Turn voice mails into a cold calling journey of discovery!

Most people who still use the traditional cold calling mindset look at voicemail as a dead end. They say to themselves, “Oh well, I may as well leave a message and hope he calls me back.”

This almost never happens, and we know it. But we’re often so relieved not to have to talk with someone, that we leave a message anyway. We avoid dealing with another person’s potential negative response to us and we avoid being challenged by the receptionist as well.

By the time the day is over, we might feel good because we’ve played the “numbers game” and made a lot of calls. But our productivity has been minimal. And over time that can make us feel frustrated by our experiences in cold calling.

With the new approach to cold calling, voicemail is an opportunity for discovery. It leads us beyond voicemail. Voice mail becomes a starting point for you begin the process of locating the person you’re trying to contact.

Our objective is not to pursue people to make a sale in this new way of cold calling. It is to uncover the truth of their situation and to be okay with the outcome, whether it’s a “yes” or a “no.”

So we can begin to feel more comfortable hitting “0” when we get someone’s voicemail. Because we then have an opportunity to go back to the receptionist and begin a dialogue based on asking for help.

Here’s how the dialogue might go:

“Hi, maybe you can help me out for a second? I’m trying to get hold of Mike and I got his voicemail. Would you happen to know if he’s at lunch, or on vacation, or in a meeting by any chance?”

Here, you aren’t just asking to find Mike. And you’re also providing possible solutions to finding Mike. This helps the receptionist feel as if he or she is part of the problem-solving process.

The receptionist is likely to offer one of two responses. The first is, “Yes, he’s in a meeting (or at lunch or on vacation) and I’m not sure when he’ll be back at his desk.”

This answer has just given you a lot more information than you would have if you had just left a voicemail. Now you know your contact’s whereabouts in real time and you can call back at a more appropriate time.

The second response is, “No, I don’t know where he is.” In this case, you would reply, “That’s not a problem…” This low-key statement diffuses any possible pressure

that the receptionist might be feeling about not being able to answer your question.

You can then continue with, “Would you happen to know anyone whose desk or office is near him or who works in his area who might know where he is?” Again, you’re offering another option for solving the problem. In many cases, the receptionist will then transfer you to a colleague of your contact who can help you determine his or her whereabouts.

The receptionist may also reply, “No, I don’t know anyone in his area.” You then say, “That’s not a problem…” and offer, “Would you happen to have a paging system or his cell phone number by any chance?”

If the receptionist replies, “Sorry, we don’t have those,” then at that point you can say, “Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help. And then hang up, and call back another time.

Does the idea of paging potential clients or calling them on their cell phone make your stomach clench up? Are you thinking that you can’t cold call people that way because they might reject you?

That fear is only to be expected if your agenda is to sell something to the person. In other words, if you’re still using the traditional sales mindset. But once you master the new cold calling perspective, you’ll feel comfortable calling anyone, any time, using any mode.

As long as you’re 100 percent focused on your potential client’s world, you’ll find that people will be receptive to you. You can easily navigate throughout an organization with the type of dialogue described above, because you’re asking for help in a relaxed manner and you never put anyone on the spot.

Suppose that your efforts to locate your contact in this way fail. At that point you can leave a voicemail, but it should always be your very last option. Here’s an example of an appropriate cold calling voicemail:

“Hi John, maybe you can help me out for a second? I’m not sure if you’re the right person or not, but I’m trying to reach the person responsible for reporting problems about unpaid invoices. My name is John Edwards, my number is…”

Try this way of approaching the situation of voice mails, and you’ll be surprised and pleased at how often it becomes a highway instead of a dead end.

Ari Galper, founder of Unlock The Cold Calling Game, makes cold calling painless and simple. Learn his cold calling secrets even the sales gurus don’t know. To receive your 10 free audio mini-lessons visit http://www.Unlock-The-Cold-Calling-Game.com

Budget Guidelines for Trade Show Marketing

B’techa didn’t know – Trade shows are the second largest expenditure of corporate marketing dollars in the US. Only the field salesperson costs a company more.

How much of that money is wasted? Oodles – if you don’t know what you’re doing and how to track it.

Clients often ask, “How much does it cost to do a trade show?” It can be a little or a lot. Remember – a tabletop show at a Chamber of Commerce networking event will cost you significantly less than a 10-day international event, but these EIGHT major components are good guidelines in budgeting.

1. The Rent on your Space – The only constant in trade shows is the real estate -that piece of gray concrete you rent. Some shows are priced by a flat fee. Most are priced according to a square foot (sq. meter) standard for the show. Generally, it’s 10sq ft or 3sq meters (about 100 sq. feet). Prices will range from $10-$100/sq ft, or $1,000 to $10,000 per space. Check your calculations carefully.

2. On-floor Expenses – Anything that requires labor or utilities for your exhibit. This includes all labor (i.e. – I&D installation and dismantling – to setup and tear-down your exhibit) and utilities – electricity, gas, water, compressed air, etc.

3. Your Exhibit, Graphics and Accessories – All of the physical parts of your exhibit, including design fees and production, and crating.

