Creating a Sales Culture in Your Organization
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Many organizations want to create a sales culture but many also fail at doing so. Today’s podcast covers nine lessons around creating sales culture that I have learned while helping non-sales organizations create sales culture:
- You need buy-in
- It’s really about creating an opportunity culture
- You need to reward people, that means everyone
- “What gets inspected gets respected” – Trevor Greene
- Move poor fits out quick, and hire the right people
- Feed the monster – train and develop continually
- Fix operations if they don’t support sales
- Fix products and services that don’t meet needs or fulfill promises
- It takes time, up to 18 months or longer before true leadership evolves
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Prospecting is a Discipline
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Today’s podcast is on developing a prospecting discipline and why you need to plan it out and make it part of your sales and marketing strategy. Bullet points on the podcast:
Four Types of Prospecting:
- Face to Face
- Extended Personal
- Community and Network Prospecting
- Media Marketing/Prospecting
Make a Plan:
- Have the intent to meet people wherever you go, be aware and focus on rapport
- Book time everyday for e-mail and phone calls
- Book time everyday for prospecting on Linkedin and listening/monitoring the web
- Attend two target rich events per month and one major conference per quarter
- Budget a percentage of your projected income or revenues and spend it every month on media and press releases etc.
What’s your prospecting plan look like?
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Free Goal Setting Guide for 2010 by Bill Gibson
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Bill Gibson Chair of Knowledge Brokers International has put together a condensed goal setting guide called “Get a Fast Start for 2010.” You can download the PDF free here or you can view it via Scrib below. Enjoy!
Bill Gibson Free Goal Setting Guide
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Social Media Marketing Colombia Interview
I’m doing a keynote seminar on Implementing and Integrating Social Media in Bogota Colombia for a marketing congress on September 28th. As a professional speaker this is one of my favorite parts of the job, getting to share my ideas and passions with people from all over the world. The seminar company’s Colombian office sent me these questions that they will be using as part of their marketing package for the event. I thought I would share them with my readers. Here it is:
Questionnaire for Colombia Newsletter
Shane Gibson Social Media Speaker
Q: How are Social Media turning traditional marketing habits around?
A: In the past we could dominate the marketplace with advertising, direct mail, and other forms of traditional media marketing. Today consumers are much more powerful marketers than companies are, with their ability to publish information to the web, they outnumber us. Their conversations about our brand, company, products and services are now “branding” us. They can blog about our company, they can share their opinion on our product on Orkut or Twitter, and they can post a Youtube video praising or condemning us.
Marketers now have to not just broadcast, they have to listen to what conversations are going on out there, and then they have to connect and interact with the marketplace in order to direct the conversations about their brand.
Today the customer owns our brand.
Update August 31 2009 (Watch a 7 minute speaker video addressing this question):
Q: Do you think these tools will replace well-known Marketing complex software such as CRM, for example? Why?
A: These tools are changing the way sales professionals and marketers interact with the marketplace. In the past we would build a database of customers in our CRM and proactively drive the sales process through constant contact. Social Listening tools that allow you to track conversations about your company or what your target market is doing are allowing marketers to pinpoint customers at the very moment they have a challenge or need for what we sell. There is also a new breed of CRM tools called Social CRM (SCRM) software that is just beginning to be available in the marketplace.
SCRM will allow you to pull in all the information about a contact, based upon permission from them (they tell you what data you will get), and your sales process will become driven by the daily activities and events in the lives of the customer. SCRM will make your database come alive with by the minute updates on what your best clients and prospects are posting on social networks and publishing in social media.
Q: What are the main benefits of including Social Media in Marketing and Sales strategies?
A: Social media success is built through a series of genuine interactions with the marketplace. The key is to create valuable content, resources, build community and connect in personalized ways with your market. Unlike traditional marketing and advertising most of the best social media tools are free. They need a time investment, and you have to train your staff to use them, but after that you can generate results with a significantly lower on-going investment financially. Also if used right, you can turn almost any staff member in your company into part of your marketing and customer service team, all they need is a Smartphone or a computer with web access. Social media expands your customer service and marketing capabilities.
Q: (Any real life examples as to how much money companies can save you can mention?)
A: My co-author Stephen Jagger (Sociable! Book Site) runs a company called Ubertor which has several thousand clients. His clients are real estate agents who use his real estate software to drive their websites. Steve was originally a client of mine. He had 10 sales people, and over a dozen other staff including computer programmers, management and support staff and a very large office. In order to service these clients he also needed a lot of telecommunications tools and phone lines.
