Learn how to dramatically grow your market share and sales through powerful alliances. This video blog will show you the alliances you need to cultivate and how to do so. Ron Karr shares a real life case story on how he was able to rally the troops, both internal and external, in order to save a deal and eventually close a blockbuster deal. Powerful video for any sales executive, provider of professional services, entrepreneur, small business owner and any executive looking to marshall the support of others.
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Posts Tagged ‘cold calling’
Dramatically Increase Sales and Market Share Through Powerful Alliances
Mindsets That Close Deals…
Getting people to accept your point of view or proposals depends on how well you portray confidence to the person that you are trying to influence. To close more deals and get people to do what you are asking, learn the mindsets from which you need to operate!
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Catch Phrases That Kill Deals
Want to Increase Your Level of Influence in All Areas of Your Life? Watch this video and avoid common catch phrases that will demotivate people from acting on your ideas. Please leave comments on the phrases you hear that just irritate you.
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Clear Vision Helps You Establish Leadership Market Position
Tim Seale, president of Timber Trading had built a successful wholesale lumber business. However, he realized there was going to be a limited premium that customers would be willing to pay to a middleman to facilitate deals between lumber yards and mills. The only way he would remain profitable was to add value to the process.
Tim decided to buy lumber and bring it to a warehouse where he could regrade it and create a product that exceeded industry acceptable standards. His company created a whole new packaging and labeling system that actually drove down inventory costs. He added a few more innovative products and services, until one day, his competitors realized Tim had created a new way of doing business.
Tim Seale is a visionary. He realized that a new vision was needed and that a whole new set of actions were required if he was to succeed in turning that vision into reality. It wasn’t easy, but he succeeded.
In these difficult times, what steps do you need to turn your vision into a reality?
How to Plan for the Future in Difficult Times
Timber Trading survived the housing downturn that crippled the building industry and the lumber industry. They understood the importance of visualizing the future and building a plan based on that future.
Here are questions to consider:
1. What changes do you see in your industry?
2. What ways can you improve your business and its way of doing business?
3. What can you do to set your company apart from competitors?
If you think the problem through, you’ll see the hidden opportunities that will help you reach your goals.
Your Capacity to Influence Others
The key to your success is the ability to influence others to accept your ideas, requests, etc. The good news is everyone has the capacity to influence others. All you have to do to harness the capacity is remove three self imposed obstacles that usually get in your way.
First obstacle is your belief that you cannot influence others. Anytime you think about what you cannot do, most often you will create that dreaded result as a self fulfilling prophecy. The mind cannot process the negative. If you think you cannot get that person to say yes, the mind is only thinking about that person saying no. Everything you do will be centered on that result and that’s how you produce a self fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, if you think about how this person is going to agree with you, then your mind is now thinking about a different end result and your actions will be different. Influence starts and ends with your mindset. Click here to read more on the beliefs that will enhance your success in life.
Second obstacle is your need to put your self-interests ahead of others. People act on things and ideas for their own reasons, not yours. Find out what people are trying to accomplish. Then show how your ideas/requests are going to help them achieve their goals. Do this often and your level of influence will increase significantly. Your ability to influence others does not lie in the words you use, but in the context in which you say them.
Third obstacle is the propensity to take rejection personally. When someone does not accept your ideas, they are not rejecting you. They simply do not feel it is in their best interests and that the risk vs. reward is too high. Stop allowing the stories in your mind to take over. Simply find out what’s missing for the person you are trying to influence and fill in that gap. Remember, people do things for their own reasons, not yours.
Bottom Line: Many times ideas are rejected not because they are bad, but because their value has not been properly communicated. Influence is about meeting the needs of others and helping them achieve their desired results. Concentrate on eliminating the three self imposed obstacles and watch your level of influence skyrocket. Click here to download three free chapters of a book that will help you increase your sphere of influence.
Please comment on this post and let us know what you have done to help incresae your sphere of influence.
Video Interview on How to Increase Your Sales and Put Your Competitors Out of Business
Video Interview on how a senior executive turned his sales team around and forced his competitor out of a market
Tweeting for Sales
In April of 2008, Steve Keating, Manager of Selling Skills at the Toro Company, heard me speak about using social media to build one’s sales. Already involved with Twitter, Steve had at the time a few hundred followers. After hearing the presentation, he decided to make it a key strategy in building both his personal brand and enhancing the value proposition of Toro.
Today, Steve enjoys a following of over 65,000 people! His twitter ID is @LeadToday. In building his list of followers, Steve employed 3 simple tactics:
1. Provide valuable ideas on how to be an effective leader
2. Re-tweet valuable ideas from others thereby expanding his network and leveraging other people’s wise thoughts
3. Show appreciation by thanking those who have re-tweeted his ideas and thoughts
This was a process that Steve has nurtured on a consistent and disciplined basis.
So how did Steve and Toro benefit from getting 65,000 followers? For one, it strengthened the relationships with dealers and distributors by providing ideas on how to grow their businesses. This resulted in Toro enhancing its overall value proposition and keeping its competitors at bay.
