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Exceptional Prospecting and Social Media

April 7, 2011 in Call Reluctance, Communication, Prospecting, Self Promotion, Social Media, Social Sales, Tips

With social networking sites and the plethora of online data available, 2011 presents us with better quality prospecting and more qualified prospects.  ‘Prospecting and Social Media’ was voted as the Number 4 Sales Trends for 2011. Business networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo, and the emergence of Facebook and Twitter as business destinations, give the discerning business or sales person access to quality data where they can research key contacts with an organisation, as well as business activity. Then, when appropriate, they can use this data to make professional connections.

Smart business leaders and sales people are using social networking sites as tools to engage in better quality prospecting and improve conversion rates rather than just using them to make a list of prospects.  These sites potentially make redundant, the concept of Cold Calling and the fear of prospecting and can help people become exceptional prospectors. So how do you get the best out of Social Networking sites when prospecting? Let’s look at the business phenomenon that is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn

For Business to Business prospecting, LinkedIn is proving to be a rich source of information, contacts,  suppliers, prospects, referrals and clients.  It has exploded in connections and content, and usage has skyrocketed in the last 18 months through its many features helping you get connected to the right people.  It is the largest B2B social media networking group in the world.  For instance my own LinkedIn profile and network currently can connect me with over 5,200,000+ contacts, imagine how we could all harness the power of these connections.  So how do you use LinkedIn to help you prospect more effectively?

Step 1: Develop a sales plan, clear message and profile
Before you set up your LinkedIn profile make sure you have a clear sales plan which identifies who you need to be connecting with i.e. types of clients, suppliers, peers, industry sources and groups. Think about what you want to present by way of image, message and purpose i.e. what do you stand for? What do you do for people?  Look at how you would like to position yourself as a business professional.  Like websites, your LinkedIn profile is your professional resume online; it represents your professional brand.  This is why you need to be clear about who you are, what you do and what you want to communicate to a broad audience.  What you do, what your company does, what you represent, people are likely to make up their mind about you based on what they see and read about you.  Your LinkedIn profile should form part of your sales and marketing strategy.

Step 2: Join LinkedIn
Get your profile up and live. It’s easy and it’s free – go to www.linkedin.com and get started.  There are also various levels you can subscribe to enhance your profile and get you better connected with search features and other options.  These extras come with a monthly fee attached.  Begin by using the free access option and try it out before committing to upgrades.

Step 3: Join LinkedIn Groups
There are many and varied LinkedIn Groups you can join. These groups provide people with forums to discuss and exchange ideas and opinion, as well as keep up to date on the latest trends, ideas, innovations, etc.  It’s also where buyers are increasingly looking to research suppliers before they buy.  They are looking for what others say about you and your products or your industry.  They can compare you with your competitors’ offerings.  In these groups you can listen to what your customers are saying before they even decide to talk to you. Your sales strategy should guide you as to who you should be in contact with.  What types of groups would be useful for you to belong to? For instance if you are a Learning and Development specialist, Engineering sales professional, Environmentalist or Procurement Manager then there are groups focusing in these spaces and many more.  But do not limit yourself to the narrow bandwidth of your own expertise. Often looking outside your comfort zone can give you access to new ideas and contacts as well.  These groups allow you to listen to your community, suppliers, clients and other interested parties. This gives you access to a wide range of people.  See Barrett Consulting Group LinkedIn group as an example.  A word of caution: Do not blatantly self promote or advertise your wares in these groups; it will not go down well.  If you try to blatantly self promote and prospect in these groups you will be shunned and often kicked off the group.

Step 4: Start to connect
The best way to build up your network of contacts is to invite people you know to connect with you.  This way you can begin to build up direct connections who, in turn, can then give you access to people outside of your direct network.  You can often look at your contacts list of connections and you can see who might be good to make contact with.  It’s advised that you don’t contact someone you do not know directly without some form of personal connection or link; instead, you can seek an introduction through one of your direct contacts.  Sending out LinkedIn requests to people at random will not be seen as good business and will be deemed inappropriate or spam by many and may affect your reputation.   It is also wise to be discerning about which connections you accept as well.  Don’t just accept invitations from anyone, make sure you find out why they want to connect with and how you can be of best service to each other.

Step 5: Identify and Research Your Prospects
If you are already connected on LinkedIn and you know what types of people you need to prospect to you can look through your contacts lists to see who is there.  You can also develop a list of names of people who are in your target market via business websites which often have names of key contacts or business news sites and industry magazines which often feature key decision makers.  Your own CRM or client database should have lots of names you need to speak to.  And of course you can buy lists once you are on LinkedIn and begin to research your prospects.  In the upper right hand corner, there is a search box with a pull down menu. Click on that and you’ll see six options (people, jobs, companies, answers, inbox, groups). Click on “people” and enter the prospect’s name. You can see a lot of information about prospects, the groups they belong to, what they are interested in, their experience and knowledge, etc.  You can use a prospect’s background to develop questions that relate to their area of responsibility. It will help you to develop very clear Valid Business Reasons (VBR’s) when calling them.   Make sure you know how to get prospects to talk to you.

