Finally, specifically for those using LinkedIn for recruitment. It’s a great resource. Please do not abuse it, or the people on LinkedIn, by blanket ‘headhunting’ approaches. Don’t be the LinkedIn equivalent of the guy in the pub desperately trying to hook up with everyone….. anyone! Be a little subtle. Do some research on your target. Find a plausible reason to engage, interact, and then ease into job opportunities.
LinkedIn will work best for you if you:
• target the right audience
• use a professional tone at all times
• share great content and
• display your expertise in your field
Only after you have done all that, can you afford to “sell” yourself, and even then, just a little.

* Is e-mail your selling medium of choice because it lets you avoid the rejection that you experience when you make real cold calls?

* Do you wait and wait for return e-mails from prospects that will give you the green light to move the sales process forward?

Sad but true, these days most people who sell for a living spend 80% of their time trying to communicate with prospects via e-mail instead of actually picking up the phone and speaking with them.

Are you one of those people?

If so, you aren’t alone…but do you understand why you’ve turned to e-mail instead of personal contact?

I think there are 2 core reasons that underlie this unfortunate trend:

* Fear of rejection. The sheer negative force of anticipating rejection makes people turn to e-mail to generate new prospect relationships because it hurts less to not get a reply than to hear that verbal “no.”

* Getting blocked by gatekeepers and voice-mail. When salespeople don’t know how to break through the barriers of gatekeepers and voice-mail, they start thinking, “Forget it — it’s not worth the aggravation, and it takes too much energy. I’ll just e-mail instead.”

However, when you try to use e-mail to offer your product or service to someone who doesn’t know you, you can’t possibly establish the natural dialogue between two people that allows the trust level to reach the level necessary for a healthy, long-term relationship.

We all know how much everyone hates e-mail spam, but even so, many salespeople are still sending introductory e-mails to decisionmakers. They feel that, because they’re from a
credible organization, they won’t be associated with the negative image of a spam solicitor.

However, these introductory e-mails typically contain the traditional three-part sales pitch — the introduction, a mini-presentation about the products and services being offered, and a call to action — and this traditional selling approach instantly tells the recipient of the e-mail that your only goal is to sell your product or service so you can attain your goals, and not theirs.

If you’re still using email to sell, watch out for these 7 pitfalls:

1. Avoid sales pitches. If you feel you must use e-mail to start a new relationship, make your message about issues and problems that you believe your prospects are having, but don’t say anything to indicate that you’re assuming that both of you are a match.

2. Stop thinking that e-mail is the best way to get to decision makers. Traditional selling has become so ineffective that salespeople have run out of options for creating conversation, both over the phone and in person. However, it’s best to view e-mail as a backup option only, not as a way to create new relationships. Try to use it primarily for sending information and documents after you’ve developed a relationship with a prospect.

3. Remove your company name from the subject line. Whenever you put your company and solution first, you create the impression that you can’t wait to give a presentation about your
product and services. Your subject line should be a humble reference to issues that you may be able to help prospects solve.

4. Stop conditioning your prospects to hide behind e-mail. When you e-mail prospects, it’s easy for them to avoid you by not responding. Also, they get used to never picking up the phone and having a conversation with you — and they may want to avoid you because they’re afraid that, if they show interest in what you have to offer, you’ll try to close them. This creates sales pressure — the root of all selling woes. This avoidance becomes a vicious circle. If you learn to create pressure-free conversations, you’ll find that you’ll start getting phone calls from prospects who aren’t afraid to call you.

5. Avoid using e-mail as a crutch for hand ling sticky sales situations. Are prospects not calling you back? Many salespeople who call me for coaching ask how they can get themselves out of sticky situations with prospects — but the e-mails they’ve sent have already triggered those prospects to retreat. It’s tricky to come up with the correct softening language in an e-mail that will re-open a conversation with a prospect who has decided to close off communication — direct, person-to-person phone calls or meetings are much easier and more human.

6. Avoid using “I” and “we.” When you start an introductory e-mail with “I” or “we,” you immediately give the impression that you care only about selling your solution, rather than being open to a conversation that may or may not lead to a mutually beneficial match between what you have to offer and the issues your prospect may be trying to solve. If you can change your sales language to a natural conversation, your prospect will be less likely to stereotype your message as a spam solicitation.

Finally…

7. If you can, stop using e-mail selling altogether. There is a way to renew your confidence and eliminate your reluctance to picking up the phone and have pleasant conversations with potential prospects. Learn a completely new way of working with gatekeepers that will get you past voicemail and to your decision makers without the rejection and frustration that are inevitable with traditional selling approaches.

