Is the almost 100-year old way of chasing sales DOA (Dead on Arrival)? I was reading a article by Jeffrey Gitomer yesterday that asserted that this was indeed a fact. Truth be told, I agree with him, and have felt this way for over a year. If you intend to be a sales superstar in 2012, you are going to need to learn a new approach. You can continue in the old ways if you are content with the crumbs that will be left over by the master salesperson.
How can you tell if you are stuck in the past?
Do you ask yourself any of the following questions?
- How do I make a better cold call?
- How do I close a sale?
- How do I get to the decision maker?
If you answered yes to any of these, you are still using a deprecated form of salesmanship. Unfortunately you are beating your head against a wall, with very little hope of the success you are looking for and deserve.
Learn me ask you a series of better questions?
- How many Twitter followers do you have?
- Do you have an updated and informative Facebook page?
- Do you network on Linkedin?
- Do you know what your Social Promotion Score is?
- Are you involved in a significant way in your community?
The way to get in front of decision makers has changed for good. Cold calling may get you in front of a business owner occasionally, but if you analyze your performance with cold calling, you will begin to see that your conversion rate is at best quite anemic.
For better or worse, we live in an age where relationships and reputation rule the day in business. The world has turned social, and many of us didn’t notice. At least we didn’t notice right away. Now is the time for action!
I would be happy to get you a nudge in the right direction. Just use our contact form to let us know you would like to discuss selling in 2012.
Social Media Portals have pretty well defined “personalities”. What you might find appropriate for one could be received unfavorably by another, especially in a business environment.
Let’s take a quick look at a description for four of the most popular portals.
Twitter:
- 140 spaces for your message
- Rapid fire postings. It’s like being at a party where everyone talks, and few listen
- Loves talking about self
Linked In:
- All business
- Organized like a Rolodex
- Odd habit of playing keep-away with member to member connecting
Facebook:
- Friendly
- Loves to connect to past friends
- Loves games
MySpace:
- Selfish
- Lacks moral continuity
- Loves music and videos
The median age of the users are 31 for Twitter, 40 for LinkedIn, 26 for Facebook, and 27 for MySpace.
Next time we will take a look at the message types that each portal specializes in.
How much money is your website making you? I have people tell me that their website is only a static brochure, as if that is some kind of excuse for the fact that their internet presence is an expense instead of an asset. Cough Cough
How much money is your website making you?
I have had people tell me that their web presence was not meant to create revenue generation.
Wrong! You website is all about revenue generation. If your website does not add to the company bottom-line, you need to “deep-six” the site. Let it die peacefully. Don’t continue “fooling” yourself into thinking that this is acceptable.
On the other hand, it is okay if your website has not generated revenue … as long as you plan to correct this situation post-haste. Fortunes are being made online by those that leverage it in the right ways. Consult with an internet expert. Find out what the windows of opportunity consist of. Take action. Commit to being successful.
Don’t ever accept an excuse for the fact that your website is not generating wealth for you. Pretty soon you will have a great answer to someone when they ask you:
How much money is your website making you?
There are rivers of information readily available about just about every social technology tool that’s out there. However, our focus is on choosing tools that fit within a sales process, and serve a particular function in helping generate leads or increased visibility. They are also chosen as the tools we believe you can learn to use quickly and easily integrate into your real world activities. In this free online tutorial, we will review the most useful social tools for salespeople and how you might learn to put them to use.
If you want to increase your knowledge on Online Reputation Management (ORM) and/or get more comfortable with using social technology tools, Register to attend our Free Online Training, “Social Media for Sales People” coming up on Wednesday April 27, 2011 from 12-1 PM EST. I hope you will join us for our free webinar.
A Salespersons Most Important Social Technology Tools:
- Google Alerts – Are free to use, daily summaries of information found about a given topic on the internet
- LinkedIn – What makes LinkedIn so powerful is the ability to look for shared connections for people you want to meet; it’s a real world technique of asking for referrals except that you can look through someone’s Rolodex to see who they know!
- Blogging – A business oriented blog for a salesperson can be a terrific conversation starter with new prospects, especially if you maintain it regularly and post valuable information.
- Facebook – The guidelines for success on Facebook are much the same as for other social sites if you are looking to make new contacts; in other words “share” over “sell.”
- Twitter – Twitter can be a great tool if you have the time, you can use it to share your updates on things like new products, new research, new blog posts and the like that customers may find of interest.
- Analytics – A tracking program to give statistics about how many people looked at your website or blog post, etc.
Can’t wait to jump on the social media bandwagon? Click here to download the new EBook “Social Media for Sales People”
BUSY AT THAT TIME? Sign up anyway. We’ll send you a link as soon as it’s over so you can listen in when it works for you.
I hope you will join us for our Free webinar. Please feel free to contact me (Michael Richards) at 636-352-3692 if you need assistance.
