prof selling exam 1

resume

• Recruiters spend an average of 7 seconds looking at a resume.

• Resume needs to quickly grab attention.

• Focus on achievements and metrics, not simply job duties.

• Important:

  • Formatting

  • Grammar/spelling

  • Content

Transferable skills

Even if previous experience was not technically sales, explain how skills transfer to sales.

Think:

• Communication

• Customer service

• Relationship building

• Problem solving

• Persuasion

• Leadership

Suceeding in the new world of sales

• Intelligence: research leads to smarter selling

• 60% of prospects already research product, company, and competition before even talking to you

• New selling:

  • Adaptability

  • Paying attention to the prospect

  • Pivoting and shifting

  • Thinking through problems

  • Recognizing patterns

  • Finding new ways to add value

  • consulting and advisor rather than “walking brochure”

• Only 1 in 8 meetings with a sales person feels actually valuable

• Continuous improvement is essential: need to continually improve these things:

emotional intelligence

1. Emotional awareness

   1. Identify emotions: yours and others, read non verbal cues, key to authentically connecting

   2. Managing emotions: maintaining control, responding appropriately, keep emotions in check

   3. Reasoning with emotions: harness and apply emotions, apply to problem solving, focus and direct thinking

2. Curiosity: a good sales person needs to be curious

The evolving sales profession

• Sales has becom:

  • more urgent

  • faster paced

  • need to respond quicker

• Salespeople no longer have the luxury of taking the time to reflect and think 

what makes a great sales person

• Mental toughness, as well as staying ahead of the curve

• Likeable

• Tenacious

• Absolutely knowledgeable: willing to constantly learn

You do NOT have to be:

• Pushy

• Aggressive

• Annoying

• Extremely outgoing

• Extremely charismatic

Rewards of sales

• Great income

• Regular and immediate feedback

• Psychologically rewarding

• High visibility

• Growth opportunity 

selling with integrity and trust

Put clients interest first and balance customer needs with seller needs

Trust increases when:

• Buyers know you will not exploit their vulnerabilities.

• You do what you say you are going to do.

• You fulfill obligations.

Trust grows slowly and declines rapidly

protect trust, dont take advantage of buyers, always fulfill obligations

Professional image

Your brain can begin jumping to conclusions about someone in approximately seconds

Professional image involves:

• Simplicity

• Appropriateness

• Quality

Visual integrity

• Minimize jewelry

• Attention to detail

• Pay attention to non verbal messages: tone, volume, speed of delivery

• Pay attention to entrance and body carriage

• Communicate with confidence

• Effective handshake

• Project confidence

The human side of selling

One problem salespeople have: They become so focused on the sales process or sales goal that they forget they are dealing with an actual person

Success is found when you move beyond trying to sell and toward trying to serve

Service means making decisions that:

• Are in the client's best interest

• Make the client's life better

• Increase the value the client receives

• making the relationship more than just an exchange of resources

Does not mean

• giving everything with nothing in return

• selling them something that doesnt truly benefit them

  • adding on extras to juice a deal will haunt you

The goal of sales is for your clients to improve in some way

Service selling will develop relationships and build trust

Ethical behavior in sales

Your reputation is not a secret.

Crossing ethical boundaries will haunt you; it can:

• Damage customer and employer trust

• Damage your professional reputation

• Cause you to lose respect for yourself

Many organizations have a code of ethics

If your company does not have one, you can adopt standards from a professional organization (UCC)

• UCC: standardizes commercial transaction laws across states

• Agency: salesperson acts as agent of company; promises can bind employer

• Sale: transfer of title of tangible/movable goods for a price

• Lecture says contracts for goods over $500 generally need writing to be enforceable

Doing the right thing example

ackie Robinson

• April 15

• Broke Major League Baseball's color barrier.

• MLB players wear #42 on that date.