For all these reasons, you should think of e-mail as your last resort. If you can learn to pick up the phone without fear, start a trusting conversation with a gatekeeper, learn how to go beyond voice mail and find your decision makers, you’ll join the many who have made their own personal selling breakthrough.

To Your Success,

You can advertise, promote, tweet, post, blog and sell like Dale Carnegie on steroids, but if you haven’t built trust with your potential customer, it’s truly a waste of good resources.

Regardless of what “behavioral research” professionals tell us is the reason why a consumer takes the leap of faith to make a purchase, I know from my 20-plus years in PR, that trust is one of the most essential ingredients. And, in today’s marketplace, I believe the issue of trust is even more significant than ever.

Online commerce started exploding more than a decade ago and today the volume of sales occurring in this marketplace is booming. More books, consumer products, entertainment, durable goods and electronics are sold online than ever before. It ranges from the practical, like buying books and music from Amazon, to the ridiculously impractical, like buying a car off of eBay. This marketplace is growing and the one simple reality is that people aren’t going to use their PayPal account or credit card to buy something from a Web site unless they have a sense of trust in the company or product they’re buying.

Trust. That’s it and that’s all. So, how do you build it?

Assuming that you’re selling something that’s comparable to your competitor, the best way to build trust is by educating the consumer. They need to learn of your knowledge and expertise and gain confidence that what you’re offering can solve their problem or benefit them in some way. This, combined with the ability to demonstrate your passion and hard work behind your product, is why PR can deliver best on the promise of trust.

Why is that? Simply put, it’s the only tool in the media bag that affords you third-party verification. With advertising, you buy the space and you control the message. Consumers know this and understand that an advertisement is nothing more than a sales pitch. While selling is an important part of marketing, it does nothing to build trust. But when you are featured in the media as part of an article, or appear as a guest on TV or radio, those placements are tacit acknowledgements on the part of the media that your message and your voice were important enough for them to feature it as part of their show or as coverage in the news. The Los Angeles Times may not use the line, “…this book is a must-read,” or “…this product is a cure-all,” but their inclusion of you in their news coverage is enough to help build credibility with their readership.

Moreover, this recognition takes place in a non-sales atmosphere. This is significant, because it’s reflective of the consumers’ desire to be protected from the barrage of advertising and promotion that they feel is simply aimed at getting your hands in their pocketbooks and wallets. People don’t LIKE being sold, but they LOVE being informed, educated and entertained. The media presents your message in a way that is comfortable, familiar and trusted by their audience.

And there’s that word again: trust. Regardless of what you do in terms of advertising, promotion and social media, getting real press coverage needs to be an essential element of your marketing and promotional efforts. It may not result directly in loads of sales. However, one thing is for certain, without trust, your potential for sales is much slimmer.

If you want to build that trust and get media coverage in newspapers and magazines, on radio or TV, give us a call at 727-443-7115, ext. 208 or, e-mail us at info@emsincorporated.com.

My partner, Steve Friedman, and I, along with our staff of PR professionals, have been promoting professional firms, corporations and individuals for over 20 years, and we can help you.

Plus, I think you’ll be interested to learn that we don’t charge a retainer fee. Media is guaranteed with our firm, unlike a “best efforts” promise that comes with retainer based firms.

We’d love to hear from you!

Warmest regards,

Marsha

Marsha Friedman

• “If we were to promise the market a significant improvement in results that would be perceived to be compelling, what would constitute ‘significant improvement’?” This query is raised on behalf of people that will never pose the question…namely your customers. The question is of the utmost importance because the market will only respond to ‘significant progress’

• “Is there evidence of customers already achieving the significant result levels specified, or something close, in the local market or elsewhere…with our product or a competitor’s product?” In every market there are obviously just a few customers that enjoy performance that is disproportionate to the market at large. Such customers may be local, interstate or overseas, and in some cases they may be buying from a rival supplier. The only thing that matters is that you know who they are!

• “If such evidence exists, what kind of motivation and strategies were employed to achieve the significant results, and what problems were overcome on the way…and how?” Knowing the story behind excellent performance achievements is the beginning of strategy development that will support your new and compelling value proposition. The top performing customers should be invited to work alongside your company in the effort to help all other customers, and they should be rewarded accordingly.

• “Aside from the evidence of special motivation, strategies and problem-solving action, what additional ideas can we use to support the promise of significant performance improvement for the market?” The external expert will help at this point, but so can everyone else…as they stretch their thinking in relation to supporting a new proposition that promises ‘significant performance improvement’.

