Marketing and Sales Has Changed Have You?
Today’s Reality:
Today’s consumer has a lot of choice. They also have access to many points in the distribution chain that they never had before. This poses many opportunities for entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and anyone else involved in the value chain.
Marketing and sales has changed.
This is a positive thing for progressive marketers and sales people, but it also offers up many challenges for those who are selling like it was 1999. Have a listen to today’s sales podcast to find out the three key skills and tools necessary to engage today’s consumer and client:
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Special event:
28 Days to Better Selling Launches May 18th 2009:
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 improvementBy 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. There is no charge for this event and program.
To Register for the program please enter your e-mail address below:
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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Selling Web Solutions and Technology
Why Do People Buy Technology?
People and companies do not generally seek out technology; they seek out solutions to their pains or positive emotional states. Technology for the sake of technology is not a great marketing strategy. When our clients purchase from us, they are really buying outcomes, feelings, results, and solutions.
Too often those involved in the high-tech sector bury their prospects in endless streams of jargon, highly technical diagrams, and gratuitous numbers of acronyms. These terms and over-complicated descriptions often confuse the client, clouding the core benefits and failing to answer the basic questions: “What’s in it for me?” and “What’s unique about this solution?”
Some of the most effective sales professionals who sell these types of solutions are good at taking complex solutions and communicating their benefits in very powerful but non-technical terms.
The following example is a technically filled pitch for web development and marketing that contains a lot of unnecessary jargon:
Example #1: Technical Jargon
I would suggest that when we build your site that we use an open source CMS that has a WYSIWYJG editor built in. Drupal would suffice, in fact it is also very SEO friendly and can be formatted to have an RSS feed for each page. This will be important when we’re trying build you back links, as back links are an important part of the Google page rank algorithm.
This description really misses any opportunity to talk about value. It simply rattles off multiple technical terms. In this example, the salesperson most likely thinks they sound like an authority when what they are really doing is potentially excluding the prospect in the process.
The following example is a benefit-oriented pitch for web development and marketing:
Example #2: Benefit-Oriented
You said that you would be frequently updating your website and that you wanted to save as much money on doing the updates as possible by reducing the need for a web developer in the future. My suggestion is that we us a CMS called Drupal with a WYSIWYG editor. The site will be constructed in a way that search engines like Google will give it a higher ranking on search results than some of your competitor’s sites. This will of course result in more traffic and business for you.
Drupal is free software that requires no on-going fees to be paid. A CMS is a Content Management System which basically allows you to make changes to the look and feel of your website, and even where information appears on your site without having to do a lot of expensive redesign. A WYSIWG editor stands for “What You See Is What You Get” and what it allows you to do, without any additional software or understanding of programming, is to log into your site and access a page that looks much like a Microsoft Word document. From there you can create new pages and edit existing ones without the assistance of a technical guru.
This example takes and expands the technical terms, educating the client in an inclusive manner, and focusing on the core outcomes, results, and benefits of using the technology. The bottom-line is when we talk over people’s heads, use jargon and lack empathy we don’t get the deal. Keep it simple, include the client in the process, and position yourself as a resource and a coach.
Using Social Media and Social Networking to Succeed in Tough Times
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I have had several requests to expand on how social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and social media tools like Youtube and Viddler can help sales people and entreprepreneurs in turbulent and tough economic times. This is a follow up podcast to the one I did a couple of weeks ago on “Selling and Succeeding in Turbulent Economic Times.” I intend on updating with a written blog entry and would appreciate if you could share any of your personal success stories about how these tools are working for you. (back links and attribution of course!)
Here’s today’s podcast on “Using Social Networking and Social Media to Succeed in Tough Times.”
Selling in Tough Economic Times Sales Podcast
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Today’s sales podcast is about Selling and Succeeding in Tough Economic Times. It is the first in a series of podcasts designed to help sales professionals and entrepreneurs weather today’s global financial storm. In my opinion we are truly in turbulent economic times, not necessarily tough times. The rules of the game have changed permanently with the advent of a multitude of shifts including the introduction of disruptive technologies to almost every industry along with true globalization and the meltdown in the banking sector. I personally would like to have you post your success stories, challenges, and thoughts here so that I can respond to them in my next podcast on “Tools for Selling in Tough Economic Times”. The diagram below is for your reference and is talked about in the podcast.
Here’s today’s show:
Click Below to Add to itunes
Complex Sales Training Podcast Part 1
Today’s podcast is Part 1 of a 3 part podcast on Complex Sales and Managing Complex Business Relationships.
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This complex sales podcast introduces you to the process by first defining what complex sales is and then moves into
part 1. In Part 1 of the Complex Sales series we are introduced to the 6 major Power Players in a Complex Sale or complex business relationship: The Navigator, The Ruler, The User, The Protector, The Contributor and The Opposer.
Definition of Complex Sales (From Wikipedia):
Complex sales, also known as Enterprise sales, can refer to a method of trading sometimes used by organizations when procuring large contracts for goods and/or services where the customer takes control of the selling process by issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) and requiring a proposal response from previously identified or interested suppliers. Complex sales involve long sales cycles with multiple decision makers. Multiple stakeholders and stakeholder groups contribute to every complex sale.
