Understanding the Sales Force

You are driving down the highway and see an enormous truck in your side mirror.  The truck is moving very fast - twice your speed - and closing in quickly.  You continue to look in the mirror and because of the way your side mirror is shaped, it appears that the closer the truck gets, the more likely it seems that the truck will simply run right over you.  You accelerate a little, keeping watch on that mirror and then it happens.  You miss the sharp bend in the road and drive off the cliff.

This short story is the real-world equivalent to something which often occurs with your salespeople.  There are new opportunities to be targeted, as well as opportunities which already populate the pipeline.  The most promising of the existing opportunities seem to get most of the salesperson's attention.  One particular call causes the salesperson to become so excited that she devotes the rest of the week to developing an appropriate solution, value proposition, ROI, proposal and presentation.  She is so focused on this opportunity that she forgets all about what is up ahead.  Post-presentation and proposal, she begins making follow-up calls and over the course of the next month goes into full-chase mode.  When it finally sinks in that this prospect is not returning calls, has gone missing, and won't be buying anything from her soon, it's too late.  She neglected to continue filling her pipeline, has neglected to line up new opportunities, not stayed in touch with other opportunities in her pipeline and drove off the cliff.

It happens all the time.

It's not the salesperson's fault.

That's what sales managers are supposed to be doing.  Sales Managers must not only help, but hold their salespeople accountable to being focused on the right activities and behaviors, at the right time, on the right opportunities, and for the right reasons.  They must also provide coaching on each opportunity so the salesperson can see what is in front of them and avoid falling off the cliff.

Corporate Developments: Cold Calling Tips: #1 + Communication + Strategy

Corporate Developments: Cold Calling Tips: #1 + Communication + Strategy: Custom-tailored a sale lead generation system for your organization with effective sales guidelines for each industry sector you are targ...

Cold Calling Tips: #1 + Communication + Strategy

Custom-tailored a sale lead generation system for your
organization with effective sales guidelines for each industry
sector you are targeting and a series of unique prospecting
activities.
Develop your business communication strategy - This must
convey your telemarketing services message through a
focused presentation dialogue that uses all the various sales
techniques available to you; your prospective customers and
clients must see enough value in your sales presentation
that they are willing to let you continue with the
conversation, and most importantly, the delivery of the
message must create a memorable lasting experience
associated with the product or service provided.
Your ultimate aim is to make them feel good about your
products or services.

Corporate Developments: Small Business Marketing Tips

Corporate Developments: Small Business Marketing Tips: As a business owner, you should be constantly searching for small business marketing tips that can be used in your business. This will ens...

Small Business Marketing Tips

As a business owner, you should be constantly searching for small business marketing tips that can be used in your business. This will ensure that your marketing efforts are always fresh and relevant. We have collected some of the best small business marketing tips that every owner should know.

Appeal to emotions because emotion almost always wins over reason. 
In your marketing messages, whether they are print, online, video or other, appeal to the emotions of your audience. If you make your audience feel something, that feeling will certainly win out over reason. It is much easier to evoke sentiments than it is to win an argument.

Invest more in your online marketing that in any other type of marketing. 
While there is more to small business marketing than online marketing, it is the most important component today. Increasing numbers of consumers use the Internet to research and make decisions on their purchases. If you do not have a solid online presence, you do not exist for a large portion of your target audience. Therefore, you need to make sure you have a great website; traffic is being sent to it; and you are working the leads you get from your online marketing. Effective online marketing takes time, commitment and consistency.

Maintain a dialogue with your clients. 

Find out what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong, as well as what you are not doing at all by having a dialogue with your clients. To do so, establish and maintain Twitter, Facebook  and LinkedIn accounts that you use regularly; do surveys; blog; visit industry forums; and more. Any time you have an opportunity to communicate with your clients and would-be clients, whether in person or virtually, do so. That is where you will find the most valuable information about what exactly they want and how you can meet their needs better. This is one of the most valuable small business marketing tips you can get.

Focus on existing customers. 

