Recognizing The Value of Your Sales Agents

Hello Peeps!

How are you doing? I have here a blog that a sales manager should read. This blog is written by S. Anthony Iannarino (@iannarino) which talks about sales person recognition. Some of the sales manager often thinks that they are on higher level and the sales agents are just their subordinates. Treating your sales agent as an ordinary employee has an impact on his performance and this is not good for the company. These people have a quota to reach so it is important that they are highly motivated. They bring sales to the company so they must be treated fairly. The incentive scheme is quite effective in recognizing their hard work. So here’s how the author state his opinion.

Underestimating the Value of Being a Great Salesperson

By S. Anthony Iannarino

You have a great offering. Your competitor also has a great offering.

You have a tried and true sales process. Your competitor has a tried and true sales process, too.

You are using the latest and greatest sales methodology. Your competitor is also using the shiny new “new” thing.

Your sales force automation is a modern marvel. Everything you use is integrated into a beautiful, sleek interface with custom dashboards. Your competitor’s SFA is a dead ringer for yours. Only the company logo is different.

You are equipped with the best technology that money can buy. Well, how about that. Ditto your competitor; they’re equally well equipped.

The Difference: You.

We tend to overestimate the impact of some things on sales results and greatly underestimate what’s most important. In any sales organization where the above statements are true, they’re true for every salesperson on the sales team. That means the difference in results is something else, even in your sales organization.

The difference that makes a difference is you, the salesperson. It’s helpful to have a great offering, an effective sales process, good methodologies, and great technology. But it isn’t a substitute for the value created by a great salesperson sitting face-to-face with their dream client.

If you want to improve something that will immediately and irrevocably improve your sales results, you start with the greatest asset you will ever have for producing results: You. You becoming the best ever version of yourself will do more to improve your sales results than anything else.

Questions

What do you substitute for developing your sales skills?

What accounts for the difference in sales results between salespeople in the same organization? Different organizations?

If you could change one thing that would massively improve your results, what would you change?

How much does the salesperson account for in the decision to buy?

Let the employee feel that they are part of business and not just personnel who will do the command. It will degrade them and feel that they can’t do anything without your advice at all times. The initiative to respond in work at their very best will be eradicated once you put on their mind that they do not know anything without you. It is very time consuming also to dictate to them what to do every now and then, right?

Best,

Jack

Life is an Obstacle Course

Hey Folks!

How’s everyone? As I chill down today, I read a short blog from Dan Waldschmidt (@DanWaldo). Though it is short, it is very meaningful. It doesn’t talk about sales but life in general but this blog can be used to motivate a team. The title of the blog is “LIFE ISN’T A JOURNEY. IT’S AN OBSTACLE COURSE.” Anyone can relate to this because we are all encountering obstacle in our lives which is pretty normal. In sales, there are a lot of obstacles to achieve your goal but that’s alright because it only means that you are up to something. Don’t give up! Just learn to deal with it!

LIFE ISN’T A JOURNEY. IT’S AN OBSTACLE COURSE.

By Dan Waldschmidt

It’s OK to feel lost along your journey to success.  In fact, if you’re going someplace new you’ll be lost until the moment you arrive where you want to be.   And even then, where you end up can feel awkward and odd.

So you probably need to get comfortable feeling your way around the dark.  You need to get used to bumping into the edge of sharp objects and falling into open construction pits.

Life is isn’t so much a journey as it is an obstacle course.

Fear and anxiety are a big part of your daily challenges.  A lot of the time you just don’t know what to do.  There isn’t a book you can read on the subject, a seminar that covers the topic, or a mentor you can call to get answers to your questions.

It’s just you.  And your questions. Which can be scary.  And feel hopeless.

The truth is that you aren’t experiencing anything that everyone else doesn’t feel already.

The obstacles are a necessary part of life.

A part of the pursuit of awesome goals.

If you’re not feeling lost maybe you aren’t heading in the right direction.

Maybe it’s time to stop playing it safe.

 

Can you relate? I know you can! Every one of us does! I will only say this once but I agree with the author, it’s not that I agree that life isn’t a journey but I agree that life is an obstacle course. Sometimes we stumble, sometimes we fall but it doesn’t give us a ticket to quit but to push harder. Let us prove that we are worthy of achieving our goals. Remember the fruit of our hard work is sweet. Who disagree?

