Wow, just when you thought that salespeople couldn’t get more desperate or sink any lower…along comes this spam mail through our website contact page. Forget how crazy time consuming this must be jumping around to people’s websites, but what is truly ironic is that this unenlightened salesperson (and I’m being nice here) apparently didn’t bother to notice that I had just written a blog post about the inappropriateness of sales spam. Talk about not knowing your audience!

So…here’s the message:

“Good Afternoon, I am getting in touch with training companies from a variety of backgrounds who all currently deliver face to face and material lead courses. My question is have you converted any of your training content to be served online and sold to your current client base? The reason for such a questions is simply that there are many training companies unaware of the additional revenue that can be achieved quickly and easily by converting present content and methods to an online version, this in turn can supplement or create a completely new revenue stream from clients both incumbent and previously unobtainable. In order to do this you need to source an appropriate learning management system (LMS) provider. The XYZ LMS platform is ideal for those who have developed or are looking to develop online training content and want to organize, distribute, track and report on all content across multiple user populations. We let clients focus on their core competencies and creation of quality content without worrying about the ongoing delivery to customers. We also provide industry advice on the most common tools and methods to use in the content development stage and would be happy to answer any questions and provide insight on this. I will follow up shortly but if you can advise on the above or indicate the correct person to speak to please get in touch. All the best, Sales Idiot (ok, not the real name but hey, it’s my post).”

Seriously, your thoughts? The truth is that I might have actually been interested in talking to this guy, but I won’t give him the time of day now, because he is clearly clueless. The message isn’t personalized…same message apparently to every other “training” company. He spent zero time understanding who we are and what we believe in, which is inexcusable given he was on our website. How could you miss it? And, follow up shortly? Does he plan to keep reaching out to us via our website contact form? Who knows how long it will take to get rid of him.

There are so many things I want to help change about the profession of sales, but for now, sales spam tops the list! What tops your list?

Over on Paul Castain’s sales blog, there was a lively discussion yesterday about “cold
calling” and it’s place in today’s sales process. You already know that I don’t do cold calling, and I shared my reasons why on Paul’s blog. It is always interesting to see how others respond to a differing point of view. For example, the guy who posted his comments after me starts by saying the following…”When I hear cold calling is dead, I usually see a group of lazy sales people nearby.” I choose not to cold call, so how exactly does that make me lazy? I’ve sold $1B in products and services during the past 29 years as a sales professional. And, I did it without cold calling. I think Paul makes a point when he suggests that we think bigger than is cold calling alive or dead.

It is about the approach.

When you call me or send me email that isn’t relevant to me or my business, in my book, THAT is lazy. I can call 100 people a day and rattle off a pitch in the hopes that maybe someone will take a meeting with me. Is that effective? As Rick Page would say, hope is not a strategy!

What takes work is creating a target list of accounts, uncovering the right decision maker to get to, doing research to learn about them and their business initiatives, looking for common connections who could potentially introduce me and crafting a message that is relevant and focused on the needs of my prospect. That’s work people. I have no doubt that there are salespeople out there who have mastered the art of the cold call by focusing their attention on the value they bring to the prospect they want to close. And, that’s the rub. Most don’t bother.

Today, like every other day, I have at least 15 messages in my email inbox that are unsolicited sales spam. The message that I’m about to highlight below is indicative of why I get up on my soapbox to talk about why buyers have had enough. Though it is better written than most, it is still why buyers are screaming at the top of their lungs…enough. Oh, baby, did I ever want to call out this salesperson, but to tell you the truth, I decided that I don’t want to look like an ass. I can showcase the message with my thoughts about a better way and still make my point.

More than receiving spam from people I don’t know, I am really fed up with the cheesy sales tactics that I know someone trained them to use to provoke a reaction. Today, one salesperson got one, and me, well, I get a blog post in the process.

Here goes…

Subject Line: I have tried to reach you…
(Total lie by the way. I’ve not received a prior email or phone call)

Message:

“Hi Barbara,

I have tried to reach you several times regarding how XYZ video company has been able to help organizations like Talent Builders, Inc. by providing a feature rich online video presentation platform that allows you to quickly and easily assemble video content that works. There is a reason Bain Capital, Progress Software, McKesson, Genzyme, PGA, Callaway Golf, and many others are using our XYZ solution.”

Barb says: I have to ask you, does this message strike you as being personalized for Barb? Telling me that there is a reason why the companies he noted use the service doesn’t really impress me. What might have impressed me is if he had told me how using his video service would bring revenue into my company.

The email goes on…

“Although I was looking forward to speaking with you, I certainly don’t want to be a nuisance or waste your time. To help me understand your situation, it would be helpful if you would respond with one of the following:

1. ” Hey, XYZ sales rep I’m just not interested (so you can stop calling and emailing me). Thanks just the same.”

2. “I’m not the person with whom you should be talking. I’d like for you to discuss this with ___________________. ”

3. “I’m interested, but really busy at this time. Please call me on this specific date __________ and this time ___________.”