Take a chance in the name of doing whats right

Doing the right thing is always the right way to sell, even if it means doing it differently than everyone else

entertaining in sales

• Sales orgs provide reps with corp credit card to invest in relationship building activities with clients outside the office

• Sales org allocate a proughly 6% of their expenditures to socially engage current customers and future prospects

• Entertaining is part of the job: networking

• Types: dinner, golf outing, happy hour, lunch, conferences, etc

• Sales professionals should be concerned because most of the time its free and almost unlimited

  • Some reps can't separate socializing and entertaining

  • Could lead to poor decisions

  • Taking advantage and going over expenses

  • Clients can take advantage of you

• Best practices:

  • Set limits: time and budget

  • Establish expectations with the prospect

  • Communicate with management

  • Talk to waiter/bartender before

  • Know the different between entertaining and socializing

  • Don't drink excessively

• Use entertainment to strengthen the relationship, not establish one

ethics

The principles governing behavior of an individual or a group

These principles establish appropriate behavior, indicating what is right and wrong

Ethical issues in client relationships

• Persuasion: uncover needs + show how solution fits; preserves buyer autonomy/win-win

• manipulation: deceit, half-truths, or pressure for seller’s benefit

• Gift: nominal/symbolic appreciation

• Bribe: extravagant item/payment intended to influence judgment

• Entertainment: okay for relationship building; unethical if lavish or used to create obligation

• Confidential information: never share client information with another prospect/competitor

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Potential legal trouble

• Reciprocity: “I buy from you only if you buy from me”; can raise antitrust issues if forced/exclusive

• Tying: requiring unwanted product to obtain desired product

• Collusion: competitors secretly coordinate prices/territories

• Interference: intentionally disrupting competitor business dealings

• Defamation: false/damaging claims about competitor

  • Slander = spoken

  • Libel = written

social style

• The behavior a person exhibits when interacting when others

• Made up of responsiveness and assertiveness

• Understanding your and other peoples social style helps build relationships

Responsiveness

• Extent to which a person reacts to certain people or situations and the feelings that those people and situations create

Assertiveness

• The effort a person makes to influence the thinking and actions of others

• Whether a person appears to ask or tell when interacting with others

social style index

	Low Responsiveness	High Responsiveness
High Assertiveness	Driver	Expressive
Low Assertiveness	Analytical	Amiable

driver

•  High on assertiveness low on responsiveness

• Emotionally controlled

• Tell you how things are going to work

• Willing to accept risk

• Want to move quickly

• Efficiency > relationship

Typical mindset: show me the bottom line results

Selling to a Driver

• Get to the point.

• Be specific.

• Show tangible benefits.

• Focus on results.

• Frame conversation around benefits.

Driver office clues

• Very neat

• Focus on time management

• Businesslike

• Certificates on walls

• Talks about time constraints

• Conservative dresser

expressive

High assertiveness + high responsiveness

Characteristics:

• Outgoing and Dramatic

• Dislikes conflict

• dont commit to specific plans

• Values opinions of successful/prominent people rather than logic

Typical mindset: I like competent, imaginative salespeople

Selling to Expressives:

• How the solution makes them look

• Achievements it will help them accomplish

• Big-picture possibilities

They often make people feel like friends.

Expressive office clues

• Disorganized

• Leisure equipment

• Funny pictures

• Casual conversation

• Popular/social person

• Casual but stylish dresser

Amiable

Low assertiveness + high responsiveness

Characteristics:

• Asks rather than tells

• Relationship focused

• Easygoing

• Supportive

• Moves slowly

• Avoids/minimizes risk

• Needs acceptance

Typical mindset: show concern for me and my problem

Selling to Amiables

• Be patient.

• Build trust.

• Build credibility.

• Demonstrate concern.

Amiable office clues

• Homey

• Family pictures

• Plants

• Asks about YOU first

• Casual dresser

• Less concerned with style

Analytical

Low assertiveness + low responsiveness

Characteristics:

• Serious

• Fact driven

• Values accuracy

• May appear uncommunicative

• Disciplined

• Slow pace

• Accuracy > opinions

Typical mindset: what i need are practical solutions

Selling to Analyticals

• Bring evidence.

