The Best Sales Advice- Do Old-School Methods Still Apply?

Sales expert, author, trainer and consultant, Rich Lucia is presenting at The Small Business University Back-To-School event Monday, September 8th.  His topic: The 180 Rule for Selling.

Get you FREE copy of Rich Lucia’s book when you attend the Back-To-School Event 9/8. Click here to learn more & register.

Here, Rich shares a recent article he posted on his blog, which is deep with content (or shall I say a “rich” resource for sales advice).

Rich has promised to give away a hard copy of his new ebook to everyone in attendance at the event 9/8 called The 180 Rule for Integrated Social Selling.  

Here, Rich shares an article called

In Search of the Sales Holy Grail

I often travel throughout the country to work with sales organizations and a common theme seems to be in play. Everyone appears to be looking for that one thing that is going to lift revenue to new heights. People are looking for the Holy Grail of sales tools that is the answer to prayers.

It appears the world of business development has spilled into two camps. On one side of the great divide, we have the traditionalists who seek age-old sales training and selling techniques. Their thinking is that it has always worked so why reinvent the wheel. They seem to be more content with following past processes over getting results. They forget that buyers have changed and how these buyers get their information has changed, locking many of the doors that once had a welcome mat. These die-hard traditionalists have an answer to cold calls that don’t generate results – make more of them.  Of course, when the strategy does not work, they seek training from 20-year-old sales manuals to polish their cold calling skills.

On the other side of the great divide, we have the early adopters with their answer to business development. They throw out all of the old selling techniques and believe that social media is the only true modern path to business development. They have even engraved, “Social Selling” on their Holy Grail, as they chase the latest social media platform and abandon the one before. Their battle cry is, “it has to be good – it is new.”

So, who is correct? The answer begins with an understanding that there is no Holy Grail, and as difficult as it is to accept, there is no magic pill and no one silver bullet to effective business development strategy. It is going to take a combination of the correct selling tools to get the job done today. Having an understanding of buyers today and selecting selling tools that are effective with those buyers is one half of the mission. The second half of the mission, an even more important one, is realizing the tools you select are supposed to compliment each other. Selling tools and your processes have to be integrated. You can create and deliver the best presentation of your life, but giving it to a person who has no need for it will result in no sale. Don’t use a great tool to drive an interested party to your website, only to find when they get there it has extinguished their interest because it was designed for your company’s bragging rights instead of being customer-centric.

It’s going to take a holistic approach to business development today and therefore the need for Integrated Social Selling.  By social selling I am not talking about the new branding of social media but instead how do we become closer or more social with our prospects and customers. In this age of point and click, are we really working harder to know our prospects and customers and how they buy? Are we working all stages of the sale cycle with the laser focus of purpose and making sure we aren’t unconsciously sabotaging our efforts by ignoring the power of integration? Have we become content in accepting a sales funnel with its 85 percent effort and wasted resources or are we working to widen it into more or a cylinder shape?

Replace your search for the Holy Grail with the knowledge that a holistic, integrated plan is needed. A plan that insures that you have correctly identified your target, selected the correct tools and they are working with each other and not against each other. Do these things and keep a Social Selling Playbook and you will achieve successful business development today using Integrated Social Selling.

Advice for Successful Thinking and Behavior – By Manny Nowak

Don’t Let Fear of Failure Slow You Down

Click here to learn more about Manny and his business from his website.

Click here to learn more about Manny and his business from his website.

The great inventor, Thomas Edison said, “If you are not successful, fail more”.

If you want to be more successful, then you have to fail more, plain and simple.Too many people out there look at opportunities and push them away. “Well I tried that, and it didn’t work”.

Yeah, I have tried a lot of things and they didn’t work.  But I did not go and find

a place to hide my head in the sand afterward.

How Hard You Try is in Direct Proportion to How Much You Want it.

If you want to do something, ask yourself, “How bad do I want this?”  What are you willing to do to get it?

I have listened as people have told stories such as: “I tried to get a job there once, but they didn’t hire me”.

OK – so try again and again and again.  If you really want to work some place, keep trying to find a way in.

If you keep trying you might just get there, if you stop, you are assured of failure.

How to Create Opportunity for Yourself

If you are trying to get into an account and not having success, then take all you have learned and try another way.  I use to sell computer services to Fortune 1000 companies.  It is a long sales cycle. 

