Call Me Next Week....

You finally connect with a prospect and the end of your conversation goes something like this, "I'll get that information to you by tomorrow and I'll call you early next week to discuss it with you." But when you call the following week, you get your prospect's voice mail. After repeated failed attempts to connect with your contact, you move on to another opportunity.

Sound familiar?

Here's how you can prevent this situation from happening. Pinpoint and nail down a specific day and time before you end your call. Here is an example of how you can do that easily and without sounding aggressive or rude.

"I'll get that information to you by tomorrow and I'll call you next week to discuss it with you. How does Tuesday morning work for you? Great, what time works best for you? Any time in the morning? Is your calendar open at 10:15? Terrific; l will send you an email invitation this morning so we can both confirm next Tuesday at 10:15 AM."

This assertive approach is extremely effective for getting your prospect to schedule a specific time to speak with you which means that you increase the likelihood that you will actually connect with your prospect especially if you have the courage to ask them to mark the call in their calendar. Not only does it demonstrate your expertise and professionalism, it differentiates you from your competition, and in today's crowded marketplace, it is essential to find little, yet meaningful ways to stand out from the crowd.

Sometimes, however, it is easy to get mislead by an unfocused prospect who simply says, "Call me next week." The key here is to use the same approach and narrow down a specific day and time. Here is how you handle that conversation and the questions you need to ask:

"What day usually works best for you?" If they say, "Any day is fine" narrow it down with, "How does next Tuesday look?"

Follow this with, "Do mornings or afternoons work best?" or "Is there a particular time of day that works better?" The word 'particular' is key because it encourages your prospect to consider their typical day and think of the best time to call.

In some cases, they may still respond with a vague answer like, "mornings" so take a deep breath and ask one more question: "Does 10:15 work for you?" or "What's your schedule like at 10:15?" Most have found that scheduling an appointment on a quarter hour is more effective than a standard time like 10:00 or 10:30. Some other sales professionals even suggest that you request a time like 10:20 or 10:40. I'm not quite sure about that because calenders are not usually marked like that.

This approach requires a bit of gentle persistence and practise but it is not aggressive or offensive and people respond well to it because it shows that you respect your prospect's time. One key to remember is to keep your voice evenly modulate and your tone conversational. Avoid allowing any type of frustration to creep into your tone because you will automatically be perceived as aggressive instead assertive.

Finally, when you do make your follow-up call, start the conversation by saying something like, "Mr Contact, I'm calling you as promised." If you happen to get their voice mail, hang up and call three- to- five minutes later. If you get bumped to VM again, leave the above message. More often than not, you will get a return call. At least that has been my experience.

Resist the temptation to leave the next call or meeting unscheduled and you will dramatically improve your results. By the way, this approach works equally as well for face-to-face meetings.

Do You Have True Business Acumen?

Every successful businessperson, whether a street vendor or the CEO of a global empire, has a basic understanding of how the business makes money. The essence of making money is managing the profit and loss (P&L) as well as the balance sheet of a business in the context of the external world. Let there be no mistake, profit and loss is a much broader concept than profit or loss. Managing the profit and loss within a business requires that a person take in myriad factors and pieces of information -- much of which is incomplete or distorted -- that contribute to either a profit or a loss, connect those various conflicting things, and make the trade-offs among them with the clear goal of making money and generating cash on a sustained basis. 

The leader must also know how profits and losses interact with the company's balance sheet, which indicates the health of the company.

We can't expect a thirty-year-old leader to have the business acumen of a forty-five-year-old, but an intuitive feel for business is evident at an early age if we bother to look for it. These are the people who intuitively understand the connections between customers, profits, money they borrow, and money they take in. This business acumen is evident even in the simplest contexts, such as that of a small shop with a well-defined customer base and a handful of competitors. You see it in shopkeepers who mark the prices down in the right increments at the right time, buy the right merchandise, and create the right shopping experience, constantly making adjustments to keep the cash flowing. They have a knack for making the right trade-offs and decisions, and the business prospers.

