Guest Blogger Cindy King on International Sales from Social Media
This blog entry was submitted in support of my 24 hour blogathon for the Vancouver Food Bank (donate here to help feed hunger and poverty). Thank-you Cindy King for all of your support. What an eye opening and incredible blog entry and video. Thanks!
Here it is:
Can You Use Social Media To Get International Sales For Your Business?
As a small business owner based in France targeting North American clients, social media makes good sense for me. And it works my business. Why? Because there are no significant barriers created by cultural differences between the social media I use and the people I connect with.
If you want use social media to develop your international business, there are two things you need to remember.
Sales Techniques
You will need to develop strong international sales negotiation techniques.
This comes with practice. But you must be willing to put in the personal effort needed to develop these skills.
Adapt Your Business
Have a look at the 5 different cultural scales outlined by Geert Hofstede:
· High versus Low Power Distance
· Individualism versus Collectivism
· Masculinity versus Femininity
· High versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance
· Long versus Short Term Orientation
What are these scales? They are an attempt to categorize and explain cultural differences.
I will not go into them here, but click through the link above. It is a very interesting table. You will see scores for a long list of countries for all 5 of these scales. And you can choose your country and another one to see how the two sets of cultural differences compare.
Although these 5 scales seem complex and they have their limitations, it is easy to understand why you need to approach people from different cultures differently.
And International Social Media?
Read the news and open your ears. Social media has hit the world everywhere. Here are a few points to remember:
· There are different social medial platforms in different countries
· What is popular in one country may not be popular in another one
· People use social media differently
It is not easy to get international social media statistics. And I am not sure I would even begin trying to get a comprehensive world vision of social media.
I suggest another approach…
Instead of taking on the whole planet, simply because social media is “free’:
· Keep your business in mind.
· Choose one country and jump into their social media environment.
Do not start with social media marketing. Instead:
· Start with social media networking
Get to know how people use social media in their country and then work on finding out how to adapt marketing your business in this new country.
There are some international social media networking scenarios where it is easy to create business relationships from a distance.
If you have any international social media stories to share, I would love to hear them. Please leave a comment below and tell me how you have used social media within part of your sales process.
Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Strategist based in France. She uses her dual background in sales & marketing to help businesses improve their international sales conversion and develop country-specific international sales guides. Connect with her on Twitter @CindyKing
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Dave Kahle Guest Blog Entry – Sales Best Practices: Asking questions
Sales Best Practices: Asking questions as a means of facilitating every step in the sales process.
The single most powerful tool that a salesperson has is a well-phrased, appropriately asked question. Nothing else compares to the impact that a good question can have on the customer and the sales process.
That’s because a good question directs and influences the customer’s thinking. When you ask a question, they think of the answer. That simple statement neatly packages the latent power of a good question.
Yet, few salespeople understand that, and fewer still implement it.
A number of years ago, a study was done on this very issue. Here are the results:
“Out of 300 salespeople studied, 87 percent realize the importance of asking questions. However, only 27 percent displayed the ability to ask a well thought out, stimulating series of questions.”
In other words, thirteen percent of the salespeople in the world don’t even recognize the power of asking a good question. And only about 1 out of 4 could actually do it. That means that 3 out of every 4 salespeople, or 75 percent, don’t ask good questions.
There are two issues here: First, realizing the importance of using good questions effectively, and second, actually doing so.
This is such a big issue that my book, Question Your Way to Sales Success, is devoted entirely to this.
Everyone can ask a question. I have a three year old grandson. He can do it. This issue isn’t asking questions; the issue is asking better sales questions. While I can’t condense the book to a few hundred words here, I can point out a couple of things that the best do with this most powerful tool.
1. They prepare their major questions before the sales call. This gives them the time to select the best language and sequence.
2. They are mindful, at every stage of the sales process, of using better sales questions. They understand that there are questions, there are good questions, and there are better sales questions. So, they constantly focus on creating and using better sales questions. Whether it’s a cold call on a prospect, or following up after the sale, at every stage of the sales process, a more effective use of questions will produce dramatically better results. And they know that.
3. They collect good questions over time, and use them over and over again.
A master salesperson is a master at the use of better sales questions. That’s why it is a best practice of the best.
About the author: Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leading sales training educators. Since 1988, Dave has worked with over 400 companies, helping them to increase their sales and develop their sales people. He’s been published over 1,000 times, writes a weekly Ezine (subscribe for free at http://www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm), and has authored seven books. Dave’s website is available at http://www.davekahle.com, and you can follow his sales blog at http://www.davekahle.com/salesblog.
