Persistence

Business owners and decision makers are typically very busy people. Often, the difference between making a sale and not making a sale is catching the decision maker at the right time. One of the best ways to catch a decision maker at the right time is to catch him or her many times. Of course, you do not want to be contacting a prospect so often that you become an annoyance. Still, using a combination of phone calls, emails, faxes and snail mails you can ensure your prospect remembers your company when the time comes to purchase the product or service you sell.

Organization

One of the most important aspects of following up is being organized. There is a great variety of software to help you get your lead management in order, but all lead management software is not created equal. One feature to look for in lead management software is portability. Web based systems allow users to access their leads from any Internet connected computer. Another feature to look for is built in document management. Ideally, your lead management software will allow you to easily send emails, faxes and snail mails and document the contact automatically. A good scheduling tool is also a great asset to lead management software.

Follow Up and Consistency

Once you have contacted your lead, make sure to let them know when you will follow up again and follow through. Setting a time and day to follow up and then following through will build trust with your prospect. Just doing what you say you’ll do is a huge source of confidence to prospective clients. After following up several times at the same time and day of the week, your prospect will come to expect your contact. Use this to build rapport. Become involved in your prospect’s life and you are much more likely to make a sale. Use your lead management software to make notes about your conversations. Other wise, it is very difficult to remember the details of every conversation you may have. By following up and staying in front of your prospects, you will make more sales. The more familiar your prospects are with your company and products or services, the more likely they are to choose your company. Using the right lead management software can make the task of following up a breeze.

Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm – www.marketingtitan.com – a San Diego Internet marketing and advertising company offering automated web site systems through www.businesscreatorpro.com.

These front desk people would be otherwise known as the gate keepers.

Lets face it, getting passed the gate keeper can be tough, we are on their turf, what they say goes. Any slight resistance could end up with them making a call to security.

Here are few really good tips on getting passed the gate keeper that have been proven to work.

1. Ask to speak with someone in the sales department.

The next time you are out cold calling, the last thing you want to do is walk into an office building, approach the front desk, and immediately try to sell your product.

Instead, try this approach. Walk up to the receptionist counter, introduce yourself verbally and with a business card, and ask if you may speak with someone in their sales or retail department.

By asking to speak with someone in a specialized department, the receptionist will believe you are there on official business and put you in contact with that department.

Now that you are in front of someone in the same area of work as yourself, they will most assuredly be sensitive to your needs, and understand your situation.

These are the people in the company that will point you in the direction you want to go, and in the direction of the people you want to speak with about your products and services.

2. Call ahead before you go.

Before you go out to make your calls, place a telephone call to the companies you plan on visiting to let them know that you will be stopping by.

Tell them something like this.

Hello, my name is Jim Smith and I will be in your neighborhood this afternoon. I just wanted to let you know that I will be stopping by between the hours of twelve and two to introduce myself. That’s it, stop right there.

Do not ask for permission to stop by. This will give them the opportunity to say no.

Once you arrive at their office, you can than reintroduce yourself as the person that had called earlier in the day.

This technique makes the transition from gate keeper to decision maker much smoother.

Getting passed the gate keeper can be very tricky, but it can be done. By following the two examples I described above, you should find yourself talking with more decision makers. Good luck.

This article may be reproduced by anyone at any time, as long as the authors name and reference links are kept in tact and active.

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site, he is also the owner of www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company.

To discover these lucrative keywords, it is recommended that you use Micro Niche Finder or a program like it. Data gathered from Micro Niche Finder or other programs and services produces related terminology in an extensive list format which you should focus on in order to get top ranking on the internet search engines. Micro Niche Finder will also recount detailed information on the words and phrases, the number of competing internet sites, and details on your rivals too. Lastly, Micro Niche Finder information should help in finding the best domain, assist you in putting together your web site, and discover desirable merchandise to market.

Next you need to build a website; but you still have some crucial things to do. It is crucial to fine tune your internet site for the search engines. This is where SEO Elite information become useful. Your rivals’ sites are examined by SEO Elite information which then offers suggestions on how to improve search engine rankings.

With SEO Elite the data provided by the application suggests where to get links, what words to concentrate on, and even a list of sites to submit articles for reference. In Brief, Seo Elite information is the same sort of data that an SEO specialist might provide. When you have discovered which target market you want to concentrate on, have your product ads, and your site is completed, then you are ready to get your web site up in the search results. You will collect a regular paycheck and you will question why you always struggled to make money!

