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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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Having a sales monologue instead of sales dialogue with your customers?

February 10, 2011 in Communication, Prospecting, Sales Relationships, Social Media, Social Sales

  • Have you ever noticed your customers getting that glazed look when you tell them how fabulous you and your company are?
  • Have you ever had your customers seem very agreeable in your sales meeting but never seem to follow through with an order?
  • Have you ever found yourself doing all of the talking whether in a client meeting or over the phone?

If so, chances are you are having a sales monologue and not a sales dialogue with your customers – you are nothing more than a ‘talking’ brochure and are wasting yours and your client’s time.

We all know what it is like to be in the presence of someone who only talks about themselves with no interest in anyone else.  They do not enquire about others’ wellbeing or interests; they seem totally concerned about their own needs and ambitions.

Imagine being one of your clients sitting there unable to express your concerns or be able to discuss ways to solve your challenges or achieve your goals, or get a word in edge ways.  Frustrating isn’t it?

Sales monologues were standard fair at the height of the ‘product selling’ days of the 1970’s and 80’s.  ‘Show up and throw up information’ was how many sales people sold back then, and some still do it today.  You would think we would have shifted our focus to a more enlightened sales approach by now, yet sales monologues still happen more than you think.  Where we are seeing it most often is in online community groups.

Take LinkedIn Discussion Groups as an example: watch and listen to the discussions on these forums and see what happens to anyone who tries to promote their business or tout for business in this space – they are set upon by the Group Community and read the riot act because they are not engaging in a discussion.  Engaging in sales monologues is causing people to be shunned by their online communities.

The new world of social media and sales is about sharing, educating, giving of yourself and working to enhance the communities you find yourself in.  Blatantly advertising yourself is frowned upon because it’s just the same as being a talking brochure and people don’t want that, and quite frankly, never have.

The key to conducting a successful sales dialogue is to start listening and tune into what people are saying.  You can get insights galore about peoples’ opinions, preferences and ideas at online communities like LinkedIn and Facebook.  This, in turn, will give you more ideas about what you need to do to engage in meaningful dialogue with others and develop the opportunities to produce something far more fruitful.   Let your customers or contacts do the talking, ask them questions, find out what they are after and then work with them to give them what they want and/or need.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Transitioning from the old sales paradigm to the new world of social sales

February 2, 2011 in Communication, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Self Development, Social Media, Social Sales, Strategy

When I began my career as a professional sales person in the early 1980’s we were trained in product and client communication skills focusing on handling objections.  We were given business cards, product brochures, a geographic territory of clients to manage and grow, and a car to get around in.  We did not have mobile phones, let alone smart phones / tablets, laptops, or CRM’s.   There was very little coaching and we were expected to make sales and make it work.

For a while there, let’s say 20+ years, it seemed like business as usual as many companies still clung to the Product Paradigm of Selling – ‘show up and throw up information’, however there were fundamental shifts of seismic proportions happening around us even back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.   The transition from product to solution selling was one significant shift, however, this was just a pit stop on the way to the far more complex selling world we find ourselves in today.

28 years on the sales terrain is a very different proposition – the new world of social media, social selling, the importance of collaboration and the centrality of the customer – we are truly entering a customer focused world.

Product and Solutions (the aggregation of products) no longer offers the competitive edge in the sales process, the shift in value, beyond product and product solutions, lies in ideas, creativity, collaboration, interconnectedness and innovation and means that the types of conversations we have with customers, suppliers, referral partners and the like is at the centre of effective selling and business relationships.
And buyers are way ahead of most sales people.  The conversations they are having about their suppliers, research they do before they buy, the journeys they take to purchase without any sales person’s involvement are important to watch and pay attention to.  And that’s not all – we need to pay attention to what they do and say after the sale, how they talk about us, their points of view, the influence they have over others ideas and opinions and the circle just keeps getting wider.  But are sales people and businesses keeping up.

According to Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide, Social media is having an enormous impact on buyer behaviour.  OgilvyOne’s survey of a 1,000 sales professionals in US, UK, Brazil and China reported that 49% of sellers see social media as important to their success and amongst the most successful sales people, over two thirds believe social media is integral to their success.   However most companies are not adapting fast enough.  They are not providing training in how to effectively use social media to sell and nearly half the sales professionals surveyed believe their companies are afraid of letting employees use social media.

Only 9% of US sales people say their companies train or educate them in social media while in contrast 25% of sales people surveyed in Brazil said they received training and education in social media.
This rapid change is unprecedented.  With the rapid rise of social media, the focus on innovation, value beyond product and the increasingly complexity of business networks and communities, I have found myself looking back and looking forward working out what I need to leave behind and what I need to take with me into the future.

For those sales professionals who started their careers in the last 5-10 years this article may not mean much to you, however for those of us who have longer careers in selling we are faced with significant change.

