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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Video – Why Blogging is Critical to Your Social Media Strategy
Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson Video on Why Blogging is Critical:
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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
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Sales Skills are Part of a Good Social Media Strategy
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The last podcast I did was about “Getting Real in Social Media” and this is an extension of that. I’m a big proponent of the use of social media marketing and social networking in business. With that said, often social media helps us start a relationship, it can also help us nurture a relationship, but there are core sales skills needed to turn those relationships into revenues. There are dozens of core sales competencies but for this podcast I want to focus on three that social media marketers need to master:
#1) They need to master the art of Rapport Building
#2) They need to get good at Needs Analysis Selling
#3) They need to understand how to sell what people buy, and it’s not features, price or technology
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 and Twitter Videos
I have made a few videos about Tweetups, Twitter, and social media over the past few months. Here’s some of my favorite ones. Enjoy
Twitter For Sales Part 1
Twitter For Sales Part 2
What the Heck is a Tweetup?
Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down
How Hard is it to Video Blog?
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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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
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Twitter Power Book by Joel Comm and Ken Burge Book Review
I recently got sent a copy of Twitter Power to review by the Publisher John Wiley & Sons. The book was written by best selling author Joel Comm (@joelcomm) with Ken Burge. Overall I thought it was a great book on Twitter especially for those who are new to social media. Here’s my video review:
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Twitter and Tweeting From the Bathroom Business Case Video
This is a short clip from a seminar I did recently on Integrating Social Media into Your Sales Process. This clip is about the merits of tweeting from the bathroom.
Here’s the Poll:
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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?
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Twitter for Sales People Part 1 – Day 12 of the 28 Days to Better Selling
Today is day 12 of the 28 Days to Better Selling. Following the theme of prospecting and client development tools the next two days are about Twitter for Sales People (and any other business person for that matter.) how you start using is Twitter is key.
You’re joining a community and introducing yourself effectively can help you build brand and make great connections. If you’re already on Twitter this may be a bit redundant for you. For those of you who are not using the tool, or are not getting the results you want, invest the next 9 minutes and watch the video.
28 Days to Better Selling Archive can be found here
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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:
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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?
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