To start, you must make up your mind which products or niche market best suits you. To achieve this, discover what solutions to a problem a specific group of people are suffering from, and find out a solution. One of the best means to determine this task is to look for specific narrow keywords; there are less searchers for these in general, however many more of these end up in a sale.

To discover these important words and phrases, it is recommended that you use programs such as Micro Niche Finder. Info gathered by this software or similar applications and services will give you a listing of related terminology allowing you to get a head-start when it comes to placing on an web based search. Additional data is available from the application, for example the number of searches each one gets, the exact number of other sites using the particular word or phrase, even competitor details. Lastly, the info returned should help you find the right domain, assist you in putting together your internet site, and even point out desirable items to trade.

Next you need to construct a web site; yet you will obviously need to do more than that. Having the best placing on web based search engines demands the optimization of your web site. Products like SEO Elite can make this less problematic. Competing web sites are analyzed by Seo Elite information which then provides suggestions on how to increase search engine rankings. With programs such as SEO Elite, information supplied by the computer software suggests where to find links, which words to focus on, and even information on how to upload articles. Briefly, the results generated are the same sort of information you may get when you confer with a practised SEO professional. When you have decided on your niche market sector, have your product advertisements, and your website is ready to go, it is time to get your internet site up in the search results. Your earnings will roll in on daily basis and wonder why you did not try affiliate marketing sooner!

Firstly, you need to decide exactly what area most suits you. A effective way to go about this is, you need to find out solutions to problems a particular set of individuals are going through, and determine the best solution. An efficient way of doing this easily is finding unique highly drilled down words or phrases; by and large customers look for these less, but many more of these convert.

These profitable keywords can be obtained by using Micro Niche Finder or or a a similar application. Info gathered from this computer program or other programs and services produces a list of related terminology allowing you to earn a headstart in the rankings on an internet search.

Micro Niche Finder data will also calculate the exact number of times every keyword and phrase is searched for, the number of other sites using the particular keyword or phrase, and how good that competitor is. Finally, Micro Niche Finder information can help find related domains, content for your web site, and also point out suitable products for you to sell.

Next you need to put together a internet site; however you still have some crucial things to do. Getting the top placing on web based search engines demands the fine tuning of your site. Products like SEO Elite should make this less complicated. Competing web sites are analyzed by the software package which then offers suggestions to increase search results.

With software like SEO Elite, information provided by the software suggests where you might look for pertinent links, what words and phrases to focus on, and an extensive listing of sites to submit articles to use. In a nutshell, the data generated are much like to the data that a specialist in search engine optimization might provide. When you settle on your niche market, plan your product advertisements, and your web site is completed, then you are ready to get your site up in the search results. You will pick up regular payments and question why you always worried about making enough money!

“Put combination locks on the doors, and don’t permit any tours without speaking to me, first!”

I knew that a successful telemarketing unit would not only attract busloads of corporate tourists and gawkers, but it would be misunderstood.

One reason I promote privacy is that I strive to create a unique environment in a call center, unlike that in any other department. One of my suggestions is to use bells, such as those that adorn the check-in counters at hotels. When a rep sets an appointment or makes a sale, he rings his bell.

This signals success, and it causes a lot of excitement for a number of reasons:

(1) The rep is celebrating his success, making it conspicuous. He gets recognition.

(2) It makes those around him competitive. They want some recognition, too.

(3) It informs management, second by second, how the room is doing.

(4) It reinforces having a louder rather than quieter environment. (See my article: “Bigger Voices Sell Better!”

(5) It’s downright Pavlovian. Want to see management salivate? Ring that bell!

People sell better when they’re uninhibited, extroverted, and one way to get them to be bigger than life is to ring in their sales with bells!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of www.Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

Often we would have sales people call us and ask us if we saw a little piece of paper they had lost with some writing on it or a business car with an important phone number on the back after we had cleaned their car. Well I use to think what a scatterbrain. Generally, we would take all the little pieces of paper under seat and on the floor and put them into a small pile somewhere and vacuum, clean the windows, wipe off the dash and lock the doors.

Eventually, I realized that being unorganized was a common trait of sales people and an unfortunate truth. We then developed a strategy to better serve these sales people when we washed their cars. We had envelopes made which said; “Important papers and phone numbers” and envelopes had holes punched in them to fit the weird holes of the Day Planners.