I appreciate your response, as it will help me save you some time and effort.

Best regards,
Sales Spammer at XYZ company”

Barb says: Geez, where do I begin? He says that he doesn’t want to be a nuisance or waste my time? Dude, you’ve already done both! But I just love the worn out approach he uses to try and get me to take some action. More time wasting. He wants to understand my situation? Uh, did you review my LinkedIn profile, review the information on my website and blog, check me out on Twitter? Clearly not. If he had, he might have already had some sense of my “situation”. And, isn’t it grand that he “appreciates my response, as it will help him save me time and effort”. Really? How exactly does that work? In particular, it is #2, that gets me. He should already know if I’m the person to talk to, which, by the way, I am. If he had bothered to look at any of my online profiles, the answer would have been obvious!

Listen, beat the drum of… “cold calling and sending email spam works”…all day long. That’s fine by me. As long as I continue to receive emails like the one I’ve shared today (and believe me, I’ve received others far more lame), I will stand firm in my belief that both approaches are ineffective and outdated.

That is all.

If you’ve ever heard me speak, you know that I have some strong opinions on things related to social media and what I would call “right sales behavior”. It isn’t that my way is the only way, because of course, it is not. Having sold professionally for close to 30-years, I do have just a bit of experience in this area. There are just some things that salespeople continue to do that drive me a little nuts. Add social media into the mix and well…more stuff to rant about.

My mission (and that of our company) is to help sales leaders and their sales team members bring their “A” game to the evolving world of sales. Though aspects of the sales process remain important…things like identifying and assessing needs, crafting solutions that help your customers improve their business or gaining commitment haven’t changed, other things about the process today have changed.

What’s different?

What has changed is that your buyers buy differently! That means that YOU as sales professionals need your sales A-game to include the smart use of social media as part of your overall sales process. Does it?

On to my rant about the little things…

• Take 30-seconds and personalize your LinkedIn connection invitation. I ignore the “friend” requests…save those for Facebook folks. I also pretty much ignore the generic “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. Really, why? Why are we good connections for each other? Why should I have to figure it out? LinkedIn’s policy is that you know the people you connect to, but honestly, I’m open to connect with people I don’t know just yet, but ONLY if you take a minute and let me know who we can help each other. If it isn’t reciprocal, I’m not interested.
• If you want to send me sales spam, could you at least do your homework? Yesterday, I received an email from a Salesforce.com rep asking for 15 minutes of my time to talk to me about the service. Guess what. I’m already a client and have been for several years. Hello?
• Show some respect. If I have explicitly stated on my LinkedIn profile that I don’t want sales pitches, then don’t send them! You only serve to annoy me, and I just tell my net to avoid you like the plague. I don’t care what LinkedIn says about the positive ratio of people willing to respond to your InMail. That only works if you are darn good at personalizing, which most are not, and the person on the other end really needs what you sell. Recruiters this works for but for salespeople, not so much. Respect what people put on their profiles about the type of mails they are open to. Be creative, find another way!
• Stop asking for favors and never offer to do one in return. You have no idea how many people want to “pick my brain” to get FREE information. I’m all for sharing, but too many people cross that line. I’ve learned to be very discerning and say no as needed. But hey, if you buy me an awesome lunch or dinner with a nice bottle of wine, sure I’m open to sharing my valuable expertise. All I ask if that people respect that I do this to earn my living…I can’t give you everything for free! I know people who reach out to me for help with introductions and they NEVER offer to do anything to help me. Don’t even get me started on the people who show up every couple of years looking for help securing a job. Really? You haven’t talked to me in 3 years and the first email since is to send me your resume and ask that I ask my network to help you? Uh…not going to happen.
• Be relevant. Might mean you need to do some homework. I am soooo tired of receiving spam emails that have zip to do with me or my business. It’s lazy and a time waster to shoot out hundreds of email to people that you don’t know and that you haven’t bothered to learn about. Oh, and don’t school me if I have not responded to the sales crap you sent me last month. I didn’t respond because what you offer has nothing to do with me.
• Follow the rules of email marketing. The CANN-SPAM act is very clear…don’t send spam email to people who’ve not opted in to a list. And, you MUST give them an easy way to “opt out”. When you send me email without that option, it really makes me mad. The act says you are “forgiven” if you spam someone once, as long as they can easily opt out. Follow the protocol. In another blog post, maybe I’ll rant about the people selling Opt-In Database services who spam me – I didn’t opt-in to their list – and then give me no way to get off their email. Do you get the concept of opt-in?
• Say, thank you. Is it really that hard to acknowledge people and thank them for mentioning you, sharing your content, tweeting about you, helped you get that introduction, speaking gig or whatever? No, it isn’t. Do it. It is the right thing to do!

Folks, sales is a people business and people buy from people that they know, like and trust. In today’s social world, your prospects also buy from people that their colleagues and friends know, like and trust. Isn’t it time you figured out how to put social selling to work for you in a way that’s focused on what you can give versus what you can get? Relationships matter.