• Show proof.

• Be logical.

• Challenge their current thinking with data.

Analytical office clues

• Neat

• Organized

• Awards/data displayed

• Waits for you to speak

• Explains buying/decision process

• Conservative dresser

Understanding the needs of prospects

• Sales reps need to uncover with is motivating their prospect to make a change

• Needs discovery is not just a list of criteria the prospect is looking for in a product

• Fundamental drivers to why buyers buy

  • Economic: cutting costs; increasing revenue

  • Strategic: developing a new line of business, moving into a new market, economic tilt but the main driver is strategy

  • Compliance: change to address regulation and standards, improve governance or adhere to new laws

Emotions in buying

• Drivers are important but not always enough

• Emotions play a huge role, but are more closely guarded by the prospect

• Discovering their agenda becomes easier as they start to see you as an advisor and partner

Science to understand buyer decision making

• Traditional science belief that humans are rational decision makers is wrong

• People cannot be relied on to make logical decisions

• Strong sellers discover the needs of a client first, address possible objections, and work hard to make the decision easy 

• Information is not enough: leverage emotions

• Scientific research suggests the absence of emotional inputs make it hard for people to even make basic decisions

• Do whatever you can to simplify the sales process and make the decision as straight forward as possible

• Present your offering, give a positive “nudge”

The buying center

buyers work in groups to minimize risk

• You often have to be introduced to the decision maker

• The financial/economic buyer: focuses on ROI, cost, financial impact

  • decision maker

  • need to be on board for you to make a sale:

  • likely be guarded

• Gatekeeper: buffers the decision maker from unwanted business calls

  • Best way to get past the gatekeeper is to enter the economic buyers office with an invitation

• Advocate/coach: great to have on your side: insider who wants you to succeed and provides intelligence

  • gives you advice on how to get an audience, pitch the right products and close the deal:

  • gets you past the gatekeeper

• influencer/technical buyer: not a decision maker but care about details;

  • others rely on their expertise when making a decision

• User: actually uses your product/service

• Blocker: ability to stop your progress

• These roles are not always played by different people

two types of power

• Delay: ability to slow you down

• Negate: ability to stop you

  • Much more dangerous

overloaded buyer

• Sales presentation seems perfect and buyer seems interested, but ends up being overloaded with information and does not end up buying

• Prospects are bombarded with information everyday

  • Average us adult consumes over 100,000 printed words a day

  • Typical internet user sees over 1,700 banner ads in a month

  • Americans receive 12 hours worth of info outside of work

  • One NYT contains more info than someone living 250 yrs ago would have seen in their life

• Nearly half of executives believe important decisions are being delayed bc of too much information

• Scientists believe that beyond seven units of information, people hit information fatigue

• “Analysis paralysis”: spend too much time evaluating too much information making people incapable of making any decision

• Consider how much information is actually vital to the sale

• Dont try to prove value by bogging down the prospect with needless details

• Have a clear message and be prepared to support it

• Use simple and relevant stories to communicate main points

Procurement

• Cutting cost form suppliers (you) is one of the top places organizations are looking to save money

• Thus procurement department is a major player you need to consider: most deals require a sign off even after you've won approval

• Use the basics of good selling strategy:

1. Cutting cost from the bottom line is  procurements main mission: be proactive in communicating and quantifying economic value of your offering

2. Many understand the imports of quality and continuity: take time to explain benefits of your firms broader relationship

3. Understand how your firm is classified by procurement: take time to build relationships with procurement managers to better understand how they view you

4. They have considerable training in negotiation and sales management. They are less swayed by emotion and focused on roi analysis and quantitative framing of solution benefits

why buyers buy

• Understand buyers pov: The buyer determines value

• Buyers buy to solve problems: uncover their needs

  • Buyers needs: 

