28 Ways to Improve Your Sales Results
I had a number of people (close to 300) complete the 28 Days to Better Selling Program I put on in May and June. Many of you were asking when I was going to do it again? My next one will be in the fall but it will be marketing focused. With that said, you can do the 28 Days to Better Selling Program at your own pace by following the links below.
Here’s how 28 Days to Better Selling Works:
1) A daily task that you can easily implement to improve your sales and business
2) A succinct daily lesson to help you make the improvement
By the end of the 28 days you will have looked at 28 ways to fine tune and improve your sales process and business. The daily lessons will be in written, video or audio format and will take less than 10 minutes each to review.
Day 2 Targeting the Right Referral Sources
Day 3 Prospecting in Person
Day 4 Networking Strategy
Day 5 LinkedIn Prospecting
Day 6 Investigative Prospecting
Day 7 Lead Nurturing
Day 8 Don’t Be A Boring Salesperson
Day 9 Listening in Sales
Day 10 Needs Analysis in Sales Part 1
Day 11 Needs Analysis In Sales Part 2
Day 12 Twitter for Sales Part 1
Day 13 Twitter for Sales Part 2
Day 14 Keeping Commitments
Day 15 Selling Benefits and Results
Day 16 Preemptive Objection Handling
Day 17 Sell the Price Different Not The Total Cost
Day 18 Vital Signs
Day 19 Preparing For a Sales Call
Day 20 Team Selling
Day 21 Just Thinking About You
Day 22 Team Players Make Efficient Sellers
Day 23 Day of Rest, Chill Out and Reflect 
Day 24 Influencing Top Level Decision Makers
Day 25 Key Skills and Strengths for Selling Intangibles
Day 26 Reducing Anxiety and Worry
Day 27 15 Ways to Close A Sale
Day 28 Operationalizing Your Sales Process
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Social Media Strategy and Resources List
I’m doing a webinar for the Association of Professional Design Firms this morning and while I was compiling a resource list for them I thought I might as well blog it instead. I’ve put up a lot of video, podcasts and blog entries up in the past month on Social Media Strategy and tools so I thought I would build a topic map. Most of this content is inspired by the book “Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down.”
Resources by Topic:
Why Blogging is An Important Part of Social Media Strategy [Video]
Integrating Social Media Into Your Sales and Marketing Process [Podcast/Blog]
Making Social Media Part of What You Do [Video]
Developing a Social Media Calendar and Implementation Plan [Podcast/Blog]
Sample Social Media Policy [Blog]
What is Social Media Etiquette [Video]
5 Ways to Build a Twitter Following Organically [Blog]
Twitter for Sales and Marketing [Video] Part 1 and Part 2
Social Media ROI [Podcast]
The Future of Sales and Marketing Social CRM [Podcast]
Slides from Today’s Presentation:
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A Big Thank-You to Everyone Blogathon 2009 is a Wrap
Well I’m done. I haven’t tallied all of the pledges yet but it appears that with the help of my blog readers and twitter friends that over $1200 was raised for the Vancouver Food Bank. That for me was worth the 24 hours of no sleep.
Here’s a partial list of the great people who made donations to the Food Bank:
- Trevor Wallace
- Doug Morneau of Rhino Marketing Inc.
- Captain Charles Trevor Greene
- Aileen Javier and Kristian Gibson
- Lynn Kitchen
- Barbara Doduk
- Fred Shadian (Who also did 3 guest blog posts)
- Chris Breikss
- Renbor Sales Solutions
- ThinkTom.com Realty
- Kye Grace
- Ronald Lee
- Yam De La Pena
Also here’s the updated list of everyone in Vancouver that blogged for the past 24 hours for the charity of their choice.
Blogger and Supported Charity:
- Raul Pacheco The BC Cancer Foundation
- Rebecca Bollwitt – Miss604 the Union Gospel Mission
- Duane Storey The Union Gospel Mission
- Tiny Bites (team effort) The Vancouver Food Bank
- 604 Foodtography The Vancouver Food Bank
- Shane Gibson (That’s me and I’m Blogging for The Vancouver Food Bank as well!)
- Barbara Doduk The Richmond Animal Protection Society
- Mehnaz Thawer the Tumaini Children’s Project
- Fraser Valley Pulse the Langley Animal Protection Society
- WorldwideWaterCooler The BC SPCA
- Developmental Disability Association for their own cause (I believe)
- Justin Yang BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
- Liberation BC for Liberation BC
- Bluefur Team Diabetes
- Shane’s World Theatre Terrific
- Think Referrals Burn’s Bog Conservation Society
- Brady V BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
- Langley Politics The United Way
- Beth Snow Options For Sexual Health
- Karen Fung Vancouver Public Space Network
- April Smith Community Education Resource Society
- Ganga Narayanan Canadian Hard of Hearing Association
- Matthew Naylor Canadian Mental Health Association
- Aidan BC Children’s Hospital
- Iris Dias MS Society of Canada
- Mitch Baldwin – The Salvation Army, Camp Sunrise
- Catherine Winters – Canadian Cancer Society
- Neil Parker – Weekend to End Breast Cancer
- Jael – Big Sisters
I’m leaving the donations page open until the 28th so if you would still like to contribute:
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
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Social Media Implementation Article in the BC AMA Magazine
Following is an excerpt of an article I wrote for the BC Chapter of the AMA (You can download the entire magazine and read the full article here)
Great conversations in the offline world are about listening, providing insight, empathy, and at times the right measure of humor. The same goes for online tools. In using a tool like Twitter here are some tips on being engaging:
• Fill out your profile completely with a current photo, link to your personal blog or site, and use the entire 140 characters provided for your bio. Hiding who you are or not providing your company information can create a barrier to trust or engagement.
