Ok, so I’ve been on a bit of a rant over the last couple of days about companies that send holiday greetings disguised as a sales pitch. Low and behold, today I receive a greeting from James Arthur Ray, author of Harmonic Wealth. Excellent book! If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it as a way to kick off your New Year.

As the picture makes clear…no pitch!

Minutes after I posted my comments about holiday greetings disguised as sales pitches, I received another one…from Eloquah.

I just love how they are “celebrating their clients success in the changing world of marketing” – what does that mean exactly? Guess that’s the typical marketing speak we’ve come to expect from corporate. The funny thing is that I’ve never spent a dime with Eloquah, though I did present at one of their user groups talking about how marketing needed to get a sales mindset…I digress. How exactly does Eloquah know if I’m successful in this new world of marketing or not? Just wondering.

Soft sell to be sure, but this is basically a “Happy Holidays and aren’t we so great” email. They would likely argue that they’re just doing their job thanking their customers for helping them achieve #1 lead generation tools status. Seems to me that this is more about them and not much about their actual customer. Oh, and I love how in the p.s. they remind you that if you aren’t sure if marketing automation is right for you…talk to Joe the CEO. Is that like Joe the Plumber?

Anyway, this is certainly more subtle than other holiday emails I’ve received recently. AND this is exactly what I think is wrong. Great sales and great marketing is about building relationships.

There is a time to be real!

There is a time to forgo “selling”. People become jaded with these sorts of things. It turns them off, which means they then won’t buy from you! Get it?

Whatever happened to just saying Happy Holidays with no other agenda attached?

Lately, I feel that certain business people out there have stooped to new lows in their search for the clever email subject line that gets their message read.

In the past 2 weeks, I’ve received countless emails from people wishing me a happy holiday or so it seems. Several of these people I barely know so why I’m on a newsletter list I didn’t ask to be included on well… that’s definitely a subject for another post.

Here’s the deal. If you know me and want to send me a holiday greeting – cool. Thank you! I enjoy the well wishes and back at ya!

But for those of you who have decided to use a holiday greeting as an opportunity to sell me something…that’s just sleezy! Have a little integrity and be honest about what you are doing! Kindly leave your sales pitch at the door and stop including it in my Christmas card.

Um – that would be neither and both plus…

Many sales professionals believe that nothing succeeds like a face-to-face meeting or, at the very least, contact via the phone. They believe that activities such as writing a blog, commenting on other blogs and in forums, sending out regular e-newsletters, using social networking, such as Linked In and Facebook are a waste of their time.

I couldn’t DISAGREE more!

First, 65% of all sales are lost in the first phone call. You can go back to one of my sales blunders and read all about it. The stark reality is that most people aren’t good on the telephone and they blow it immediately. That translates into “game over man”.

As for the notion that face-to-face is the winner. Well, just like phone calls there are plenty of people who can’t make a decent sales presentation to save their life. What happens if you get in front of someone – before you’ve built up some type of relationship with them – and you blow it? Yup. You lose. No sale!

Here’s the deal…some things just do not change. You must accept that it can take an average of 7 interactions/touches before a sale is closed. That’s because effective selling is all about building relationships and demonstrating to your prospects the results they will receive when they purchase from you. Technology provides a wonderful advantage in that sense, because you can learn to create value and build relationships far in advance of meeting people personally.

The next missed point to consider is how important it is to protect your time. Success comes from focusing on the right activities at the right time! Your ability to to quickly evaluate sales opportunities will either help or harm your sales activities, because opportunities ARE NOT all created equal. You must learn to become very discerning; otherwise, you risk wasting a lot of precious time.

Building a sales pipeline these days requires a “blend” of approaches, and in this day and age if you are not incorporating the use of online tools into your sales toolkit, you will be left behind. Seriously – you WILL become irrelevant. Contributing to blogs, sending out informational newsletters, participating in online forums, using tools like Twitter, webinars or webcasts offer you opportunities stay in front of people who can either buy from you or refer you to someone else who can buy from you.You’ve got to grasp that when people are ready they think of you!

Recently, I picked up two new clients and $10,000 in new revenue all because I send a monthly newsletter. The point is that it’s naive to think that when you call someone on the phone or meet them face to face for the first time that they’ll be ready to buy at that exact moment. That’s why you need to remain in front of people providing them with relevant, meaningful information that delivers real value to them BEFORE they’ve made a purchase.

Disagree? I’d love to hear why!

I often seem to have far too many great ideas and projects in various stages of completion. That unfortunately leads me to feel overwhelmed and lacking focus. Does this happen to you?

Though I used to believe that multi-tasking was a good thing, I’ve come to realize that thinking we can multi-task and still be effective is far from the truth. The real key to achieving our goals is focus and that can only happen if you chunk your projects or your objectives down into bite-sized pieces.

Why You Procrastinate
Procrastination for most of us becomes a challenge, because when the task seems to big it’s easy to put off getting it done. In Brian Tracy’s book – Eat that Frog – he talks about taking on the toughest things first when kicking off the day. The idea is that it’s better to get the hardest things done first before everything else, because usually the toughest things are the most important.

I’ve put into practice this idea of doing the hardest things first – the things that usually take the longest, but boy of boy is the feeling of getting it done worth it!

Start With One Step
Wired as we are, you will definitely find it much easier to break down your projects into manageable steps and then take them on one at a time. Work through each step to the very end. Finish it before moving to the next. Before you know it – you’re done!

Forget Perfect – Just Get Going
This can sometimes be a killer for me. I’m so worried about getting it perfect that I don’t get started at all. Get going – that’s the key. Once you start moving forward the energy and momentum of the project takes on a life of it’s own. You’ll begin to feel excited and motivated about what you’ve accomplished.

So as you are winding down 2008 and thinking about what you want to accomplish in the coming year…make your list, then break each objective into bite sized chunks and then get moving!