    • Explicit: know what their needs are and can say it

    • Implicit: only see the symptoms of a problem

      • Help make implied needs as explicit as possible

buyer internal consumption process

• Buyers follow consistent internal consumption process

  • 1. stimulate consumption: cognitive(head) or emotive(heart) or autonomic

  • 2. Searching for alternatives

  • 3. Choosing a solution 

  • 4. Satisfaction 

• Sales people often focus too much on what they sell and not who they sell it to

tracking the buyers journey

• status quo

• definition

• evaluation

• after selection

Buying side can be just as difficult as selling, especially in complex solutions

status quo

• what your prospect is doing today related to your solution

  • Might be working with a competitor or doing nothing at all

  • They are unaware of you and your solution

  • Most deals are lost here before you even start

  • Vision of change comes with pain or opportunity to gain

    • buyer begins Assessing implications of moving forward: political risk, individual motivations

    • Being to research potential solutions

definition

• buyer develops clearer vision

• Potential vendors being explored

• Ballpark pricing request

• Information overload common: vendors with clearest message and solutions that resonate will win

• Buyers develop issue clarity (what is the actual problem) and process clarity (who, budget, selection, risk, return)

• Many deals lost when cost benefit is not convincing here

evaluation

• Buyer begin developing concept for change

• Explore other options: internal or external solutions

• Requests for proposals

• RFP process

• Final tweaks

• Potential to not proceed is still a possibility especially if ROI isnt understood or documented

• Buyers need clarity, direction, and candor

after selection

• Final sign offs

• Additional vendor meetings

• Test solution

• Leverage in negotiation

Types of buys

• New buy: first-time, complex/high-risk → educate + consult

• Straight rebuy: routine reorder, no changes

  • in-supplier → execute flawlessly

  • out-supplier → try to create reason for reconsideration

• Modified rebuy: changes to specs, supplier, price, terms, etc.

how can a seller turn a straight rebuy into a modified rebuy:

• Surface hidden inefficiencies, new data, technology, regulations, costs, or other reasons to reconsider status quo.

organizational buying

• Derived demand: demand occurs because of demand for another item

  • buy a screen protector after you get a new phone 

• Inelastic demand: demand does not change dramatically with price because its essential

  • computer chip

• Joint demand: one product reliant on another

organizations needs and criteria

• Economic criteria: think beyond initial price

  • Total cost of ownership: lifecycle: purchase + setup + maintenance + operation + disposal

• Quality criteria: based on specifications

• Service criteria: value analysis: systematically look for ways to reduce costs/improve performance by changing components/specifications

Value = benefits provided by the product/service − cost of acquiring, implementing, and using the product/service.

steps in buying process

1. Recognize a need

2. Define the product needed

3. Develop detailed specifications

4. Search for qualified suppliers

5. Acquire and anlyze proposal

6. Select supplier

7. Place and receive order

8. Evaluate product performance

• Salespeople create greatest value early, especially Steps 1–3

• Getting involved early lets seller help shape specifications

prospecting

 process designed to identify, qualify, and prioritize sales opportunities

• Setting goals

• Tracking activities

• Evaluaitng progress

No prospecting = no sales

If you have a plan and prepare for it, you can be very successful

• Prospecting is like running a business/building a customer foundation

• Lecture says companies lose around 15–20% of customers annually because of failures, mergers, competition, etc

prospecting myths

• If you have a good product, customers will come to you (many new people think this)

• Talking to a person once about your product is sufficient (fewer than ⅕ call a second time, but most buyers require 4 or more calls)

• Prospecting is an act of desperation and should only be done when you are out of other options