What have found to remain true and I can carry forward from my early days in selling are the following:

  • Keep Prospecting – it is vital to make contact and keep in contact with customers, prospects, influencers, suppliers, partners, etc.
  • Review and Strategic Action– always review where your market, customers and competitors are and check for signs of change so you can adapt and take strategic action.  Most people would call this planning but with change happening so rapidly it’s more like review and strategic action is a constant daily occurrence
  • Prioritisation – even more so now than ever before is the important skill of prioritisation.  There is so much information: emails, special interest groups, new innovations and the like to keep on top it can be overwhelming without some form of prioritisation skills
  • Questioning and listening – always a main stay in any person’s, especially a sales person’s tool box.  The listening acuity we now need means we need to pay more attention to the details of our clients’ conversations, needs and priorities while keeping a keen ear and eye on the broader landscape.  Asking the right questions is critical.
  • Problem Solving and Prevention, Creativity and Innovation – again the idea that product was king is now dead; one of the key skills is to prevent and where necessary solve problem for people, but that is only part of the game now – we now need to generate ideas and create opportunities, imagination and innovation now stand tall.
  • Adapting to different Communication styles – with global reach comes the need to interact with a wide variety for people and adapt to difference, not difficulty
  • Manners and courtesy – despite what people may say about the current state of the world, manners and courtesy are the glue that hold our relationships together. No matter what we call it, courtesy and manners are NOT trivial. Here is how Edmund Burke (1729-1797) described it: “Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.”

So what do  I have had to integrate from the new, so far:

  • Digital communication, destinations and New Listening Skills.  The need to look out for the digital footprints of buyers as they trawl the digital world.  Mapping buyers journeys before they talk to sales people and setting up the right forums, websites, blogs, connections, opinions, etc. for them to connect to before we even speak as human beings is critical.
  • Interacting  with special interest groups on the internet – looking to exchange ideas rather selling or blatant  self promotion.
  • Selling is a Team Sport – marketing, sales, and customers are all in it together
  • Prospecting online – the shift from lists, Yellow Pages, etc to avenues such as Linkedin where a rich vein of data, contacts, prospects are available to be researched and connected to.

Much has change in the world of selling and more changes are afoot.  I’m holding on as best I can, trying to get my balance as I transition from the old paradigm of selling to the new world of social sales.  So watch this space.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Noise Reduction part 1

May 5, 2010 in Communication, Sales Research, Social Media, Social Sales

Noise Reduction was voted by you as the number 5 Sales Trend for 2010.  About 20 years ago I was told that information was doubling every 5 years; 5 years ago it was every 18 months; 1 year ago  it was every 9 minutes, so who knows how fast information is doubling now?

Many business leaders, sales people and many more are reporting information overload.  Selecting what to take on board and what to leave behind will be critical for sales and business success in 2010 and beyond.  It will also be critical for our own wellbeing.

There is so much to read and process, and so little time to do it well.  Many people report feeling that their brains are ‘bursting’ as a result of so much information and wonder how they can process, log, link and manage the information they are exposed to and then use it wisely and purposefully.  According to Alvaro Fernandez from SharpBrains over 1,000,000 new books are published every year and more than 100,000,000 scientific papers are released, this coupled with the billions of websites at our googletips.

With all this good information on tap, I am increasingly finding myself feeling incredibly frustrated with the amount of rubbish information I have to wade through every day as well.  There seems to be so much ‘noise’ out there competing with the good data.

Not only do businesses have to keep on top of what is the latest market trend, product, or competitor strategy, we are also dealing with the merging of personal information with business information.  It appears email remains a major source of information overload, as people struggle to keep up with the rate of incoming messages especially, the filtering out of unsolicited messages such as spam, and ever growing tsunami of personal information keeping us distracted and often disturbed.  There is even a syndrome to describe people who give out too much information about themselves.  It’s called TMI syndrome (too much information) and it’s coming at us with unprecedented speed via Facebook, Twitter, and especially email.

With this increase in noise we need to assess our Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).  SNR is a measure used in science and engineering to quantify how much a signal has been corrupted by noise.  In less technical terms, signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise.  The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is.  “Signal-to-noise ratio” is sometimes used informally to refer to the ratio of useful information to false or irrelevant data in a conversation or exchange.  For example, in online discussion forums and other online communities, off-topic and spam are regarded as “noise” that interferes with the “signal” of appropriate discussion.  For instance, a recent Microsoft security report has said that 97% of all email sent over the Internet is spam and MessageLabs said 81% of all emails sent are unwanted, either way that’s a lot of noise.

The general causes of information overload include:

  • A rapidly increasing rate of new information being produced
  • The ease of duplication and transmission of data across the Internet
  • An increase in the available channels of incoming information (e.g. telephone, email, instant messaging, RSS, etc.)
  • Large amounts of historical information to dig through
  • Contradictions and inaccuracies in available information
  • A low signal-to-noise ratio
  • Lack of a method for comparing and processing different kinds of information
  • The pieces of information are unrelated or do not have any overall structure to reveal their relationships

At no other time in history have we had access to so much information however, it poses some interesting questions:

  1. How do we verify what is fact and what is not?
  2. What should we be paying attention to?
  3. What is useful to us, our customers, our businesses and our communities?
  4. How should we process, log, link and manage information to make it work for us?