You also can see it in some leaders at the lowest organizational levels and in the earliest stages of their careers in a big company. They have a sense of how their company makes money, what it really offers customers, and how it compares with the competition. Given the chance to run even a tiny P&L center, they have the ability to weigh multiple factors, from changes in the external environment to internal constraints, in deciding how to position the business and expand its money making. They understand the relationships between the variables, do the mental processing to determine which are most important, and make decisions that deliver clear, measurable business results.

In the end, look at yourself in the mirror and inspire that person looking back to do what it takes to make it to the top. At this point that person is the only one who can hold you back.

The Intangible Presentation: Tips & Hints

Let's face it, non-tangible products are difficult to present (demonstrate) to a potential customer. With this in mind, here are a few tried and true methodologies that will make the process bear fruit when all is said and done. Some of these tips are essential to the bottom line and others will increase your numbers significantly. Like everything in the sales world, if you don’t have a plan you might as well give it up because it isn’t happening.

1) Know your audience

Gathering data about your prospect’s needs before the presentation is like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. Some information comes from sales, some from prior contacts, and some is gathered on-the fly during the presentation. The key is to piece together what each decision maker cares about and why. Armed with this information you can be sure to  cover the topics they care about and to drop the ones they don’t.

2) Know your product

You’re the product expert; prospects expect you to know how there signing on to your web advertising site solves their problems. As a rule of thumb, if you can’t answer 85-90 percent of the questions asked during the presentation–you’re not ready.

3) Understand the issues faced by your prospects

Compelling presentations demand a deep understanding of the issues faced by your prospects and customers. Understanding lets you to map the benefits of your product to your prospects needs.

4) Use a story based structure

Structured presentations are memorable presentations. If you just string together feature after feature, the prospect won’t remember what you showed them. Instead, why not try a time-compressed story based on a “day in the life” of your prospect. This style demo mirrors what happens in their world, making it easy to follow and remember.

5) Use customer stories and references

Customer stories show how your product solves problems and third party references can do amazing things for your credibility.  Ask other members of your team for stories they use and build a collection for all to share. Example: Dr. Smith signed on with us 6 months ago and word of mouth alone with his site presence has increased walk in business by 22%.

6) Practice your presentation

If your presentation looks clunky prospects will get spooked. Find a safe way to show the good stuff, and then practice until you can do it on autopilot.

7) Add some spice

The last thing you should do to improve your product presentation is to add some spice, specifically: humor, quotes and props.

• Humor can put your audience at ease and help them feel more comfortable with the presentation overall. Sets a good mood as well.
• Quotes, as long as they are relevant to your product, can make a presentation more memorable and interesting.
• Props are a great way to clarify a point or to punctuate your presentation to make a specific feature stand out.

Ultimately, preparedness and confidence will win the day. Go in knowing you have
something viable and unique. Something that will not only provide a solution but enhance your customers presence in the business world. What you have is valuable and it's not a question of if but when your prospect will buy in. (For those at MapWide, 6 platinums between a thousand competitors means now rather than later).

Author: Chris Borowski

Blogging for Business

Business blogging has become a popular part of social media marketing. Businesses are finding that they can use their blogs, to keep their customers informed about what is happening with their products, services, pricing and promotions. Savvy business owners are finding that when a blog is done effectively, it sheds favorable light on your business, bring in new clients and inspire higher degrees of customer loyalty. In fact, when a blog is done effectively it can not only have more people buying your product or service, but will help to foster word of mouth advertising that will bring others in.

However, it is important that just like any other social media tool, there are dos and don'ts when it comes to business blogging. Remember that having a business blog can pay off in increased profitability, for your company, if you are willing to devote the needed time and energy to it. Here is what you need to know about how to use your company blog for marketing:

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  Use your business blog for the right reasons-It is important that you don't use your blog an extension of your personal identity. The essence of blogging is about establishing a relationship with your readers. Your blog should be part of an ongoing dialogue that lets your customers feel connected to your company. Do not fall into the trap of using your blog to send out press releases. If you do your customers will begin not to trust the content and will likely stop reading and move on. 
  