Step 6: Start Prospecting
Develop a list of 20 to 40 prospects per week and then make contact via the telephone as you would normally do.  Use relevant VBR’s to help you connect. Pretty soon you will be making contact with the viable prospects and on your way to making more sales.  If you are still not comfortable calling people via the phone you can use Linkedin as a prospecting option however make sure that you still use a VBR  in your message or invitation to them.

Summary
Does this mean you will learn everything about a person via their profile or that you take a carte blanche approach to prospecting? NO. We will need to be mindful about how we go about making contact as we will still need to engage in skillful prospecting activities to position ourselves effectively. Remember information is not POWER it is potential power. LinkedIn and other social media networks are not the only sources for prospecting but they certainly can help you achieve peak performance in prospecting.

With clear sales plans and well defined prospect profiles there’s no excuse NOT to prospect effectively.  2011 will be about a Total Quality Prospecting environment.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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I’m not a sales person but I have to sell. What do I do?

February 24, 2010 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Self Development, Self Promotion

After thousands of hours of study and many years honing technical skills to be a competent professional in your chosen field, it can come as a rude shock that you now need to sell your services and capabilities as well.  In today’s busy market, a competent selling capability isn’t a nice-to-have it is an essential business and life skill.

Interestingly, the topic of selling and growing a business often doesn’t feature in those university lectures does it?  In fact, selling is in many cases covered over and, if spoken about at all, was only mentioned as an unsavoury aspect employed by the desperate.  ‘We don’t have to sell because we are …’ are the famous last words of many failed professional or small business owners who focus only on their domain of expertise as the distinguishing factor.  Well those days are well and truly over.

This myopic view of the essential life skill of selling has often left people feeling vulnerable, confused and financially worse off.  No longer can you rely upon only your technical competence to guarantee your success or wait around for passive referrals.

The bad press that often accompanies the profession of selling doesn’t help either.  Often the only ‘selling’ stories we hear or read about in the media are those about shonky operators exploiting anyone they can, especially the vulnerable and weak. For instance, the plethora of insulation businesses and telemarketing firms exposed as fraudulent and incompetent has done nothing for the PR of selling.  This type of behaviour is labelled as ‘selling’ by the media which I argue is incorrect.  The type of behaviour and intentions exhibited by these operators and other ‘shonk merchants’ is actually fraud and deception, and in some cases bullying and intimidation. That is not selling.  This is one reason why many people don’t want to be in sales.  Who wants to be associated with ‘shonk’?

There is another issue too, the old Australian legacy of the ‘tall poppy’ syndrome.  Heaven forbid that you take proactive control over your destiny by getting out there and promoting your business and your capabilities so others may benefit.  Heaven forbid that you actually make a name for yourself.  ‘Who do they think they are?’ or ‘They’ve got tickets on themselves’ are some of the catch cries from people who begrudge those who get up and make what they do visible to other the people.

These syncs often confuse proactive, ethical self promotion, prospecting, and selling practices with self- grandiose, boasting or big noting.  Sure there are a few people for whom this is true; it’s all about them.  While these people can be highly entertaining in some instances, people often tire of them if there is nothing of real value and substance to support them.  The truth is one can lead a very successful sales career without becoming a boastful, self-absorbed git.  In fact, the research into highly effective sales professionals shows they are often humble, highly self-aware, collaborative, see the big picture and details, effective at what they do, and have a ‘we’ not ‘me’ focus.  They are very capable, resourceful, and engender trust on all levels.  They are worth knowing.  Is this what most of us want for ourselves?  Don’t we want people to know that if they work with us they will be better off as a result?

Despite the overexposure of those shonky operators by the media or the cringe factor brought about by the ‘tall poppy’ critics, there are a lot of good untold stories about ethical selling practices out there.  They often don’t make the mainstream media or general conversations because they are happening everyday in millions of ways.  It’s a bit like IT, we never celebrate or talk about the fact that our IT system hasn’t crashed we only hear and complain about it when something goes wrong.

Yet many people struggling with the concept of selling pay good money to go on selling skills courses to learn how to sell and yet they never put it into practice.  So before you pay money for selling skills, examine the state of your mind; the beliefs, feelings, and intentions you hold about selling.

Your beliefs, not your abilities, could be holding you and your career hostage. Before you can dedicate the energy to become skilful and masterful in something as complex as selling, you need to want to sell.

