Speaking at the Sales Leadership Conference Next Monday Oct, 6 – Chicago
Sep 30, 2008 All About Selling, Business Coaching, Business Tools, Insights in Business, Leadership Academy, Live Events, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, articles on leadership, seminars
For those managers and executives out there with a struggling sales force, here’s something you can do about it. Tap into this rich opportunity to get immediate solutions to your most pressing sales and leadership challenges from the experts.
Next Monday, October 6, 2008 I’ll be speaking at the Selling Power Sales Leadership Conference at the Four Seasons, Chicago. Below is the agenda. Click here for more information.
Agenda
7:30 AM REGISTRATION AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
8:30 AM WELCOME KEYNOTE
9:15 AM TOTAL LEADERSHIP: BE A BETTER LEADER, HAVE A RICHER LIFE
Total Leadership is a proven method for producing sustainable change in all parts of life that can be learned and practiced by individuals, groups, or organizations. It is informed by decades of research and practical application by Stew Friedman, a veteran Wharton School faculty member.
Speaker: Stewart Friedman, Founding Director, Wharton Leadership Program
10:25 AM MORNING BREAK
10:45 AM HOW TO BUILD AN EXECUTION-ORIENTED SALES CULTURE
A sales-driven organization is one where the activities of the sales force are aligned with a company’s mission, vision and values and where salespeople deliver value every day with every customer. Each of the panelists has excelled in managing a sales-driven organization. Learn the winning strategies and tactics from these experts so you can get your entire executive team to support your guiding vision.
Moderator: Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and Publisher, Selling Power
Panelists: Sanford Brown, CSO, Heartland Payment Systems
12:15 PM LUNCHEON
1:15 PM HOW TO SKYROCKET YOUR SALES TEAMS’ PERFORMANCE - CASE STUDY: DHL
Sales force success is driven by a continuous management system that links business objectives, benchmarking, focused planning, individual assessment, and hands-on coaching. In this in-depth case study, you will learn exactly how DHL uses a scientific Sales Improvement Process to maintain peak levels of sales performance. This approach was pioneered with DHL’s 1,500-person sales force in the Asia-Pacific region; however, it can be easily tailored to sales forces in any industry, of any size, and with missions ranging from making small ticket, transactional sales to much larger, relationship-based sales. At DHL, this Sales Improvement Process was employed with a 150-person sales force in China, as well as the 15-person sales force in the Philippines.
Speaker: Malcolm Rees, Global Head of Sales, DHL Express Global Management
2:30 PM BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Breakout A: Coaching Salespeople into Champions
Technology has not only changed the way companies sell but the way managers build and advance their team. There’s less face to face time between your customers and your salespeople. To maintain your competitive edge, sales leaders must know how to quickly and efficiently coach, develop, motivate and retain their top performers in order to drive positive, measurable change. You can create a world class team by developing your own coaching skills; the missing discipline among today’s leaders. Learn how a tactical coaching system can empower your sales force to realize their fullest potential.
Moderator: Mary Delaney, CSO, CareerBuilder.com
Panelists: Dave DiStefano, CEO, RIchardson
Patrick Sweeney, EVP, Caliper
Breakout B: Reviving Sales with Creative Incentives During a Slow Economy
Many industries are suffering from a slowdown. To stimulate sales, sales leaders often resort to price-cutting, or offer special incentives to their customers and their sales force. What strategies work best when it comes to planning, promoting and executing a successful incentive program? What incentives motivate customers to buy and what incentives motivate salespeople to deploy the extra effort needed to drive up sales? Learn how industry leaders deploy Incentives to achieve a strategic competitive advantage.
Moderator: Matt Harris, Vice President, Marketing, American Express Incentive Services
Panelists: Richard Blabolil, President, Marketing Innovators
3:30 PM AFTERNOON BREAK
3:50 PM THE FUTURE OF THE SALES PROFESSION
With many baby boomers retiring, US companies are beginning to suffer from a shortage of sales talent. Every year over 1.5 million College graduates enter the field of sales, starting their careers with inadequate training, burdening their employers with a high business ramp up investment. There is a silver lining on the horizon with 35 visionary Colleges that offer a complete sales curriculum. Every year, these colleges graduate 1,600 sales professionals who know how to cold call, write a sales letter, handle objections, close a sale and ask for referrals. Engage in this session to help advance your profession. Together we can transform selling into a respectable and predictable science.
Speaker: Howard P. Stevens, Chairman and CEO, The HR Chally Group
Panelists: Pete Peterson, Director, Program for Sales Excellence, University of Connecticut
4:50 PM CONCLUDING REMARKS
Speaker: Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and Publisher, Selling Power
5:00 PM NETWORKING COCKTAIL RECEPTION
Post-Conference Workshop – Tuesday, October 7, 2008
This optional workshop will run from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon in Ballroom A (8th floor) of the Four Seasons Chicago Hotel.
8:00 AM MANAGING THROUGH CURIOSITY
Click here for more information.