  
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  To avoid having this happen, make sure that you use original content to write about things that are important to the essence of your business. You can share insights, tips, opinions and even humor in your business blog.
  
  
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  Make sure that you blog on a regular basis-Marketing experts stress that the most popular blogs stick to regular schedule when posting. Successful blogs will post new content on average 2-3 times per week. Remember that quality content is what attracts viewers. If you can publish this often, your readers will continue to return, develop into a community and best of all become fans of your business blog. To avoid becoming stale and burning out on idea, make sure that you have a plan. Putting a plan together, will help you develop content that is fresh and interesting. It can help to brainstorm as a group, for new and exciting ideas, for the business blog. It can also be helpful to pay attention to what is going on around you such as items you see on television, or read in newspapers, magazines or online.
  
  
• Make sure that you are developing open lines of communication, with your readers-Not having a conversation, can quickly shut your blog down. Keep in mind that while having a comments section on your blog, can give your customers a chance to slam you, it also provides you with the opportunity to find out needed information and feedback, that can make a huge difference to the long-term success of your business. Your blog will be a lot more effective if you enable comments. In addition, it is crucial to remember that this is not a one-way conversation. You should stay up to date on responding to comments. This can go a long way toward developing fans who will feel that they are an integral part of developing your business. It can also be helpful to get involved in other groups and forums, in your market. This you can also develop more of a brand for your blog, and hopefully attract new readers.

Why Can't I Close This Sale!

We've all been there. After countless calls, meetings and an endless amount of work, you just can’t get the customer to say “yes” and move forward.  There can be hundreds of theories and ideas as to why this happens more times than we care to admit.  Let’s put all the theories aside and get to a solution you can use right now to determine if the customer is serious.

The problem in these types of situations is as a salesperson, you’ve invested time and effort and the last thing you want to do is quit and walk away.  You are thinking, “The prospect could be very close to saying  ‘yes.’”  It’s either your pride that doesn’t allow you to walk away or it’s the fear of another week with no sales under your belt.

The answer is in being able to determine if the prospect is truly a prospect or nothing more than a suspect in disguise.  I know the number one solution is to get the customer involved in the buying process.  That’s right – get them involved. If they’re not willing to be involved, then they’re just using you either for information or because they are afraid to tell you “no.”  You can get them involved by asking them to do something for you after you’ve left. If a customer is truly interested, they’ll do something for you. If they’re not interested, they won’t.  It’s that simple.

Next time a customer stalls out on you, ask them as a next step to review something for you. It might be a report you’re going to email to them or it might be something on a website. The key is to see if they will provide some input to you.  This simple activity is one of the best ways to measure how serious a prospect is in doing business with you.  Someone who is serious will do what you ask them to; someone who is not won’t.  Their response to what you ask them to do will not only give you a sense of their level of commitment, but also may give them a quick “out” to indeed tell you they are not interested.  Either way, it allows you to move forward.  Either they are a serious prospect or it’s time to drop them and move on.

Another great tool to measure the seriousness of a prospect is to ask them to share with you some proprietary information.  It might be a question you ask regarding the strategic focus of their business or how their sales are for this month.  It can be almost anything, but when you ask them a question that requires them to reveal something that is not known outside the company, you will quickly determine if the customer has confidence in you.  Since confidence is what customers are really buying, then a key to knowing if a sale is going to occur is if they will share with you something of proprietary nature.

Keep in mind that neither of these two techniques is 100% foolproof in determining if a customer is serious. This method was  found  to be the most time efficient method to separate prospects from suspects. In the end, the only sales you’re going to close are going to be with prospects who show interest in what you’re providing and confidence in how you’re providing it.