When we cleaned the inside of their cars we would grab all the papers, even napkins with writing on them and put them in the envelope and leave it on the passenger seat for them. Actually you know what is the funniest about this? We used this as a selling tool and told them about it, in order to secure them as weekly car wash customers. Now that is selling! Consider all this in 2006 and train your sales people to be more organized.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

As a sales manager, you can set the context for your team to pull ahead, or ‘breakaway’ from the competition. Context sets the tone and often determines the meaning of events and actions. In business, context affects our vision, motivation, ambition, and follow through.

Some aspects of context are outside of our control. Things happen. Markets rise and fall. Yet some people thrive even in hard times. While these people are the masters of context, I would also argue that the ‘climate’ in which they work could contribute enormously to the difference between success and failure.

Here are three ways you can take charge of the context in which you create an environment where ‘breakaway’ results can happen:

ADOPT A ‘NO BULLIES HERE’ POLICY

Some people use much stronger language to describe the people I’ll politely call bullies. You may call them: tyrants, egomaniacs, jerks or unprintable. These are the people whose behaviour leaves you feeling badly about yourself, and feel free to use whatever profanity you want to describe them, because they are real trouble.

Many ’stars’ shout, belittle, and make unreasonable demands of support staff and colleagues, while ingratiating themselves with the higher-ups. How people treat both the powerless and powerful is a good measure of human character and the “bully” quotient.

One bully can destroy your team’s morale. You and your colleagues will spend inordinate amounts of time and energy dealing with this person, instead of focusing outward on breakaway performance.

HOT TIPS:

- Protect your people. If you are in a position to do so, aim to nourish a culture of decency in your organization. While you may not have a ‘no bullies here ‘ policy in writing, you can have it in spirit. If the superstar you’re about to hire has a reputation for being difficult, don’t hire!

- Set this ground rule for sales meetings: focus on the situation, issue, or behaviour, and not on the person. This rule translates into not placing blame on people. It safeguards the self-confidence and self-esteem of all meeting participants, and provides a process for regulating out-of-bounds behaviour.

PRACTICE ONGOING REGARD

We all do better at work if we regularly hear that what we do matters, that it is valuable, and that our presence makes a difference to others.

Nearly every organization or team I’ve been privileged to spend time with under-communicates the genuinely positive and admirable achievements of its members. I can understand wanting to avoid conflict, but avoiding praise is puzzling.

HOT TIP:

Make space at the beginning of a sales meeting for any expressions of appreciation or admiration that anyone may wish to deliver. I recommend that the leader not deliver any of these kudos during the first few meetings so team members get used to practicing ‘ongoing regard.’ If no one has anything to say, so be it (although I’ve never seen this happen).

You may find that sharpening your capacity to express genuine appreciation or admiration is vitalizing. It will remind you of why you want to be on your team, and why performing at your peak is important.

CREATE ACCOUNTABILITY

How many times have you said that you were going to do something and then not done it because nobody else would know the difference? Try spreading the word. Just the simple act of telling your plan to another person raises the stakes. Most of us place a high value on doing what we say we’ll do. There is something profound about taking our commitments seriously when we profess them to another person or when we join in a pact to reach a common goal.

HOT TIP:

If you are a sales manager, allow your people to tell you how they plan to reach their goals, rather than you telling them how to proceed. Create time, regularly, for them to report what they have been doing and learning. Useful questions to help the discussion are:
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
- What happened?
- What would you do differently next time?
- What assumptions are you making?
- When will you do the tasks you propose?

- How will I know you have started the tasks?

If you are a team member, seek out someone you trust and check in regularly. Declare what you intend to do and watch what happens!

‘CREATE THE CONTEXT’ CHALLENGE

Establish the practice of ‘ongoing regard’ at the start of each sales meeting. The purpose is to recognize people whose performance and integrity helps the team achieve goals and objectives. Acknowledge that their specific behaviour, and the personal qualities that led to that behaviour, had a positive impact on you, on a customer, or on the team.

For example: “Lee, by delegating paperwork to the summer students and making more face-to-face sales calls you are helping us have a great second quarter. You are resourceful and creative.”

It may take a number of sales meetings for the practice to feel comfortable and meaningful. Stick with it.

This article may be reprinted in its entirety with express written permission from Nicki Weiss. The reprint must include the section “About the Author”.

Nicki Weiss is an internationally recognized Certified Professional Sales Management Coach, Master Trainer, and workshop leader. Since 1992, Nicki has trained, certified, and/or coached more than 6,000 business executives, sales managers and salespeople.