So let’s cut to the chase, for those of you who now need to consciously include the capability of selling in your business mindset and skills here are a few things to consider:

  • Why do you need to sell? Who will benefit from you being able to sell competently?
  • How will ethically and proactively promoting and selling your capabilities help you and your clients?
  • What is your current view of selling? Do you hold onto a view that makes you feel ashamed of selling?  How is that view affecting your ability to keep your business healthy and viable?
  • Can you reframe your thinking about selling? See it as a way to make what you do visible to the people who need to know about you so they can benefit from your skills and talent?
  • How do you feel about the statement ‘everybody lives by selling something’?
  • How can selling be incorporated into your business and align with your ethical values and desire to run an honourable business?
  • Do you feel worthy of being able to earn what you are worth?

Sadly limiting beliefs about selling are a significant issue for many people and something that can be overcome with patience, clarity, and persistence. If this is an issue for you please feel free to contact us to discuss this further. We would be happy to help you get started on your sales career.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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Persistence and the Honourable Retreat

October 15, 2008 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Prospecting, Self Promotion

Did you know:

  • Over 50% of sales people give up at 1st contact if they get a ‘NO’ from the prospect never to go back to that prospect again .
  • At the 5th contact 7% of sales people are left to speak with the prospect to see if they can do business together.
  • At the 8th contact there is only one sales person left to work with the prospect. Hopefully it is you.

Many sales people, especially those new to sales, often take it personally when a prospect says ‘NO’. Many fail to persist and often fail to favourably position themselves to ‘leave the door open’ for future contact thus limiting their sales opportunities even further.

Now I understand there can be a fine line drawn between persistence and harassment, however in order to have a steady stream of sales coming in the door we need to ensure that we have a regular mix of prospecting activities happening on a daily basis.

Sometimes we will strike viable and interested prospects and other times we come across viable but not interested prospects. Don’t burn those viable and not interested prospects as they may become viable and interested in the future. But you will never know if you don’t go back.

Here are some handy hints to make sure you can go back to these prospects in the future and give yourself a chance of working with them.

Don’t take it personally
If a prospect doesn’t commit to seeing you it could be due to one of the following reasons:

  • They do not have a need right now
  • They do not fit your target market
  • They do not perceive having a need right now
  • They have other associations or relationships
  • They are not convinced they need to see you

Honourable retreat
Don’t give up. Whenever you make contact with someone make sure you always leave a favourable impression. Make sure they felt it was worthwhile to speak to you even if they don’t fit your target market – you never know who they might know.

Allow for the honourable retreat if they cannot meet with you now:

  • Seek permission to send some information for their review
  • Seek permission to follow up in the future
  • Seek permission to keep in touch in case their current suppliers cannot support them in the future
  • Ask for a referral

Follow up with persistent daily effort
Choosing your state of mind, your attitude, is critical in when prospecting and selling too. Successful salespeople know that prospecting doesn’t happen by chance it is requires a consistent and persistent effort.

Successful sales people:

  • Diarise follow up calls
  • Use a CRM to track activity
  • Keep a number of activities on the go
  • Prioritise
  • Persist

Happy and prosperous selling

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On Show

October 2, 2008 in Self Promotion, Wellbeing Support Services

Recently I have been watching the rerun of “Life at 1” on ABC TV in readiness for the “Life at 3” series as I am fascinated by all things behavioural and developmental. The series focuses on children and their development from age one and beyond, similar in concept to the Seven Up series. However this series cannot be complete without the children’s parents and siblings being involved.

I am interested in the series because I am a parent, however it is amazing what you can learn about other areas of your life from seemingly unrelated sources. This is such a case.

As part of the final episode of ‘Life at 1” the researchers measure the levels of cortisol, often referred to as the ‘stress hormone, in the bodies of the children and their parents to see how the stress of the parents lives affects their children.

One of the fathers being tested in the series had recently changed jobs from being a professional sales person in a luxury car showroom to working in the family market garden business growing vegetable. His ‘stress’ levels actual and emotional were significantly lower after having changed jobs which also affected his child’s stress levels for the better.

While he had indicated that he had been successful in his sales job having achieved good sales results and commissions he found the pressure of always having to be ready for action, ever attentive and available for clients over long periods of time exhausting and draining, so he finally left for something more relaxed. And feels much happier for the change.

Now I am not advocating us all leaving our sales careers for veggies, however, I could relate to what he was saying. I have been thinking about the concept of always being ‘on show’ for some time.

Each client sales meeting is like a performance. If we are going to be an effective sales person, we need to ‘perform’. We need to be present, alert, attentive and ready for action for each client meeting and doing this several times a day. We are ‘on show’.