4. Freight and Drayage – These can be confusing terms, so here is the easy way to remember. Freight is how your exhibit gets from anywhere (your office, warehouse or another show) to the current show’s loading dock. You can put it in a car, send it by plane, ship, bus or truck. Drayage, on the other hand, has a very specific meaning. It is only the movement of your exhibit from the loading dock to your exhibit space and back to the loading dock. Then “freight” takes it from the loading dock to its next destination. Drayage can

be the most expensive word you don’t know.

5. The Cost of Your Time – If you weren’t at the show, what would you be doing? Consider there are now three workloads you carry when you exhibit

* the work you are doing at the show (booth duty, seminars, networking, meeting with clients, etc.)

* the work you have at your office – if you’re not there, who is doing your work?

* the Internet work – I’m seeing more people spending hours after the show making doing business via email and cell phones..

6. The Costs of Travel and Entertainment – From the time you leave until the time you return, you’re spending money. Keep careful track of T&E expenses for you and your staff.

7. Promotions and Advertising BEFORE the Show – The really smart exhibitors know that trade shows are not isolated marketing events, but part of a continuum of sales and marketing. For example, your ad in the trade publication for the three months prior to the show may be part of your general advertising budget or a special ad just to announce your attendance at the show. In this category include premiums, show specials, ad specialities (giveaways), dealer incentives and other promotions.

8. Promotions and Advertising AFTER the Show – Here’s a scary thought. EIGHTY PERCENT (80%) of leads aren’t followed up. Forget the advertising and promotions, just send a simple Thank You note within a week of the show. Follow-up with phones calls, appointments and whatever else in normal in your sales cycle.

All of these eight items cost you money, but the most expensive is #8 – if you don’t consider your sales cycle and follow-up properly – then #1 through #7 are wasted.

Julia O’Connor – Speaker, Author, Consultant – writes about practical aspects of trade shows. As president of Trade Show Training, inc,, now celebrating its 10th year, she works with companies in a variety of industries to improve their bottom line and marketing opportunities at trade shows.

http://www.TradeShowTraining.com — 800-355-3910

As I was preparing for a presentation recently, I was trying to figure out why small businesses have trouble marketing themselves consistently. If we know we need to be marketing, why don’t we just do it? Is it for a lack of planning or that we’re just not sure what to do or where to start?

Yes, maybe. But in trying to figure out what those hurdles are that keep us from marketing consistently; I came up with two hurdles that I think might be as big as any other for most. Like a lot of things with regards to our business, if we’re aware of the hurdles that keep us from achieving effective marketing, then we can plan and act accordingly on how we can either go around or over them.

So what are these hurdles? Well, they certainly aren’t the only hurdles, but the two I keep running into time and again with many small businesses are Perfection and Fear of Failure. In fact, I’m sure they have played a part in delaying some of my own marketing including the launch of my web site and my monthly eZine. Let’s take a look at each hurdle and how we might overcome them.

Hurdling Perfection

Many of us tend to be perfectionist in the things we do. You might say… “When I put out this marketing piece, it really has to hit a home run.” But because we know that perfection is really not attainable, it can be a big roadblock to effective marketing. In our quest to make our marketing PERFECT, we may never even get a GOOD marketing program in place.

Perfectionism in creating a direct mailing piece or a web site or an electronic newsletter can result in significant delays of weeks, months, or even years.

The funny thing is that most of us verbally buy into the concept of “continuous improvement”. But then we often get stuck trying to endlessly improve before we ever put the idea into action. The pursuit of perfection in itself is not bad. But it can certainly result in great failure when we’re unwilling to call an idea “good enough”, put it out there, and then look for ways to improve it and put it out there again –- until it’s perfect, or almost perfect.

If marketing has been a struggle for your business because you’re not sure what works best or where to start, then you can’t expect to be great at it overnight. It’s going to take time. So be willing to start somewhere and learn from mistakes.

Notice the importance of the pursuit of perfection, or “continuous improvement”. The opposite side of this hurdle is settling for “good enough”. Sometimes marketing is treated as a one time event and even though it’s dull and only yielding mediocre results, it keeps getting put out there again and again without ever trying to make it better. What would you expect to eventually happen to a business that operates this way?

Hurdling Fear of Failure

I believe the second hurdle — Fear of Failure is closely related to the first. For most of us, the notion of facing rejection or failure is unsettling at best. And because this whole marketing thing can be an unknown or uncomfortable for us, we sure do hesitate to put something out there and not have it be good. If it fails to produce results, we may feel like we’re failing in our business.

Unfortunately, one of the most common approaches to avoiding failure is to avoid taking action in the first place. Or maybe just as unsuccessfully, we spend all our time looking for that magical marketing idea that is going to end all of our client acquisition problems. I call it the “Power Ball” marketing strategy. Guess what? It’s not out there — so you might as well quit looking.

Marketing will take time and effort on your part. But, with persistence and a willingness to potentially even make

a mess of it with your first attempt, you can succeed! Be willing to learn from your mistakes and get better as you go.

Do you see why I think the two hurdles are closely related? “I need perfection, and if it can’t be perfect, I will have failed. And I just hate the thought of failure, so if it can’t be perfect, I’m better off not even doing it.”