Nicki guarantees increased sales performance when sales managers become better sales coaches. Sign up for her FREE monthly e-zine, Something for NothingTM, which has powerful tips and techniques for sales managers who are ready to make this transformation. Sign up at http://www.saleswise.ca.

You can email her at nicki@saleswise.ca or call 416-778-4145.

One effective way for a sales executive to approach the fiscal level of their organization is with an offer a fiscal person can’t refuse. Not the ‘Godfather’ type of offer, but a business offer tied to a measurable revenue outcome and accountable to the overall profit objective of the organization.
Doing so effectively can take the ‘budget constraints’ out of the equation.

If you’re in sales, you already understand how to speak to a potential customer in line with their personality type, business needs and personal wants. But many of us don’t know how to effectively sell internally to our own organization. Let’s take a look at a diagnostic way to go about it.

Step 1: Diagnose your current sales Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Sales executives and Chief Financial officers have one thing in common.
Both are accountable to the bottom of the scorecard at month-end, because numbers don’t lie. They can be your best friend… or your worst enemy.
When preparing a sales training proposal for your upper management, put on your CFO hat and speak to relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome of your process.

A KPI example in the sales process might be how many times you advance the first sales appointment to the next phase, whether that’s a demonstration, a site visit, a survey or a proposal. Another KPI is how many times you gain a new customer once the first gateway is passed. And when you do gain a new customer, what’s the average revenue you achieve? That’s certainly an important KPI. Because if your average revenue per sale is 40% less than the average peer KPI, you might want to find out why and take focused action to improve it, as you’re leaving money on the table.
Sales cycle in days and 1st appointment generation are 2 additional KPIs to measure.

Never rely on a subjective approach when promoting a sales training program to Upper Management. Define and determine where to ask for training dollars by identifying your Key Performance Indicators and finding out where you’re the weakest in line with your established revenue goals. That takes the guesswork out of it and will report back the quickest way to a measurable training return.

Step 2: Propose ROI sales training systems to turn traditional Cost Center expenses into revenue generators

From a CFO’s perspective ’sales training’ is within the spreadsheet of Cost Centers, those departments that incur expenses but don’t generate revenue. That’s why most sales training departments fall under the Human resource (HR) jurisdiction, as HR is traditionally a Cost Center line item.

Sales management can lead by taking an objective approach to diagnosing where to put their annual training dollars and articulate the CFO language of turning traditional Cost Centers into profit centers that create measurable returns in ‘Hard’ dollars.

Here’s a good example as it relates to a new sales employee; New-hire sales training programs. CFO’s think of new-hire sales training as a necessary evil, not a profit generator with a specific Delta and ROI. That’s the opportunity.

Because when I ask sales and training executives “What is your #1 objective in line with your new-hire sales training program?”, I seldom get a definitive answer.
So I rephrase my question and ask them “Does your new-hire sales training program provide a successful ramp-to-Quota in a Pre-determined amount of time?” The answer normally is ‘Not really”.

Because if you can reduce the time it takes a new-hire sales rep to Ramp to quota it will provide a measurable ROI, something you and your CFO can actually put your finger on. You’ll be talking the same language. And you have your KPI data to support your decision on the type of pin-point sales training.

For instance, let’s take a look at a sales organization that hires 50 new reps per year with a quota of $5,000 per month, an average term agreement of 24 months and the average ‘Sub-Quota’ revenue per month during ramp of $2000.
Reducing the time it takes to achieve Quota by just 1 month will provide an annual ROI of $3.6 M.

All you need to do is to back out the training costs for the bottom line ROI.
(See Resource box below to calculate your Ramp-to-Quota numbers)

Step 3: Recommend training initiatives for only one sales competency at a time, with a defined training goal in ‘measurable’ terms. Individual competency training versus all encompassing ’soup-to-nuts’ training will lead to the best overall result and the quickest training ROI. And it will continue to place deposits in the CFO relationship Bank.

Are you willing to state to your CFO and CEO:

(1) The total cost of developing or outsourcing an effective learning system?
(2) A benchmark competency improvement as the training objective?
(2) The time in calendar days it will take to attain the benchmark objective?
(3) The estimated training Delta/ROI based off of current KPI’s?
(4) The projected annual Delta/ROI based off benchmark competency improvement?
(5) The risk factors and contingency plans

Because if you’re not, go find an outsource company that trains to your relevant KPI improvement objective that will.
Because sales performance training should provide a measurable ROI… Just ask your CFO.

