits of what a change may bring. For example, the beginning of an enrollment conversation may begin with, “Imagine if…......What if we can create an organization where…..”

Enrolling can also take on the form of asking questions. Besides, what do people believe more, what you say, or what they say? As such, if they voice the problem or a possible solution, then they would be more willing to act on it. Resistance is lowered, and they feel ownership of the solutions and would be more apt to act on it. Here are some questions to use.

Here are a few questions to use when you’re in a situation where you need to acknowledge and respect the other person’s viewpoint, even though you may not agree. Or, maybe you simply need more clarification about their position on something. Instead of making them wrong or creating any confrontational posture between you, add another truth to the situation. Here’s how.

Uncover the specific benefits they want to realize, as well as the cost of not changing. Now, you can be in a position of enrolling them in the idea of actually taking actions to implement change to achieve these new results, without putting anyone on the defensive.

No one likes to be sold. Everyone wants to be enrolled. BTW, look for my new book, The Art of Enrollment, coming to you in 2009.

With all this talk about qualifying and how to qualify a prospect, it’s critical to ensure that, especially those of you who are attempting to cold call for the first time or prospect in a more unique or innovative way than you’ve done before, you understand the difference between qualifying and judging a prospect.

To permanently eliminate any confusion, lets draw a distinction between what it means to pre-qualify and pre-judge someone, such as a prospect. If you read my cold calling book, you know that I’m a strong advocate of pre-qualifying anyone before you invest your very limited and precious time in meeting with or speaking with them. Conversely, pre-judging someone is something you do that shows up in the filter or barrier you have in your listening, which was created out of the assumptions you’ve already made about that prospect.

Here’s another way to distinguish between the two. When you are pre-qualifying someone, you are arriving at a conclusion that determines whether or not there’s a fit worth pursuing based on a defined set of criteria you uncover through the use of well crafted questions. You are solely focusing on the prospect, not yourself and what you have to gain or lose, to determine how you can add value or if there’s a match between the two of you.

Pre-judging said simply, is all about you. Here, you are relying on your faulty and costly assumptions, thoughts and beliefs to determine their needs and whether or not this prospect will potentially buy from you.

When you pre-judge someone, you’re making assumptions about them before you ask any questions or uncover many facts. Maybe you’ve judged them by their appearance, where they live, their type of business or industry, how they sound over the phone or a comment they made. In essence, you’re “already” listening and forming conclusions based on your defined set of criteria rather than the facts.

When you pre-qualify someone, you’re asking questions to uncover their specific needs and objectives, without making any assumptions. You are learning about the prospect based on the responses you hear from the questions you ask. You are being fully engaged and present in the conversation with that person, rather than in your own head forming conclusions or operating off your agenda. This way, you’re making a decision to pursue this prospect based on reliable intelligence instead of your overactive imagination. (Here’s another distinction: authentic fit vs. a pipedream. )

September is Customer Appreciation Month is for Hoover’s. In support of this, Hoover’s has identified a theme for each of the four weeks of the month which I’ll be blogging about. Here’s the schedule.

Wk 1: Prospecting (9/8-9/12)
Wk 2: Qualifying (9/15-9/19)
Wk 3: Presentation Skills and Closing the Sale (9-22-9/26)
Wk 4: Overcoming Objectives (9/29-10/3)

Now that we’re in week two, below are some qualifying questions you can use during the next conversation you have with a prospect. Remember, it’s not just any question but defined, well crafted questions that are going to act as the conduit to more qualified prospects and more sales.

While many salespeople would use questions that qualify their prospects to determine whether or not they are a viable candidate for their product or service, uncovering a true fit between you and your prospects goes much deeper.

There are actually two distinct types of questions: First, there are fact finding questions. These questions relate specifically to your industry and product or service. These fundamental questions provide you with the information you need to uncover whether this prospect is even someone who would purchase what you sell. These questions would uncover the following information. Do they currently have a similar solution you offer. Is your solution a complement or replacement to what they are currently doing? Is the company the right size, offers the right product or service, is the right industry, has the right type and number of employees?

Second, there are those decision oriented questions that move the sales process forward and motivate your prospect to make a decision or want to buy from you. These discovery questions will enable you to uncover how they go about making a purchasing decision, the cost of not making any changes as well as create the urgency for the prospect to make a decision.

Keep in mind when executed correctly, these questions will facilitate a natural conversation, rather than a “pitch.” As you read the questions that follow, remember, it’s a give and take. You’re not interrogating them, but having a conversation to learn how you can best assist them based on their goals and objectives, uncover the process they honor when making a decision and whether or not there’s even a fit.

Finally, look at these questions like a big buffet. Take what you like and what works for you and leave what you don’t.

Decision Oriented Questions

If you’ve been reading my blog then you’ve read about the company, CanDoGo. CanDoGo has more than 10,000 sales, management and motivational insights (in video, audio and text) from over 140 of the world’s best and brightest authors, speakers and coaches. You’ll find names like Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Denis Waitley, Tony Parinello, Jill Konrath, (yours truly) and many other experts.

I figured if you’re going to try out this service anyway, at least here’s a good bonus to take advantage of.

All of this is available to you for only $9.95 per month— and on September 15th one lucky new subscriber will receive over $2,000 worth of Zig Ziglar DVDs, CDs and books. To enter for your chance to win, subscribe now.

I wish you the best of luck in your sales career and I know you will win more opportunities with CanDoGo at your fingertips.

One of the first sales books I’ve ever read was Tom Hopkins, How to Master the Art of Selling. Now, it’s my pleasure to share with you an exclusive event that happens only once a year.

Tom Hopkins is the nation’s number one how-to sales trainer and author of fourteen books on the subjects of selling and success. He has helped over four million salespeople on five continents to increase their selling skills and their sales volumes.

BOOT CAMP SALES MASTERY is Tom’s premiere sales training event—offered only once a year in Tom’s hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. In challenging times, it’s critical that you continue to sharpen your skills. Come learn the strategies you need to become one of today’s top producers from Tom and his incredible guest speakers. Click here for details.

This year’s program is at the fabulous Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort on August 21, 22 & 23.

In addition to Tom’s powerful sales training, you’ll learn from specially selected experts in the arenas of professional telephone communication, relationship selling and how to make the most of self-promotion. This year’s guest speakers include Jim Cathcart, author of Relationship Selling, and The Eight Competencies of Relationship Selling; and other well known experts. All are phenomenal presenters with incredible ideas and strategies to help you succeed.

EXCHANGE IDEAS WITH YOUR PEERS

In addition to our amazing guest speakers, you’ll benefit from the knowledge of your peers. Picture it—hundreds of sales professionals from around the world in one place for three days. Exciting new connections are there, waiting to be made. The person sitting next to you might be your next best client or be in your same industry with incredible ideas to share. Those you meet at lunch might have fabulous products that your company needs to stay competitive.

More information.

Jigsaw, the leaders in complete and collaborative business information, believe that company data is a basic business right. That’s why they’ve launched the Open Data Initiative—the fast, easy and free way to download thousands of company records in just seconds.

Now you can say goodbye to:

<li>Painstakingly searching the web for one off company data.</li>

<li>Renting costly company directory lists. </li>

<li>Subscribing to expensive data services. </li>

With the Open Data Initiative you can quickly identify the companies in your target market and build your perfect list in seconds—then supercharge your CRM with the data your business needs to succeed. Free company data starts on June 4. Learn more here.