Let’s look at this using a baseball analogy. Former Kansas City Royal and Hall of Famer, George Brett, was arguably one of the best third basemen of all time. And anyone who followed the Royals in the prime of George Brett’s career would agree that he was a great, great hitter.

What if George Brett had approached his baseball career as follows: “When I come to bat, I just hate the thought of getting an out (or worse yet, a strike out) — Fear of Failure. But even more so I’m a Perfectionist, so when I come to bat I need to hit a home run every time. Therefore, I’m not even going to swing the bat unless I know that I can hit a home run because I sure don’t want to make an out.”

What do you think George Brett’s chances of having the Hall of Fame career he did would have been if he had taken this approach?

Sounds like a silly example, but are we doing this at all with our own marketing efforts? Don’t get me wrong. I don’t suggest that you just start going up to bat and swinging away. Marketing efforts do need to be thought out and planned. But don’t let these two hurdles keep you from moving forward.

Take Action To Overcome The Hurdles That Keep You From Marketing Success

If you love what you do and believe in the results you can produce for your customers, then you can experience great marketing success. Be willing to get some help if the “know how” is beyond your means. It just might be the best investment you make in your business.

Don’t focus on perfection, but rather the continuous pursuit of perfection. Brainstorm it, plan it, design it, write it, tweak it, and then GO FOR IT. Be willing to try it on a small test basis and potentially fail. But only if you’re willing to learn from mistakes. Then improve it and try it again.

Don’t settle for “good enough”. If you have marketing tools that aren’t consistently producing results, don’t just keep using them (at least not in the format they’re in). You may have to tweak again and again so you can start to learn what works and what doesn’t work. Testing is critical.

Hurdling “Fear of Failure” takes some courage. Courage doesn’t mean you don’t have fear. It means finding a way to overcome the fear in order to achieve some result. Courageous people get over worrying about feeling like a failure or looking like a fool, because they focus on achieving the ultimate result. They are passionate about what they can do for their clients, and that’s what drives them.

I’m sure that someone somewhere has told you to embrace failures because it’s the way to learn the path to success. My advice is to keep the failures from being catastrophic by testing. Again, I say test it out on a small basis so the taste of failure isn’t so bitter in your mouth.

On the other hand, if your test works, you can always go back for MORE of the sweet taste of success.

(c) – Kevin Dervin, KPD Marketing

About the Author:

Kevin Dervin is focused on helping small businesses that are ready to grow, but struggle with how to consistently attract more clients. Visit http://www.proven-small-business-marketing-solutions.com for more great marketing information you can put to use in growing your business today.

Find Kevin’s Kansas City based KPD Marketing practice at http://www.ABCDgrowth.com and subscribe to his free ezine called ABCD Grow.

There are many oh so many different ways to market a product or a service. Among these varied techniques, there are many good ways to generate sales and customers. But as many are the good methods, marketing also has its fair share of turkeys. Cold calling is one of the techniques in marketing that is subject to scrutiny in many ways. Marketers and other organizations are beginning to doubt the efficacy of cold calling.

Cold calling is also called blind calling. The marketer in this case calls up or contacts a ‘random’ person who might, if the marketer is lucky, want the product or service want to buy into what the marketer is offering. Cold calling is pretty much like blind guessing who your next customer will be. The caller then does his pitch talk to this person even if he or she has not been referred to by anyone.

This method of marketing has also been used by honest marketers and has also resulted in good customer relationships. However, cold calling has fallen out of fashion due to the fact that it has been well abused by many an unscrupulous marketer.

Advantages? It allows you to tap into a potentially unsaturated market. It allows you to create a new network of referrals, especially if yours is running dry. But do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

1. Irritates the investor

Cold calling has gained the ire of many a customer. This is because many of the cold callers usually conduct their business at nighttime. This is very inconvenient to potential clients because they generally want this time to be private. And dragging a person out of bed in their pajamas to talk about business is as irritating as it gets.

Many marketing firms employ boiler rooms to conduct cold calling. Boiler rooms are a team of cold callers whose specialty is spewing out very persuasive scripts on why you should buy into their product. Unfortunately, these callers tend to be abusive, and pugnacious. Many of the clients they get only took up their offer because they were coerced into doing so. Their motto is: as long as the person is on the line, there is still a chance to badger

him or her. This is not the kind of marketing that gains mutual trust and respect.

2. Unfocused Marketing

Cold calling marketing is unfocused marketing. If you cannot focus your energies on better prospects, you might find yourself using up resources on people who are not really interested in your product. It would be better to use mailing lists or profiling to know which customers would most likely avail of your offers.

Cold calling sometimes relies on pure luck or stubbornness to get their clients. Unscientific. Unreliable.

3. The law

Believe it or not the law has made steps to safeguard clients from the wrath of cold callers. Law dictates that cold callers only call during working hours. They are no longer allowed to call from 8:00 P.M. onwards. Clients can now submit complaints to the authorities if your cold callers become abusive or disrespectful. For a business to be successful, you would like to avoid tangles with the law such as this.