• Prospecting is hard work and therefore not worth the effort

secrets to generating more leads

1. Set goals

2. Choose sources: determine where you will find new prospects

3. Create plan: translate your goals into specific daily activity plans

4. Get to work: work you plan to find leads and qualify them

5. Track efforts: you must track your efforts if you want to get better

6. Evaluate your work: compare goals in step 1 with records of your efforts in step 5

General tips

• Be systematic: create a structure

• dont work alone: youre not the first person to do this

• Stay flexible: as your skills and the market changes, different technique will work

referrals stats

• Less than 10% of clients talk to other clients talk to other contacts about a salesperson

• 70% of clients will give their reps a quality referral if they ask

• Of that 70, 40% will agree to meet, and 35% will end up as buyers

How to go about referrals

• Let them know why you want the referral: let them know how important it is to your success

  • If in services, emphasize relationship

• Personal details: find out about their personal life to build rapport and connect to be better seen as a friend of a frient

• Set goals for the number of referels from your best client

  • In services, its not unrealistic to expect 100-200 from 1 client

  • Some over time, others quickly

• Dont ask just once: not a one time activity

  • Use relationship points as bridges

  • Helpful as you deliver positive results

  • Create sense of reciprocity

• Thank them

  • Let them know you followed up

  • Send token of appreciation

  • Return the favor

finding the best leads

• There are multiple sources of good prospects, but you have to find the ones that work for you

• Networking

  • Face to face

  • Social media

• Referrals: more doors open when someone on the inside invites you: believed to be the most powerful source of prospecting

• Cold calls: supplemental; over the phone; no prior communication

• Canvassing: supplemental; meeting in person with no prior communication

• Others: directories, trade associations

• Focus on sources that use your time wisely and generate prospects that will say yes

Always be selling

1. Think “Always Be Selling”

   1. Always be prospecting

   2. Dont forget to continuously replenish prospects after developing initial targets

   3. When you wait until after current opportunities are fully works, this creates a cycle of strong to weak sales results

   4. Be consistent and steady prospecting is crucial to longtem success

   5. Allocate a specific time each day for pure prospecting

criteria for qualifying prospects

• Need for product

• Ability to invest in product

• Authority to make the decision to buy

Lead = unqualified name/contact
Prospect = qualified lead

the first building block for gaining trust

• Do your research

• The era of hyper personalization: preparation increases success

• Trust now begins before the sales conversation

• Research company news, industry, LinkedIn, pain points

• Generic outreach is easier to ignore because buyers receive so much automated outreach

• Personalization helps get through the buyer's “spam filter

frequently cleanse your prosepct and client list

1. Frequently cleanse your prospect and client list

   1. Be objective and disciplined in culling out poor prospect, striking the right balance between quality and quantity

   2. Also customer base: if you spend alot of time on a client that has very little upside and not a large percentage of sale, reevaltue if your time is worth it

   3. Develop a celar picture of youre ideal customer profile

   4. Not all customers will be lifelong key accounts

share whats working

1. Share whats working

   1. Selling should be knowledge sharing

   2. Before reachibng out, think about common themes or issues you see across similar companies

   3. A business issues orientation is a great way to build a connection with prospects and deepend relationships with current clients

   4. A more custom and relevant sales message is always more powerful than generic talking points: take the time to let prospects know you understand their situation and have proactive ideas about how to help

CRM

CRM systems collect data throughout the customer relationship

Use CRM to manage information and customer/prospect data.

CRM = Customer Relationship Management system

Data flow:
Marketing → Leads → Sales → Customers/Orders → Support/Retention

Examples: Salesforce, HubSpot

Why it matters:

• Records interactions

• Tracks leads/opportunities

• Keeps company data usable

• Failing to log/update information hurts the entire sales process

the importance of prospecting

• Prospecting is like farming

• In order to a keep a constant flow through the sales pipeline, a salesperson must continually prospect