Any product or service may become a complex sale. In some instances a complex sale occurs when the market is mature and the stakes high enough to warrant attention from a variety of stakeholders in the buying organization. In other instances a complex sales process is needed when the buyer has never had experience with the vendor, technology being sold, or if the solution is business critical or impacts the buying organization on a strategic level. The series of filters, purchasing steps, and stakeholders involved are designed to reduce the risks associated with making the wrong buying decision…
…often the sales person is required to have a set of skills that are more in line with a subject matter expert or consultant than a traditional sales person. This type of sales person can often be referred to as a Key Account Executive or Complex Sales Executive. (Full Definition here.)
The next few podcasts will hopefully help you develop an understanding of what core skills and strategies will be required to navigate and close complex sales.
Sales Podcast Entry – Time and Priority Managment – The ABC’s of Targeting
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Today’s sales podcast is on the ABC’s of targeting and time and priority management. One of the biggest challenges we have as big deal closers when chasing opportunities and selling to big companies is that we can get distracted by the little things. In this sales podcast we will go through a brief exercise that will help us regain our immediate focus and close bigger!
Get focused, think bigger, and close bigger!
Shane Gibson
This sales podcast is presented by Shane Gibson.
Shane Gibson is the author of Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and President of Knowledge Brokers International Systems Ltd. a leading sales performance and leadership development organization. Shane divides his time between his entrepreneurial projects, speaking at major conferences and mentoring salespeople and entrepreneurs.
Quick Links:
Sales Training Canada
Sales
Training South Africa
Sales Training Boot Camps Vancouver
Complete Sales Action System
Managing Complex Business
Relationships System
Subscribe in iTunes to this Sales Podcast
Sales Blog Entry on Free Leadership Self Assessments
I have put together a series of self assessments on coaching and leadership which are provided free (not-for-profit use and distribution only.) Here are the assessments:
Five levels of leadership self assessment
Coaching skills assessment
Enabling versus equiping self assessment
I would appreciate any feedback and comments on the usefulness of these tools and how we may improve upon them.
Shane Gibson
Shane Gibson is the author of Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and President of Knowledge Brokers International Systems Ltd. a leading sales performance and leadership development organization. Shane divides his time between his entrepreneurial projects, speaking at major conferences and mentoring salespeople and entrepreneurs.
Quick Links:
Sales Training Canada
Sales
Training South Africa
Sales Training Boot Camps Vancouver
Complete Sales Action System
Managing Complex Business
Relationships System
Subscribe in iTunes to this Sales Podcast
Sales Podcast – Sales Presentation Skills Part 3
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This week’s sales podcast on sales presentation skills is focused on how to effectively avoid and recover from common bombs and mistakes in sales presentations. Selling in the boardroom is a skill that can greatly accelerate our ability to close big deals in our sales career.
This sales podcast is presented by Shane Gibson.
Shane Gibson is the author of Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and President of Knowledge Brokers International Systems Ltd. a leading sales performance and leadership development organization. Shane divides his time between his entrepreneurial projects, speaking at major conferences and mentoring salespeople and entrepreneurs.
Special Blog Entry – A Message to the Media and Concerned Canadians
From Shane Gibson co-author and friend of Trevor Greene
Thank-you for all of your prayers and concern for Trevor at this time. I have passed on your well wishes to his family and those closest to him. At this time I will not be commenting on interviews in regards to Trevor’s situation until he and his family give me the okay.
His family is busy praying and hoping for the best and I will forward any requests to make statements or comments directly to them. Just drop an e-mail to shane@closingbigger.com. At this time I have been asked not to disclose their contact details.
Trevor is very professional in everything he does. This includes keeping in the strictest confidence the nature of his military responsibilities and past experiences while serving our country. Your best source of information is from the Department of National Defense.
Here’s what I can be quoted on:
“Trevor is a talented author, an amazing Dad and partner, the kind of person you can count on always. He is deeply committed to protecting and preserving the freedoms we enjoy as Canadians.”
Kindest Regards,
Shane Gibson
Co-author and friend
Vancouver, BC
Tips on Building Strong Transformational Mentorship Relationships
As one can imagine depending on the
personality styles and values of the individuals involved the mentoring
relationship can take many forms and follow many processes. As long as the
people within the relationship find it rewarding and effective we really can’t
say that any one process or format is more effective but it is important that
both people fully understand and are agreeable and committed to it.
Expectations
It is important in the beginning for the
mentor and mentee to explicitly confirm what one another’s expectations of the
relationship will be. How do they personally define mentorship? What goals or
outcomes would they like to achieve? How involved will they be in each others
life professionally or otherwise?
Structure and Process
Do you meet in person? On the phone? Mentor
while golfing or skiing? How often do you meet? For how long are the meetings?
All of these questions should be agreed upon early on.
Some of the foundations of the mentoring
process are important are:
r
To identify each person’s values, style and
preferred method of communication
r
Set SMART regularly to focus the
relationship
r
Remember that mentoring is transformational
and that most of the goals should be focused on building the mentee’s talents
into strengths
r
Have a way of recording and checking on
commitments made
r
Set a regular time or frequency of time to
check in; you may not need to meet every three weeks but at least check-in with
each other to keep the relationship strong and current
Commitments & Rules
It is vital to confirm and agree upon what
commitments we require from one another. Some mentors have no problem working
through in-action or continually broken promises by the mentee while others will
end the relationship if the advice they give isn’t heeded. Neither of these
mentors is wrong, it’s a values thing. The key to ensure that both parties are
aware of each other’s personal rules and that commitments are firmly put into
place and recorded.
Shane Gibson is President
of Knowledge Brokers International
Systems Ltd. and author of
Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and High Impact
Mentorship – The Transformational Mentor’s Field Guide. e-mail
shane@kbitraining.com or call
604-331-4471
