Sales Progress Blog

Cold calling. Early morning flights. Long presentations. These are things of the past. A new business model is changing the sales game. The inside sales model allows us to reach out, contact and interact with our customers, all without ever having to leave the office. With new resources, such as the Internet, sales people can save time and connect with customers from the inside.

So, how do you save time, increase revenue and obtain more customers from your office? It is simple: turn on your computer and start using social media. Make yourself and your company accessible to consumers by creating a Facebook, a LinkedIn and a Twitter account. Then post your blogs and whitepapers and connect with an audience you think would be interested in your product or service.

Social networking gives us opportunities to build out our own personal network of confidants and associates that truly care about us. Social networking tools (fastpitchnetworking.com, linkedin.com, plaxo.com, and facebook.com) allow us to build teams of followers and people who hold our best interest at heart. It is critical to not that you should not build your network with people you do not know because these are the people we are going to go back to time and time again, to not only network but to potentially ask for help to communicate information coming from your company. Social networking allows us to tap into other people’s networks, sometimes to reach thousands of people in a matter of minutes.

Go ahead try it, and let us know what you think of this new way of selling.

admin Sales Training Facebook, linkedin, networking, prospecting, Sales Managers, social media, social networking, Twitter

Trade shows can be a very successful lead generation tool, often though they are not as successful as they could be because companies don’t prepare enough.  To effectively prepare for a successful trade show you must role-play and practice your skills, and then follow up after the event.

Leading up to the event you must have your team practice their skills.  Working a trade show is different than working a typical sales call, while the talking points may be the same the process is slightly different. Trade shows are full of businesses all competing for the attention of the same prospects over the same time period, it’s easy for a prospect to become bombarded by too many companies, so it’s vital that you are on your game.  Some companies may practice their elevator pitch for people already at their booth, but rarely do they practice how they will get people to stop and talk to them in the first place.

Role-playing will be your most successful route.  Have your staff practice pulling people in as they walk by as well as their elevator pitch once people are in the booth.  Being able to effectively pull people in will be just as important as keeping their attention once they stop, so practicing both will be very important to your success.

Pulling people in and keeping their attention is like a live prospecting call, and prospecting can be a difficult skill to master.  Have your sales team practice 1-2 times per week over the few weeks leading up to the event.  To get the most out of the practice have your staff score each other or offer specific feedback to the other team member.  Two heads are always better than one, so by collaborating and offering up feedback your team will come up with better tactics than if they just made them up on the fly once at the event.

Second FOLLOW UP .  I recently read an article that said on average 80% of leads from trade shows are never followed up on.  If you don’t go into the show with a follow up plan already in place, you will be less likely to get around to it later.  Many times leads are forgotten about till months later and by then your prospect has probably lost their initial interest.  Come up with a follow up plan and communicate it to your leads during the show.  For example: " Thanks Mr. Smith for stopping by our booth, look for a call from myself or my partner next week  with more details on the special we are offering and how it can help your company do xyz ."  Your prospect may be contacted by dozens of other exhibitors from the event the following week, but by warning them you will be reaching out they will be expecting to hear from you and will be more likely to respond back.

Practice and follow up are two easy and FREE tools to ensure that your trade show experience is a successful one.  Make sure you take advantage of them.

Tim Hagen Sales Training business opportunities, Enhance Performance, free sales training, lead generation, lead nurturing, networking, prospecting, sales skills, Sales Staff, sales techniques

A lot of times typical sales messages and lessons are targeted more toward the outgoing extrovert, leaving some of us less outgoing professionals to think, “Yeah that’s a great idea, but I could never do that.”

I found this great article from Monster.com with 10 great tips for introverts to develop some of the characteristics of extroverts, to they can reap some of the benefits of being more outgoing.  Many times these articles are full of fluff but I thought this one made valuable and do-able points.

I encourage everyone to check out this article, even you extroverts, it really is a great article.