• Approach -> develop needs -> present -> objections -> customers

Preparing for telephone prospecting

• Goal of prospecting is to build a base of current and potential customers

• Important because

  • Firms go out of business/merge

  • Sales loss to competition

• Key points in prospecting

  • Look for opportunity to meet: you arent looking to complete the sale there

  • Be human.. Dont read off a script

  • Be confident.. Believe in your solution

2 questions should be answered before call

• What problem do you solve

• What value do you bring

getting past the gatekeeper

• Historically, the administrator or receptionist

• Cant always tell the gatekeeper by title: could have multiple gatekeepers

• Key is have a plan

• Keep in mind its their job to protect decision makers time

• Theyre not your customer, dont get distracted trying to sell to them

• Do not ignore them or treat them rudely: they likely have more information/influence than you think

• Ask for their first name

• Ask for their help

• Be aware of surrounding: help connect to gatekeeper

• Have name of decision maker: ask directly for them

• Dont ask for “your boss”, instead use a title or role

• Maintain control

  • Answer common questions before asked

  • Short benefits statement: focus on benefits not features or name

  • Reference a similar client your working with

  • Use name of referral, someone decision maker or gatekeeper might know: turns cold call into warm call

prospecting mistakes

• Fail to prepare

• Too informative: read right off script and dump too much information

• Fail to connect with client

• Forget to ask for the next step

sales funnel

• Some of the best sales people spend more time trying to eliminate poor prospects then focusing on the others

• Top performer secret to being a good salesperson: find buyers who want to buy

• 1. Top of funnel: leads

  • Qualify: does lead have Money, Authority, or Desire for product

    • They must meet all three conditions to become a prospect

  • Qualified leads turn to prospects who can turn to customers

to increase sales

• Increase leads: work harder

• Improve ratio (of leads to prospects to customers): work smarter

• Working harder is limited, working smarter is essential

• Let unqualified leads go

turn cold calls into warm calls

1. Find right person to talk to

2. Get the right person to talk to you

• research/mapping call strategy

  • Research best contacts in company

  • Shift positioning from cold outsider

  • Get and then leverage internal referral

  • mapping calls can have about 80% success

  • Use a “lost puppy” tone = sincere, vulnerable, asking for help rather than sounding like salesperson

• Research call

  • Call high into the organization

    • Ask for top executive assistant

    • Find someone “in the know” and “everyone knows”

    • Use basic cold calling etiquette

  • Say your name, company, why your calling,

    • Ask for their help in finding the right person to talk to 

    • Be ready with a statement of benefits: does this sound like something your company might need help with

  • Whos the best person in your company to talk to about this issue

  • Keep track of people you talk to, use name of referring person when you connect with contact

  • Have the right tone, get the person to want to help you, be more vulnerable and sincere

techniques to improve cold calls

• Key statistics approach

  • Powerful way to get attention with measurable results

  • Can increase productivity, lower costs

  • Helped x amount of companies

• Direct approach

  • Say who you are, your unique value proposition

  • You want to introduct yourself face to dace

• Referral approach

  • Most powerful

  • Turns cold cald to warm

• Planning id key

• Define ideal client profile and match to prospects

• Create organzied call guide

• Provide just enough information

beliefs that sabotage your cold calls

• “Im bothering my prospects”

  • Your calling attention to availability and importance

  • Helping prospects focus on what could solve a problem

• “They will not want to speak with me”

  • People always want to hear from people who can help

• “They probably already have a vendor”

  • Can you serve them better

  • Confirm prospect already made a good decision

• “No one wants to speak to a cold caller”

  • Matter of timing

  • Match changes in customers business

• “I hate cold calling”

  • Self-fulfilling prophecy

inescapable facts

• Reach out to more prospects

• Prospects can only say yes or no, dont take rejection personally

Cold call

• 3-5 minutes to try to get a meeting

LinkedIn company pages

• Company pages: linkedin profile for an organization

  • Learn more about a company you're interested in

• Company page components that has most potential for sales rep usability is access to company followers: represents the companies sphere of influence (influences by activity related to the company)

• Follow the company to get updates on the company: follower list next to follow button

