expert positioning Archives

One Hour of Goal Setting

July 30, 2015/in Career Advice, Expert Positioning, Mindset, Personal Productivity, Sales Process/by Bill Caskey

As part of my sales training for my clients, we hold monthly telephone calls with small groups of sales people. On those calls, we talk about deals they struggle with, opportunities they see and tactics on how to land those prospects.

On a recent call, I was asked about goal setting. Specifically, “How much time should we spend in goal setting activities?”

My answer surprised them. I suggested that for every hour they spend setting goals, they should spend 20 hours planning them out. 20 hours!!!??!

The idea with “goal planning” is to give yourself a roadmap of EXACTLY how you will accomplish the goal.

Doubling Your Business

Let’s say you have a goal to double your business in the next year. Pretty awesome goal I’d say! But before you hit the streets to accomplish it, write it out on a piece of paper, place it in front of you and set aside 4 hours for Goal Planning. Read more

Selling Isn’t Meant To Be A Struggle

July 15, 2015/in Career Advice, Expert Positioning, Mindset, Personal Productivity, Sales Process/by Bill Caskey

One of my favorite books of all time was a 60-pager written by Stuart Wilde called, “Life Was Never Meant to be a Struggle.”

In this book, he addresses how life demands effort, but not struggle. As he defines it, “struggle is effort, laced with negative emotion.”

In sales, we struggle a lot, don’t we? Struggle to get an appointment. Struggle to get to the right person. Struggle to position our product in the best possible light. Struggle to close the sale.

But, should we feel ‘struggle?’ I don’t think so.

In markets that are abundant, you should be on the lookout for “ideal fit” between your customer’s pain and aspirations, and your solution. If there is no ideal fit, then you must move on.

Traditionalists among you will say, “No, Bill, you must be persistent and press hard to make the sale.”

Really? Is that really what you think? Sounds like struggle to me.

Instead….

1. Be clear about the value you bring. How can you determine an “ideal fit” if you aren’t quite sure of the value you bring and what problems it will solve for the customer? Bullet-list the elements of your value so you can become clearer about it.

Another bulleted list you should make is the characterization of your ideal client. Do they have money? Are they interested in growth? Do they look outside for help? Do they respect your ideas?

These two lists should be the filters that you shoot prospects through to see if you should spend one more minute with them.

2. Align behavior with purpose. If you struggle in a component of the sales process, say lead generation, then you aren’t looking at it correctly. I had a mentor who said, “If you’re feeling pressure, you’re doing something wrong.” This is why I say, “align with purpose.” This means to state what your purpose is in your profession.

If it’s to make a lot of money for yourself, then you aren’t operating from a place of High Intent. Every thing that happens to you in the sales process will be seen as a threat to your core purpose.

But if your purpose is to be a hero to your target audience…or to serve them exquisitely…or to solve the biggest problems they have, then you are “on purpose” and in sync with what they want. You both want the same ting.

And when you are on purpose, prospecting behavior will never be a struggle.

3. Take the pressure off early. Tell the customer upfront that it’s OK if this is not a fit. Why would you have any other point of view than that? If it’s not a fit in his/her eyes, are you going to continue to hang around? No, of course not.

But by saying it…out loud…you separate yourself from the hundreds of amateurs who have come before you.

When you apply pressure, you are not in-disposable. Your are DISPOSABLE.And if you are disposable (or feel like you are), you will struggle in the profession.

Let me know how you do at implementing these three simple ideas!

Building Your Platform To Make Selling Easy(ier)

July 8, 2015/in Expert Positioning, Lead Generation, Personal Productivity, Prospecting-Business Development/by Bill Caskey

Last week, I got called by a CPA firm who wanted training for their people. This you must know: CPAs are not very good at selling. It’s not that they don’t have the expertise. That’s not it at all.

It’s that selling spooks them. It’s not in their comfort zone.

So, when I get a call from a professional services firm (or any company), I always start with one simple question: Do you have a platform?

Platform

After the weird looks they give me, I go on to educate them to what a “Platform” is.

Platform: definition, A position in the market that you occupy where people look to you for expertise.

Physical Platform

Just as you would speak at a conference from a podium (platform) the same thing applies here. In the physical world, it is you speaking from the stage, on a topic that you have some degree of expertise in, where all eyes are on you.

There, you don’t have to fight for attention. You ARE the show.

In the sales & marketing world, your platform could be a variety of things. LinkedIN is a platform. Any kind of social media could be a platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). Your email list is a platform. A podcast is a platform.

Simply, it is a place where you command attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

Your platform is a positioning tool that raises you above the din of competition and market confusion.