CEO Strips to Deliver a Presentation With Impact
Sep 29, 2008 All About Selling, Communication, How To Close The Sale, Leadership Academy, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tools, seminars
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.
Jigsaw Launches Company Wiki as a Platform to Promote Your Brand
Sep 26, 2008 Business Advice, Business Coaching, Business Tools, Marketing, Technology and Software, sales tools
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.
If No One Likes to Be Sold, Enroll Instead. The Difference Between Enrolling and Selling.
Sep 25, 2008 All About Selling, Communication, Executive Coaching, How To Close The Sale, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, closing the sale, sales articles, sales tips, sales tools
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.
Alltop.com – An Online Digital Magazine Rack
Sep 23, 2008 Business Tools, Career Advice, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Technology and Software, management articles, sales articles
Here’s a great new resource worth using. It’s alltop.com. Alltop.com collects stories from “all the top” sites on the web. They have grouped these collections into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as sales, environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics and automobiles. At each Alltop site, they display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs.
Think of an Alltop site as a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. Alltop is attempting to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. Their goal is simple: provide “aggregation without aggravation.”
The way it works is this: They import the stories of the top news websites and blogs for any given topic and display the headlines of the five most recent stories (except Moms.alltop which has fewer headlines because there are so many feeds). When you place the cursor over a headline, alltop displays part of the story so that you can decide if you’d like to read it. To read the story, click on its title. To go to the home page of the site, click on its domain name. That simple. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Your Customers Have No Idea What You’re Taking About. Effective Communication and Presentation Skills.
Sep 22, 2008 Cold Calling Tips, Communication, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, accountability, customer service, sales tips
Here we are, in the third week of Hoover’s Customer Appreciation Month. This week’s focus: Presentation Skills and Closing the Sale.
So, I thought this story was apropos. My wife and I attended open school night last week. It was the first time we had an opportunity to sit down and listen to the plan that my daughter’s third grade teacher had for her students.
As an illustration of the importance of reading comprehension, she asked us to do the following exercise. “Read the following excerpt of this book and tell me what you think the story is all about,” she directed. She also informed us that 85% of the words would remain in the story and only 15% of the works in this excerpt would be removed.
After reading the story, she made her point. As parents, we may think that an 85% comprehension of a story would be fine for our children when reading a story, right? I mean, it’s practically 100%. However, the fact is, the omission of just 15% of a story greatly affects someone’s comprehension of that story. I’ve included the story below for your to read and judge for yourself.
Now, consider how this ties into the importance of a successful presentation. Think about how critical it is for you to not only develop and refine your compelling message and Most Valuable Proposition but to position and communicate it to your customer in a way that they truly hear and understand it. There’s a big difference between being heard and being understood. It’s your job to ensure you are communicating to your customers and prospects in the way they communicate and process information, then confirm that the message you sent was the message that was received.
The most effective presentations are going to be evaluated by the result, not the vast amount of information you can disseminate to a prospect. Keep your PowerPoint at bay until you’ve determined exactly what it is your prospects wants to hear and needs to learn. And remember, if you want to increase the impact of your communication and presentations, it’s your responsibility to make sure that 100% of your message is truly understood by every person you speak with.
2-5 Advanced Section 24
Pickle Puss by Pat Reilly Giff (Guided Reading M) (85% accuracy: 58 errors)
Emily XXXX jumped down the XXXX. She XXXX across the XXXX. “Wait for me,” her little XXXX, Stacy, yelled. Emily looked back.
“Stacy XXXX the XXXX door. She was XXXX a XXXX on her head. She had her mother’s high XXXX on her feet.
“You can’t go like that,” Emily said.
“I’ll take off my XXXX,” Stacy said. She dropped the XXXX. It XXXX on the grass. Emily closed her eyes. “XXXX.”
Stacy clicked down the XXXX. “Mrs. Baker will love my red XXXX.” Emily started XXXX the street. “Walk XXXX,” Stacy said. “It’s hard to XXXX up.”
Emily took Stacy’s hand. “Try. We’re XXXX XXXX.” At the next corner they saw Richard XXXX. He was XXX X under a bush.
“XXXX, Beast,” Emily called. “Where are you going?” he yelled.
“To the XXXX,” Emily said. “Today’s the day Fish for a Good XXXX starts. We can do it all XXXX.”
“Not me,” Beast said. “I XXXX enough in summer XXXX. Too much.” He sat back. “Besides, it’s XXXX. XXXX starts soon.”
“Emily’s going to fish,” Stacy said. “Right Emily?” Emily XXXX. “I’m going to get a pile of them.”
“So is Dawn,” said Beast. “And Jill, and Timothy XXXX.” He shook his head. “Too bad Matthew moved away. He’d like to fish too.”
“Did you hear from him?” Emily asked.
Beast held up one XXXX. “I got a XXXX. A skinny little XXXX. Matthew’s a terrible XXXX. I couldn’t XXXX it.”