Unfortunately there have been many reported scams in regards to cold calling marketers. As said in the first reason. These callers are usually annoying and abusive. The people you call may take offense at this and report your company to the authorities.

4. Loss of Trust

Since cold calling already has a bad reputation, affiliating with this kind of service could have a negative effect on the image of your business. If you want your business to be reputable, you will have to use reputable methods to gain the confidence of your customers. Remember that you are not merely wishing to siphon money off of them, you are also trying to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with them.

The Verdict

Cold calling can still be a good way to broaden your client network. However, the intrinsic dangers that it displays may not be very appealing to many companies. Before even considering cold calling as an option, take a look at the other marketing strategies that are in existence.

Daegan Smith is the leader of the fastest growing team of successful home business enterpernuers on the net. Find out how we’re creating financial freedom all across the globe and how to get in on the action FREE =>http://www.comlev.com Team Blog: http://www.turnkeyinternetbusiness.blogspot.com

Have you always thought you needed to spend weeks or even months to create your own product? Well, the good news is you can create a product much more quickly and easily. Maybe not as fast as reading this article, but you can sure do it in less than a week… or even a couple of days! So you’ll have more time to promote and market your product which means more sales. After all, that’s where the money is. Just imagine how many profitable products you can create and how much additional profits you can make when you know how to create your own products so fast! So here are 3 techniques to create your own hot-selling products FAST…Interview an Expert You sure know or easily can find some experts in your field that your target market knows and respects. They are usually people who have written books or articles about your topic you can visit www.instant-cd-products.com these people know the answers too many questions your prospects have in mind and can show them how to solve their problems that’s why interviewing an expert is a powerful technique to create products which are both highly profitable and easy to create.

You can interview the experts by email or using phone, turn it into an e-book easily and then sell it for big profits. If you interview them using via phone, you can also record your phone conversation and turn it into an audio course. Since audio products offer a higher perceived value, you can sell it at a higher price. Just make sure you ask for their permission to record your conversation. You can also get someone to write the transcription

so you can sell it as an e-book separately, or just as a bonus with your audio course. A good example of someone who has used this technique successfully is Neil Shearing. As you may know, he’s a well-known Internet marketing expert. He has created an e-book called “Internet Success Diamonds” which is consisted of interviews with top, well-known Internet marketing gurus where they reveal their secrets to success. I happened to buy his book and found it really helpful you can visit www.instant-video-suite.com Compile Templates and Samples Who says you have to write all your e-books word by word yourself?

After all, people buy an e-book because it shows them how to solve their problem and get what they want. So as long as your e-book is helpful to your target market, all the rest doesn’t matters. By compiling templates, samples, articles, and other helpful information into an e-book, not only you’ll provide your target market with valuable information they want but you’ll also create your product much more easily and quickly. And best of all…There’s another powerful technique that helps you create high quality, hot-selling products in less a couple of weeks without writing a single word yourself. It’s the secret many top Internet marketing experts use but has never admitted it to you. It’s like their private secret to making a fortune on the Internet. And you’re not going to believe me when I say it’s not only the most profitable, but also the easiest of all other product creation techniques! You can learn more about this powerful product creation secret plus more tips and tricks in the “Best-Selling Ideas” FREE Master’s Course. Wishing you much success,

I spent my formative years in ballet class. While other kids went out to play, I went to ballet class. In high school while others attended after-school activities or hung out together, I went to ballet class. By my mid-teens I was taking class five or six times a week or maybe even more. This was a habit that continued till injuries sidelined my professional dancing career.

This habit of taking a ballet class every day was not mine alone. Every dancer, professional or those seeking to become professional, takes class every day. It’s a habit, it’s a reality, it goes with the job. It is impossible to dance professionally without taking class. Even the stars, Barishnykov, for example, take class every day.

In my late teens I had some personal crises that stopped me from going to class everyday. At one of my rare appearances in class, my teacher asked where I had been. I told her what was going on in my life. She said to me, “That’s no reason not to take class. You have to take class everyday, no matter what.”

Sounds harsh doesn’t it? But she was right. Not taking class only gave me something else to feel bad about.

When I started my sales training business, I used that same “no matter what” approach to prospecting. I prospected every day. I started out with absolutely no corporate connections. I was a ballet dancer, I only knew other ballet dancers. I did, however, know how to prospect. On and off for years my “day job” had been telemarketing. I began to prospect the same way I learned to take class, every day, no matter what.

Five years later I have a thriving business. Even today I continue to prospect every day, while perhaps not for as many hours. Every day brings some prospecting activity, no matter what.

So how does the busy entrepreneur, busy owner or sales professional find the time to prospect every day no matter what? The answer is simple, put it in your calendar. Schedule time in your calendar every day for prospecting activity. At the scheduled time put aside what you are doing and prospect. Do not take other calls, do not work on other projects, do not allow interruptions. Simply prospect. When the time you have scheduled is over, stop prospecting and go on with your other tasks.

Schedule appointments with yourself to prospect and keep those appointments. We get angry and upset when prospects miss appointments. Ask yourself: Why is it all right to miss an appointment with yourself?