Steve and his business partner Mike over a period of time began to replace telephone customer service with Web based Live Chat service and Twitter. He then decided to use Meetup.com to hold events with guest speakers on social media and technology use for his target market instead of sending sales people out top real-estate offices (he no longer needs salespeople). The next step was to close the office and have staff work virtually. They moved their phone system to Google Voice, which is free and use Gtalk and a tool called Yammer to communicate all day with each other. Steve’s blog and his Youtube videos are used to communicate to his clients, and post solutions to problems and information on the software updates and functionality.
The result? Significant business growth with a significant decrease in business costs. Steve is saving thousands of dollars per month in business costs, far fewer staff and has actually improved his customer experience.
Q: What are the main obstacles firms face when implementing Social Media in their Marketing and Sales strategies?
A: One of the obstacles is techno-phobia or as I call it Social Media Phobia. A lot of people don’t feel confident in experimenting or trying to use these new tools. They’re also worried about negative comments or someone using their blog or FaceBook to attack their brand. The reality is this technology is new, and we are all learning. Now is the best time to experiment and get good at social media, while your competitors are still watching on the sidelines. In addition to this, the only way we can insulate our company and brand from negative comments or competitor behavior online is to get involved in social media. Build a community of raving fans around your brand. You need to get social to win.
Related Posts:
Social Media Seminars
Developing a Social Media Policy and Guidelines
Social Media Speaker Shane Gibson on Social Media Etiquette
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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
Want to Close Bigger Deals? Buy the Book:
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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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Should frontline sales people blog and about what?
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This podcast is in response to the following question (via twitter):From @jaypiddy @shanegibson should front line sales staff blog? If so what should they blog about?
Have a listen to this podcast to hear my thoughts on the subject.
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Blogathon 2009 for Vancouver Food Bank
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Dave Kahle Sales Blog Guest Entry on Keeping Track of Names
Sales Best Practices: Keeps track of all the names, titles, and positions of all the key contact people within every account.
This is so basic, you would think everyone would be doing it. Not so.
I was sitting across the desk from the operations manager of the company for which I had worked a number of years earlier. We were reminiscing, and he told me this story.
In the time after I had left this company, it had been swallowed up by a large national company. Now, at number two in the nation, it was again being merged with number three. The government got involved, and mandated that every salesperson fill out a form for every account doing over $100,000 in annual business.
The operations manager described how he looked over the forms as he assembled them to send back to the government. As he did so, he got a sick feeling in his stomach. It seems that on many of the forms, the names listed were nicknames, and there was no title indicated.
He told me that he realized that his salespeople didn’t know the full name and correct title of the key contact people in their largest accounts!
While that may sound like an exception to you, I have since discovered that it is the rule, not the exception. The sad truth is that few salespeople have systematically collected and stored the full names and accurate titles of their key contact people. As a result, their proposals and correspondence are amateurish and they look unprofessional to their customers.
Such a simple little thing!
Yet, over and over again, it’s not the big things that separate the Top Gun performers from the pack. It’s the methodical, disciplined adherence to excellence in the little things.
I know there are thousands of salespeople who are reading this right now, thinking “I already know that.” Yet, most of them aren’t methodical and systematic in their execution of this practice. It’s not what you know that makes you into a Top Gun performer, it is what you do.
That’s why the best practices are called “practices.”
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
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What You Should Know About The Power of Association
Association simply put is “who you hang out with.” This will impact us more than most other things on our road to success. Here’s my thoughts on why association is important:
You attract what you are not what you want. Who we have on our team says a lot about us. If you want to associate with great people don’t worry about finding them, work on who you are and they’ll find you.
Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, and your habits become your destiny. Choose who you associate with wisely, your constant interaction with them will affect your thoughts and impact your destiny.
Most of us have goals and ambitions bigger than our resources, knowledge and assets that we posses. We need to collaborate with and partner with other people if we are going to succeed. The people that we associate with are part of our success and we are a part of theirs.
This blog post is really about a simple message:
Choose your friends wisely, be the best friend that you can absolutely be, and never negate or neglect your friends and associates. This can make the difference between being a huge success and mediocre entrepreneur.
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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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Operationalizing Your Sales Process Day 28 to the 28 Days of Better Selling
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Following are the five key elements of Operationalizing sales (Full explanation in text is here):
1. Tools
2. Measurement
3. Processes and Knowledge
4. Maximize Selling Time
5. Support and Accountability Structure
After you listen to today’s podcast your assignment is to:
- List the 5 headings for operationalizing sales discussed
- Fill in under each heading what actions or steps you are going to take
- Once mapped out make sure you assign a specific time to implement the steps
- Find someone you can be accountable to in the process.
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