By Karen Post, on November 15, 2010

So this past week in our weekly training session, we were discussing the topic of “mindset” as it relates to conversational selling with prospects.  To illustrate this concept, I placed one of our new client’s sales representative, who considers himself a very good sales person, into a role-play at the start of class.  The set up was this…pretend you’ve just sat down with a new prospect that is really interested in your services and just run the first 10 minutes of your sales call.  Simple huh?  As the rep began to work his way through the role play, it was evident that he was uncomfortable and really was not sure what he was trying to accomplish on the call.  Before too long, he was committing P.P.S. symptoms, Premature Presentation Syndrome!

After about 10 minutes, I stopped the role play and we debriefed the good, and not so good.  Then, I instructed him to perform the exact same role play only this time, act like you are the prospects “friend and trusted advisor” and that he has millions of dollars in the bank and does not need this sale.  Almost instantly his tone and body language immediately changed and he started to be more genuine and authentic in both his questions and his answers.  Before long, he had the prospect selling him on why he needed to use his company and services.  The light bulb went off from everyone in the class about how much pressure we place on ourselves and our prospects during a sale call.  We spent the next 15 minutes talking about personal presence and what you are exuding during our first 10 minutes of meeting someone, especially a prospect for the first time.

Clint Babcock, Partner with the Sandler Training, is an interactive and engaging trainer that has trained thousands of sales people and sales managers.  Clint works with Business Owners and companies that are struggling in the areas of sales Strategy, Structure, Staff, and Skills.  Through ongoing reinforcement coaching and training, Clint has been able to help companies grow revenues and greatly increase their closing percentages.  Clint often is called on to speak at national sales meetings and various associations. Clint can be reached at cbabcock@sandler.com.

By Karen Post, on October 28, 2010

Get to the top dog.

About six months ago a sales representative, named Doug, did some research on firms in his sales territory. In the course of his research, Doug obtained the names of all the company officers from the CEO down to the managers. He decided to start with a manager whose division was a perfect candidate for Doug’s sales products.  It took four weeks to finally get into the manager’s office where he recommended that Doug call on the assistant manager. Two weeks later Doug met with the assistant manager who sent him to the vice president, who allowed Doug to meet with their CEO, the person who makes all the decisions. While Doug was sitting in the CEO’s outer office, leafing through the company’s newsletter, he came across a story on how the CEO had just signed a contract with Doug’s major competitor the week before.

Now, chances are that Doug is not going to make a sale and chances are high that Doug will be convinced to start his selling cycle earlier, instead of at the top, with the next company.  Doug’s mistake was that he called on everyone else first when he should have gone straight to the CE0, but don’t tell him that.

Be fearless and pro-active

Pick up the phone and speak with the person who calls the shots.  That’s it. Let’s assume you actually have the chance to speak with the head person.  If you ask them, “I know that you probably don’t get involved in X, but could you tell me who is?” you will more than likely get a name.  When you call that new contact ten minutes later, explain that you were just talking with the CEO of the company and that they referred you to them.

If Doug used this approach, what do you think would have happened? He would have had a better chance making his sale. If he called the CEO and didn’t get anywhere, Doug would not have lost anything by attempting.  There is no way to lose by starting at the top.

3 ways to warm up to the top dog.

1. Set up a Google alert with the CEO’s name, when you see publicity mentioning them, photocopy it and drop them a note with some smart comment.
2. Learn something about their biggest competitor; send a note with that intelligence.
3. Do some Sherlock work, find out the CEO’s sweet spot; chocolate, cigar, golf, something small that is related to this and send it to them.

Clint Babcock, Partner with the Sandler Training, is an interactive and engaging trainer that has trained thousands of sales people and sales managers.  Clint works with Business Owners and companies that are struggling in the areas of sales Strategy, Structure, Staff, and Skills.  Through ongoing reinforcement coaching and training, Clint has been able to help companies grow revenues and greatly increase their closing percentages.  Clint often is called on to speak at national sales meetings and various associations. Clint can be reached at cbabcock@sandler.com.

By Karen Post, on August 8, 2010

3 marketing tips to build your brand with college market.