But the key is, you do not stop because one thing didn’t work.  You keep looking, driving, trying, failing and learning.  Time after time when I got in I heard the same comment, “you have been so persistent, I just had to give you a shot.”

Or, how many have heard this one, “I tried to get a book published once, even sent it to 3 publishers, but nothing”.

Yea, so how many publishers are out there?

Do you now how many best sellers were turned down time and time and time again before they got picked up? 

I love the Rocky, Sylvester Stallone story.

Down on his luck, almost no money left, Sylvester got an offer to sell his screen play for Rocky for $125,000.  He turned it down because they would not let him play Rocky.

You are Your Greatest Asset

Now, here is a person with almost nothing left, but self-confidence.

He held out and did finally get a deal, less money in the short term, but the star role and a long and successful career.

Stick to what you want and go for it.  Then watch what happens.

You have to be willing to fail. Life is full of opportunities.  Stop giving up before you get to your goals.

This article contributed by Many Nowak.

Manny Nowak is America’s Number One Expert in Taking 6 Figure Businesses to 7 Figures and is speaking at the September 8th, 2014 Small Business University event.  Learn more about this even and Small Business U

The Best Way to Grow Your Business- Referrals

Referrals are The best way to grow your business, we all know that. Referrals produce the highest return on your time, energy and budget. Think about it, don’t you ask your friends and family for the name of someone that they have used?

How to Get New Customers, Clients or Patience Referred to You

Step 1: Be sure you running your business in a fashion that encourages your clients/customers to want to refer you to their friends, family and business contacts. Did you know that the average person knows 1100 people? Imagine what it would do for the growth of your company if just half of your customers referred you to just 10% of their contacts, think about it, the results are mind boggling! So, what makes you better or different than your competition? If  you can not come up with an answer to that question, then that is your first goal…what can I do to make everyone who needs my services (or product) want to deal with me instead of my competition?

Ask and You Shall Receive Referrals

Step2:  ASK for referrals. Learn how to ask for those referrals in a professional, easy, matter of fact method. You do not have to be a “sales person” to get referrals; you just need to be confident that you are the BEST. If you are already asking for referrals and not getting them or you are sensing hesitation when you do ask, then you need to step back and take a good hard, HONEST look at the way you are conducting business and how you handle customer service and satisfaction. Secret shoppers and follow up calls are the best way to determine where the problem areas are.

Step 3: Act on those referrals in a timely fashion.  A hot lead is one where the referring person (your customer or client) says that they already told their friend about you and they are awaiting your call. That lead needs to be contacted IMMEDIATELY, right there from your client’s home or business if that is appropriate. A warm lead is when the referring person says that they have mentioned you to their friend and the friend indicated that you could contact them. This call should be made with in 48 hours. A cool lead is when the referring person says that they have a few people (or a person) in mind that they think would benefit from meeting you.

 This informative article was contributed by Merle Margolese. Merle is a professional speaker, trainer and coach.

Merle is presenting at the Small Business University, Back-To-School event September 8th, 2014 on the subject of time management.  Learn more about this event and the 2 other presenters here.

Business to Business Sales & Advertising Tip

Business-to-business sales and advertising should be treated no differently than business-to-consumer.  Why?

The products and services we sell to businesses as compared to consumers are not the

Always highlight and sell the benefits. people buy on emotion and justify with logic.

issue here.  The issue is the common denominator: the decision maker.  The decision makers in all matters of buying are people.

Effective presentations must use benefit-rich words in written copy and speech

Benefit-rich presentations, whether with the written word or spoken is the #1 most important emotional trigger to keep in mind when crafting and delivering a sales message.   For B-to-B sales, the motivating factors generally revolve around generating more sales, increasing profit margins, or becoming more efficient.

Features are important but pale in comparison to the importance of benefits.  Benefits touch the imagination, the emotions and create motivation.

Features vs. Benefits

Remember this when crafting a sales message: “Features tell, benefits SELL”.  Resist a bullet list of features until you have brainstormed a list of benefits.