In addition, the brand of Toro was also enhanced. Imagine having 65,000 people interested in leadership reading Steve’s daily tweets on a consistent basis. How much would it cost Toro to get this kind of exposure on a daily basis using other media outlets? With Twitter the total cost can be rounded to the grand sum total of zero dollars. Add to this the flexibility of customizing messages to events happening real time. This by itself makes Toro and Steve more relevant to the market place.
Finally, the connections Steve has made around the world with other leadership experts exposes him to additional ideas and concepts he can easily import into his organization thereby making him more valuable to Toro’s success and enhancing his own personal brand.
This is the power of Twitter. Notice how Steve does not sell his products in his tweets. He simply builds value which in turn creates buzz that generates business.
Congratulations Steve. And thank you for recommending Lead, Sell or Get Out of the Way to your list.
Customization the Key to Extraordinary Sales Results
Retailers like Sam’s Club and CVS have figured out that huge profits come from customization. Using discounts to track results, Sam’s Club achieved a 1-2 percent acceptance of generic discounted offers.
Realizing it had a trove of information regarding buying habits and the purchasing history of each customer, it developed a new program called eValues. It gives each buyer discounts on the items they normally purchase. This customization has led to an acceptance rate of discounts between 20-30%, a dramatic increase from the generic discounts’ acceptance rate.
Customers want and expect vendors to know their wants and needs. In sales, this means asking the right questions, doing the right research and listening.
If you conduct sales using the old school method of talking too much about the features you have to offer, you are going to lose the deal. Find out the outcomes they are after and then only talk about the features they are interested in. Customize the solution so they will accept your offer. This strategy is crucial to being competitive and closing more business in less time.
To learn more about this subject, please join me on Monday, October 3rd at 2pm ET for a free webinar where we will show you how to engage alliances as well as other strategies to immediately grow your sales. Click here to reserve your free seat now!
Check Out the November Sales Success Summit ’11 in Orlando Florida, an event destined to dramatically increase your sales success. Spend two days with me and I will personally customize ideas that have generated millions of dollars for my clients to your selling environment. This is a small group. Two days of personalized attention. Reserve your seat today by clicking here!
Appreciate the Living, Not Just the Dearly Departed
Something happened this weekend that reminds us all that we should not only appreciate the ultimate sacrifices made by our brave men and women fighting for our freedom, but also take time to thank the living and show our appreciation for all that they have done to help us achieve our successes.
The incident I am referring to is the untimely passing of the legendary child actor Gary Coleman. The child star of Different Strokes stormed into our living rooms in the early 1980’s, broke down racial barriers and touched the hearts of many with his loveable and sassy personality. Unfortunately, after the show Different Strokes went off the air, Gary’s fortunes came to an abrupt end and the rest of his life was saddled with financial and personal woes.
You may ask how this is different from all the other stories of child actors who could not smoothly transition into adult life. What’s different is not so much Gary’s story, but the untold story of how his loved ones wished they had repaired their relations with him and his wife before it was too late.
Gary sued his parents and manager for allegedly mishandling his earnings from Different Strokes. Estranged from his parents at the time of his pre-mature death on Friday, his mother told the Associated Press that she had prayed that “nothing like this would happen before we could sit with Gary and Shannon and say, ‘We’re here and we love you.’ ”
We have Memorial Day to thank and remember those who made the Ultimate Sacrifice. We have Thanksgiving to give thanks for all of our riches.
We have 362 days a year to thank everyone who has made a difference in our lives and to simply say we love you. Use each and every one of those days to give thanks. Saying thank you and showing appreciation while people are alive allows them to experience your true heartfelt feelings. Don’t wait until it’s too late and you are then forced to say “I wish I only said…..”
Biggest Mistake Sales Managers Make
In the gym of my daughter’s high school (Northern Valley Old Tappan-NVOT), there is a banner that reads-
Welcome to NVOT-Where sportsmanship is an expectation. So please let the players play. Let the coaches coach. Let the officials officiate. Let the spectators be positive.
This sign caught my eye because all too often I see people in leadership roles who don’t understand what they are supposed to be doing. For example, sales mgrs often travel with sales reps and usually take over the call under the guise of trying to get the deal. I know we must close the business. However, the true role of the sales manager is not only to come in and save the day, but to also coach his people on how to effectively sell. That means letting the salesperson do the talking so you can see where the gaps are. Then, once the call is over, the mgr should review the call, identify the gaps and provide guidance. Then go on to the next call and do the same process.
This is critical because if the sales manager always closes the deal, then the salesperson never really gets trained on how to do it and will not be able to do it when the sales manager is not there.
Bottom line. Are people in your organization really doing the things they are supposed to be doing. If not, the growth of the business is at stake. Like the sign says- Let the players play, let the coaches coach, etc.
If you want to give your salespeople a great education on how to double, triple or quadruple their sales, check out Lead, Sell or Get Out of the Way and our Two Day Sales Boot Camp Happening in Two Weeks!
