Alice Heiman LLC » Sales Coaching

Where Did I Get This Business Card?

Alice Heiman — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:25:19 +0000

Here I sit, the queen of follow up, writing a post about follow up because the past few weeks I have failed miserably at it. Everyone blocks time on their calendar to attend an event, whether it be a trade show, conference or a professional organization’s networking event. But rarely do they schedule time to do the follow up. I always recommend putting time on the calendar the next day after the event to sort through the business cards and a take appropriate actions. But the past few weeks I have been so busy, I now have 3 stacks of business cards from recent events that are collecting dust. Well this weekend I plan to do something about that and I thought I would share my plans with you and give you the list of follow up activities so that you can use them the next time you have follow up to do from networking.

Schedule time to do the follow up! The very most important tip and the one I failed to do recently. Block at least two opportunities for follow up in the 2 to 3 days following the event. That way if something comes up and usurps the first scheduled time you have another planned.
Pre-plan you follow up. Think about why you are going to the event, what you hope to accomplish, the types of people you will meet and use that information to decide what you will do to follow up. You may end up drafting an email that you can tailor after the event or prepare a postcard with a specific message. Or you may craft a message that you will cut and paste into a LinkedIn or Facebook email. You might write an article that pertains to the event and prepare to post it on your blog and then email that link out after the event or post it on the corresponding LinkedIn group.
Use your smartphone. This works really well when I am at a conference. As I collect cards throughout the day I use the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn apps on my phone to connect with people. I also use Card Munch, which allows you to take a photo of the card with your smartphone and add it to your database.
Hire Someone. If you don’t have an assistant, hire someone to enter the contacts into your database so that you can easily contact them. I do have an assistant, so I write on the business cards and then bundle them together with a note of where I collected them. Then my assistant enters the data and a note for each that reminds me where I met them and any notes I may have written on the card.

Networking is one of the easiest and most effective ways for salespeople and small business owners to generate leads but it is ineffective if you don’t do the follow up. If you would like to learn more about how to get connected at networking events, join me for my webinar Networking Mastery for Sales Professionals on December 8th at 2:30 (ET). You can register now and save 20%.

Gain Advantage in a Down Market: Tips for Boosting Sales

Alice Heiman — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 05:08:42 +0000

Small businesses are struggling to generate sales in this difficult economy. Read more for some tips for surviving— even thriving— in tough times.

It’s Not What or How, It’s Why

Alice Heiman — Sat, 07 May 2011 23:08:02 +0000

It’s not what we do or how we do it but why that differentiates us. Today I was on the radio show Bosma on Business. Mike asked us what’s the number one thing that will increase sales? I agreed with all the answers they gave as things that will help you increase sales but in my opinion the number one thing that has to come before all the others is that you have to believe you can increase sales. And in order to believe that, you have to believe that what you are selling has value and that people need it because it will make a difference and have a significant impact on what they are trying to accomplish. This is why in a small business or a start up the owner or founders frequently tell me that they out sell their sales team. Of course they do, they have incredible passion and refuse to fail. If they are still outselling their sales team maybe they have failed to engage them fully in their mission or to help them understand why they started the business and why it matters. Their salespeople are out selling what the company does and how they do it, instead of why. This requires passion. The business owner needs to be an inspiring leader to instill this in the salespeople. If the salespeople love what they do and believe fully in the company and its products the sales will follow. Of course they need training and coaching but all the training and coaching in the world won’t help salespeople exceed quota if they don’t believe. I am reading a great book that explains this very well, Start With Why by Simon Sinek. I highly recommend every business owner and everyone who has to sell read this book.

Think of it this way, the selling doesn’t start until you suspect a need. How would you come to suspect a need? By getting to know the person. By asking questions and listening. Once they say they are interested you can start learning more and educating them but instead of telling them the features and benefits of your product and trying to differentiate your product from others what if you helped them understand why your company does what it does, why you love your job and why you believe in your offerings. You would be getting them excited and engaged. Why you do what you do can differentiate you and help people understand why they should buy from you.

Here’s an example.

How: I sell sales training, coaching and consulting.

What: I help companies increase sales.

Why: I believe that every company can have all the sales they need.

The last one is more engaging. It’s emotional. Every business owner and salesperson I know wants to have all the sales they need. Think about how you can help your customers and prospects understand your “why”. If you are having trouble with that give me a shout at answers@aliceheiman.com or call me at 775-852-5020.

Is Your Sales Person Onboarding Program Causing Underperformance?

Alice Heiman — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:13:52 +0000

I was listening to this Sales Management Minute from my colleague, Lee Salz and it will really hit home with small business owners and managers. I posted this response to him on LinkedIn and thought I would share it with you because so many companies have struggled with hiring and onboarding salespeople.

Onboarding salespeople is one of the toughest things my small businesses face. They flat out don’t do it because they don’t understand what needs to be done. A few months later they are complaining that their salesperson isn’t performing. Large companies often have the luxury of hiring several salespeople at one time and sending them through two weeks of product and company training. That is a start and their manager gets them. In companies large and small it would behoove them to have a formal onboarding process with a check list of things the salesperson needs to become proficient at in order to sell successfully for their company. Notice I said, “for their company” and that is because that salesperson may have been great for the last company but now they are at your company and it is different and they need to learn their new selling job and all the nuances. Onboarding is only going to work if the right person was hired in the first place so I recommend taking a step back and looking at your hiring process. If you hire right, onboarding will be more successful.

