Let’s face it- we live in a world that is becoming more and more technology based. Customers are turning to the World Wide Web when they need a new product or service, and companies are relying on websites, blogs and online articles to boost sales. Inside sales people need to know where traffic is coming from in order to efficiently gather leads and prospects. There are three important ways that potential customers are brought to a website: direct traffic, organic traffic and social media traffic.

1. Direct Traffic

Direct traffic involves people accessing your website through a bookmark or by “directly” typing the web name into the URL. This sort of traffic does not depend on your SEO ratings or the popularity of your blog. It is important to understand how direct traffic works because it tells you that people view your company as credible, and they came directly to your page or blog to look for information and updates.

Direct traffic is great for lead generation because you know that the people purposefully came to your site, and they are interested in your product or service.

2. Organic Traffic

Any traffic that comes to your website or blog because of words typed into a search engine, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo, is known as organic traffic. It relies mostly on keywords and search engine optimization which help your website appear earlier in any search. The more content you have built surrounding your company (this can include multiple website pages, blogs, whitepapers and articles), the more likely you are to increase your sites popularity.

Organic traffic tells inside sales people that there are people out there that are in need of their product or service, and if prospected properly, they could become long-time customers.

3. Social Media Traffic

This is the traffic that comes from people reading your blogs, clicking on twitter links or visiting from sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Typically, these people can constitute both customers and competitors. Include an RSS feed button onto your blog to keep people coming back and measure the amount of time people spend re-tweeting your information and participating on your Facebook page.

If you monitor social media traffic properly, inside sales people can generate leads from the active participants because it shows that they are genuinely intrigued by the information that you are posting.

If companies want to see their sales progress, they need to help their inside sales reps fully understand how to create leads from the tools that are out there.

admin Sales Training direct traffic, lead generation, linkedin, organic traffic, prospecting, Sales Progress, social media, Twitter

How many cold calls did you make last week? How many are you planning to make this week? With new technology and social media sites, the answer should be relatively low. The way inside sales teams prospect has gone in a completely new direction. Salespeople no longer rely on the cold call as a way to generate business opportunities. Instead, they are turning to the web.

It used to be that salespeople would be on the phones all day making hundreds of calls just to generate one lead. Now, numerous leads are appearing with just the click of a mouse. There are a couple ways that reps can harness the new tools that are out there.

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admin Sales Training business opportunities, cold calling, inside sales, linkedin, prospecting, tailored sales training

You may be the top salesperson in your company, but you had to start somewhere. Sales is not an easy job, and it is difficult because of preconceived notions about salespeople, which makes it difficult to get that first meeting with a potential client. Here are some sales techniques that you can use to help your chances of closing that sale when you do actually land that meeting:
Believe in what you sell.
No one wants to buy a product from someone who doesn’t believe in the excellence of what they’re selling. If you aren’t excited about your product then your customer won’t be either. You need to be upbeat and positive. If you have difficulties in this area, then focus on the features, advantages and benefits of your product since these are what make your product great, and they often answer the, “What’s in it for me?” question.

Be able to define and engage with your target audience.

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admin Sales Training active learning, business opportunities, linkedin, prospecting, referrals, Sales Progress, sales techniques, sales tips

The old method of using cold calling to prospect is well on its way out, and you don’t want to be left behind. While your inside sales team had to have excellent communication skills to engage with someone over the phone, they need to be even more refined online. They need to be able to connect with friends and clients and post blogs and whitepapers to get their company in front of potential clients. Managers need to become business coaches and teach their inside sales teams to harness the new social media tools for their own benefit.

Most of us know the outstanding stats when it comes to how many people are actually involved in sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but did you know that 41% of all businesses receive leads from social media? This is huge for most sales teams. However, not everyone knows how to take social media and turn it into profits. Managers need to step in and tailor sales training to the new tool. Social media is a great tool for sales people.  It can help easily gather information, increase lead generation, allow for warmer introduction calls and much more. The trick to successful use of social media in selling is to remember that despite the new channels of communication, you are still selling. You still have to get the right message to the right decision maker at the right time.