Those who have already bought from you are very likely to do so again. Make sure that you have a marketing plan in place to stay in contact with existing customers and entice them to come back. It costs a lot less to retain a client than it does to get a new one.

Use word of mouth promotion.

Word of mouth seems very much like an old-fashioned type of marketing method and one that leaves a lot to chance. But in today’s technological world, that is not the case. Offer incentives for existing customers to refer you to their friends and family. With Twitter or Facebook, it is easy to track who is being referred by whom. Make it worth the while for the referrer.

By Charlie Rudd Corporate Developments.

Time Management on the Job and Be More Productive

Time management is a skill you can improve. To improve your time management skills, you need to know what to focus on, and how to focus.

Here are ten ways you can use to improve your time management skills over time:

• Work on the high ROI stuff. Apply Pareto’s Principle (The “80/20 Rule”). Work on the 20% of activities that produce the 80% of your results. For example, rather than just do a lot of tasks just because they are easy to do, ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish?” Chances are you can find smarter or better plays, with more leverage or more impact. Trade-up, and do less to accomplish more.

• Team up. Pair up with other people and improve your own effectiveness. Ask yourself, “Who can I team up with to get results? How can I build more effective teams? Who should be paired up on the team for best results?” By pairing up, you create a team of capabilities and you can amplify your results. This can also help you get over your own personal bottlenecks, by finding complimentary skills. Worst case, you can make common chores, more fun.

• Create clarity. Ask yourself, “Who, what, when, where, why, how?” Having clarity of mind makes it easy to focus on what’s important. It also makes it easy to know where you are in the process. The bottom line is, clarity saves you time.

• Clear your mind. Carry a small pad for tasks, notes and ideas. When you declutter your mind, you make it easier to act on your ideas, and you have more of your attention available to focus where it counts.

• Don’t dwell on the past. Catch the next train. Keep your trains leaving the station. When you miss one, don’t hold your train back. Instead, catch the next one.

• Learn how to scan. Find and focus on what’s important faster. By scanning before drilling, you can figure out where to invest more of your time. You can also avoid spending too much time following dead end trails.

• Make minor decisions quickly. Don’t spend $20 on a $5 problem. Decisions take energy. If you over-invest in small decisions, then you waste your time and energy.

• Periodically evaluate how you’re using your time. Remember that time changes what’s important. Your current schedule may be a slave to your past priorities, or may conflict with your current goals.
• Give yourself less time for things. Remember Parkinson’s Law – Work expands to fill the time available to completion. To waste less time, give yourself less time.

• Use The Rule of Three. Use The Rule of Three to avoid getting overwhelmed. Limit yourself to three things and think in threes. For example, identify three wins to focus on for the day, or three wins to focus on for the week. Use these three wins to improve your focus and create compelling results.

Corporate Developments: Law of Attraction- A thought process.

Corporate Developments: Law of Attraction- A thought process.: One of the largest complaints when it comes to the Law of Attraction and the movie The Secret is that they don't focus enough on one k...

Law of Attraction- A thought process.

One of the largest complaints when it comes to the Law of Attraction and the movie The Secret is that they don't focus enough on one key element - Action. It makes sense that we can't just sit on our couches and THINK a million pounds into reality so WHY does the Law of Attraction work and how can you make it work for your own situation?

When you begin to break down the Law of Attraction, the concept that like attracts like, you can see where the action piece comes in. "The Law of Attraction argues that active thoughts attract to it likened experiences." - Wikipedia. We already have the active piece built in. However, let's take it a step further.

Law of attraction really becomes powerful when the thoughts are actively controlled into a mechanism of thought that brings forth further action. Here's the process.

• Gratitude - the act of being grateful requires thought. Gratitude for all of the little things in your life, specifically focusing on the small pieces of what you are trying to attract, requires conscious action. You must ponder that which you want and being to see it existing in your life already. Example: Let's say you want a new car. The first act is to focus on all of the wonderful things about the mode of transportation you currently have. Enjoy everything about it in every way.