1) Summer can be a slow season for many college campuses, but schools which operate on a quarter system will be in session through June. This is a perfect time to try a pilot campaign for just a week, so you can make tweaks over the rest of the summer and run a full program during Fall semester.

2) Student organizations begin planning for the academic year in July. They begin scheduling guest speakers, laying out meeting calendars and planning events. This is a good month to start contacting student organizations. Don’t waste your time trying to reach every student group on campus; target organizations strategically. Choose student organizations that have membership or a message relevant to your business. Run an MCAT test prep course? Talk with pre-med students or groups like Phi Delta Epsilon.

3) During the school year keep your eyes open for opportunities to partner with other campus reps. Would your headphones pair nicely with the mp3 player offered by another rep? Maybe you sell computer accessories that compliment the laptop another rep is exhibiting. Consider sharing booths or tables with other reps to save on event costs and to make your demonstration more interactive, and more attractive, to students.

4) The success of a campus rep campaign depends on the rep you hire. A great creative team is important, but if you have a bad rep you just have a marketing plan sitting on your desk, it has no legs..no one carrying your message! Don’t let all your creative work go to waste. Put more time into recruitment, training and rep management and your campaign will yield better results. You can do this internally, or you may wish to team up with a company which specializes in campus rep services.

Tips provided by Adam Grant, CEO of Campus Commandos. www.campuscommandos.com

By Karen Post, on July 31, 2010

In today’s business world, networking is all the rage, everyone is communicating via some sort of social media platform, joining groups and forums of one kind or the other.  So much energy that used to focus solely on sales has now been refocused on “creating relationships”.  Does it work?  Is it worth it?  Have we lost sight of creating revenue and increasing the bottom line?

“I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half” (John Wannamaker) I think that many people still feel this way  and is one of the reasons that new methods of generating business has been created.  Networking is not new, it has been around for a very long time, probably as long as there has been commerce, what is changing is how we network ourselves.   When I lived in Las Vegas and ran a marketing company I used to go to various “meet and greets” to meet and socialize with other business owners and executives, today I can do this without leaving my office, and I can meet new people thousands of miles away just as easily as those that are around the corner. The goal in relationship marketing is not to sell a product or service, but to sell yourself, to make yourself desirable in terms of others wanting to know you.  Unlike traditional sales relationship marketing is looking to create a lifetime relationship with someone who will buy over and over, and will keep coming back because of the relationship they have with you.  It’s about brand awareness not just focusing on a one time sale and moving on, and it takes more time to build this relationship than it does to make that one sale, but in the end the return on investment is substantially higher.

You must have the ability to reach and connect with people as individuals in order to get them to take action and you need to be able to keep their business for a lifetime, relationship marketing means that you have to adapt to your customers as individuals (http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/customer-service/264033-1.html).

At the end of the day every business is trying to sell its product or service, this has not changed, but think about it, it is much easier to sell to someone you already have a relationship with than to sell to a complete stranger and that is what relationship marketing is all about.  Creating relationships may not affect the bottom line in the short interim but in the long run the ROI is much higher and that is what relationship marketing is all about creating and maintaining lifelong relationships that will pay off over and over.

By Karen Post, on July 23, 2010

Subject lines are critical in email. They are often the power behind getting read. Equally as important are the words you want to avoid, so your email does not get Devoured by the spam eater. I found this list and some other good SEO tips. They seemed to cover the bad boys.

