Join Me for the 30 Day Podcasting Challenge – @ShaneGibson
I have been podcasting since 2004. It has brought me great clients such as Ford, ACL, and a dozen other major corporations. It has also allowed me to meet and interview people like Guy Kawasaki and Bruce Philp (two marketing minds that I suggest you get to know well).
I then looked at my roster of podcasts and realized that I have much more to share. The podcasting seems to happen after the client work, proposals, research, books etc. BUT it has been a major driving force in my business and I have been less than generous with my listeners. I should be giving you way more in the form of interviews, strategy and just sharing the things I’m learning everyday.
I decided to publicy make myself accountable and also ask for your help. Starting today I will be doing 30 podcasts over 30 days. I would also like to challenge you to contribute in a few ways:
- If you’re a podcaster – take the challenge with me. Start sharing more of your knowledge more often today.
- If you are an author, subject matter expert or are having success using social media for business, community building or charity — reach out to me and lets get you on the show TODAY.
- If you’re a listener, Twitter connection, LinkedIn associate or Facebook friend take a moment to listen to the podcasts, submit your questions, share what you like and let me know what you think. Heckle me if you feel like it!
That’s it. Thanks for coming along this journey with me. I hope you enjoy the show. (I am posting two podcasts today just to get a head start — come back in an hour!)
Shane Gibson
Chief Social Officer
Socialized! Ltd.
http://socialized.me
Blog: http://www.closingbigger.net
Got iTunes? Click here to subscribe our Podcast!: http://tinyurl.com/itunes-sales-podcast
Follow Shane on Twitter: http://twitter.com/shanegibson
Why? #why
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
This podcast is about the question: Why?
This is an important question.
It’s the most important question.
Why?
To Donate the the Vancouver Food Bank Click here or the image below. Every bit helps!
Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
Shane Gibson featured on Top Sales Experts .com
Jonathan Farrington of Top Sales Experts .com recently invited me to join his network of 50 top sales speakers and authors from around the world. The site is a comprehensive directory of leading motivational and sales speakers that include Dr Tony Alessandra, Jill Konrath author of Selling to Big Companies, and Steve Kraner CEO of the Sandler Sales Institute.
I also just joined another fantastic community called SelfGrowth.com. It’s a massive global expert data base on everything from sales to yoga.
Here’s my new profiles:
Shane Gibson Sales Speaker Profile on Top Sales Experts .com
Shane Gibson’s Expert Profile on Self Growth .com
Can you close too big? Downtown Partners Closes their doors
Globeandmail.com’s small business section recently noted that Downtown Partners a leading Canadian advertising agency closed their doors for good after losing their biggest client:
The advertising agency that was once one of the hottest in the country is closing its doors on Feb. 15, a move largely linked to the loss of its prized Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd. business. Downtown Partners, a division of Omnicom Canada, was dealt a fatal blow last November when Labatt decided to streamline its agency roster and hand the coveted Budweiser beer account to its long time agency Grip Ltd. Downtown, which had had the account for six years, wasn’t even given a chance of bidding on the brewer’s other businesses. “The agency is a victim of consequence,” Dan Pawych, creative director and a founding member of Downtown, said yesterday. More at Globeandmail.com
This is something I’ve mentioned in a few podcasts and sales blog entries. Closing Bigger is about the 7 figure deal. Sometimes though we forget the term “deal”. Deals can be finite, and if we base our whole business on one big client, we’re not in business; we’ve got a deal. I have yet to do a full in depth read on what lead up to this event but I’m assuming that big ole Labatt Brewing Company ate up much of Downtown Partners time, energy and resources, and several critical errors were made. One was somehow being totally out of sync with the client, how do you have a business dependent on one major client, and not have the business intelligence and inside connections to see this coming? The next question is who was responsible for hunting down and landing more big clients?
No matter how successful we are (and many of us are guilty of believing our own positive press) we need new fresh leads, and new clients. It’s what keeps us sharp, fine tunes our pitch and lets us know what’s really going on in the marketplace.
Another title for this sales blog entry could have been “Prospect or Die” or perhaps “How to Be Eaten by a Whale”
One of my biggest challenges when sales training people is when their company lacks the leadership and structure to enforce a quota or at least a level of accountability where people, anyone, including sales people are held to their word and the goals they set. Over the years I’ve seen too many individuals on auto-pilot, then they’re shocked when their company goes under, yet they haven’t prospected for new business or looked for new niches in the marketplace for years.
My closing thoughts for this blog are “Closing Big but keep on closing.”
