Since the early days of John Patterson and his NCR sales playbook, “cold calling” seems to be ingrained in the collective sales consciousness as an expected part of the sales process. I still wonder why. Come on. Cold calling doesn’t work (it never has, and I don’t care what that last sales trainer told you).

This ridiculous notion of “dialing for dollars” is so yesterday. Sales people resist cold calling like the plague and with good reason. At some level, they know it doesn’t make any sense to call a stranger and expect them to buy within seconds of receiving their call no matter how charming they may be. Old school sales thinking is that you just call enough numbers and eventually somebody buys. What a waste of time and energy! Not to mention how potential buyers detest this approach. They don’t appreciate your rambling, inarticulate, blathering feature dumps and the evident randomness of the call. As a business owner, I can relate. Maybe I’ll create an audio book one of these days with the “best of the worst” phone calls that I’ve ever received. I save them. Hilarious and painfully sad at the same time. Hint: if you have to cold call then at least do some remedial homework. Make sure I’m in the market for what you sell. Everyone is NOT your customer!

Get over the notion of cold calling. Nobody likes it, it doesn’t work. Instead, what about using social media/social networks, email, Twitter, Facebook, referrals and the like to start paving the way for a great relationship? There is just NO excuse anymore for sales management to think that “dialing for dollars” has much chance at success. Instead, invest time in learning to use social media to augment and extend your sales reach. Insist that your sales people use social tools and social networks to begin conversations that will lead to finding common ground and getting to know each other. Then, when you do reach out to secure that sales appointment there will be nothing cold about it!

Tweet This Post

Ironic isn’t it? We live and work in a digital age, and the discourse about the power of social media to communicate with potential buyers and current customers in more effective ways reached deafening proportions in 2009. Yet a current poll running over on LinkedIn shows that 46% of the respondents thus far still think that the most effective way to gather customer feedback is in direct, face-to-face meetings. Hum… me thinks there is a disconnect.

Your customers and potential customers are sharing a wealth of information and insight about what they want – online. In 3 easy steps, here’s how you can begin to capitalize on the wealth of opportunity staring you in the face.

1. Determine where your current customer (or prospect) is likely to “participate” online. Don’t assume they are using Facebook or Twitter or any other social technology people tell you is the hot thing. Put your thinking cap on. Consider the demographics of your audience. What do you know about them now that can help you identify where they travel in the online space. EXAMPLE: Your customer is the VP of Sales in technology and telecommunications companies. What does he/she care about? What challenges are top of mind? In what forums or groups are they talking about what they need or wish vendors provided?
2. Listen to what is being said. Now that you know where your customers live…listen to what they are talking about. What questions are they asking? How are they gathering feedback about products and services on the market? Don’t show up in a group and start pitching your wares. Take the time to listen.
3. Engage them in dialog. Ask relevant questions and don’t argue the answers. Defending your turf  only looks and sounds self serving. Your goal is to set your agenda aside. How else can you really understand what is important to your most valuable asset – your customer? Use what you learn to innovate your products and services and build stronger loyalty with your customer base.

It’s hard to know what that 46% was thinking when they answered the question posed in the poll, but it seems certain they may be missing the entire point and opportunity that social media represents.

Tweet This Post

“The ability to reorder the sections on your profile is just the first of a huge number of enhancements that are coming to your LinkedIn profile in the upcoming months”, says Aaron Bronzan on the LinkedIn Blog.

I played around with the ability to move sections of my LinkedIn profile and it seemed pretty easy to customize your profile to suit your needs. That being said, I did notice that moving things around goofed up my Twitter feed, which then took me a couple of tries to get it back working again. Experiment with the changes…it definitely gives you the ability to personalize your brand.

Tweet This Post

Yesterday, Dawn Gartin, a colleague in my LinkedIn network, posed a great question asking what people thought their profile picture did or didn’t do for them. I love the question, because it comes up in every social sales training that I deliver. Some will debate that the picture doesn’t matter or argue that it could create bias in advance. To the first point…well, yes, I feel strongly that your picture does matter, as you’ll see in my response below. As for bias…when you choose not to post a picture that can create a bias in someone’s mind also. Are you hiding something they might be asking themselves. But the way I see it, you are going to meet them at some point anyway, right? Why not let them know who you are right up front? I suspect that often the concern is that you don’t have a great photo to use. That I understand. And it’s worth having a professional take a head shot for you, if you feel unable to tackle it on your own.