Prospecting success (just like learning to dance) comes over time. In order to keep your sales funnel full you must constantly be on the lookout for leads and prospects. By keeping your funnel full you avoid the boom and bust cycles that so many entrepreneurs and sales professionals experience. To be successful you must engage in some prospecting activity everyday, no matter what. It’s a habit, it’s a reality, it goes with the job.

© 2005 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success,” is a sales trainer, author, and sales coach. Her recently released program, “Cold Calling College”, and/or her book, “Cold Calling for Women”, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy’s free e-zine at www.wendyweiss.com

The “Purple Pill”

If you could give your sales force a “Purple Pill” that would boost their effectiveness by 25% or more, would you do it? No prizes for guessing how a typical sales manager would answer this question! Sales professionals are high-energy, fast-thinking, opportunistic people. If they are good, they often shoot from the hip and take calculated risks. They can be called mavericks and that’s a good thing. It takes a little “maverick” in the blood to be effective in the world of professional sales. Most are willing to try anything that offers the potential for a fast boost, a quick sale, increased value, or the strengthening of their relationship with their customer. Too often, however, this quick fix mentality reduces the long-term focus and discipline of the sales force. “This month we’re trying to promote a specific product line, last month we launched our sales force automation software, next month we’re bringing in that motivational speaker and the month after that we’ll be introducing a new SPIF (special performance incentive formula) to move our dead and obsolete inventory.” Unfortunately, there is no “Purple Pill” that you can buy to drug your sales team. There is no “Purple Pill” that will improve their effectiveness. There is no “Purple Pill” that will increase profit, revenue, or market share. However, there is a proven process that sustains continuous improvement and will help you achieve every one of these objectives. It’s actually a very simple methodology. It’s called a Sales Effectiveness Process (SEP). A SEP is simply a structure for continuously improving sales force performance through focus, discipline and a process built on a platform of accountability.

But we already have a system.

A SEP is not a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. CRM concentrates on the effectiveness of interactions with customers, not the effectiveness of the sales force. It is not a Sales Force Automation (SFA) system. SFA deals with improving the efficiency of the sales force: performing administrative duties more efficiently. A SEP improves the effectiveness of the sales force; doing the right things rather than just doing things right.

Similarly, a SEP is not a canned sales skills training course. Training is really only effective when the students are eager to learn and the material is immediately relevant. Offering an instruction or motivation course without having a structure that continuously encourages proper behavior is a waste of time. Training should therefore be considered a supplement to other initiatives rather than a sales management program. A SEP does not replace sales training.

A Sales Effectiveness Process provides critical structure and motivation for using tools such as CRM, SFA and skills training. It also provides a measurement system to manage the activities that are required to meet specific objectives. Without a focused sales management process, automation and training are wasted because their power is undirected. However, the SEP can provide tremendous value on its own merits even without the independent use of the other supporting tools. Used in conjunction with the SEP, these tools are much more powerful.

Why is this any different?

OK, so what is this thing called SEP? It is a set of best sales practices with a small amount of automation thrown in. SEP is built on the concept of “Managing activities and measuring results.” Focus, process, discipline and accountability become the engine that drives the process.

It all starts with planning.

The key to planning is making sure that it deals with reality rather than wishful thinking. A quota from the boss may be called “the plan,” but it has no relation to how the salesperson will achieve it. “I can set myself a goal of becoming 4 inches taller this year but it’s probably not going to happen. If, in contrast, I decide to lose 10 pounds and I can plan out the exact exercise regimen, a specific diet and the activities necessary to get there, I have a real plan and my chance of success is much greater.”

In a SEP, each field salesperson identifies a small set of target accounts in his territory to receive intensive sales focus. The number is limited because true targeting must be backed up by action planning, and that requires a lot of effort. (For more information about targeting strategies, see “TLS – Tier Level Selling” by Rick Johnson, available by e-mailing rick@ceostrategist.com or by visiting www.ceostrategist.com)

The salesperson sets numeric objectives for sales and gross margin dollars on each target customer, along with detailed action plans to achieve them. The goals could be for the next year or the next quarter, and will be periodically adjusted to ensure that they are always realistic. This does not mean that a salesperson gets to change his quota. He is still expected to reach the same final numbers. The SEP provides a realistic platform that allows him to adjust how he will get there by tweaking his individual targets and goals, making course corrections as necessary during the year to make sure he will meet his objectives. The SEP helps him identify and utilize any resources inside and outside the company that he needs to attain his goals.

Execution

The SEP circumvents the most common mistake made in distribution today: trying to manage results. Instead, you must manage activities because it’s the activities that produce results. Execution involves the day-to-day activities of the salesperson. For most industries, this entails both planned, proactive tasks and opportunistic, reactive events that the salesperson uncovers by doing the right things in the right place at the right time. It’s critical that the progress of the tasks in target action plans is carefully monitored to avoid surprises. This is the equivalent of monitoring your daily exercise before the effects start to show up on the scale. Once the results are in, the horse is out of the barn and everything you do from that point on is reactive. If you proactively manage the activities, the expected

results will follow.