100 spam trigger words & phrases to avoid

1. #1
2. 100% satisfied
3. 4U
4. Accept credit cards
5. Act Now!
6. Additional Income
7. Affordable
8. All natural
9. All new
10. Amazing
11. Apply online
12. Bargain
13. Best price
14. Billing address
15. Buy direct
16. Call
17. Call free
18. Can’t live without
19. Cards Accepted
20. Cents on the dollar
21. Check
22. Claims
23. Click / Click Here / Click Below
24. Click to remove
25. Compare rates
26. Congratulations
27. Cost / No cost
28. Dear friend
29. Do it today
30. Extra income
31. For free
32. Form
33. Free and FREE
34. Free installation
35. Free leads
36. Free membership
37. Free offer
38. Free preview
39. Free website
40. Full refund
41. Get it now
42. Giving away
43. Guarantee
44. Here
45. Hidden
46. Increase sales
47. Increase traffic
48. Information you requested
49. Insurance
50. Investment / no investment
51. Investment decision
52. Legal
53. Lose
54. Marketing
55. Marketing solutions
56. Message contains
57. Money
58. Month trial offer
59. Name brand
60. Never
61. No gimmicks
62. No Hidden Costs
63. No-obligation
64. Now
65. Offer
66. One time / one-time
67. Opportunity
68. Order / Order Now / Order today / Order status
69. Orders shipped by priority mail
70. Performance
71. Phone
72. Please read
73. Potential earnings
74. Pre-approved
75. Price
76. Print out and fax
77. Profits
78. Real thing
79. Removal instructions
80. Remove
81. Risk free
82. Sales
83. Satisfaction guaranteed
84. Save $
85. Save up to
86. Search engines
87. See for yourself
88. Serious cash
89. Solution
90. Special promotion
91. Success
92. The following form
93. Unsolicited
94. Unsubscribe
95. Urgent
96. US dollars
97. Wife
98. Win
99. Winner
100. Work at home

Do you know of any others? Please share.

Some other tips to remember.

1. Writing subject lines for email should include: thoughtful creativity, keywords, a sense of urgency, value points, benefit words and emotional triggers.
2. Don’t repeat your subject line, just because you think it’s a campaign. Your readers may not know that. They could think it’s something stuck in the pipeline and likely trash it. Instead, if it’s a campaign or you have branded your series, add a number, a keyword tied to benefit or hot topic phrase.
3. Test. Split your list and try a couple variations.

By Karen Post, on July 21, 2010

Where do you draw the line and decide what is honest to goodness marketing and networking, and what is invasive, obnoxious and sleazy SPAM?

It’s a hard call.

I get lots of email from people I know damn well  I’ve never opted in to their email list. Plus they even use a respected email service that claims to be spam free and still my in box is stuffed full with unrequested messaging and junk. I’m starting to question how spam free they are. I’ve used company for several years called Feedblitz. In fact, I just became an affiliate last week. This means if you sign up for their service, Oddpodz will make a commission. However, my recommendations are always based on my experience with the company, the small are a bonus Whatever service you use, do your homework, because switching providers often requires having your community re-opt in and you can loose some long time followers.

Back to Feedblitz, I was attracted to their service because your blog is the feed/content for your email. I’ve learned many people still prefer mail over RSS feed. They do a good job, and don’t tolerate list dumping or spamming. And if you have an issue you get to speak to real person.

I often wonder, did this happen because of  some business group I joined and they sold their list, or did this company get my biz card and randomly add me to their email pool or did they buy my name from a list broker,  in any case, 99% of the time I’m annoyed because fundamentally I hate spam and any relative or form of it makes me cranky.

The other side of the coin. As a business owner who is trying to build a market of followers and customers, I’ve considered buying lists. I understand the math behind if you reach out to 10,000 people and offer something of value, 5% may join in your party. Is that a bad thing?

Can you say direct mail? Since I’ve been on this planet, I’ve been introduced to many a worthy businesses and products via an ice cold piece of direct mail.  I know my name was purchased some where down the line in the marketing and capitalism world of business promotion. And I’m cool with that. I know I can also choose to chunk the uninvited mail into the trash at any moment.

Here’s my take on the subject of uninvited, no permission email marketing.

Buying an email or snail mail list is OK if you reach out with a valuable offer, one or two times.  And as  long as you provide an easy, clear way to opt-out at any point.

If you don’t provide the opt-out option and you Ignore the recipients request to stop receiving your stuff, then you deserve to get the worst computer virus ever and get struck by lightening too.

Be honest with the people you reach out to. Don’t tell them they signed up, if they didn’t. That just adds to making the world feel crazy, when they may not have lost their mind yet.

Love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

1. Have you purchased lists? Where?
2. Did you get a good return?
3. What email service to you use?
4. Where is the best place to report spammers?
5. Are you still using snail mail?

By Karen Post, on December 22, 2008

By Karen Post, on July 16, 2008

By Karen Post, on March 7, 2008