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Sell the Price Difference Not the Total Cost Day 17 of The 28 Days To Better Selling
We will often get objections that our product or service costs more money in comparison to a competitor.
There are two main questions you need answered before proceeding:
Question 1: “Mr. Client, when you say the price is too high, how high is it? And compared to what do you feel it is too high?
When the client answers this question, you know what amount you are dealing with. The important thing here is to separate that amount from the total amount. By the client telling you the amount, you know what they are happy to pay, so you do not sell them on that amount, they are already sold on it. Focus on the difference.
Example:
Client: “I am sorry, but the purchase price of that house is too much.”
Salesperson: “When you say too much, how much too much?”
Client: “About $20,000 too much.”
Salesperson: “So what you are saying is that $280 000 is okay with you, but it is the additional $20,000 that is holding you back?”
Client: “Yes.”
Salesperson: “Well, let’s take a look at what you get for that extra $20,000 or $250 per month in payments. For an extra $250 per month:
- You are just across the street from the elementary school, and you said you wanted to be close to the school.
- The area you were looking in is 10 miles further away from your office. You save yourself 20 miles of travel per day, and in gasoline and wear and tear on your car it translates into $5.00 per day, which is over $100 per month. That is almost half of the $250 per month.
- The house has a view and you really feel a view gives you a sense of freedom.
- You have a two car garage that is very secure.
- Your wife is in love with it.
- You reduce your worry about your children walking to school.
- You save time not having to drive or walk the kids to school.
- You are closer to the office and save time again.
- You end up with a view you want.
Salesperson: “For a $150 a month on your mortgage I feel this one is the best option we have looked at today.” (You would not use the entire list but probable focus in on the top ones you would feel the client would relate too)
Note: The salesperson does not say “for an extra $20,000 or for $300,000” which is the total price. The focus is on the difference and the lowest amount and then broken down to a monthly cost
Your Assignment today is:
#1) Look at which services or products you have where you have price objections
#2) Assess how much more they may be perceived to cost in comparison to similar products or services.
#3) Brainstorm all of the additional value financially and otherwise someone would get from paying the extra amount.
#4) Memorize your value added list.
Keeping Commitments Day 14 of The 28 Days to Better Selling
Today’s exercise is simple and brief but it can have a big impact on our success as salespeople and entrepreneurs. Watch the video clip from a seminar I did a couple years back and then answer the following questions:
1) Have you lost business in the past due to you or your company missing client commitments?
2) What are the most common areas in your sales and service process where commitments could be broken?
3) What could you do to improve your ability to keep commitments and exceed your client and prospect expectations?
28 Days to Better Selling with Shane Gibson
Launches May 18th 2009
If you want to improve your sales and have been too busy to put a plan into place you’re not alone.
I have had many people in the sales community including sales professionals, senior executives and high tech entrepreneurs and bloggers who are all looking for ways to convert connections into long-term clients and relationships.
Their challenge is that most resources available are either one time training opportunities, or extensive and over whelming programs that are tough to implement. This program takes care of all of this.
The 28 Days to Better Selling program is completely free and is 100% content and 0% advertising or promotions. All content focused on helping you.
This concept was inspired by a 31 Days to Build a Better Blog program that Problogger.com put on for 12,000 other bloggers. As a participant it was very helpful for me. The concept is simple:
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.
To Register for the program please enter your e-mail address below:
Top Sales Blogs and Top Sales Podcasts This Week
This week has been an awesome week. I did two blog entries while I was away in Chile which was half of my usual volume compared to the previous few weeks. The most memorable one was the interview I did with Jay Levinson father of the Guerrilla Marketing movement. With that said the world of sales blogging and sales podcasts has churned forward regardless. Many of my peers and friends have posted some great new tips and content that I would like to share with you.
Shamus Brown did a blog post called “Your Prospects are Human Lie Detectors.” It’s amazing that in this era of extreme transparency that sales professionals and business people still are missing this core lesson.
Simone Blum urged us to be Un Reasonable when it comes to business decisions and launching a new idea or product.
Alan Majer provided a great list of 21 things we can do to succeed in a carreer in selling.
The guys at Sales Roundup put together a good sales podcast on finding and prepping for a sales job.
The guys at the Advanced Selling Podcast did a great podcast on The Rules Tools and Attitudes needed to put more prospects into the sales funnel.
Brad Trnavsky at the Sales Bloggers Union did a good sales blog entry on The Primary Role of a Sales Manager.
Skip Anderson in his Selling to Consumers Podcast talked about the Essence of Selling. It’s all about helping the client make a decision according to Skip.
Lastly I found this sales cartoon from Count5.com and it reminded me of at least half of the sales people that call my office daily. Anyone else suffering from the same?