The most successful businesses and certainly, sales departments have identified their Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome of a process. Then they measure the competency ratios in line with them.
And if an individual sales KPI is below a satisfactory level, applying timely sales training to it alone, first and foremost will provide the quickest path to a measurable training result.

Remember that ‘Trust’ is reliability over time.

Develop or outsource a single KPI training system, coach the skill-set to work the system, lead the Discipline to routinely do it and measure and report the results. That will permit you to sell future pin-point KPI sales training effectively and routinely to the folks on the top floor holding the purse-strings.

Jeff Hardesty is President of JDH Group, Inc. and the Developer of the X2 Sales System®, a blended training system that teaches sales professionals the competency of setting C-level business appointments.

He travels the country conducting live X2 Appointment setting ‘Boot Camps’ and Train-the-trainer sessions helping sales organizations get more reps to Quota in less time, shorten new-hire ‘Ramp-to-Quota’, accelerate new product roll-outs and eliminate Turnover costs due to low sales activity.

Jeff can be reached at jeff@convertmoresales.com.

To view a complimentary suite of Sales Training ROI Calculators and determine your sales team’s Key Performance Indicators in line with your sales objectives visit convertmoresales.com/roi_calculators.php.

Complimentary 30-minute performance consultation with Jeff:
convertmoresales.com/roi_survey.php

“Is it fair that trainers be held responsible for improving employee performance? Although training may be seen on the surface as a “cause and effect activity” i.e. you train an individual and their performance increases until they reach a certain standard – I think we all really know that a person’s learning (and performance standard) is a result of a wider range of systemic influences.”

Trainers are and should be accountable to the bottom line like everyone else in the organization. The reason why we struggle with this is because of our outdated notion that training is what happens in the classroom.

Training is a business solution and should be measured like any other business solution. If a company invest time and money to design, develop, and deliver training their should be demonstrated return for the effort.

Classroom training is an event that should only be undertaken because there was clearly identified business need (not training need). Before one dime is spent on the development side of training we should know exactly with the training should produce.

Much of the trouble can be linked to using the wrong training measures: number of people in the class, the number of training days…Our inability to say that we are going to spend $25,000 to train and the gain will be $50,000 -$100,000 is what diminishes our position in the organization.

The only reason to train anyone in an organization is so that they deliver more RESULTS. We have to know what we are hoping to improve, increase, or reduce before taking up the time and spending the money.

Training that is tested only in the classroom is of no benefit to the organization. Training that is delivered to gain behavioral changes that can be viewed in the classroom is of no benefit to the organization. The only training that matters is the training that closes the specified performance gap so that the business results improve. Before you can impact the bottom line you must define the bottom line.

There are two important questions that must be answered:

QUESTION #1 – What does the company need more or less of?

All companies are looking for the same things like faster processing times, fewer mistakes, less rework, more sales, or less waste. It doesn’t matter what job title employees have, their jobs or operations are expected to return more to the company than it takes away.

QUESTION #2 – What do employees need to know and do differently in order for the company to realize their goals?

If the company needs more sales, teaching your customer service agents to say please and thank or smile while they dial is not enough. The skill that employees need is to listen and solve the customers problem more efficiently.

All training should be designed and delivered to transfer directly to the workplace because that is the only place that it counts.

Training will never add value if the focus remains on skill development instead of appropriate skill application. We have to stop teaching people about “communication” and teach them how to communicate differently to improve relationships and business results.

It’s less important that customer service agents know about the role of customer service and don’t know how to truly serve customers.

There is a chasm of difference between the two.

For more information you may want to read: “Easier to Predict the Weather than Training ROI.” http://think6results.com/showarticle.php?article=easitopr#beginning

Valarie is CEO of Think 6 Results — a knowledge broker passionate about learning and improving performance in organizations. She’s a writer, presenter, and executive coach on a mission to get every employee and organization focused on and thinking about the SIX business driving goals that matter.

Looking for just the right SPEAKER for your special meeting or event; we offer full-day presentations, training workshops, and keynote addresses. This high-energy presenter is ready to cover topics like: strategic thinking , career strategy,leadership, change management, teambuilding, employee engagement, or organizational learning. Let us customize a presentation for you. You won’t be disappointed.

SHARE this article with others. We invite to copy this article and pass it on when you include the copyright and contact information listed below.

Contact Valarie at washington@think6results.com or by calling 630-705-1189. Visit us at http://www.Think6Results.com