Feedback

The feedback process is where the real magic of the SEP comes in. A universal scorecard is essential for creating competitive energy within your sales force and motivating them to focus on strategic objectives. The scorecard should include a small number of well-designed metrics that are regularly updated. This information is extremely valuable for:

• Identifying the best opportunities for performance improvement

• Creating a level playing field

• Driving continuous improvement

• Providing performance feedback

• Encouraging and measuring cross functional selling

• Offering key information for the review process

Monthly territory review: the cornerstone of the SEP.

The monthly review process is a critical component of the SEP that enables the sales manager and his sales representative to discuss, plan and measure success. This is how a good manager enables his salesmen to capitalize on their natural talents and abilities. The review process should include the following:

1. Review of all target accounts

2. Review of all cross functional selling opportunities, or lack of them

3. Review of specific territory objectives, including sales to plan and gross profit to plan, and assigned account objectives

4. Knowledge of products, customers and customer organizations

5. Ability to apply this market knowledge

6. Development of a favorable attitude as it pertains to that knowledge and those applied skills

7. Required course corrections

This is not a session for reprimand or criticism. The review should be designed to achieve maximum participation by the sales representative. Industry best practice has proven that such representative participation is one of the most effective methods of developing both an attitude for learning and a drive for successful accomplishment of goals and objectives.

Next, enthusiasm must be created. Enthusiasm is one of the most important traits for a sales manager because it is contagious. Remember, sales representatives will learn very little if they are mentally falling asleep.

Finally, the sales representative must have confidence in the program. He or she must trust the content of the program and truly believe that it will provide personal benefits.The review process is extremely critical to the success of the SEP. It must be taken seriously and performed at a standard of excellence that supports the intent and objectives of the overall program. It requires 100% compliance throughout the company.

The SEP gives more than it receives

The last thing you want to do is to burden your sales force with administrative tasks of limited value. Throw away the call reports. They aren’t necessary in the SEP. Besides, they are the closest a salesman will ever come to winning the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. How many times can a sales person report: “I called on Joe, everything is great and we will get to bid on his next requirement?” A well thought out action plan has more than 100 times the value of any call report.

The focus of the SEP, especially the monthly review, is on improvement through coaching and counseling. It is not a human resources hammer for “slap & point” management. It is simple but powerful for the salesperson using it (by comparison, most companies have way too many reports, measurements and programs that diffuse focus, dilute effort and may indicate that upper management is really not clear about the company’s strategic direction). Sales is a profession that requires professional salespeople

Companies are in constant need of aggressive, creative and resourceful salespeople to have their products specified, accepted and used by customers. Without informed and capable field salespeople, no distributorship could hope to compete in the marketplace today.

But how often do companies consider the fact that good salespeople, the kind who can help a company really grow, don’t just happen to come along by chance or fate? There is no such thing as a “born salesperson,” because selling ability is much more than a personality trait.

Granted, selling does require certain attributes in a person that some people are born with and some are not. Also, the person must be intelligent, able to grasp ideas and details easily, retain them and recall them for use whenever necessary in selling situations. These factors, and many others relating to personal and emotional characteristics, are contributing elements in the makeup of the professional salesperson. However, these attributes alone do not make a salesperson nor do they guarantee success. It takes more.

A salesperson must have adequate tools, resources and leadership to maximize his effectiveness. That is why the Sales Effectiveness Process is so vital. It is the program that provides the support and the resources to give each and every salesperson the opportunity to maximize his personal effectiveness.

The Sales Effectiveness Process will not replace good sales management, but it can make it much more effective. Remember, it’s not the sales manager’s job to call on accounts and sell product. His job is to make his sales force as effective as he possibly can so that they can achieve the goals and objectives of the organization.

The SEP is the one thing that can light up the sales process like Edison lit up a dark room with his light bulb invention. Let SEP become your light in the darkness of the competitive world of distribution. (Download a free sales person review checklist www.ceostrategist.com)

Dr. Eric “Rick” Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in Distribution. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with distributor executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information.

Rick received an MBA from Keller Graduate School in Chicago, Illinois and a Bachelor’s degree in Operations Management from Capital University, Columbus Ohio. Rick recently completed his dissertation on Strategic Leadership and received his Ph.D. He’s also a published book author with four titles to his credit: “The Toolkit for Improved Business Performance in Wholesale Distribution,” the NWFA & NAFCD “Roadmap”, Lone Wolf-Lead Wolf—The Evolution of Sales” and a fiction novel about teenagers called “Shattered Innocence.”

A true story: In the course of sending out a mailing to prospective clients, I found it necessary to verify some addresses. I called the main telephone number for one of those prospective clients. The receptionist answered the call, and a conversation ensued…

Receptionist: ABC Company.

Wendy: I have some correspondence that I’m addressing, and I need to verify some information. Your mailing address is 123 Main Street?

Receptionist: Sounds right.

Sounds right? (Question: How did she get to work that morning?) Sounds right? Does this sound right to you?

The person answering the telephone at your company is your representative to the world. This is the person who makes the first impression for your company, and the world sees this representative as YOU. In the abovethis conversation, the receptionist seemed unconcerned, careless and not too bright. A caller could easily assume that this is the way the entire company functions, that that it’s the way YOU function.