Social Media Tips
These are a selection of social media tips that I have posted on Twitter over the past couple weeks. I thought I would put them all in one place for easy reference. Please add your tips and thoughts in the comments section.
20 Social Media Tips:
- Focus on a specific theme in your social media for extended periods of time
- Your blog is your home base, all social media should feed your home base
- Social media is 90 % contribution and connection 10 % marketing and sales
- Social media belongs to the people, they get to make the rules not the marketer
- Have a social media policy for your company. Help your people be effective and on message
- Promote other people’s dreams. It builds community, loyalty and brand for you
- “Marketing is a process not an event”- @jaylevinson
- Blog, tweet and talk about solutions to people’s pains and challenges
- Social media tools like twitter are listening tools more than they are broadcasting tools.
- Nano-cast to many small niches instead of broadcasting to everyone.
- Learn to break up large blog entries into many smaller entries. It’s more user friendly
- Take time each month to update your major social media profiles, use key words that your prospects would search for
- Use social search like http://search.twitter.com and http://blogsearch.google.com to listen to your customers
- Each social network has it’s own etiquette FaceBook type behavior doesn’t work on LinkedIn
- Answer people’s comments on your blog, or @ replies in Twitter. Social media leadership is about bi-directional communication.
- Think twice, click once.
- Take it off-line, book in person meetings or hold events for your online social media contacts
- Use an assortment of tools, it geometrically multiplies efforts
- Always be asking where are we going? What is the next Twitter or FaceBook going to be?
- Use a mixture of content on your blogs, top 10 lists, photos, video, audio, guest bloggers, and polls…
Register for updates on Sociable! Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger’s new book to be released in June 2009.
Social Media Seminars with Shane Gibson.
Related Posts:
- Twitter tips for Sales People
- Social Media Phobia Why Executives Aren’t On board
- Succeed in Tough Times with Social Media
Darcy Rezac’s Networking Tip of the Week
I’m subscribed to Darcy Rezac’s (Twitter) Networking Tips. He’s author of “Work the Pond” the definitive guide to networking in business and in life. Here’s this week’s tip:
Trucker Network. We are firm believers in the power of business cards, and the following story reaffirms why everyone in your company needs cards. Last week Darcy heard this story about a guy who owns a trucking company who decided to give all his truckers business cards. Soon, his company’s business cards were posted on truck stop cafes and gas stations across the continent. The result? A 20% increase in business! And there was another interesting thing that happened–the drivers started dressing better, looking sharper. Why would that be? These guy and gals had never been given business cards before, and if we think back to the time when we received that very first box of business cards, there was a certain feeling of pride, status and belonging. There were two wins for this owner because of his simple investment in business cards.
– Darcy, Gayle and JudyTo read a story from Work the Pond! about giving cards to everyone in your company go to: www.tiny.cc/shepa
Finding Your Voice in Social Media Sales and Leadership
This week I made a statement on Twitter saying “Find your voice and then your tribe will find you.” I got several responses and one of them as a good question. The question was:
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Top Sales Blog and Podcast Entries of the Week
This week was a bit of a chore for me as far as devoting time to read other blogs and listen to podcasts. Stephen Jagger and I have been busy with our latest project and a lot of my time has been spent on marketing and technology orientated sites. With that said there were several blogs that did leave an impression on me. Here’s a quick list of what I found to be notable entries on the sales blogosphere this week.
#1) This is actually a live feed of multiple sales bloggers from around the globle. The World’s Top Sales Bloggers List is a great place to discover new sales bloggers and podcast producers.
#2) Dave Kurlan put together a great sales management checklist of must have attibutes for sales leaders and managers.
#3) Kevin Eikenberry posted a good list of 5 ways to do some spring cleaning to your life. Good tips for those needing to refocus.
#4) Paul Espinosa talked about how critical it is for organizations to get good ar hiring good sales managers in his post on “Sales Managers – The Real Role.”
#5) The guys at the Sales Roundup Sales Podcast put together a great show on “How to price what you sell.”
#6) George Petri from Symvolli posted a sales podcast on “B2B Relationships Don’t Have To Be Lost – Continuous Contact Doesn’t Mean Customer Stalking.” Great stuff on creative follow-up.
#7) Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale put together a podcast on getting to and dealing with decision makers.
#8) Rick Cooper: The Fortune Is In the Follow Up was another podcast that I enjoyed.
Sales Podcast – 5 Easy Ways to Boost Sales and Motivation Now
Today’s podcast is about applying 5 easy steps to increase the momentum in your business or sales process. If you have been going through the motions or not feeling motivated today’s podcast will hopefully give you a boost.
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