Keith Rosen's Executive Sales Coaching Blog on Selling, Leadership, Management

Twitter has Entered The Schedule

Feb 24, 2009 Business Tools, sales tools

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.

Tags: application, Communication, social networking, twitter

Tune Up Your Prospecting Strategy, Get Your Cold Calling Game On and Secure More Leads and Appointments

Feb 21, 2009 All About Selling, Books, Cold Calling Tips, How To Close The Sale, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tools, tele-sales, telesales

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.

Get Your Free Copy of Leadership Mojo and Get Your Sales Team Selling More

Feb 18, 2009 Books by Keith Rosen, Business Coaching, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching for managers, management articles, management tips, training for managers

I have something timely and special I want to share with you. It’s a new guide I’ve developed entitled, Leadership Mojo. And today, I’m giving it away for free because in this economic climate, every great leader and manager needs their mojo to get their sales team selling more than ever before.

Learn what you can do to coach your team to sell more during new and more challenging times. As a complement to my award winning book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions, I’ve put together Leadership Mojo; a compilation of thoughts, ideas and strategies on the new discipline of leadership and what it takes to coach your sales team into high performing sales champions.

You may be wondering why I’m giving this away for free. Well, since every competitive edge counts today, I want to do to my part in supporting you during more challenging times.

Tap into over one hundred pages filled with dozens of timely and practical tips to:

And more!
Value: $30.00
Special Offer: Download this for FREE!

Get Your free copy of Leadership Mojo

DIRECTIONS: To receive your free copy, simply send an email to mojo@profitbuilders.com with the words “Leadership Mojo” in the subject line and within minutes, you’ll receive your special download!

IMPORTANT NOTE: To ensure you receive the instructions and link to download your free copy, please make sure you have the email address mojo@profitbuilders.com in your safe sender/recipient list to avoid our email being deleted or flagged as spam. If you don’t receive our email within 24 hours, then please send a second email to the same address with the words “Second Request” in the subject line so that we can assist you.

For more information on this new eguide, click here and get your mojo.

Tags: career coaching, Executive Coaching, managent tips, Sales Coaching, save your job

Winner of the 2009 Stevie Award for Sales Eduction Leader of the Year

Feb 16, 2009 Books, Business Tools, Executive Coaching, Interviews, Live Events, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training, management articles, sales articles

The other day, results were announced in the 3rd annual Stevie® Awards for Sales and Customer Service, an international competition recognizing excellence in customer service and sales. Stevie Award winners were announced during a gala awards dinner at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

I’m excited and humbly appreciative of winning the 2009 Stevie Award and being recognized as the Sales Education Leader of the Year. To me, this is not only an honor but a responsibility I have to you. I look forward to continually earn the right to hold this title and further my commitment to support sales executives, managers and salespeople world wide through my writing, training and coaching. And today, distinguishing and positioning yourself as an invaluable part of your organization is more essential than ever. This can only be achieved by developing yourself into the sales leader you can be.

Below is the ‘official’ press release.

KEITH ROSEN WINS 2009 STEVIE AWARD FOR SALES EDUCATION LEADER OF THE YEAR

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – February 10, 2009 – Keith Rosen was presented with a Stevie® Award for Sales Education Leader of the Year in the third annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world’s leading business awards shows including the prestigious American Business Awards.

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word “crowned,” winners were announced during a gala banquet on Monday, February 9 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Nominated customer service and sales executives from the U.S.A. and several other countries attended.

More than 500 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted to this year’s competition. There are 27 categories for customer service professionals, including an Award for Innovation in Customer Service and Customer Service Department of the Year; as well as categories for sales professionals, ranging from Sales Education Leader of the Year, to Sales Training Program of the Year to Sales Department of the Year.

The Executive Sales Coach and sales strategist for many of the top sales and executive teams in the country, Keith Rosen has written several best selling books, including the award winning Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions. This book was recently named the 2008 Sales Leadership Book of the Year and received a gold medal at the Sales Books Awards just last month; a perfect complement to the award Keith has won here at the Stevie Awards.

Members of the Awards’ Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs selected Stevie Award winners from among the Finalists. Finalists were chosen by business professionals worldwide during preliminary judging.

“This year’s honorees demonstrate that even in challenging economic times, it’s possible for organizations to continue to shine in sales and customer service, the two most important functions in business: acquiring and keeping customers,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards.

Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of honorees in all categories are available at stevieawards.com/sales.

About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at stevieawards.com.

CEO’s Need to Get Their Head Out Of Their Assets. Check out This Layoff Tracking Scorecard

Feb 15, 2009 American Entitlement, Business Advice, Business Coaching, Business Tools, Executive Coaching, Sales Management, Surveys and Polls, accountability, articles on leadership, coaching for managers

I want to share a conversation I had recently with a CEO of a fairly large company. He was telling me how they’ve done as much fat cutting, expense reduction, budget freezing and overhead trimming as they can.

They’re on their second rounds of layoffs and it’s still not looking good, as another layoff is lurking. With sales down and their pipeline drying up rapidly, I asked him what he’s doing to better market and sell his core product line, as well as what the company is doing to better train and develop their people, especially their salespeople. As I surmised, he responded, “Well, regarding advertising and training, those were two of the first things we cut out of our budget.”