• “How should the new, compelling value proposition be packaged for the market and presented to the market?” Great ideas warrant special packaging and ‘branding’, plus dynamic ways of communicating to the market.

• “How should the new, exciting proposition be ‘managed’ to the point of success for the market at large?” The customers must not be allowed to fail with your proposition, and so special processes must be created to ensure
control, problem solving and consistent progress and achievement.

The only way to change the market is to change your propositions…significantly! To ignore this challenge involves menial marketing that kills the spirit of real selling.

If you have been in sales or business any length of time then you would have heard this a thousand times. The trouble is no one has ever really been able to show you how you can go about selling yourself until now, that is.
You might work for a company and be forced to
work under their sales and marketing system, or you might be
struggling to find ways to develop your own personal brand.

Whatever the reason you have struggled to make long lasting connections with other business people and very often resort to selling on price as the last resort.

The cruel fact is that in the modern sales world it is mainly your ability to present your personality and get people buying you,that counts.

The business world is flooded with similar products and services with little differentiation.

The internet provides potential purchasers with most of the information they need to make informed decisions about products and services.

There is a huge and rapidly growing movement against stereo typical salespeople which is resulting in a backlash against people being sold to.

The current emerging trend in sales is to provide an environment where people can buy rather than selling to them.

SO WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE YOU?

Many of the traditional ways of selling just don’t work anymore.

They are too confrontational, too frictional, too unpredictable and just too expensive. Customers are demanding more, they want to pay less and the costs of sales are spiraling.

Businesses and the sales people like you, who work for them are finding that buyers are in information overload mode. They can’t distinguish between the never ending product offerings and the same sales approach used to promote them.

If you are in sales then you should be concerned:

An IDC survey in 2008 reported that the average number of sales people who miss their annual quota is close to 40%

Buyers are actively seeking out companies and salespeople who understand and can solve their problems and help them achieve their goals.

They have the entire worlds information condensed through a monitor and they can find that information in a split second.

Buyers no longer need salespeople to educate them on the features, advantages and benefits of products and to provide comparisons against Industry competitors. They can do this themselves at the speed of a broadband connection.
The sales landscape is changing. NO it has changed.
Answer me this:

* Are you still cold calling with no reason to speak to the other person that adds value?

* Are you promoting your personal brand, whether you are the CEO or an internal sales associate?

* Do you understand the business landscape of your prospective clients. No I mean really understand it?

* Are you perceived as the go-to person in your Industry

* When people seek out knowledge about your Industry do they
come to you?

* Do people call you and ask to do business with you?

IF YOU ANSWERED NO TO ONE OR MORE OF THESE QUESTIONS THEN YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A TOUGH TIME SELLING IN 2010

The good news is that you have everything at your disposal to develop your own personal brand almost instantly.

When I started my sales career, over 15 years ago, thepinnacle that professional sales people aspired to be was an ‘Industry Networked Expert’
.
An industry expert was a sales person that was so well connected they could chose whatever supplier company they wanted to work for.

They had traditionally worked in an Industry for 15 + years and had slogged long and hard working the conferences, the seminars, and had paid their ‘dues’ by many long days cold calling and ‘pressing the flesh’ . They had earned their status and were well rewarded for it.
YOU CAN GET THIS INSTANTLY (WELL ALMOST!)

You are faced with more opportunity now than ever before in sales.

Now is the right time for you to take advantage of the changing sales environment.

These reports will show you how.

The modern sales world is absolutely based on the enduring concept of people buying from people.

People will buy from people they KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST.

In the past the Industry networked professional spent years paying their dues to become known, liked and trusted.

How would you like to achieve Industry Networked Expert status almost instantly?

If you take advantages that the current sales climate has to offer Then that is the potential for you.

You are at a momentous time in the history of selling. Buyers are crying out for authentic business relationships with people they know like and trust and are finding that there are not many sales people who are that visibly identifiable.

You can fill that gap.

The good news is the same technology that has changed the sales landscape,
reduced the requirement for you to be a product/service
educator and threatens your very existence can equally be your savior.

* That same technology can turn you into an Industry Networked Expert almost overnight.
* That same technology can build you a loyal following of
customers and clients
* That same technology can reduce your cost of sales
* That same technology can increase your sales prices and margins
* That same technology can pre sell people, with no pressure, until they decide they want to buy from you

Have A Topic Idea?
I’d love to hear it! Just reply any time and let me know what topics you’d like to know more about.