• Why would someone follow a company

  • Look up the company

  • Interested in new product releases

  • Want to know about leadership changed

  • Insight on marketing tactics

  • Ex-employee

  • Just a fan

  • Etc

types of company followers

• Direct competitor: learn how competition is marketing, hiring, messaging, etc

• Like minded company: aspire to be like the company

• Partner: are/were connected to company (employees, vendors)

• Fans: not really relevant

oppportunity from company followers

• Think about past/current clients: we have access to their sphere of influence

• Their sphere of influence will want to hear what you have done for the company they follow

• They are hot prospects, likely interested in the work you have done for that company

• Give you the right people, interested in listening, a way to connect, and insight to their motivation

Harnessing the power of social media

• Social media enables companies to follow customer conversations and connect with prospects

• Implement a pull strategy

• Whitepapers and webinars: a good pull strategy

  • Share ideas on a specific topic

  • Create a value conversation

  • Collaborative and interactive experience

  • Attract prospects that are seeking specific products/services

• Websites and blogs: requires posting thoughts and studies to engage prospects and customers

• Social media initiatives take time: be patient

• Through interactions, sales professionals can provide vital information to prospective buyers, and build credibility within a community, resulting in a growing social community and sales opportunities

• Social media is not a replacement for traditional CRM, it is an extension of it

• Integrate most relevant and valuable social media information into current CRM to track new leads, opportunities, competitors, or key influencers to leverage connections and create new business

increasing sales through social media

• Using social media as a legitimate lead generation tool isn't as straightforward as it seems

• Social media is the worlds lens into you, if not done professionally it can diminish the value of your brand 

• Four tips to make the most out of social media presence and accelerate lead generation:

1. Update and professionalize your online profiles

   1. Step back and picture what you want your online profiles to say about you

   2. Ensure all contact and profile information is up to date and accurate

   3. One mistake is spending all of your time maximizing Linkedin, while ignoring other social media

2. Maintain an active presence

   1. Actively participate in groups and online conversations, post engaging content and comment on others posts where you can add value

   2. Do not do this randomly, focus on areas you are interested or have a unique perspective

   3. Focus your activity on adding value and benefiting the people you are trying to connect with

3. Develop your network

   1. Take the network seriously and make an effort to connect

   2. Courtesy can go a long way and make a larger impact that you might realize

   3. Give twice as often as you expect to get

4. Social media is only a tool

   1. Relying on digital tools alone is not enough

   2. Budget the appropriate amount of time to social media activities

   3. Look to high performing peers and managers to gauge the right role of social media

creating an effective linkedIn profile

• Your profile is a snapshot of the brand you're sharing with the world

  • Who you are, what you represent, your professional history, and your areas of expertise

• Objective is to optimize your profile so that someone will choose you over other search results

• What are your keywords

• Photo: profile pic makes you 7x more likely to be viewed by someone

  • Your choice of clothing should be what you would wear in the face of clients

• Name: post your entire name

• Headline: wording may determine if potential client connects with you

  • Enter searchable keywords to increase your visibility

  • Search for others with similar objectives or professional backgrounds

  • Make the 110 characters count

• Location: classify yourself as living where your market is

  • If you sell to a specific territory: make your zip code that territory

• Industry: choose the industry where the majority of your business is

  • Take a look at other professionals for inspo

• Summary: describe expertise in industry, product, or discipline

  • The best opportunity for branding yourself and your company

  • The most suitable place for searchable keywords

  • Ask your marketing department for a keyword-optimized template

• Experience: spend some effort to thoroughly write about experiences and areas of expertise at each company

  • Write in keyword rich terms

  • Complete your current position and at least two past positions

• Education: gives you opportunity to connect with alumni

  • Include and vocational education and certification courses

• Urls: include company website and landing page for specific product

  • Custom public profile url significantly increase search engine optimization of profile

• Contact info: share it, make it easy for clients to contact you

  • Consider including information on how best to contact you

  • When and how should people expect a response

profile completeness

The most important variable in the linkedin search algorithm is profile completeness