He then continued by saying, “We’re doing everything we can to cut costs wherever possible, just doing the absolute minimum in spending to ride this storm out. We’re running pretty lean right now and really, the only things we’re spending money on today are the bare necessities to keep this ship afloat and to keep the lights on.” The tone in his voice almost suggested that he was proud of the way he’s handled this.

My response to him was simple. And it’s the same message I’d deliver to every CEO and business owner out there who thinks this is what they need to do to navigate through these challenging times and come out on top. I said, “You can continue to cut costs and do what you can to keep the lights on but keep this in mind. In the end, you’re still selling and managing in the dark.”

In today’s marketplace, you can’t incentivize a company through a recession, freeze enough spending or cut enough overhead to survive, let alone thrive. There are enough companies out there that have proven this already who are no longer here today and more that adhere to this philosophy as a survival strategy (Circuit City, Steve & Barry’s, Linens ‘n Things, Macy’s, Citibank, Sharper Image, Washington Mutual, Home Expo, Ebay, AT&T, KB Toys, Panasonic, IBM, Microsoft and the list goes on and on. Here’s one scorecard on CNET that lists the companies that fall victim to this line of thinking and how many people they’ve laid off to date).

There are dozens of case studies and statistics out there demonstrating that those companies who continually market, advertise and invest in the growth of their people during tougher times are the ones who eventually rise to the top and thrive, positioning themselves to win more business when things turn around. Those companies who are thriving today are the ones who have the most important question in focus and in their line of sight. What is top of mind for them is, “How can I make my salespeople even more valuable and effective?” These are the companies who are investing in advertising and more so in sales coaching, sales training and in further developing their core asset, the one that can make the greatest impact in their bottom line; their people.

CEO’s and leaders of these top corporations are more transparent than ever, and most of us don’t like what we see. In fact, the words “clueless,” “disconnected” and the phrase, “out of touch with reality” come to mind. Maybe it’s because they’ve been sitting in their ivory tower far too long or maybe it’s because they’re spending far too much time traveling in their private jets.

Sure, we can’t control many of the things going on in the economy. However, what these CEO’s and companies can do is realign their thinking around the things they can control and the importance of continually developing their people, which begins with how these executives develop themselves into the leaders they can be in this new age.

It’s evident that many organizations have lost sight of the primary objective of management and leadership, which is simply this: To make your people more valuable.

So until my next rant, learn something new, hone your skills and have a great selling week!

Tony and David’s Five Critical Objectives Of Your First Phone Call

Feb 13, 2009 Books, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Training, sales articles

Tony Parinello recently released a new book which is more timely and relevant than ever before. Entitled, Five Minutes With VITO-Making the most of your selling time with the Very Important Top Officer, authors David Mattson, CEO and a partner at Sandler Systems, Inc. and Tony Parinello have been generous to share some chapter excerpts with me that I now have the opportunity to share with you.

Presence is everything when it comes to selling. How you come across, that is, how you ‘show up’ and present your case to the prospect can make the difference between the beginning or the rapid end of your very first conversation with them. Regarding of how you’ve connected with your prospects; through cold calling, prospecting or by other marketing means, here are Tony and David’s five critical objectives of your first phone call.

Excerpt from Chapter 22

Five critical objectives of your first phone call

Your first phone call with any prospect is a critical factor in determining whether or not you will eventually make a sale. Because of this, it is crucial that you remain focused on the real purpose of this first conversation.

Critical Objective #1

Make a great first impression.

Your first phone call is about bonding and building a business relationship. Never use an icebreaker. It is a shallow attempt to reduce tension and a total waste of time. Get straight to the point. Don’t go into any technical details about your product or service unless you’re asked. Forget that you need to make a sale. Sounding desperate is going to bring a quick end to your conversation.

Critical Objective #2

Communicate with unshakeable confidence.

Pick up the phone, take your shot, stick to what you know and remember that if you fast-talk your prospect they will hang up. Remain confident and concise throughout the conversation.

Critical Objective #3

Focus on what is relevant to your prospect.

When you’re making a pitch, your prospect is going to be asking him or herself, “How does this apply to me and the economics of my operations and/or the wealth of my shareholders?” Make sure your product or service is a clear answer to this question.

Critical Objective #4

Establish an up-front contract.

A conversation with a prospect is all about commitments of time, attention and resources. Be up-front with what you are offering them, and what you are asking for. Lead your prospect towards making additional commitments to you, but make them feel like they are in control of the terms.

Critical Objective #5

Make a great last impression.

What you say at the end of your first conversation matters almost as much as what you say at the beginning. Make sure your prospect hangs up the phone eager to speak with you again.

To order the book or for more information, click here.

Managing the Resistant Salesperson. Coach Them Anyway!

Feb 12, 2009 Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching for managers, management articles, management tips, training for managers

It’s evident that today more than ever, we can all benefit from a little introspection and realignment in our thinking, in our approach to sales management as well as in our selling strategy. And while more people today are open to changing their ways than ever before which as been fueled by the current market conditions, as a manager, what about those salespeople who might decline your offer of additional sales coaching and don’t want to participate in coaching?