You Have One Right Now, But You May Not Know It Read more

What You Can Learn About Achievement From The Stacey Dash Interview?

May 6, 2015/in Goal Setting, Mindset, Personal Productivity/by Bill Caskey

Recently, Stacey Dash (unknown to me until I saw this and researched her) was on Meredith Vieria. Personally, I don’t watch Vieria mainly because of the tact she took in this “interview.” The video is below. Watch it, then come back and read on.

I love this girl! Unafraid to speak on a hot, controversial issue, and speak her truth.

I hear this all the time: “My territory isn’t large enough.” “My compensation plan isn’t fair enough.” “People don’t answer the phone like they used to.” “Prospects lie.” “I can’t get referrals anymore.” My company doesn’t invest in me.” “My company has no vision.”

All of these statements (and Meredith’s unbelievably arrogant questions) are perfect examples of our buy-in to a victim mentality. And it wears us out. Actually, it renders us unable to adopt a stance of personal empowerment.
Read more

The Problem With Idea Generation – And a Solution

April 15, 2015/2 Comments/in Goal Setting, Lead Generation, Personal Productivity/by Bill Caskey

More ideas are not better. I know there is a saying, “If you want to come up with a great idea, come up with lots of ideas.”

Ideas

But I see Presidents and Salespeople generate idea after idea – and yet have little to show for them. So what happens. Here’s my take.

My sense is that the person that has the idea (the creator) is seldom the person who will implement the idea and bring it to profit. I didn’t say “never,” I said seldom.

So the idea-creator needs to have either a) someone around him/her who can flesh out the idea before investing too much time dreaming about it. Or, b) a system that walks them through the ‘fleshing out’ process. Read more

Are You An Accidental Salesperson?

January 3, 2013/in General Tips/by Bill Caskey

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

Who Are Non-Salespeople And Why Do They Matter?

November 30, 2012/in General Tips/by Bill Caskey

In the last few weeks, we’ve been working on the launch of an online program called The Accidental Salesperson. The reason we’re launching this is that we find more and more non-sales people are being asked to sell, negotiate, communicate and manage relationships that already exist.

In many ways, these people below can be THE most powerful people in the company because they are the talent that does the work…rather than merely sell the work.

You’ve heard the axiom, “It costs a lot less to sell to a current customer than it does to bring in a new customer?” Yet, when we looked around, we saw very little attention (skill training) for that group.

Who Is The Accidental Sales Person?

Here is a list of the types of occupations and functions that might qualify for ‘accidental’ status. Obviously, every company is different, however when you read the list, you’ll see some titles that will fall into that category nicely.

1. Entreprenuers.

They sell to bankers, and other vendors, as well as they are put into sales scenarios, infrequently. They need to have a method of communicating value, which they do all of the time.

2. Professional Services (Accountants, Engineers, Lawyers).

They didn’t use to need training in this realm, but they now do. They are all graded not just on the technical skills but also on their Business Development Skills. “You don’t bring in business, you might not make partner.”

3. Field Service People.

In many ways, these are the most important, customer-facing people in the company. They are the problem finders and solvers.

4. Account Managers.

These are the people that take care of the accounts once they’ve been sold. They are the ones that can sniff out new opportunities and are positioned perfectly to communicate value to customers. Also applies to Customer Service or Inside Sales People. Read more

Evolution of a Salesperson [INFOGRAPHIC]

March 22, 2012/15 Comments/in Expert Positioning, Lead Generation/by Bill Caskey

In problem-solving terms, the rule is when you are confused about the next course of action you always start with, “How did we get here?” As we look at sales forces all over the world, we see problems like:

Closing percentages are low
Difficulty finding and getting in touch with buyers
Every part of the sales process gets commoditized
The sales process lasts way too long.

So, the first question we had was: How did we get here? The infographic below gives you some insight into how we see the world of professional selling today and helps you rethink your role as a salesperson.

Goal Setting for 2012. Is A Doubling Of Income Possible?

November 30, 2011/in General Tips/by Bill Caskey

Well, you probably read that and say, “I don’t see any way at all I can double my sales next year. Especially in this market.”

In fact, that may be so much of a stretch that you decide NOT to watch the video. And what a mistake that would be.

This Whiteboard Wednesday is designed to “shock you” a little. Maybe you just need a jolt to your system so you can break free with some new thoughts.

Bill Caskey takes you through a Goal Setting exercise that the Caskey team takes their clients through. So, grab pencil and paper and play it out as you watch it unfold in front of you.

After you’re done, we think you’ll see things a little differently. So, you may not get to a doubling (or, you might) but what we’re after is a “change of thought.” And that will guide you to new goals you will accomplish.

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