 

Best,

 

Jack

Starting a Sales Promotion

Hello friends,

While I am surfing through the internet, something pops out in my mind, a question about how to start a sales promotion. It is always not easy to start anything, especially if you have to begin from the scratch. I search in YouTube to watch a video about starting a sales promotion to have an idea and the video below is what I’ve found. This is uploaded by eHow Channel…you can click here if you want to watch more of their videos. This is the first video I’ve watched and I feel like sharing so here it is for you to watch.

Marketing Strategies : Starting a Sales Promotion

The person in the video is speaking quickly and I think that you might not grasp all of his words so I jot down some of the important things for you to remember before doing your sales promotion.

Here’s the list.

1. Develop a plan

2. Do a research

3. Answer questions such as

a. who are you trying to pull in with this promotion?

b. who do you want to buy your products?

c. who do you want to get out and market it for you?

4. Determine advertising module to use.

a. online advertisement

b. offline advertisement

c. both

5. Determine your budget.

6. See if you can get in touch with your prospects personally by visiting and speaking to their community, companies or school.

Having done this I believe you are good to go!

For the first timers, let me hear your thoughts. For the experts, let us hear your words of advice!

Thanks!

Jack

Increase Your Returned Calls and Get Ahead of your Competitors!

Hello Readers,

I find something interesting to share for all of you today. You know in the sales industry, getting ahead with our sales competition is one of our primary goals and this is a tough one. This article from Radius really caught my attention, you know why? Because it says that you can get 50% returned calls from voicemails! Returned calls rarely happen right? If this is possible then you can get ahead of your competitors easily! Sounds good? Here’s the entire article written by Tibor Shanto entitled “Get More Call Backs: How To Increase Returned Voicemails By 50%”. Enjoy it!

Get More Call Backs: How To Increase Returned Voicemails By 50%

By Tibor Shanto

My friends in the telecom industry tell me that voicemail isn’t going away any time soon. They will continue to offer it to all customers, often promoting it as a productivity tool, with one key value being your ability as a user to avoid and dodge sales people.

As a result, sellers have two choices:

1. Avoid leaving messages and develop calluses on your fingers from dialing a prospect over and over.
2. Learn an effective way to leave messages that get returned.

Number one is an obvious no-go. But, you are going to need a roadmap to succeed with number number two. Read on…

Take a step back to answer a fundamental question – what is the purpose of the exercise?  Most sales people get this wrong, and by virtue it is downhill from there. The aftermath is an onslaught of falsehoods spread that voicemail does not work.  The only goal for leaving a voicemail is to get a call back – period.  It is not to set the appointment, to convey information, or to sell; all you want is a call back.  When that call comes, that’s when you advance things to appointment, sales call, etc.

Most sellers leaving a voicemail reach way beyond just getting a call back. They tend to leave way to much information on their voicemails, and then crash and burn in the process.  Listen to most outbound messages and they’ll say something to this effect – “Please leave a detailed message”.  Why do they want all that detail, so they can know and rationalize why they should not call you back!

Think about it, the two most commonly used rejections while prospecting are “I’m all set” (Status Quo), or “Not interested”.  If you give them the details, that’s the reaction they’ll have, and you’re not there to deal with it, and, bam, no callback.  So don’t play into that – play smarter.

Here is a simple process for getting calls back:   Be counter intuitive and in the case of voicemail, less is truly more effective.

If they don’t have the detail they are looking for and their curiosity has been piqued, you create an environment to generate a return call.  Your goal is to create a bit of mystery, one they can solve with a phone call, so don’t hesitate to be cryptic.   You’ll need to be ready with names of companies you have worked with who are similar or in the same industry as your target.  No cheating – making things up is not allowed.

Let’s say you are calling a trucking company LMNOP to sell your product and you have done good business with ACME Transport.

Once you hear the beep:

1. Hi George, my name is Tibor Shanto, from Mountain View Company.

2. You can reach me at 416 822-7781.

There are a couple key factors to consider in this step.  Don’t say “Please call me back at your earliest convenience”.  Nothing, really nothing, smells more like a sales person on the phone than that statement.  Be firm, authoritative, like you demand a call back. Say, “you can reach me at…” or “I can be reached at…”.

Say your number slowly. It’s not a race – give them a chance to write it down. Don’t be one of these guys making them rewind two or three times.  The easiest way is to visualise yourself writing the number as you leave it.