Here’s my response to Dawn’s question…

I currently use the same photo to maintain consistency across LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Blog, Facebook, etc. My business focus is on executives and sales professionals, so I use a professional picture and feel strongly about the importance of doing so to support my brand message and target audience. As sales professionals, it is important to remember that your picture helps people connect with you. They feel they are getting to know you…something about pictures and voice that draws people in. That’s why using video is so compelling.

It’s About Your Brand

Combine your picture with active online participation and you gain important visibility. Crucial to success in this new social world is being seen. You have to put the effort into participating so that when you buyer is ready – they think of you! OK, so back to my colleague, Dawn…if you happen to be in Atlanta, you might be interested in the networking “meet up” she’s got going on Thursday, January 21. You can find the details here. What I think is cool is that you can get a professional headshot taken at the event that you can then use on your social profiles. Do it! The price…incredibly inexpensive at $35.00. Again, find the details here.

BTW – having a current picture on your profiles also means that when you do “meet up” with prospective buyers or partners in person…you both already know what you each look like:)

Tweet This Post

An Atlanta executive who ought to know better (psst, not the guy to the left!) is now informing his business community that social media is worthless. He believes no results are likely to be had, and he smugly insists that the social web and all that it implies is a passing fad guaranteed to fade into the night.

Hum…

Not only does this executive do disservice to himself, what about his clients? These are the business leaders who rely on his vast knowledge, experience and future vision. Not just because they trust him, but because they pay him. That’s his job. Provide time crunched business owners with the resources, counsel and tools they need to succeed with their business – today and tomorrow.

That’s the rub really…people who dismiss what they don’t understand. These folks are part of the “it didn’t work for me, so it can’t work for anybody” club. That’s a real shame.

Here’s the deal…social media provides leverage that all businesses can capitalize on. With the right strategy as the underpinning, the time you invest in putting your social media plan into action will more than give you the return on investment you want.

Tweet This Post

An Atlanta colleague of mine, Mark Moore who heads up ChickenFox, wrote a blog post back in September entitled – It’s All Transition, What Happens Next? Mark talks about how those words were expressed by a character who had just kicked the bucket in the hit show – Dead Like Me. I don’t follow the show myself. Tried it once…just wasn’t for me. But the words, my gosh, they are powerful.

That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Transition. Whether it is business or personal, we are always moving, transitioning to something new, whether we like to think so or not. What’s important, I think, is how we handle the process. We can fight it. We can pretend that things are not changing around us, and do absolutely nothing, plugging along as we always have. Or, we can embrace the opportunity that transition presents by asking – what’s next?

As it relates to sales, transition is long over due. It’s time for sales people and their leadership to pick a new lane, a new speed AND a new approach. Spewing features and benefits off the marketing 1-sheet just doesn’t cut it anymore. Buyers are tired of that nonsense.

Transition is not always easy. In fact, it is often the most painful thing in the world, because as we move forward, we might have no clue about what’s to come next. That can be downright scary! But fear cannot stop us from moving ahead. We must accept that transition is inevitable, necessary and vital. We have to forge ahead even if we aren’t quite sure where we are headed. On the eve of the Great Depression, our 32nd President of the United States of America had this to say:

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. —Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

I think that sums it up quite nicely!

PS…

Please do check out Mark’s company. His team works with businesses – and business leaders – to improve individual and organizational performance through the application of learning and knowledge strategies. Mark also happens to be a member of an elite group of professionals called Black Diamond Consultants, who went through a very rigorous program to earn their enterprise social media strategy certification.

Tweet This Post

2009 will be a year remembered for many things. Most of them non too positive. Financial meltdowns, rampant greed, thousands put out of work. Fear, negativity, anger and often complete disrespect for other human beings showed up everywhere. For entrepreneurs, it proved tough just trying to make it through, while at the same time companies beat them down on price and strung out the process of paying their bills to boot. Sales organizations began to finally realize that strategies that used to work, no longer did. Consumer confidence hit an all time low. Not all was gloom and doom though, and what I will remember most is how people began waking up to the power and potential of social media. Budget cuts and spending freezes forced companies to look at new alternatives to old processes that no longer made sense, and that, I think, is a very good thing.