Shane Gibson is a leading sales performance and sales training authority based in Vancouver Canada. His company offers sales training, motivational sales seminars, and consulting through their offices in Canada, South Africa, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Sales Blog and Podcast Entry – Frequency in Selling Video
The Power of Frequency in Selling – Video
This video was shot in 2007. It’s a clip of an anecdotal story that Shane Gibson tells about how frequent contact and creativity can help close the deal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouq9QkZ0EiM
Shane Gibson is author of “Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals” and President of Knowledge Brokers International (North America).
Quick Links:
Contact Shane: shane@kbitraining.com
Sales Training Blog Home
Sales Training South Africa
Sales Training Canada
Shane Gibson’s Bio
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
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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.
Sales Blog and Podcast Entry – PSI – Personality Style Indicators
I am certified facilator of the assessment tools developed and produced by the Consulting Resource Group. At times I struggle a bit communicating how critical it is to understand our own unique sales and personality style when dealing with other people. Ken Keis president of CRG put it well in his last e-zine article so I cut and paste a good portion of it into this blog entry as a follow-up to yesterday’s sales podcast on selling to the different styles:
How can you ever be intentional with your decisions and actions in
life, if you are not completely clear about your own personal style and its
related strengths, preferences, and challenges.
It’s a biological fact that we are born with a natural predisposition to a
distinct personal style. It’s not something we can choose to avoid. We take our
personal style with us, everywhere we go
After conducting over 2000 programs and writing on the subject for more than 16
years, I am absolutely convinced that without a full understanding of your
personal style—and the personal style of everyone with whom you interact on a
personal or professional level—you are missing critical knowledge that can
contribute to fulfillment for all the individuals involved.
It’s like flying a plane in a dense fogbank. Without training in aircraft
instrumentation, you are living by a hope and a prayer that you can make it to a
safe landing site. That is the way most people live their lives—but that need
not be true for you!
CRG is unique in that we teach a holistic development model wherein your
personal style and your personality are two separate concepts.
Your personality—the totality of who you are—is composed primarily of six
Personal Development Factors™ that contribute to your personhood.
-
Your Personal Style
You were born with it and it stays consistent throughout your lifetime.
-
Biophysical Factors
They include your gender and any illnesses (and wellness levels),
addictions, or injuries that affect your engagement of life.
-
Self-Worth Levels
They affect how and when you engage your life and the various challenges
that life brings to you.
-
Environmental Systems
Your country, your local area, geography, and your culture all highly
influence your perspective on life.
-
Social Teachers
These include people who have shaped your viewpoint during your life—
parents, teachers, mentors, friends, family, etc.
-
Emotional Anchors
They include events in your life—both positive and negative—that leave an
emotional imprint.
The CRG model acknowledges that who we are is based on
both nature and
nurture.
Research confirms that we each have unique and specific style preferences at
birth. From that moment, our personal style starts to play a powerful role in
our lives. Here are some of the things that are influenced by personal style.
- Choosing supportive child-care environments
- Parenting style
- Learning and instructional styles that meet your specific needs
- Selecting the right job and understanding job-style fit
- Accepting the differences in yourself and others
- Getting along better with your life partner
- Coaching others
- Customer service, sales, and leadership
- Designing a life that plays to your strengths
- Having the confidence to reject feelings of guilt and the pressures to
change from those who are different than you are. That includes peer
pressure, parents, and teachers. - Building teams that complement your business needs
- Starting a business
- Hiring and promoting
- Resolving conflict
And much more!
If you really want to succeed in life, knowledge of personal style is
non-negotiable.
Recently, I facilitated a team development process for a billion-dollar
organization. Even though some team members had been through our
Personal Style Indicator in the past, they identified the
PSI as the single-most-important element to take participants to the next
level.
Closing Bigger Sales Podcast Entry – Sales Podcast Part 1 on Executive Presentation Skills
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
This weeks sales podcast is on presentation skills and their importance in the boardroom when pitching potential clients. This is part 1 of a 3 part podcast series on the topic.
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.
Sales Blog Entry – Using Frequency in Selling
The most effective element in advertising is frequency. If you reach 10 000 of the right people ten times, rather than 100 000 people once, your advertising dollars will be much more productive. To obtain more frequency, run several commercials on the same television program or the same radio time block, on the same news cast every morning or run several ads in the same newspaper on the same day. The key to obtaining value from frequency is to increase impact by reaching the same consumer several times.
A one-time pizza commercial on a late night movie will have to be a great mouth-watering event to motivate a consumer to purchase. The same commercial run several times during the show can dramatically increase response. Even though you may reach a small number of people, if they are the right people, and you reach them enough times with the right message to make them respond, and if it is affordable, you have effective advertising. To get maximum return for personal assets invested, the same principle applies in selling.