Think about the impression you wish to make. Do you want to be seen as clueless (I don’t know my own address) or as intelligent, businesslike and professional?

Here are some tips to help make an intelligent, businesslike and professional impression on the telephone:

1. Hire someone whose speech is clear, articulate and pleasing. (Tip: Have your job candidates leave a voice mail for you. If you do not understand what they are saying, or you do not care for their tone or speech quality—no one else will either.)

2. Make sure that your telephone representatives know all key company information. (yYour company name, address, etc.). Have that information posted prominently for easy reference.

3. Develop a plan to route and handle all

calls. Have the plan in place Develop this plan before problems occur. so that it is in place if problems occur.

4. Make sure that anyone answering your company telephone knows the responsibilities of various individuals at the company. Again, have that information posted prominently for easy reference.

5. There was is an old a saying, “The customer is always right.” Bring that saying back. Treat all callers, even ones that call to complain, with respect and concern.

6. Try not to put callers on hold. (Do you like being put on hold?) If you must put a caller on hold, explain that you are doing so and that you will be back in just a moment. If that moment is longer than anticipated, go back to the caller and tell them it is taking longer than you anticipated. Offer them the option of calling back, going to voice mail or continuing to hold.

7. Do not chew gum, eat, drink or have conversations with other people in the room when you are answering telephone calls. Keep background noise to a minimum — no loud conversations or music.

8. Treat your callers the way you would want to be treated. If you’re not sure, ask yourself, “How would I feel or react if someone said or did this to me?” Act accordingly.

© 2005 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success,” is a sales trainer, author, and sales coach. Her recently released program, “Cold Calling College”, and/or her book, “Cold Calling for Women”, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy’s free e-zine at www.wendyweiss.com

Awhile back you had a great idea. An idea that you thought could make you a decent income, with very little effort. Then, you had another great idea—to sell your first great idea on the Internet! What better way is there to market and sell your idea to the world, you thought. So, you bought a domain name, found a web host, and hired a high-priced web designer. Before you knew it, your new business was up and running on the web. With the help of a search engine optimization firm, your site shot to the top results of Google and Yahoo. Plus, you added an affiliate program, along with some other marketing ventures. Soon, tons of targeted traffic started flowing to your site…

A couple of weeks went by and the euphoria of owning your own business on the web began to wear off. Sure, your site looked great, your product/service was the best, and you had tons of traffic hitting your site, but where was the income you expected? You’d made a few sales, but really you were expecting more—weren’t you?

Unfortunately, you’re business isn’t starting off as the stunning success you had hoped for. But, there’s good news! You probably aren’t that far off. This article will tell you the one aspect of your online business that can help you convert more sales than any other!

One advantage that most business owners like about the Internet is the opportunity it provides for them to take a hands-off approach. Get a website up-and-running, come up with a marketing program, and you can make money even while you’re sleeping—especially if you offer a service or software product. Internet businesses are great part-time or side businesses, because they can take as much, or as little, time as you want to devote to them.

The problem is that while spending a very small amount of time on your Internet business is great for you as the business owner; it can be not-so-great for your customers and potential customers, thus limiting your sales potential. Think about your product or service. Now, picture setting up a brick-and-mortar location to run your business from. Would you buy or build this building, set it up for business, and then leave it sitting there with the door locked all of the time? Would you leave the door unlocked so customers could come in and look around, but not have any staff available to assist them? Would you leave the door unlocked so customers could come in and look around, setup a self-checkout aisle so they can make purchases, install a security camera for safety, but still not have a single staff member on hand to assist customers. Hopefully, you answered ‘no’ to all of these questions, and you probably found the ideas ridiculous. Yet, is this how your run your online business? Most websites let visitors look at products, and make secure purchases, but they don’t offer assistance to the visitors. That is why providing customer service is the key to making an online business successful. Buying and selling on the Internet can be different than in brick-and-mortar locations, but in some ways it is not that different. Customer Service is one of those ways. Customers want to be treated a certain way before most will buy your products and services, regardless of whether or not you are selling them from a building or a website.

If you provide top-notch customer service on your website, the same way you would if you had setup a brick-and-mortar location, you will take your business profits to the next level. Will it take a little more of your time and attention? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes.

You see, visitors come to your site because they are interested in what you have to offer. But, they also have questions and concerns before they buy. Will this product meet

my needs? How do I checkout? Is there a return policy? Is this business even credible (a particularly challenging issue on the web)? If you aren’t there to answer these questions, the Internet most likely will offer this consumer several other sites that they can buy the same products from. Just like that, they’re gone—and probably forever.

At this point, you’re probably wondering what is top-notch customer service? The answer may surprise you. Many sites offer phone and email support. However, this is not the most effective support online. Phone support can be expensive, either for you or the customer. If you have an 800#, you’re paying for all the calls. Plus, you (or your staff), can only handle one call at a time. If you don’t have an 800#, your potential customer has to pay. Plus, the customer may only have a dial-up connection. So, they actually have to leave your website to contact you (or use up their cell phone minutes). Your #1 goal is to NOT have customers leave your website—even to call you!