Social Media’s Role in Sales

Here are just a few of the benefits that, I believe, social media brings to the sales process:

• Fill the pipeline with “better qualified” buyers.
• Improved efficiency of lead generation efforts.
• Shrunken sales cycle and reduction in the “cost per sales hour”.
• Increased conversion rate of leads generated to clients enrolled.
• Enhanced customer loyalty that leads to sustained revenue and higher profits.

One key to success using social media as a sales prospecting and lead generation tool is in the ability to reach more people with less effort and cost. It is a way to build visibility, demonstrate expertise and capability to potential buyers, while also keeping abreast of what’s happening on the competitive front. Done well, social media reinforces your brand so that when your ideal buyer is ready to make that purchase, they think of you!

No Magic Bullet

The opportunity to increase sales using social media is real, but success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes thought. It takes planning. It takes training. It takes commitment to use the tools – often. It most definitely requires patience. There is no quick fix, regardless what so many of the so-called “experts”, who inevitably arrived on the scene, would have you believe. They would tell you that the key to success lies in your ability to get 200 Twitter followers a day, and other such silly nonsense.

Getting Results

For each sales organization and sales person, the approach taken and the technologies used will vary, but the fundamentals of getting started will not. Boring as it may sound…determining your purpose, identifying the characteristics of your ideal buyer, developing your brand message and creating your plan are the things that must come first. Without these things, what difference does it make how many people follow you on Twitter or belong to your LinkedIn network? Better to have 20 of the right people following you than 200 of the wrong, an important fact conveniently ignored by those desperate to believe that a social media profile today means an influx of sales tomorrow.

Tweet This Post

I don’t remember exactly when I decided that I would not force myself to hammer out a list of things I wanted to change on the eve of each New Year. What I do know is that year after year, I would faithfully make my list and promise myself I’d do better this time. And once again promptly proceed to fail in carrying them out. I know that I’m not alone.

Statistically speaking…

In 2007, Richard Wiseman and his team conducted a Quirkology experiment and discovered that while 52% of participants were confident they would achieve their goals, only 12% actually did! Moreover, the study found that men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in setting specific, measurable goals (lose a pound a week, instead of saying “lose weight”), while women were 10% more likely to succeed when they voiced their goals publicly and were supported by their circle of friends.

3 Words

Last year I decided that I really liked Chris Brogan’s approach, which I have now adopted. Chris suggests you choose 3 words to aid you in your goal setting process. He says, “Over the last few years, I’ve practiced something I call “my 3 words,” where I come up with three words that I use as guidance for how I should conduct my efforts in the year to come.” I like that. It seems more real and certainly easier to keep 3 words top of mind each day. I haven’t quite landed on my final word, but I’ll be back in a day or so to report in. In the meantime…how about you? Game to try Chris’ approach? If so, what are the 3 words you will use as your compass throughout 2010?

Tweet This Post

I finally watched the movie Julie and Julia. Wow! Talk about a story that inspires. It totally has me thinking about passion and commitment. Thank you, ladies. This year – more than any other – has been particularly challenging for many of us. As optimistic as I can be, there were far too many days in 2009 when I just felt like I couldn’t face another day of the world’s insanity. Maybe you felt that way too? So here we are on the eve of a New Year. I am pondering what will be different – what I will do differently. No big resolutions for me other than to give up doing things the same way and thinking that this time…the result will be different. It never is. With that in mind, I’m making changes to the site/blog, which you may have noticed. More to come on that. SOOOO…what will you do differently in 2010?

Tweet This Post

Surprisingly, I just received email from a former colleague that hasn’t said boo to me in years. Now that she’s been displaced from her job, she wants my help (and I assume others) to connect her to new opportunities in other corporate accounts. Hum. I’m all for lending a helping hand…

AND I think it’s just a tad rude to ask me to do something for you when you haven’t kept in touch, nor did you offer to do anything for me in return.

People please don’t let this be you. I am empathetic to people finding themselves suddenly out of work. But it is up to you to keep your network fresh and to stay in touch with people regularly even IF you have a great job today. Lack of time cannot be your excuse. Not when you have plenty of social tools to make your life just a little bit easier.

Remember, you never know when you might need someone’s help down the road. If you haven’t done your part cultivating the relationship, then don’t expect a lot when you need something.

Tweet This Post