Selling can be and often is a ‘high stress’ job; people to contact, problems to fix, results to be achieved, more people to contact.

Now I know some people do not care about how they appear to others and what impressions they make, however many an aspiring or seasoned sales person does. They know you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

However most non sales people think that we have it easy – ‘out there meeting people all day, chatting, doing coffee, la la la’. Yeh right! Little do they know that you are always having to present your ‘very best self’ every day, several times a day.

Sometimes at the end of the day you just don’t want to speak to or meet another person. That’s OK if you don’t have to talk to anyone else when you get home or you live like a hermit, however for many of us we have a partner or a family to go home to and, I can’t speak for you, but I want to be there for them too. I wrote about the importance of active listening in another posting recently called ‘pay attention’ and how I find it a challenge to go home and listen actively to my children after being with clients all day.

Having a healthy lifestyle, clear goals and making sure you get personal ‘free’ time on regular basis are just some of the things that are critical to maintaining healthy performance at home and at work, however, I wonder how many of us feel that we are having to be ‘on show’ more often now than ever before.

In this networked world all our actions have the possibility of effecting someone else. Maybe I have taken being ‘on show’ too far and need take a break and be more ‘daggy’ from time to time.

I wonder how others feel about this. I would like to explore this further and would welcome your feedback on this issue. In the meantime I will keep on being fascinated by all things behavioural and developmental, including sales.

Happy selling.

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Elite athletes find key to corporate success

September 4, 2008 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Self Promotion

For Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe and now Stephanie Rice and Michael Phelps Olympic success has literally brought fame and fortune … but their high profile success is not just about the colour of their medals.

With the Olympics just over I can’t help but think of all the other athletes who won medals and wonder how many of them will end up with amazing sponsorship and media deals like Cathy, Ian, Stephanie and Michael. Not many I’ll bet. And with the Paralympics just begun, how many of these athletes will capitalise on their talent and success with lucrative sponsorship and media deals? Maybe even less.

These talented athletes do not have to fade away into sponsorship oblivion. There are plenty of sponsorship opportunities available for them. They need to get out there and prospect for them just like sales people do. And with something to show for it like an Olympic or Paralympic medal, the right attitude and approach, many more athletes can realise the benefits of sponsorship deals to help them extend their sporting career or find new career opportunities.

How do I know this? Well I have had the pleasure of being personally associated with the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) since 1991 and my company has been a major sponsor of the VIS ACE (Athlete Career & Education Program) since 1998. We have been training elite athletes, like Tae Kwon Do Gold Medallist Lauren Burns, Judo Bronze Medallist Maria Pekli, Paralympian Pentathlon Bronze Medallist Don Elgin and Hockey Gold Medallist Louise Dobson on prospecting, self promotion, selling and sales planning since 1998.

Research shows very few people have the luxury of waiting around to be courted.

The world of corporate sponsorship is very different from elite training, and although they take to it quickly, the athletes have to learn how to effectively self promote, access corporations and negotiate with a strong sense of their own value. Like sales people we have taught the athletes to learn how to identify opportunities and promote themselves on a consistent daily basis. The results have been outstanding, with several of the athletes gaining large corporate sponsorship deals over recent years, even for lower profile sports.

Don Elgin, who raised his public profile during the Sydney Paralympics with appearances on national television and radio says,

“At the time I did the Barrett program I was a VIS scholarship holder and no one knew about Paralympic athletes and there was certainly no sponsorship for them. The Barrett process educated and empowered me to take action to get out there and educate the market and secure sponsorships. The best thing I learnt was that the worst people could say to me was ‘NO’ and that was a revelation because it meant that everything was possible. I was able to tap into the potential I already had and this helped me have the confidence to get out there and give it a go. Not only am I better equipped to source and negotiate sponsorships, but the course has had a positive impact on my confidence and this has assisted the promotional work at my place of employment.

When I started the Barrett program I was a Postie. Using what I learnt I was able to move through Customer Service and Business Account Management roles to National Marketing Coordinator for the Philatelic division of Australia Post. I have also adapted what I have learned at Barrett to all parts of my life including my work with the Juvenile Justice System and my family where I help my young daughters to develop their public speaking skills and their ability to see the good in people. Whilst I have achieved a number TWO ranking in the world for my sport and success in my career, I have come to realise that having children is the greatest honour and challenge of all. I now know that I need to make sure I leave a legacy that helps them unlock and achieve their potential whatever that may be.”

While many of the athletes come with no professional sales experience they adapt quickly and apply themselves. They are refreshing in their outlook and great to work with as they have the drive, determination, work ethic and commitment to succeed.

It continues to remind me that Attitude is the key and you make your own success.

Happy selling.

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