How do you handle those who don’t want to be coached? While there are several ways to handle a situation like this, here are some points to keep in mind:

Here’s what I suggest. If They Don’t Want To Be Coached, Coach Them Anyway

Is it possible you can still coach them during normal conversation without labeling it coaching? The truth is, this person just may not want to enter into what they might perceive as an “official” coaching relationship. Said another way, if you’re a sales manager who gets the value and the importance of delivering effective coaching, ask better questions about each sales call without explicitly declaring it coaching. For example, stay away from, “Okay, we’re getting into a coaching session now.”

Rather than implementing a structured coaching program with them, what if you simply communicated with them like a sales coach would do from a coaching perspective? Rather than come across in an accusatory, curt or negative tone (i.e. “Why didn’t you close that sale?” “Are you going to reach your numbers?” “Here’s where you messed up and missed the mark.”) Simply start a conversation by asking better questions instead:

(You can find list of 400 of the most powerful coaching questions in Volume 1 of The Coaching Playbook.)

Sales Benchmarking Webinar: Drive More Sales Rather than More Layoffs and Cutbacks

Feb 11, 2009 All About Selling, Sales Management, Sales Training, Selling Advice, sales articles, sales tools, webinar

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.

Increase Your Sales In the Midst of Budget Cuts

Feb 10, 2009 All About Selling, Business Tools, Career Advice, Sales Coaching, sales articles, sales tips, sales tools

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!

Tony Parinello’s Four Critical Tips for Writing Sales Letters

Feb 7, 2009 All About Selling, Books, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Training, sales articles

Tony Parinello recently released a new book which is more timely and relevant than ever before. Entitled, Five Minutes With VITO-Making the most of your selling time with the Very Important Top Officer, authors David Mattson, CEO and a partner at Sandler Systems, Inc. and Tony Parinello have been generous to share some chapter excerpts with me that I now have the opportunity to share with you.

Since writing a powerful sales letter is a key element of your successful selling strategy, here are Tony and David’s Four critical tips for writing sales letters that deliver results. Enjoy!

Excerpt from Chapter 20
Radical Tactics for Explosive Results

Throw your old selling strategies out the window – it’s a whole new world out there.

When the economy changes this much, this quickly, it can leave even the best sales people with dry pipelines and smaller deal sizes. This doesn’t mean that prospects have stopped buying or that it’s impossible to make as much or more than you made last year. You can still hit your numbers if you know how to adapt.

The best sales professionals are flexible and intuitive. They recognize that a shift in the economy or their industry requires a shift in their selling strategy. Their success is achieved by trying something new rather than clinging to what worked in the past.

Instead of hammering the phones twice as hard as you used to, ask yourself “Who is spending money right now?” Don’t be surprised how high up in an organization you have to go to find someone who can make a purchase. Your usual suspects probably have lost their budgets, along with their authority to make most decisions.

Today’s real prospects – the ones with buying power – have titles like CEO, owner or president. So says experts and authors David Mattson and Tony Parinello, the authors of Five Minutes With VITO, Making the most of your selling time with the Very Important Top Officer.

The people at the top are the people you should concentrate on selling to, because they are still buying. Stay focused on the strengths of your product or service, but understand that these prospects value things differently today then their subordinates. You won’t get VITOs interest by talking about features and functions or anything else that falls short of helping the company 1) make money, 2) increase productivity, or 3) reduce defects and other drains on profitability. It doesn’t matter if you sell IT services or cleaning products, the person at the top wants to talk to you if you make a clear case for positively impacting the bottom line.

Now more than ever it pays to be persistent, unconventional and smart when you’re prospecting. In order to get attention, you may need to break some rules.

Four Critical Tips for Writing Sales Letters That Deliver Results

Four critical tips for writing sales letters that deliver results

Writing a powerful sales letter is a key element of your successful selling strategy. Variations of this letter can be used for contacting every prospect on your list. You cannot afford to make a mistake on this versatile tool.

Critical Tip #1

NO logos. NO letterhead. NO slogans.
NO corporate branding.

Your sales letter should not include anything that easily identifies you or your company. Force your prospects to read your letter before deciding whether or not they know you – or want to know you.

Critical Tip #2

Keep it on one page.

Sure, you have lots that you want to tell your prospect. The problem is that your prospect will not read more than one page of information. Keep your sales letter short, to the point and leave lots of white space.

Critical Tip #3

Use eye-catching headlines.

If you want your sales letter to be read, it should be easy to scan. Your prospect isn’t going to spend time looking for the most important information. Make your headline brief, direct and to the point. Thirty words max.

Critical Tip #4

Never fold your sales letter. Don’t use your company’s standard envelope. Hand-write the address.

In order for your prospect to read your letter, they have to notice it first. Use a large 9×12” envelope with a handwritten name, title and address, and a return address with no company name or persons name. Do not put anything else (such as pens, business cards or oddly shaped objects) inside. This is not direct mail, it’s the beginning of a business relationship.

To order the book or for more information click here.