• Awareness - being grateful brings to your awareness all that is good within your life now and all the wonderful things that come into your life regularly. By consciously being grateful, you begin to see more wonderful opportunities present themselves within your life. It's like when you do buy a new car and all of a sudden every third car on the road is the same model. Why didn't you notice that before? Example: In your desire to own a new car, you began to enjoy riding the bus. You enjoyed meeting the people on the bus and the exercise of walking to the bus stop. You were then presented with a friend that wanted to sell their bike they never use. This is a step up to you and you recognized the opportunity and jumped on it.

• Seeking - Once you begin to be aware of the things that are coming your way through gratitude, you will start to seek out more opportunities. Now you aren't only noticing those same model cars but actually taking action by looking for more of them as if you started your own game of punch bug with your model car! Example: Now that you have a wonderful bike, you begin to see the possibilities. You start looking in the Auto-Trader and online for the car you want. You are actively seeking out what will move you forward in your goal.

• Adjust - Sometimes, as we begin to actively look for what we want and discover what it will take to acquire it, we must adjust. Sometimes we must adjust what we want based on the fact that we now have a clearer picture of what it will take to get it and sometimes we must adjust ourselves to become the person that can obtain what we truly want.

• CELEBRATE! Often overlooked. We don't celebrate our victories nearly enough. When the reward is great, the effort is worth it. Make the reward EXTRAORDINARY!

Corporate Developments: Defining Innovation.

Corporate Developments: Defining Innovation.: Defining Innovation How do you define innovation? If I were to ask a room of people (from the same organisation) how they define i...

Defining Innovation.

Defining Innovation

How do you define innovation?

If I were to ask a room of people (from the same organisation) how they define innovation, the changes are that each person will provide a different answer. In order for companies to execute innovation through the launch of products or services with value to their target audience, they have to have a clear definition of innovation, which is clearly communicated across the organisation.

A definition of innovation needs to have an alignment with the overall company strategy. Without this alignment and a sense of strategic intent, innovation can prove difficult to accomplish, due to lack of understanding and direction from people who are active in innovation within the organisation.
However, do be aware of a mistake that can be made – viewing innovation as a strategy; instead, innovation should be viewed as an enabler to a strategy.

To aid in defining innovation, it can be useful to think of aspects such as; are you wanting to execute incremental (small changes based on existing products and services) or game changing (completely new changes to the market) innovations?

One of the clearest definitions of innovation I have read is 3M's: The use or application of creativity to generate a new or novel output having value for customers.

What is your definition of innovation?

A new angle on Lead Generation:
 
Finding good B2B leads has been and always will be difficult. With all the competition constantly popping up like mushrooms, it’s not a wonder as to why you’ll have a hard time with making your brand known within your target market. But with social media, you can still do that. Rather than sticking to just direct marketing approaches like B2B telemarketing and email/direct mail marketing, businesses have taken to the Internet and have begun to promote their brand on social networks. Because of the fact that millions of users are online everyday, it makes being seen by your target market and prospects all the more easier. If you are selling a product that the public is looking for, then they will certainly find you. If you are offering a service that many are in need of, the same goes for you. Nowadays, people spend most of their time online in order to research about products and services they may be in need of. That being said, your company may just pop up in the search results when they open up Google. Establishing your presence online and using social media marketing is now part of the key to your success, as well as a new avenue you can learn to use for lead generation.

Online presence – As per what has been said, establishing an online presence is part of how a company can and will succeed in today’s B2B world. Without a strong online presence, or at least the capability to be found online, then a company will be stuck in a rut where they don’t generate leads and not even make sales. People nowadays just adore search engines. If they are looking for something, then off they go to Google, Yahoo!, or to Bing. A few keystrokes after they hit the search engines and next thing you know, they’re looking at an entire list of results. However, they usually only ever stay and rely on the results on the first page. So if you don’t have a strong online presence, your position in search engine results will, of course, be relative to your ranking. If you want your B2B leads to find your company, then establishing your presence online will definitely aid you in lead generation as well as to draw in more business opportunities.
These are just of a few reasons why social media is becoming one of the biggest things in both B2C, and B2B marketing in the present time. What’s your take on why social media marketing is a hit?
By Charlie Rudd, Corporate Developments.