Initial questions asked when and why executives get involved in the buying process for major purchases. Here’s what we discovered:

Salespeople who want to build executive-level relationships must enter the picture early in the buying process because this is when 80% of executives get involved when major purchase decisions are being made. Their motivation at this stage is to understand current business issues, establish project objectives, and set overall project strategy.
During the middle phase of the buying process, executives tend to reduce their involvement and delegate decisions to lower-level subordinates or committees.
Those same senior executives said they get involved again late in the buying cycle, but this time they’re typically seeking to monitor implementation plans and measure results.

When these executives were asked what has to happen in meetings with salespeople for the executive to feel it was effective, they stated they want salespeople who are willing to be held accountable, provide value and deliver results. Also, they don’t want to educate salespeople about either their business or their industry – they expect salespeople to have that knowledge before making the first call. And most importantly, they want salespeople to listen before proposing a solution – not someone with a solution looking for a home!

When we asked those same executives what characteristics salespeople have to demonstrate to become perceived as trusted advisors to them, the answers were very similar:

Ability to marshal resources
Understood my business goals
Responsive to my requests
Willingness to be held accountable

The ability to marshal resources was the single most important factor cited for building credibility. What executives were saying is they want a single point of contact who has responsibility and accountability for the solution – even if multiple business partners are involved. With the complexity of today’s solutions potentially involving global partners, this was seen as an evolving issue.

The bottom line is that executives are looking to build relationships with salespeople who perceive they are involved for the long term, not just this particular buying decision. They also want to build relationships with salespeople who deliver significant business value and are responsive and accountable to them.

About the Author

Dr. Steve Bistritz has more than 40 years of high-tech sales, sales management and training management experience. Steve co-authored the best-selling sales book, Selling to the C-Suite, which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2010. He is president and founder of SellXL.com, a global sales training and consulting firm, based in Atlanta. Visit his website at www.sellxl.com or contact him directly at steveb@sellxl.com.

1. Morale – does it affect sales? All the research says ‘yes’. How is morale? How much does it affect sales?

Use your experience to rank yours or your team’s morale on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of the last six quarters then compare your estimate with sales results. If you identify higher sales performance when morale has been high, halve the difference and halve it twice more to arrive at a suitably conservative estimate of the value of improving morale. Have others do the same exercise and compare results.

Training lifts moral because people value the opportunity to grow and learn new ways to succeed.

2. Prospecting – What is the new customer acquisition rate? Has it been higher? What has changed?

In a normal market, marketing generates more leads. In a downturn, marketing is less effective and starved of funds. Sales people have a greater need to find their own leads. What is the difference in prospecting activity between the best and the worst. Compare the number of new prospect contacts made by each person in a team to assess the difference between the most active and least active. How does this compare with new business results for each person?

In your estimation, how much could the gap be closed by training? If this led to a corresponding increase in sales, how much would results improve? Halve your number and halve it twice more to arrive at a conservative estimate.

Training removes or diminishes prospecting reluctance by providing solutions to the obstacles encountered in the field.

3. Pipeline Management – sales people should know how many calls they must make to achieve their allocated sales target.

Determine the number of calls or customer contacts necessary for a sales team to achieve it’s target as follows:

Take the average sales order value from last year (total sales divided by the number of orders).

Divide this years sales target by the average order value from last year to determine how many sales must be made this year. Adjust the result for any significant changes in pricing, products or services.

Calculate the call to order ratio for last year by taking the total number of calls or customer contacts made by all sales people and dividing it by the number of sales made last year.

Multiply the number of sales needed this year by the call to order ratio achieved last year to determine the number of calls necessary this year.

Finally, divide the total by the number of sales people to arrive at the average number of calls or customer contacts that each sales person should be aiming for to achieve their sales target.

Estimate the impact of monitoring and communicating call rate results on sales performance.

Sales training can explain the benefits of pipeline management and equip sales people to apply it for themselves.

4. Qualification – doing things right is a waste of time if we don’t first choose the right things to do.

Choosing the right prospects makes a major difference. Sales people work much more efficiently if they avoid working on opportunities that don’t happen, can’t be won, or won’t be worthwhile. Compare the ratio of sales forecasted to sales won for all individuals in a team. What is the difference between the best and worst ratios?

In your estimation, how much could the gap be closed by training? If this led to a corresponding increase in sales, how much would results improve? Halve your number and halve it twice more to arrive at a conservative estimate.

Defining best practice qualification questions for your sales environment and training sales people to use them systematically, can improve sales performance significantly because sales people spend more of their time working on sales that will happen, can be won, and will be worthwhile

5. Up Sell and Cross Sell – it’s nine times easier to sell existing customers than new prospects. Are your customers realising the full potential of your products or services to help them succeed in their business?