Here’s a good idea for how to find more benefits within the benefits of your product: list the benefits of your benefits!  What’s that mean?  Here’s an example:  Instead of saying, “I sell search engine optimization services which helps websites become more visible to people who are looking for a business like yours.”, I should say, “I make your website better so more website visitors become customers.” That was a benefit-statement.  “…and more customers from coming in for your website reduces your client acquisition costs to almost zero.” That’s the benefit of the benefit.  “…and the money you will save on commissions will pay for your kids’ college tuition.” That’s the benefit of the benefit of the benefit!

Buyers are motivated by fear-avoiding danger is a benefit

Buyers for businesses are motivated by fear.  Steering them away from danger is another benefit.  It’s generally not the first point to leverage in your pitch but it can be.  IBM, for example used this strategy effectively for many years back when they were the dominant player in computers and business equipment. “No one ever got fired for specifying IBM.”

This was an effective sales message back in the 1970’s, way before consumers were buying anything stamped with the IBM label. This is a clear example of how an advertising message was delivered on an emotional level to a buyer or purchasing department.  In addition to delivering a message to job security, it also delivered another message: “Our price is higher but don’t let that bother you”.

Purchasing agents are people.  Purchasing departments are made up of people.  People are motivated by the same things: WIIFM, “What’s in it for me?”  Approach all sales and marketing from the standpoint of emphasizing the benefits from every angle you possibly can in every sales.

Features tell-Benefits sell!

Facebook Marketing on Your Personal Account

Have something to brag about?  Want to get it out there but you don’t want to appear conceited? I pulled it off a couple days ago and ended up with  a hot lead for a new client.

I want to share this experience with Personal Facebook Marketing with you.

Andrew Mazer is a business owner transformed into an internet marketing expert and consultant. Owner of Mazer Wholesale and Mazer Marketing, creator of moderncoupon.com and co-founder of Small Business University

Many of us don’t have Facebook Fan pages, we ONLY have personal pages so this is relevant to business owners and professionals alike.  Even though I have a Facebook Fan page for my business, there was a story about a business victory of mine I wanted my friends to see, not just my clients.  

I got an email from a client who I helped with their search engine optimization.  In case you don’t know the definition of SEO, it’s the process of making a website more likely to appear (than competing websites) when someone searches for a given topic.  The content of the email was an image of website traffic statistics.  Very impressive statistics, I might add.  I’d delivered awesome results the client was obviously happy about and so was I.  

Images capture attention online and especially on social media

Everyone with a website wants to become more visible online and this was both visual and social proof tied in with a sort of testimonial all wrapped up in one report which I captured as an image on my computer screen.  

I posted this image on my personal Facebook news feed and got a hot lead for my services.

“I took the image and posted it on the Facebook news feed and wrote: Some shameless self promotion (it’s like a selfie if sorts). My SEO work took this Atlantic City hotel’s website from under 4000 hits per month to over 21,000. Know anyone who needs results?”

This generated an instant message and ultimately a request for a quote for my services and and then a phone call which sealed a deal.  

Notice how the post openly admits “Some shameless self-promotion” which actually serves to add a little humor and diffuse the boastfulness a little bit.  Even so….if 300 people think I’m pompous, so what!…I just landed a new client.

The big takeaway here?  I guess there are 2:

1. Let your friends know what you’re doing and use this great gift of social media to promote yourself, what you do and what you have done.
2. Be bold but back it up with a little humor and use proof.  Find or create an image to get attention and deliver the impact.

At Small Business University , we deliver value by bringing together like-minded business people to network, learn and share.  Check out our event schedule and register to attend.  

If you have a message about business, personal development, motivation or inspiration you think is good for our audience, apply to speak at a future event. We also invite guest blogging so if you have any content you feel would be valuable for our audience and you want to promote yourself and your website at the same time, submit original content only to: info@mazermarketing.com

Business Networking & Seminar in South Jersey May 5, 2014

Fantastic event and overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees…the Cinco de Mayo event was another SBU success.

Our 3 speakers on May 5

Thanks to our speakers:

Mike Makofsky, presenting “Finding Your Voice” delivering sage advice for elevating your confidence, your voice and your personality everywhere from your voice mail messages to speaking on stage.

Sandra Martin, presenting “The Life of a Business Card” delivering 21st century-style customer relationship and organizational advice.

Brad Tornberg, presenting “Cheap and Free Online Resources” demonstrating DOZENS of tips, tricks & tools which save time and add value to your daily routine.