I’d like to suggest that it is time to play a bigger game! Bring it!

As long as I’ve got the subject of time on the brain, I thought I’d write a post about the biggest objection that I hear from salespeople with respect to using social media as part of their sales routine.

“I don’t have time”.

That always gets me a little riled, because it says to me three things. One, they haven’t accepted that social media is as critical to their sales business, as email and smart phones have become. Two, these reps still believe that running around to lots of networking events is what gets them the greatest return on their effort even though, at most of those events, their buyer isn’t even in the room. Three, they don’t understand how to use technology to their advantage.

Adapt or fall further behind.

Whether you like it or not, buyer behavior has changed. Your sales approach needs to change too. Buyers do a significant amount of research online before ever engaging with a salesperson. Can they find you? And, if they do find you, is the information that you’ve shared on your LinkedIn profile (as an example) compelling enough for them to want to talk to you at all?

I know, I know. You never thought we’d do business over email either. Well, you were wrong. You are wrong about social media too! Every day business is being transacted over social sites. Unless you want your competitors to step up and kick your bootie, it’s time to move.

Ok, so let’s talk about those networking events.

When is the last time you carefully evaluated if the events that you are attending is netting you any sort of sales return? In general, you can choose to attend events for two reasons. One, you want the education, because you think the speaker is going to be awesome. Two, you are going to make connections with people who can buy your products and services. Let’s hope that most of you are using your networking time focused on #2. But here’s the problem. Buyers aren’t spending time at networking events like they used to. A friend of mine – he’s the decision maker for the technology providers who get in at his company -  tells me that not only does he not spend much time at networking events anymore, he also doesn’t carry business cards to the ones he does attend. Buyers aren’t showing up, because they are tired of being pitched by sellers. Why are you spending so much time there?

What to do?

Free up some time by cutting out events you know aren’t getting you connected to sales opportunities. Spread that time throughout the week and use it to share content, post updates, research your target list of prospects, etc. using LinkedIn, Focus, InsideView, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, whatever. You can create some serious opportunities working social just 30-minutes a day. I know, because I do it. The key is to have a plan and know exactly what you want to accomplish.

Finally, use technology to your advantage. Unless you enjoy posting on LinkedIn, then jumping over to Twitter or your Facebook page, use Hootsuite as your social media dashboard and content organizer. Hootsuite’s free version lets you connect to five social media sites and/or RSS feeds. Got a blog you like to follow? Curate the content by setting up the blog RSS feed in your Hootsuite account. Every time a new post is published, a message shoots out from your account to your various social media sites. From your Hootsuite dashboard, you can send messages to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and you can monitor the conversations from there as well. And, you have the ability to schedule messages in advance.

So, stop making excuses.

You do have time to integrate social media into your sales activities and like any change to the way that you do things, you have to decide if you will spend time on the activities that actually lead to sales – or not.

At the beginning of 2012, I cut out my horoscope for the year. In case you are wondering, I’m a Capricorn. As long as I can remember, I’ve always believed that messages we need to heed can come from a multitude of sources. It could be a book passage, something another person says in passing, a sign you see on you way to work that you somehow missed before, and in my case, an annual horoscope message, which I’m sharing with you here.

Managing your time is crucial. Don’t entertain anything or anyone not on your priority list. Good news on the  money front: The stars indicate your cash flow will improve this year. When life falls into place, it can be better than you ever imagined.

I love the news about improved cash flow. Who doesn’t want their business to do even better than the year before? But what really got me thinking was the reminder of managing a very precious asset of mine…time.

For some time now, a core part of my sales and marketing strategy has been to leverage public speaking. I will often agree to speak at a local event pro-bono, in exchange for the visibility, but I also want to be given a copy of the mailing list, have the ability to sell my books or to have clips from the session videotaped. In other words, if I’m going to do something to benefit you and your organization without charging you, it seems fair to expect a little reciprocity.

Some groups apparently don’t get this concept.

Though I’m tempted to call them out, I will not name the group who is getting several great speakers (including me) to support their event but won’t let us capture clips of our talk on video. The reasons given were lame, but the bigger point is that we are donating our services, they are charging people to attend, yet, they won’t agree to something that would benefit us as professionals in return. Seriously, what is wrong with this picture?

Aside from the circumstance noted above, I’m also noticing that many groups asking for a freebie are also making unrealistic demands of my time. If I’m delivering a presentation to a group for free, that is time away from closing deals and supporting our clients, which, by the way, comes first. If I have made the decision to invest my unpaid time with you, please do me the courtesy of not asking for or expecting my slide deck weeks in advance of the event. That’s not how I roll. I work that in as time permits, which is often just a few days in advance.

Time is a valuable commodity. Once it is gone, it is gone. I probably will not say yes to anything else that is a freebie, and that’s a shame, because I’ve planned events with no budget for speakers and know what that is like. On the other hand, if you aren’t willing to respect the investment I am making in your group, well then, you have missed the entire point, and I won’t bother wasting anymore of my precious time.