Assess your top three customers use of your products and services. Rate their use on a scale of 1:10. If they squeeze as much profit as possible from using what you sell, rate them high – a 9 or 10. If they could make more or better use of what you sell, rate them lower. Next, rate some of your less profitable customers. If there is a notable difference then you have identified a concrete opportunity to increase sales. Appropriate sales training can equip you or your team to realise this opportunity. What is the value of the difference? Halve it and halve it again to be safe.

6. Calling High – Providing it contributes worthwhile business value, the product or service doesn’t matter.

Do your sales people have high level relationships within customers and prospects? If they had more, would they sell more? If so, how much more? Select three customers where the sales person has high level relationships and compare the sales results with three similar customers where the sales person doesn’t have high level relationships.

Training helps sales people understand how to get the attention of senior executives and how to communicate to maintain the relationship.

What would be the value of two more high level appointments out of every ten prospects you approach?

Ho much more would you expect to sell? Halve it and halve it again. SalesSense training increases a sales persons options, develops C-level confidence, and improves access success rates.

7. Trusted Advisor – This status commands influence and grants access.

Some sales people achieve this status with some of their accounts. Those that do and use it to support the aims and agendas of those who grant it, can take accounts with them if the change jobs.

What is the value of a sales person being considered a trusted adviser? Compare the results of people who have attained this status with those of people who haven’t to estimate its value.

This ability can be taught. Training equips sales people with the understanding, methods, skills, and tools to achieve trusted advisor status.

By Wendy Kayser Kirkpatrick

____________________________________________________

Technology-based training now represents 30% of all workplace learning, and predictions are that it will continue to grow (ASTD 2007 State of the Industry Report). A convenient way to track this type of training is with an online Learning Management System, or LMS. If you are thinking about acquiring one in 2008, here are some tips:

1. Determine if you really need an LMS

Online learning can be delivered on your company website without an LMS if usage tracking is not important to you. An LMS may not be necessary to meet your training needs.

2. Be realistic about the cost

The initial cost to purchase an LMS ranges from $50,000 to $250,000. Start-up costs run $25,000 to $30,000. Annual maintenance fees average 20-25% of the original license price (Bersin & Associates).

3. Use a cross-functional team to select the LMS

A sales manager and a computer programmer tend to have different ideas about what constitutes the perfect LMS. Form an LMS committee including representatives from IT, training, every major group of learners, and possibly accounting.

4. Be specific about the functionality you expect the LMS to provide

An LMS can provide any or all of the following training functions: content delivery, online registration, tracking, follow-up and reminders, reporting, and more. Document your requirements with a detailed three to five year business plan. Make sure everyone on the LMS committee has input to and agrees with it.

5. Prioritize the functions you would like the LMS to provide

LMS build-out and deployment can take over a year to do correctly. If you want to use many LMS features, consider planning a staged launch with just the most critical functions in the first phase.

6. Benefit from the experience of others

Network with local ASTD members who have already installed an LMS. Visit masie.com for impartial LMS data and information about the Learning Systems ’08 conference. Ask LMS companies for references from their satisfied customers, and call them!

7. Take your top candidates for a test drive

Ask the LMS provider for a login to a sample or current customer site. Have all members of the LMS committee try it out.

8. Carefully weigh the risks of customization

Customizations are time consuming and expensive. They are untested and leave you vulnerable to problems that are difficult to resolve. They reduce the effectiveness of user groups because your LMS will be different than everyone else’s. Instead of customizing, it may be faster and easier to modify your training program and expectations to fit into the existing LMS design.

9. Clarify the support package

Ensure you are clear on what support the LMS company will provide. This can range from virtually none, to access to a customer support team, to a dedicated account support representative. Make sure your team will be staffed to cover any other needs.

10. Meet the support staff

Speak to the key people who will support your LMS. They will be your lifeline when issues arise. Find out what country they are in and during what hours they will be available.

By following these suggestions you have a good chance of purchasing an LMS that is right for your company. A system that meets your needs can increase access to and usage of training materials. The benefit will be an increase in the quantity and quality of training that occurs within your organization.

______________________________________

Wendy Kirkpatrick is the director of Kirkpatrick Partners, LLC. She is a certified instructional designer. She also conducts seminars and facilitates corporate meetings.

Wendy draws on sixteen years of experience in the business world to make her training relevant and impactful with measurable results.

Contact Wendy at wendy.Kirkpatrick@kirkpatrickpartners.com