There are three main social media sites that can be used to increase sales and create more leads:

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admin Sales Training business coaching, cold calling, communication skills, effective coaching, Facebook, inside sales team, lead generation, linkedin, management leadership training, prospecting, Sales Managers, social media, social networking, training reinforcement, Twitter

Writing thank-you notes has been an idea that has been so reinforced throughout my life that it has just become second nature. As a child, my mom made me write a thank-you card as soon as I opened a gift. There was no exception to this rule. In college, my business classes taught me that it is extremely important to write a card after a job interview. I was told that it would give me an extra edge when the company sat down to consider applicants. We have been taught these things growing up, but it seems that we forget this simple rule the longer we are in the business world.

If writing a thank-you note could possibly help you get a job, what’s to stop it from landing that potential customer or closing a sale? Writing a note is a simple and effective way to impact the amount of sales that your reps make each year. There are multiple different reasons to write thank-yous to clients:

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admin Sales Management business coaching, effective coaching, inside sales team, linkedin, prospecting, Results, revenue, sales, sales coaching techniques, Sales Representative, Sales Success, sales techniques, thank you

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

Download this FREE whitepaper now for a 4-Step process to creating your own social media strategy for selling, including a look at specific ways to use popular social media sites to increase leads and sale.  Use these sales techniques to increase sales now.

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Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training lead generation, prospecting, sales, Sales Staff, sales techniques, social media

Nurturing leads has become more important and more difficult than ever for creating business opportunities:

• Research firm Sirius Decisions says that during the last five years, the average sales cycle has become 22% longer, typically with three more decision makers participating in the buying process.
• According to Forrester Research, companies that excel at lead nurturing are able to generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead.
• According to CSO Insights, companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps make quota, and enjoy a 10% shorter ramp up time for new reps.

Follow up opportunities are a great way to nurture your leads, and they don’t always have to include a closing sales pitch.  Keep reading to check out some innovative follow up ideas to nurture your leads and keep you in front of your prospects with out looking desperate.

1. Send a referral:  This is a GREAT one.  Call up your prospect and tell them you have the name of a potential new prospect FOR THEM!  You establish yourself as a trusted resource, and should that prospect turn into a client for them, you can bet they will remember you when it comes time to make a purchase decision.
2. Send an article:  We pass this tip on to all of our clients, but still many won’t take the time so it’s a great way to set you apart.  Set up a Google news alert for articles, news, or how-tos written about your prospects industry.  Check the news alert once a week, and if there is information that may be relevant to your prospect forward it on.  Again, you position yourself as a resource, and are keeping your name top of mind with out becoming obnoxious.
3. Send them a relevant success story or testimonial.  Keep an up to date list of references, success stories, and testimonials on file. Then when a similar prospect pops up send them a quick email with the attached reference piece along with contact information of the source.  Encourage your prospects to contact your reference.  The easiest way to convince a lead to buy is to give them a trusted testimonial from one of their peers.
4. Communicate new products or features.  Every time your company comes out with something new, or updates something old use it as a way to get back in front of prospects.  A personal phone call is best, but if you have a large list, target the most promising prospects to call while sending an email to the rest.  This new product development may just be the the feature that resolves their hesitation to buy.
5. Give a response to questions.  Of course the best sales people try to be prepared for everything, but sometimes this is just unrealistic.  When a prospect asks a question you can’t answer use it as an opportunity to follow up with them later with a clear and specific response. You will get through again easier if you can say, "I have an answer to your question," as opposed to "I’m just following up."

Have your own creative way to follow up?  Share it with us in the comment section below!

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training Enhance Performance, lead nurturing, prospecting, sales, sales effectiveness, Sales Manager, sales skills, Sales Staff, sales techniques, self directed learning skills

http://salesprogress.pointecast.com/lms/public/29531

Tim Hagen Sales Training linkedin.com, prospecting, referrals