A commonly used set of figures often used in sales training that seems to back up the frequency principle in selling, is this Sales Conversion Ratio.
Note: The Sales Conversion Ratios may vary with different industries, different products and services, different priced items and services and the difference in the ability of the salesperson.
Apparently in the Life Insurance business, it takes less frequent calls to a client. As a matter of fact if you have not closed by the third meeting the chances of getting the business goes downhill fast. This is the opinion of several senior Life Insurance executives. If you are in life insurance, judge for yourself. Remember these are Conversion Ratios – meaning you take the customer from someone else. We are not talking about ratios in reference to new clients that are not with the competition. It would take less focusing with someone who does not have a relationship with a competitor.
At this point you understand the philosophy of “It is better to reach 50 of the right clients 20 times over six months or a year with the right method than it is 1 000 people once.”
It is great that you now understand the theory, but it can be quite a challenge to put this theory into Action. The best way to do this is to develop your own Data Base Selling System and utilize that System.
Now, for many people when you say “Data Base Selling” they think computers and software programs. I am going to suggest that computers and software programs are not a Data Base Selling System, they are tools that can make Data Base Selling more efficient.
You can implement Data Base Selling by utilizing a small cardboard or metal box with cards that fit the size of box, or you could use a ring binder, rolodex or a file drawer of files. The computer is just the box binder, rolodex or file drawer that holds the client information.
So, if you are not comfortable utilizing a personal computer, lap-top or notebook computer, you can still utilize the concept of Data Base Selling. Before the invention of lap-tops and Personal Computers, most successful salespeople utilized the Data Base Selling approach to building their business with their own system of control.
Lets look at a real simple way to describe what Data Base Selling really is.Data Base Selling is when you gather together a list of the names of Present and/or Potential Customers in one place. This becomes your Base of Data on your potential and/or present clients who you systematically contact on a frequent basis, using a number of different methods with the purpose of gaining the business.
If all you ever used were the primary data base selling tools, but you used them frequently and effectively, you would be very successful as a salesperson. Examples of primary tools include, personal visits, outgoing prospecting phone calls, personal e-mails, and even coincidental encounters. These are very personal and effective ways to manage a relationship. The importance of utilizing some type of Data Base management program or process is to help salespeople and the organization as a whole to consistently move relationships forward with clients.
Particularly in Long Sales Cycle Selling or big deal making We can experience dozens of low and highly charged emotional days or even weeks before we close the deal. By having a process for constant follow-up and customer contact we’re prompted to continually follow up and contact potential clients even when our emotions aren’t running in a positive direction.
This process could be facilitated by a customer relations management (CRM) software (Pivotal, Siebel, Sales Logix, Goldmine etc.) , a paper based day timer, or something like Microsoft Outlook, or a Palm OS. A system for follow up supported by a good business coach or manager is one of the best ways that sales professionals can continue to consistently win when their emotions or circumstances are not positive.
The initial reaction to this by most salespeople is that the client would feel hassled or bugged by a salesperson who makes contact that often. The answer is simple. If you go to a sales meeting that is boring and a waste of time you are not eager to go back the following week. If it was an interesting, worthwhile meeting you would be glad to go back.
The same applies to selling. If you show up each time with tools and information that help the client and you are an interesting person, he/she will be glad to see you. If the information you fax, mail or phone through is of real use the client, once again the client will be happy to hear from you.
The key is to remember that the value of the frequency is the time you put in with the client. The intent provides the genuine sincere assistance which develops a relationship of one degree or another which will create a commitment from both parties.
So, the frequency with the right approach will build the relationship.
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.
Sales Podcast – Sales Blog Entry – The 12 Steps to Making the World Your Networking Function
In sales networking is the much coveted strategy to generate leads and help us close deals while reducing the amount of cold calling or hard selling we do. With that said, many people misunderstand what real networking is all about. Today’s sales podcast is about the 12 Steps to Making the World Your Networking Function:
1. Be referable don’t gather contacts or push for referrals
2. Be interested not interesting
3. You can’t have 200 best friends – prioritize
4. Add value with your network
5. Bank your equity (with the right people)
6. It’s a small town
7. Map and seek out the players
8. The more you give the more you get
9. Do your due diligence before you refer
10. Keep Promises, Follow-through
11. Be seen
12. Step it up every year
You can subcribe to this sales podcast series by using one of the many options on right hand navigation bar or you can download the MP3 file here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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
Speaking and Training
Subscribe in iTunes
Buy Guerrilla Social Media Marketing!
Buy Sociable! Now.