“Come on, Emily,” Stacy said. “It’s too hot to XXXX XXXX.” Emily and Stacy went down the street. They turned in at the XXXX.
“XXXX,” said Stacy. “Lots of kids are here today.” Emily waved at Jill and Dawn. Then she looked up. There was a new XXXX on the wall. It was a picture of a boy fishing. He was fishing in blue XXXX water. Red and blue and tan XXXX fish swam in the water. Up on top said FISH FOR A GOOD XXXX.
“I’m going to get lots of fish,” Stacy said.
Emily shook her head. “You don’t have a XXXX.” “Mrs. XXXX will give me one,” Stacy said.
“No,” said Emily. “Not until you can XXXX your name. That’s the XXXX.”
Stacy stuck her lip out. She looked as if she were going to cry. “How can I learn to XXXX? Nobody will let me go to XXXX.”
Emily XXXX her XXXX (397 words).
A Deeper Qualifying Strategy Uncovers More Sales- Maximize Your Selling Efforts on Every Call
Sep 20, 2008 All About Selling, Cold Calling Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, Selling Advice, sales tips, tele-sales, telesales
Quite often when we think of qualifying a prospect, we believe this process to occur earlier on in the relationship. However, the qualifying process can take on many forms. Here are three different strategies you can incorporate into your prospecting efforts as it relates to qualifying your prospects at a much deeper and more rewarding level. You’ll notice new selling opportunities right in front of you that you never knew existed before.
#1 – Learn from Each Call – Conduct Valuable Research
For those calls where you feel you’ve given it your best effort and you’re just not getting anywhere:
“I do apologize for the intrusion as well as my approach. I can understand how people are a bit skeptical of a cold call. Quite frankly, so would I. May I ask, when making a decision on what [venders to choose, products to buy, services to use], how do you go about gathering your information? This way, if I ever get a second chance to speak with you, I can honor your decision making process and hopefully connect with you in a way that you are more comfortable.”
OR
“What would have made you more receptive to my call today?”
#2 – Prospect Your Prospects
For those prospects who may simply not be a fit, yet may know people who are:
“Mr. Prospect, thanks again for taking the time to speak with me today. I’ve certainly enjoyed our conversation. Based on what you are currently doing, it seems that our product is not a good fit for you. However, I hope our conversation reinforced what a great job your current vender is doing for you.
While there may not be anything I can provide you that would make a measurable difference in comparison to what you are doing now, maybe there’s another way we can work together. In your line of work, I’m sure you run across other people who have shared similar challenges that you had and might be looking for a better solution. If you know someone who is always looking out for ways to do things better and who you feel could benefit from our product, would you be comfortable referring them to me?”
Then, continue with: “That sounds great. Then may I ask who you know that would be a good candidate for our service?”
3 – Get Permission to Follow Up and Prospect Them
For those prospects who may now be in your pipeline and need follow up to insulate them from your competition, while keeping your finger on their buying cycle and when they may be ready to buy:
“Mr. Prospect, thanks again for your time today. Before we rap up this conversation, I’ve noticed that in the past, when I have attempted to reconnect with someone months after our first contact, many things have transpired. Changes in their position, in their company, or in their life often have tendency to divert even the best-laid plans. Since there are so many things that can happen in two months, I was hoping that I could stay in contact with you without stepping over the line and being annoying about it. With your permission, can I contact you from time to time with updates about our product or valuable information that you may find of interest as it relates to your business?”
A monthly newsletter, a free trial, an article of interest, a great new product feature or being a resource for additional needs they may have are just a few ways to deliver value during this “down time” and keep your finger on the pulse of every prospect you speak with.
Your Imagination is Going to Cost You Sales; Especially when You’re Qualifying a Prospect
Sep 19, 2008 All About Selling, How To Sell and Sales Tips, How to Manage Your Team, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, accountability, sales articles, sales tips, sales tools, tele-sales, telesales
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. )
Qualify the Sale: How to Best Qualify Any Prospect and Find the Perfect Fit
Sep 17, 2008 All About Selling, Cold Calling Tips, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tools, tele-sales, telesales
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
Inc. Article Features Clients – Succeeding In Spite of A Bad Market
Sep 15, 2008 All About Selling, Business Advice, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching for managers, sales articles
Earlier this summer, I was interviewed by Inc. magazine on the how to keep salespeople motivated, especially when they miss their numbers. Business owners and sales managers need to focus on specific parts of their sales process rather than just hammering on the overall sales goals.
In this Inc. story, entitled, Fighting the Sales Force Blues, read about two of my clients (Joe and Michele) who have taken a proactive stance to adjust to the current market conditions, rather than playing the victim or taking the ‘wait and see’ attitude.
Read about what they have done in response to the changes in their marketplace which has resulted in keeping them on top of their game and on top of their sales. Here’s what CEO’s, managers and business owners need do to stay on track and, most importantly, keep salespeople motivated in an uncertain economy.
Here’s the link to the full article on Inc.
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