To cope with this increase in noise some are trying to shut it out while many others are distracted by simply trying to keep on top of it, which is keeping them from doing other important activities.  Either way, many are reporting feelings of anxiety at being overwhelmed by and unable to process so much information.

In Noise Reduction part 2, I will explore some strategies we can adopt to help us reduce the ‘noise’.  The key will be finding reputable online sites, blogs, references and publications that provide access to information that is backed by evidence and research and is free from sensationalism.  2010 will be about filtering information through your core vision, intention and strategy.

So be prepared to question assumptions.  This will help you to make decisions about what to take on board and what to leave behind.  Remember, too much information and indecision will paralyse.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Are you ready for the phenomenon of Social Sales?

April 15, 2010 in Communication, CRM, Social Media, Social Sales, Strategy

Social Sales was voted by you as the number 4  Sales Trend for 2010.  Arguably, social media is contributing to the democratisation of information and, armed with this information, customers will demand different things from sales people and companies. Customers are tuning into online communities, blogs, forums, and social networks to gather information and make buying decisions.

For instance, the retail car market is undergoing significant changes with customers firmly in the driver’s seat.  With the emergence of the information age consumers have far more knowledge about what to buy and where to buy it.  On the whole, customers are doing their research, checking with their networks and peers groups, reading or viewing the latest comments online, and have potentially even made a buying decision before they step into a store.  This is fast becoming the norm in car sales.  No longer is the sales consultant one of the first to engage with the prospective buyer, today they may be near last when the customer walks through the door.   Smart businesses will realise that engaging with the customer has changed and to speak with and meet viable prospective buyers they need to migrate to a new level.

In the B2B (business to business) space buyer behaviours are changing too.  The buyer is either a purchasing agent or decision maker and they are armed with far better information well before they interact with a sales person.  This will demand a different relationship.

If sales people see their role as only being ‘educational’ they will be unable to match the requirements and expectations of customers. People are getting tired of the old sales model of ‘shut up and listen’, especially if the information they are getting is patronising, know-it-all, we’re the best, readily available on the web and in some cases incorrect or outdated.

It is important that sales people recognise that customers are likely to be as informed about the product as they are (or at least believe they are).  Customers are influenced beyond the boundaries of traditional businesses and long held relationships.  We, the sales person, are unlikely to be the first person the customer will go to, even with established relationships.  The long held tradition of key account management where every person of influence in a customer account is mapped on a ‘blue sheet’ and armies of account teams are marched to surround the customer are numbered. In many cases, they are now surrounded by social media.

Customers are using social media to build up independent knowledge, and compare and contrast information and opinions. This knowledge gives the customer power, and that power fundamentally changes the dynamics of the sales relationship. The web has also opened up communication channels which has changed the landscape forever. The old model is magnified; where in the past consumers used to tell 5 others if they were happy with an experience and 11 or more if they were unhappy, they can now communicate, positive or negative, in real-time with other consumers on a massive scale.

B2B customers are demanding a different relationship.  They want to interact with a sales person that legitimately questions, challenges ideas and innovations, and can clearly articulate how they will work to bring value beyond the product.

Rather than go and talk to buyers alone, sales people and businesses need to go to the social networks to listen to, observe and interact with customers to help find a footing and take note of the consumer voice.
Social Sales will also demand that the sales team work in collaboration with the marketing group to help seed the right information about their offerings into their markets and networks where their customers look to for information and to exchange ideas.  Customers want to see your work in action and get feedback from the sources they trust.

Entering into the Social Sales world also requires sales people to put aside their reluctance and adopt new technology.  Social Sales is the dawn of the new salesperson that doesn’t shy away from using information and systems to their advantage.  The Social Salesperson will make the most of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems interlinking CRM functionality to connect with social media, marketing, campaigns, networks, etc. to track the threads of customer conversations, opinions and ideas.  CRM can no longer be ignored or treated as a telephone directory by sales people and businesses.

The responsibility for Social Sales doesn’t just reside with the sales team either, it needs to go all the way along the whole sales chain and beyond. At a recent leader’s conference, a speaker asked the 500 heads of business in the room whether they use social media including twitter, facebook and the like. Somewhat alarmingly, only 5 raised their hands. We need to use CRM and social media tools to make strategic calls – the CEO, CFO, COO, and CIO will be asking ‘Tell me what you see behind the numbers’.  This request is referring to the patterns of information, customer comments, buying decisions, influences, customer experiences, emotions, and feedback that will influence what we make, how we interact with our markets and much more.

In 2010 and beyond, leaders, sales teams, and businesses will need to invest time, resources, and money to learn how to interact in these emerging social spaces. Why? Because the traditional channels to the customer such as email marketing, trade shows, and face-to-face meetings will be less effective.  In some cases you may not even be interacting with the customer directly but with their ‘recommendation network’. The real challenge for sales will be to identify and engage with these new networks. Social Sales involves different skills, leadership, and a culture values a collaborative model of free knowledge exchange.

Social Sales is likely to change selling fundamentally – so are you and your business ready?

Thanks to Mark Parker and Charni Cargill for their collaboration on this piece.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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