Providing email support is equally ineffective. The reason is because the customer never really knows if and when you’re going to get back to him/her. They may need a product sent today for next day arrival. If so, they’ll probably be hesitant to email you simply because they don’t know if you’ll get back to them in an hour, a couple hours, a day, a week, or ever at all. They’ll go somewhere else where they can be assured that the product will meet there needs and can be shipped for arrival next day. Email can be effective at times, but it can cause concerns for the customer, and it is ineffective when time is critical.

So, what is the best way to provide online customer support? The answer is live chat. I know you’re probably thinking that live chat is time-consuming for you as the business owner. You don’t want to sit in front of your computer all day, or hire someone else to, just waiting for customers to chat with. That is understandable. However, with most live chat software, your customers can leave a message if you’re offline, and it at least gives the impression to them that you care, and that customer service is important to you. So, even if you can only cover live chat a couple hours a day, it is still worth it! And, the more that you can cover live chat, the more successful you will be.

Live chat provides an opportunity for your customers to have their questions and concerns handled immediately. Plus, talking to you someone directly will ease their concerns about the credibility of your business. You get to know your customers and they get to know you. The chances of them buying increase dramatically. The chances of them making repeat purchases from you also increase, because you’ve developed a relationship with them. Plus it is affordable for you. Several live chat systems are very affordable, and most allow reps to handle multiple chats at once, which is quicker and more effective than phone support. All in all, live chat is a great customer service solution for both the business owner and the consumer.

By making customer service a priority on your website, and utilizing live chat software, that great idea you had awhile back will really reach its potential.

Please feel free to reprint this article so long as you include the resource box listed with the article.

Dan Cavanaugh is the Senior Marketing Director for the Customer Support Network, an organization committed to the improvement of online customer service. The Customer Support Network has developed a powerful and affordable live chat product called CSLive SB 2005. To learn more about this live chat software and the benefits of online customer service, click here: http://www.CSLiveChat.com

Recently I received a prospecting voice mail message from a salesperson. The salesperson explained his company was “the leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions” and he encouraged me to visit his company’s website. That was it – that was the “meat” of the voice mail message.

If you received that salesperson’s voice mail message, what would go through your mind? Do you think it might it be a question like, “What the heck is a Microsoft hosted Exchange solution?” Do you think the voice mail message would inspire you to call the salesperson back?

Why did the salesperson’s voice mail message fail to accomplish the desired end result? Because it focused on a solution rather than a problem.

If your prospecting calls and related voice mail messages talk about a solution, in effect you are assuming that your prospects are already aware of the problems that your solution can solve for them. If your prospects are not able to relate your solution back to their own specific problems, your message will probably just “bounce off”.

If you use industry-specific jargon to describe your solution, you are making the additional assumption that your prospects are familiar with the jargon that you are using. If they aren’t, it further reduces your chances of attracting their attention!

How could this salesperson restructure his voice mail message to be more effective? Instead of talking about his solution, he could talk about one or more of the problems that can be solved by using a hosted Exchange service. A revised voice mail message might sound something like this:

“We help small companies look like big companies to their prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core businesses, which accelerates growth and profitability. If you’d like learn how we do this, please give me a call.”

This salesperson could further enhance his message by including a specific quantified impact that his company’s services have produced for customers. Here is what it might sound like if we add a quantified impact to the previously revised voice mail message:

“We help small companies look like big companies to their prospects and customers; plus, we help companies of all sizes focus more of their time and resources on their core businesses. This has helped some of our customers reduce their operating costs by as much as 30% in just six months. If you’d like learn how they were able to achieve these results, please give me a call.”

Do you see the difference between the revised

messages and, “We are the leader in Microsoft hosted Exchange solutions; please visit our website”? Do you agree that the revised messages are likely to capture more prospects’ attention and produce more returned phone calls?

There are other advantages to focusing your prospecting messages on problems rather than solutions. If you talk about a solution, your message will have the most appeal for prospects that are already actively looking for that specific solution. But, do you think those (few) prospects are just sitting around waiting for you to call? Or, do you think they might be doing some proactive research? In fact, isn’t it possible they might already have some price quotes in hand? If they are that far along in the buying process, how does it impact your chances of winning their business? If you do manage to win their business, how profitable is it likely to be? Wouldn’t you agree that in this situation your solution is more likely to be perceived as a commodity, and the business is likely to go to a low bidder?

Contrast this scenario to a properly managed, problem-based prospecting approach. If you are successful in attracting a prospect’s interest by talking about the business problems that you can solve and the quantified impacts that your company has delivered to customers, the natural next step is to ask the prospect to identify which specific problems pertain to their business. Once the prospect prioritizes their problems, you can ask more questions to help them quantify the impact of these problems on their business. If the quantified impacts are substantial enough, it becomes quite easy to justify a very profitable price for your solution.

If you want to improve your prospecting effectiveness, stop leading with solutions in your prospecting calls and voice mail messages. Instead, lead with the problems that you can help prospects solve, and (ideally) one or more of the quantified impacts that your company has produced for customers. This type of problem-focused prospecting approach will attract the interest of a larger percentage of your prospects, produce higher close rates, and generate more profitable sales.

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.