Next steps are:

3. Leave their competitor as a reference. ”Please reference ACME Transport when you call back” or “It’s with reference to LMNOP Transport.”

4. Then hang up.  Again it is important that the reference you leave is in fact someone you have done business with.

Simple as that, and that is why it works – the simplicity.  How well does it work?  I have 50% of my voice mails returned within 72 hours – try me.  There are a number of other things to consider like additional techniques and coverage models to consider. Click here to watch a complete video.  Feel free to call me when you try and it works. Or if it does not work, call and I can help.

The steps are so simple, like what they have said “less is more”.  The author is right, you shouldn’t relay all the information in a voicemail, give them reason to call you back.  Do you believe that his steps are effective? What have you learned? Write it down in the comment box.

Regards,

Jack

The Law of Giving in B2B Sales

Hello readers,

Like you, I love reading materials that help me to prosper with my business and I apply anything that I think fits in. Today, I stumble upon this blog from Insideview which talks about freebie. Who doesn’t what freebies? Of course, we all want freebies and so with our business clients. Often not, business used to choose suppliers who will give them more than the other suppliers do. Reasons are self-explanatory but I want you to read this blog for you to have an idea on how you are going to apply this in b2b sales. I grab the whole post here for you.

The Power of the Freebie in B2B Sales

By Lisa Fugere

While it isn’t big news that customers like to get things for free, sales pros take note: a new survey conducted by MagicFreebiesUK has found that 60% of consumers purchase a product after they’ve sampled it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a product or service, a free trial can be a significant source of sales.

A psychological component cultivated by most Western societies, called the norm of reciprocation, stipulates that if someone does something for you, you feel compelled to return the favor. When you offer something for free, you initiate the norm of reciprocation and the recipient of the freebie is more likely to buy from you in the future than had you approached him or her with nothing but a promise and a bill.

While freebies come in shapes and prices, one consistent factor remains true for all freebies: the more time that elapses between the giveaway and the purchase event, the lower the likelihood that the reciprocation norm will activate. Therefore, it is important to time your “gift” to allow for adequate sales follow up no later than a week after the free event.

Up to a certain point, the power of the freebie compounds. The more freebies you give out, the more the norm of reciprocity will affect your prospective client. This means that giving out a free email newsletter or a weekly blog post that offers some actionable advice can build up the emotional component that drives sales. A high volume of freebies is ideal, as long as you don’t give away big ticket items. Once you cross the threshold into giving away the products and services that comprise your revenue, you risk sabotaging your sale. If your prospect can string you along until you give them your offering for free, why would they ever commit to buy?

Managing the freebie is the key to its success. When you develop your marketing plan, space out your freebies in the following manner:

The first freebie should be something highly valuable, such as a 30 day trial or a full-sized sample product. If you aim to grow your brand awareness and following, you won’t capture new leads with insignificant offers. If you’re worried that freebies will anger existing customers, put a time stamp on them and limit them to newbies. Don’t forget to offer them a chance to opt in to a newsletter or email campaign to receive more freebies down the road.

The next freebies, which you’ll likely hand out to prospects whose business you’d like to win, should be a series of freebies, rather than just one. The theory of content marketing is built entirely around the concept of freebies; marketers give content away in hopes of drawing in and engaging leads. Use a newsletter to push free content to your prospects, and offer up coupons and helpful tips. If you don’t have a content marketing system in place, you can promote other peoples’ content. Find a content powerhouse that pertains to your customers’ interests and push their content out. Send it personally to the prospects with whom you’re working. We’re all inundated with content these days, and if you can provide something that actually helps your prospects, you’ll earn points in their eyes. And hopefully those points will transform into dollars. At the very least, if your content doesn’t push prospects away, it will get your brand in front of them on a regular basis.

The final freebies, the ones that go to existing customers, should relate directly to your product. Free training, free usage tips, free help guides – anything you can send to your customers to help them find greater success with the products and services you sell to them – will significantly improve your brand image in their eyes, and if your content is good, they’ll get the most out of your products.

The norm of reciprocity is huge in sales, and as MagicFreebiesUK found out, it can have substantial results when used correctly.

After reading this post, are you going to promise that you will be more giving? We have taught by our parents that giving is a good deed and that it is better to give than to receive but what’s best is that when you give freebies you will receive more? Don’t you think that giving is so rewarding? Tell me your thoughts and write it down on the comment box!

Cheers,

Jack