Where Selling Skills Intersect With Social Media

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As our team here produces the Advanced Selling Podcast, by the way if you aren’t a subscriber you need to do that right now, we see the vast interest in how salespeople can use social media to improve their results.

It seems that we’re all trying to find the right balance between doing nothing and doing too much on social media. I will be the first to admit that I’m not sure I even have struck the right balance

Recently we did a video as part of the sales-how-to-videos.com series that I think might make some sense for you to watch. Here it is below.

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Do You Know The Leader Of Your Client Firm?

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This to be used with a previous post titled Don’t Call on Them Until You Know How To Talk to Them.

As I re-read that after it was published, I realize there was a separate topic underneath that article and that is just as important to front line sales people and account managers: Your willingness – and skill – in calling on the CEO of your client company. Read more

How To Build A Sales Force

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You sales managers will like this one. I know how much sales managers struggle with selection, recruiting, and retaining great talent in the sales position. So consequently, when we were introducing our Sales How-To Video Series, we thought we’d put a couple of videos in there for sales leaders and managers. And the one we find is the most common question is “how do I build a sales team that performs at high level?”

Obviously a four-minute video on this subject doesn’t do it justice but there are three things in the video below that we think might help you to get on the path to hiring, keeping and growing a high performance sales team.

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New Sales Training Video Series – Sales How-To

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As you know from our blog and the Advanced Selling Podcast series, we share a lot of content, complimentary.

This month is no different as we are introducing the Sales How-To Video Series which contains 12, 3-5 minute sales training and sales management tutorials on how to sell in today’s world.

The purpose of these videos is to give you and your team (feel free to spread these around your organization) a look at new strategies and tactics that we’re teaching our clients.

Obviously, three minutes is not long enough to give you an exhaustive overview of the topic, but it might create some interest in other products or programs that we have.

We will also be doing a webinar this fall for anybody who has signed up for the 12 videos.

The process is very simple: just go to sales-how-to-video-series.com, put in your first name and email address and the videos will be on their way to you every couple of days.

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The Age-Old Problem in Selling is…

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The age-old problem in selling is: how do you get in front of a customer’s needs?

If your product is one which you can ‘manufacture’ the need for, then you might be able to cold call from a phone book and say the right things that brings awareness to the customer’s problem.

But if you’re in a business like most of us where the prospect actually must have some kind of a presenting need or pain, then you calling from the phone book will be a colossal waste of time.

I’m not like some of my colleagues who say that cold calling is a total waste of effort and energy, however I do think there are some things we can get out of a cold call that might be slightly different.

prospect sortingNo Longer a Seller. Forever A Sorter.

I prefer to look at this whole process of prospecting as a sorting mechanism.

I am sorting the people who will never do anything with me – from the people who don’t have a need right now but might soon – from the people who I just happened to call it the right time and they have an immediate issue.

So the first order of business is to change your mindset from one of a seller to one of a sorter. Once you do that, then you will need to determine what the categories are into which you will sort suspects and prospects. I like to look at this as a bucket scenario. Read more

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. And Playing Not to Lose.

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I couldn’t help but think over the past two weekends of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament how often a team that is ahead by 15 to 20 points will begin playing not to lose the game – and watch their lead dwindle in the final moments.

MICHIGAN VS KANSAS - Playing Not to LoseSometimes, teams ahead by 20 points lose the game because they can never find the rhythm once they decide to go into a slowdown mode. Michigan defeating Kansas is one such example. Kansas was up by 15-20 points consistently in the second half. But they began ‘looking at the clock’ and lost their mojo. And were unable to find it.

They eventually lost.

Another example of a lead that dwindled but the team held on was Wichita State vs. Ohio State. In that game, the same thing occurred. Wichita State had a commanding lead but went into a ‘slowdown offense’ instead of continuing to do the things that got them that lead in the first place.

I’ve also watched the countless high school games where a big lead dwindles because the team ahead stops the fast-break, the good passing, always being a threat to score and great movement.

So what is this playing-not-to-lose-mentality that overtakes us?

And does it ever happen in sales? Actually, I think playing not to lose catches us in several areas: Read more

My Last Game?

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You’ve heard of sports figures who retire from the game and then within months decide to UNretire. Let’s be very clear up front that I am not one of those sports figures and haven’t been for years.

But a few years ago I decided that the game of basketball had passed this old body by. I played tons in my younger years but after meniscus surgery, I decided that it was time to hang up the Cons (Converse – you’ve probably never heard that saying before – which testifies to my age).

This past weekend I was invited to play in an alumni basketball game at the college I played at 35 years ago.

bill caskey - my last game - blogI was the youngest alum that played – by 17 years – and so was a little worried about my ability to compete. The first time up the floor I realized I had no ability to compete.

But that didn’t stop me from having a great time playing the game I love. Once basketball gets into your blood, it really is hard to give it up. Let me be clear, you can never totally give it up.

So for an hour on Saturday afternoon I was back in my element. Up and down the floor, passing to guys who were much younger than me, who could actually do something with the basketball. And actually hitting a 20-footer in the fourth quarter (my only basket of the game). Yes, I was exhausted, not having played in years. (And, by the way, who lengthened the court when I wasn’t looking?)

I’m happy to report I didn’t get hurt and even though I was beat that night I actually wasn’t that sore the next day.

So was it my last game?

Prior to playing, I told the former coach who was there that this was probably the last time I would run up and down the court.

But now I’m not so sure. Read more

Are You An Accidental Salesperson?

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We recently released an online course called The Accidental Salesperson which presumes that many people who are drafted into sales today really didn’t set out with sales at their goal.  This can include engineers, subject matter experts, accountants, lawyers and even a lot of sales people.

And yet, most of the training that teaches those people how to sell is old and antiquated and actually takes away the very power that a technical subject matter expert has.

For example, one of the keys to a successful sales person − which the accidental sales person has an enormous amount of − is expertise.

Accidental salespeople who grew up in the technical world know how to solve problems and they probably know how to find problems, too.  That’s not necessarily the case with a sales person who might not have worked on a widget − built it, designed it or engineered it. Read more

Getting Ready For the Next Recession

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Getting ready for the next recession. It’s coming. Maybe not for a few years, but now’s the time to get ready. Remember how you felt when it hit you like a ton of bricks in 2009? Don’t EVER EVER let that happen to you again.

Make a list of the top 10 things you need to do (in your business) to get ready.

  1. More customers? Check.
  2. More alliances? Check.
  3. More money in your bank account? Check.
  4. Refer this blog post to your tribe? Check. (Ooops. Got carried way, there)