Recommendations - Social Media's Game Changer

Recommendations are increasingly important with written social media. LinkedIn is my primary driver, but those recommendations are so good they deserve a wider audience beyond my LinkedIn connections.

I think my recommendations are better than any brochure or resume I could write. Customers describe us differently, and their perspective may be more valuable to prospects.

When you ask a customer for a recommendation, you encourage them to evaluate your relationship. Most of the time we are so busy doing it, doing it, doing it, we don’t have time to focus on what the work means. Defining importance is good for the health of the relationship.

Story matters. Describing what happened has more power than a pile of superlative adjectives. Running an outplacement firm, I found that when asked to supply a reference, explaining the story in addition to giving the contact information led to the interviewer not calling the reference a surprising amount of the time. The interviewer had what he needed to know. 

Short is good. Blogging is teaching me that a lot of the detail I treasure just isn’t that interesting. If someone wants to know more they ask.

There’s drama and truth in “just the facts, ma’am” 

Do you have a process for generating meaningful recommendations? 

Please join us for:
Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday, November 10th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville, and
How to Scale Your Organization - Build, Borrow, or Buy? Thursday, December 9th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville
http://www.saleslabdc.com/leadership

Handouts

I go to meetings because that’s often where people go to learn something new.

When I connect, I want to make an impression. Neither one of us has time for an extended discussion as the value is in meeting the people in the room, and following the discussion.

Rather than trying to make sales, I measure the number of handouts I give out.

What is a good handout? Inexpensive, interesting, providing a clear benefit with a deadline.

Do your handouts do that?

I recently met a Roy Rogers Restaurants franchisee. He had a normal looking business card. On the back was a walk-in coupon for a free chicken sandwich. He had a unique offer and established his authority on the back of his business card.

I have a card that fits into my pocket that offers valuable advice on one side, and our next public presentations on the other. The handout updates every month, so people I know well and see often keep getting new information.

I once got a phone call asking me if I still presented Talk Your Business – How to make more and better sales right away! I said I did and asked him how he had learned about it. He had just been hired and was cleaning out his predecessor’s desk, when he found my handout. That started a multi-year client.

More recently, Phase://Technology, an open source software development company gave me a wine bottle "opener." They made themselves understood and desired before they started talking.

Comments - What’s the best handout you’ve seen?

Please join us for:
Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday, November 10th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville, and
How to Scale Your Organization - Build, Borrow, or Buy? Thursday, December 9th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville
http://www.saleslabdc.com/leadership

Talking Cold Call Blues

Thanks to Ram Iyer for asking about cold calling.

Cold calling is a technique for getting focus from new prospects. Sales professionals use the phone because it covered a wider geographic footprint than canvassing door-to-door, and the weather is usually better indoors.

The golden age of cold calling was before voicemail. Return has been decreasing over the last 30 years. However, if you can't imagine anything else, it is cheap and allows rookie salesmen to learn about their product beating on people they will never sell.

I am downright frosty when doing something else and interrupted by a cold caller. It's not a buying moment.

When we cold call, we are trying to interest someone in our offering. When do people want to learn?

Most people schedule specific times and activities to learn. How can you be there then?

How do people want to learn? Trying to listen over a staticky phone connection in the middle of another meeting is not optimal. With all the rich media available today, what is a better way to make your case?

Many salesmen think talking about their process is the key to making a sale. It is not.

Explaining how others have benefited from buying your offering usually works better. Doesn't have anything to do with what you did.

Even better is having your happy customers explaining their benefit to their peers. How do you do that?

What can you add? 

Please join us at:
Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday, November 10th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville, and
How to Scale Your Organization - Build, Borrow, or Buy? Thursday, December 9th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville
http://www.saleslabdc.com/leadership 

When Will We Get Back To Normal?

Our economy has been going through cycles – up & down – since the depression in the 1920's. Cycles start and cycles end – we are trained to expect things to 'return to normal' at some point. 'NORMAL' was back to growth and abundance – with some adjustment, it was business as usual.

We will not return to rapid growth and abundance this time within the span of a cycle or two. We ARE back to normal, but it is a new normal. What you see in the economy today is the new normal. It is more modest with less return and growth than we have enjoyed in the past. So, it is time to quit holding our breath - waiting, and get back to business at this level and pace.

We may have been distracted by the economic implosion and missed the structural change that has taken place. Seth Godin calls it “the forever recession” which is the end of the industrial age and local markets. Now it's best mix of price-quality-value for goods & services and the extensive access to information and communications for finding them.

The reality of all of this shows up in a recent conversation with a guy launching a start-up – his planning uses what is today for scale and scope and being flexible for opportunities as developed.

Good point of view for all of us, don't you think?

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How To Get More Value From Your Existing Resources, October 19th, Intelligent Office, Rockville  http://morevaluefromresources.eventbrite.com

Championship Leadership in Resource Constrained Markets, October 20^th, Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce http://champleadershipmvl.eventbrite.com

The Point Of The Presentation

Lunch with one of my strongest salesmen. He is introducing some new products and fretting that he needs deeper product knowledge.

I let him finish and then asked, “What is the point of your presentation?”

He thought, and said, “To get the prospect to define his problem in your presence.” Usually the best service we can give is to let the prospect focus to define her problem. A side benefit for us is that everyone who came before is no longer qualified to solve that new definition.

He then said, “As a matter of fact, I made a list of ten questions I was going to ask…I only asked four.”

We discussed that and designed the single question that he thinks will get the whole story out, which most often leads to buying his offering. In artillery, you bracket the target, throwing one short and one long. Except the really good guys. They like to put it down the chimney first time.

He has a trade show next week where he can ask his question to between 60 and 100 good prospects in three days. He said, “Do you think I should spend more time cold calling?”

Really good guys never let up.

What does this remind you of?

Please come to

How To Get More Value From Your Existing Resources 

 Tuesday, October 19th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville, or 

Championship Leadership in Resource Constrained Markets  

Wednesday, October 20^th, Noon, Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce, www.SalesLabDC.com/leadership