Check Out: 10 Ways Introverts can Promote themselves to Extroverts

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Management, Sales Training networking, Sales Progress, sales skills, Sales Training

We have all seen them; maybe we are one of them… people who arbitrarily use LinkedIn to “grow” their network with hundreds of random invitations to connect. But watch out, LinkedIn could tag you as a spammer and remove your right to invite connections completely.

Why?

Every time some one clicks, “I don’t know this person,” on your invitation to connect, LinkedIn marks you as a spammer. Get too many of these spam markers and LinkedIn won’t allow you to invite ANYONE to join your network, and no new connections could make your profile almost useless.

Entering spammer status is easy to avoid by only adding people to your network that you actually have a relationship with. The purpose of LinkedIn is to connect with and grow a network of people that have your best interests at heart. A bunch of random connections may make you look popular, but they won’t work as hard to grow your business or career.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training linkedin, networking, social media

With the entire world becoming connected with each other, seemingly overnight, many of you may start to wonder…”what is the best social networking site for me to join?”

Because so many people are beginning to “connect” for many different reasons I thought it might be a good idea for you to begin to narrow down your desired qualities for your social networking sites. This way you network with your desired prospects or groups of interest without opening up 100 different accounts all over the web.

I have attached the list which will give you the top 20 networking sites for those in the business community. You will see a few favorites that I am sure you will recognize, such as LinkedIn or Fast Pitch, however, I am guessing many of you will find something new that will fit the needs you are looking for!

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/28/social-networking-sites-for-business/

vfarnia Sales Training Connect, Fast Pitch, Internet, linkedin, networking, social networking, Top 20

In a down economy networking becomes a bit of a catch 22. Money is tight so many hesitate to pay registration fees for events they otherwise would have benefited from attending. On the other hand, these are the times when we should be working even harder to connect, meet, and network, that next hand you shake may mean the difference between your next big deal, and unemployment.

While doing research on local networking groups, I came across Meetup.com. Meetup allows you to find local groups who share your interests or industry, and meet at live events in your area. From sales groups to dog lovers, its easy to find a group that suites you, allowing you to meet, network, and get involved. Group size can range from 5-6 people to hundreds of members depending on location and the type of interest.

Joining Meetup and finding groups is completely free (some group organizers do have registration fees). And if in your search you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can set up an alert that will notify you when a new group forms.

Networking in these times is hard, but necessary. Make your search easier by allowing someone to do the searching and organizing for you.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training networking, Sales Progress, social media

Through LinkedIn’s "Answers" feature, you can help LinkedIn users out — and build your reputation as an expert on several topics. Just click "Answers" at the top of the page, and you’ll see the many open questions currently on LinkedIn. If your answer is chosen as the "best," you’ll build "points of expertise" that will raise you up the list of LinkedIn experts. Learn more about Answers and other LinkedIn topics at our workshops coming up in two days… http://www.salesprogress.com/events

Matt Byrnes Sales Training linkedin, networking, sales, Sales Training

You can paste live web links on your LinkedIn Profile — especially in the section that has the network update (that goes to all of your connections). But it’s important to remember the “http://” prefix. For example: “Don’t forget to check out our LinkedIn workshops coming up May 28 at the Milwaukee Athletic Club — see http://www.salesprogress.com/events to learn more.”

Matt Byrnes Sales Training linkedin, networking, sales, Sales Training

Join us Thurs., May 28 at the Milwaukee Athletic Club to learn how to sell products, promote events, and “brand” yourself on LinkedIn. “Basics of LinkedIn” covers the steps to get started on LinkedIn from 9 a.m. - Noon.
Then “Advanced Selling with LinkedIn” covers more complex sales-related LinkedIn features from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. See http://www.salesprogress.com/events to learn more.

Matt Byrnes Sales Training linkedin, networking, sales, Sales Training

One of the great LinkedIn features that we’ll cover at the LinkedIn workshops April 17 is the "recommendation." You can tell the LinkedIn world about the specific, positive traits of people in your network — and these people can return the favor. See http://www.salesprogress.com/events to learn more about the LinkedIn workshops at the Milwaukee Athletic Club.

Matt Byrnes Sales Training linkedin, networking, sales, Sales Training