• Four levels: beginner, intermediate, expert, all star

• To get to all star: 

  • industry and location, 

  • current position with description, 

  • 2 past positions

  • Education

  • Minimum of 3 skills

  • Photo

  • At least 50 connections

connections

• True power of linkedin is creating a network of people you may not know in real life

• Create a large network, more connections, more opportunities for business

• Makes you appear more approachable, credible, and active

• Connect with former classmates, former and current colleagues, business partners, past and current clients, personal friends, anyone else youve come in with professional contact

• Linkedin allows you to upload email contents

• Age X 10 = minimum number of connections

seven tips to get good return from linkedin

1. Have clear purpose: know what you want to accomplish

2. Refine your profile

   1. Demonstrate yourself in a way that exudes confidence and opportunity for the people who might engage with you

   2. Brief, engaging, and accurate

3. Pick groups that matter

   1. Three good reasons to join a group: stay in touch with peers, learn more about an area of interest, stay abreast of happenings in particular industry

   2. Joining a group in hopes of promoting your service will be a waste of time and offensive

   3. Select truly relevant groups, set your digests for weekly and weed them constantly

4. Use your network

   1. Great tool for enhancing lunches and meetings

5. Dig deep into connections

   1. Every week, identify five connections out of your list that can bring you real value, and send them a brief but personal message to connect by phone. Look for ways you can help them in their journey

6. Personalize everything

   1. When requesting a connection, review their profile and tell them why its worth their time

   2. If accepting someone's invite, review their profile and suggest a simple way you can help them.

7. Ge generous in your interactions

   1. Be a giver in the community

   2. Dont spam

   3. Share information that truly has value to your connections

   4. Ask yourself, "Would I consider this to be thoughtful, relevant and presented with care?" 

prospecting with linkedin groups

• Groups: online communities for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to:

  • Share content

  • Find answers

  • Post and view jobs

  • Make business contacts

  • Establish themselves as industry experts

• You can join up to 50 groups, available to all members for free

• Discussions can be very interesting and important

• Finding the right groups

  • Industry, vertical, and territory

  • Buyer personas: find you best customers and people you aspire to be customers, what groups are they following, this is where they collect thought leadership

  • Topics, hobbies, and activities

• What will you gain from groups

  • Ability to get in touch with all members of all groups you join: list of prospects and a way to directly message them

  • Ability to follow these prospects and learn about them

  • Market insight: helps you stay in touch with industry trends and competition

• You have to be a contributing community member for social selling to work

• Don't just take from the group, bring value to the table

• Give, give, give in order to establish trust and gain respect

• Answer questions on message boards, contribute to active discussions, poor thought leadership back into the community

ethical behavior toward your employer

• Don't falsify expense reports

• Don't falsify calls/work activity

• Don't take proprietary customer lists/trade secrets when switching jobs

• Predetermine ethical boundaries before facing pressure

• If unsure: legal, HR, compliance officer, executive mentor

multi-threading. in b2b sales

Building relationships with multiple stakeholders instead of relying on one contact; protects deal if one contact leaves/loses influence.

wiring the RFP

Influencing needs/specifications early so the eventual RFP favors your solution's capabilities.

This feels like something he could specifically ask because it's a named concept.

cold call banned list

• How are you doing?”

• “How about that weather?”

• “Is this a good time?”

• “I'm sorry to bother you.”

• “Are you interested in X?”

• “I wanted to tell you about…”

Why?

They sound generic/transactional, focus on the seller, or give prospect an easy exit.

the time close

Ask for a small, specific commitment, rather than vaguely asking whether they want to meet.

Example: would tuesday at 10 work for a 10 minute conversation?

Specific day + time + duration.

multi-channel prospecting

Using multiple coordinated methods:

• Phone

• Email

• LinkedIn/social

• Professional/physical drops

Don't rely on one communication channel.