• Update regularly, for most active Twitter users that’s 8 to 15 times per day. Key principle: don’t update unless it adds value, solves a problem, inspires or entertains your target market.
• Share useful links to sites other than yours. Also pass on and share (know as retweeting on Twitter) useful information from other Twitter users. This will strengthen your relationship with them and increase the chances of them sharing your messages.
• Use social search to monitor what people are saying about your company or your industry. http://search.twitter.com can give you by-the-minute opportunities to engage people who are talking about your brand. You can instantly solve a problem or correct a situation as it happens.
• Vary your message and the frequency so that you appear human and not robotic. Your updates should be a combination of personal messages, corporate updates, answering questions, commenting on other people’s great tweets, and links to valuable information.
• If you sound like everyone else you’re not a brand or a leader. Create engaging content and unique conversations. This is vital to building a brand and solidifying client relationships.
Great use of Twitter and other social mediums and networks is 90% listening and contribution and 10% marketing and messaging. While that seems like a bad marketing ratio we can go back to what John C. Maxwell said about leadership “It’s 90% connection and 10% content.”
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
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Video – Social Media Etiquette
Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson
Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson on Social Media Etiquette
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Video – Are You Chasing the Puck in Social Media?
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter
Video – Make Social Media Part of What You Do
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter
Video – Why Blogging is Critical to Your Social Media Strategy
Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson Video on Why Blogging is Critical:
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter
The Power of Grattitude
The Manager’s Thought for the Day
It is not uncommon for salespeople and/or sales managers to get caught in the throes of everyday problems and miss seeing the trees because of the forest.
In most cases there is much more support and help around us than we can see. If most of us could really appreciate what we do have, and be grateful, most of the time we would never have a motivation problem.
There is power in gratitude. For example; Have you ever been forced into giving a kiss and a hug to a relative or a friend of a friend you couldn’t stand? It’s not an inspiring experience. As a matter of fact, it can be downright de-motivating. But if you have ever been asked to hug and kiss someone you secretly admired, I bet you found it to be a very pleasant experience. What’s the difference between the two?
Having to embrace someone you can’t stand, can be de-motivating; embracing someone you admire is motivating.
The same rule applies to situations. Most of us spend time living for tomorrow; living for when we will get that raise, that job, that relationship, or that home. In other words, that’s when we will be happy. We don’t like where we are now, so let us dream about tomorrow. What this means is we are not living in the now. It also means we often set our objectives or goals from a time, place, or state of mind that we do not like, which means we don’t embrace it. Therefore it is de-motivating.
What if you could appreciate the moment and embrace it? It would be inspiring, just like embracing that person you admired.
Gratitude is a powerful motivation. To embrace or appreciate the moment you are in, gives you a deep settled strength, and alleviates anxiety. With this strength you are able to tap into your intuition and be directed into paths that are more meaningful and in tune with who you are. This makes it much easier for you to become enthusiastic and move forward and feel good about the present as well as where you want to go. Having gratitude for where you are now can get you started.
Think about the situation you are in right now that frustrates or even immobilizes you. Now come up with a list of some really positive things that you have going for you right at this moment. Think of things you may be grateful for. A few examples could be good health, living in the country you are in, experience in your field, great relationship with your wife, husband or significant other, certain belongings, past experiences, just to name a few.
Once you finish the list, go back through and mentally say “thank you” to all the circumstances and people you could thank for each one of these. For example; in reference to your health, mentally thank someone who showed you how to eat properly, or who got you involved in some form of physical exercise. Maybe a previous employer believed in balanced living and not just work, work, work. Be sure to thank that person mentally. Thank your government for the facilities that are available and your creator for being so kind to you. As Plato once said; “Happiness is not being in a good state, but rather knowing you are in a good state.”
Once you have completed this exercise, you will have experienced the power of appreciation. You will feel much better about the moment. To see the positive in your present circumstances and to feel gratitude about the moment will get you started and keep you going.
Unfortunately, our egos work very hard at stopping us from experiencing gratitude. Very few of us can openly display gratitude on a daily basis to all those people and situations around us. It is much easier to fill our minds and bodies with self-importance, dissatisfaction, criticism, and victim-style thinking, than it is to put these feeling aside and say thank you. Monitor yourself and see how often you resist or justify not having gratitude. Being aware of your anti-gratitude stance alone, can start you on the road to being more grateful and more productive.
As the manager you may want to share this process with your people. Gratitude is one of the greatest internal motivators of all.
(An excerpt from our “Complete Sales Action System”)
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
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Picking the Wrong Profession by @FredShadian
You see this in the business world all of the time whether someone is selling cars, insurance, real estate, or electronic equipment. They try really hard to become successful. They read all the motivational books and they go to all the personal development seminars yet, no matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to become successful in their chosen field.
Simply put, it’s just not their calling. You have to be 100 percent congruent with what it is you are promoting, selling and marketing. Whether you are an athlete promoting your talent or a marketer promoting your product you need to be excited enough to get up early and stay up late. Your chosen profession must be in harmony with your calling in life. Your success will be your destiny.
@FredShadian
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Some of My Favorite Vancouver Twitter and Blogging Friends
Being online and making connections is fun. We all love to see out Twitter, blog, and video following increase. For me though, it’s events like this Tweetup that was organized by Capones that make it all real for me. Meeting people you are connected to online seems to slow things down temporarily and really help build trust and intimacy.
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Click here to Tweet this Sales Blog Post to Twitter
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