In my opinion the onboarding process needs to start with learning the people and the culture of the organization and that can happen simultaneously with product training. Then shadowing a successful salesperson and in a small company that can sometimes be the business owner. Once the salesperson is ready to start selling someone needs to shadow him for a week or so to be sure things are going well, tell him what he is doing right and make corrections. I’ll like to call the customers and prospects that he called on to see what their experience has been and get their feedback. I also like to talk to all of the people at the company that the new salesperson interacts with and get their impressions. My goal is to make this salesperson successful and avoid problems down the road. It’s easier to give feedback and make corrections in the first few months before bad habits set in. I’m sure people reading this are thinking this is too much and takes too much time. I’ve heard many sales managers and business owners say, “I hired him because he knew how to sell, why do I need to teach him to sell.” They think product training is enough. If you have a process for onboarding it actually takes very little extra time, it saves you thousands of dollars and gets your salesperson generating revenue more quickly.

Read more on this topic in my article, Why Your New Salesperson Isn’t Selling Anything

More Great Tips from Sam Horn

Alice Heiman — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:59:08 +0000

There are so many e-newsletters out there and not enough time to read them all. Trying to find the ones that are worthwhile is difficult. I have a few favorites and Sam Horn’s is one of them. Her recent article How Can I Turn a No into a Yes? is an excellent read. I have re-posted it below. If you haven’t already, please purchase her book POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd and visit her website for more great information www.samhorn.com.

How Can I Turn a No into a Yes? by Sam Horn

During a recent Win Buy-In: Get Anyone Intrigued in Anything in 60 Seconds workshop I gave in Europe, a participant raised his hand and asked, “What can we do if we anticipate our decision-maker is going to say no? Do you have a way to turn that into a yes?” “Certainly. What do you have in mind?”“Well, my son is on a traveling soccer team. We just hired a professional player to coach his team and we need to raise money for his salary.”“So, how are you planning to do that?’“Well, we’re going to approach our local bookstore, but we know the owner gets hit up for donations all the time.”

“Good for you. You’re already half way to winning buy-in because you’ve already put yourself in the shoes of your decision-maker and read his mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ironically, the key to getting a yes is to ask yourself, ‘Why will they say no?”

“Why is that so important?”

“If you don’t voice your decision-makers’ objections right at the start, they won’t be listening to you – they’ll just be waiting for you to stop talking so they can tell you why this won’t work.”

“How can I do that in this situation?”

“Let’s read the mind of this bookseller. The good news is, I know this industry pretty well because I Emceed the Maui Writers Conference for 17 years (MWC was to the publishing industry what Cannes is to the film industry). I know how booksellers think and what’s important to them.”

He said, “Ok, how do they think and what’s important to them?

“What’s important to every retail business owner – whether that’s a bookstore, dry cleaner, florist or restaurant – is having paying customers onsite or online buying their services and products.

What they don’t like is people taking up their valuable work time asking them for money without offering something in return.”

“That makes sense. How do I do that?”

“Here’s how. When you walk into the store, wait until the owner is finished taking care of paying customers so you’re not pulling him away from his #1 priority.

Then, make sure the first words out of your mouth are, “I know you’re busy, and may I have 3 minutes of your time?”

“Three minutes?!”

“Yes, putting a time parameter around your request immediately lets the owner know you’re aware of his busy schedule. It increases the likelihood he’ll give you his time of day.”

“Then what?”

“Use the magic words, ‘I can only imagine . . . ‘ as in “I can only imagine how many times you get asked for donations by local organizations.”

“What does that do?”

“He’s probably too polite to mention it, but it lets him know you know the school band, scout troop and local charities are constantly asking for donations.

It shows you’re not just thinking of what you want, you’re empathizing with what it must be like to be put in this challenging situation where he’s pressured to give to every worthy cause that walks in his door.”

“What do I say next?”

“Immediately jump in to how you’re going to make this a win for him. Say, ‘So I’d like to propose an event that draws people to your store, boosts your sales and gives you lots of positive press.”

The participant smiled and said, “That probably would get his interest.”

“You’re right. It at least motivates him to keep listening because this time-sensitive approach is so rare and welcome.

Then say, “I’d be glad to arrange for a professional soccer player who’s written a successful book to appear at your store on the day of your choice for a book signing/mini-seminar. In fact, in exchange for becoming a financial sponsor for our youth soccer team, we’d be glad to put your logo on our team jerseys.”

The participant asked, “What if he isn’t convinced? Anything else I can do to turn a potential no into a yes?”

“Yes, continue to put yourself in his shoes. Ask yourself, ‘What matters to him? What else would make it easy for him to say yes?’ Chances are, asking these questions will help you think of even more ways to make it a double win.”

The participant thought for a moment and then said, “I know. My friend is a reporter for the local paper. We could ask her to interview the soccer pro and cover this event so the bookseller gets lots of publicity. He could put the clipping up in his store to show how he supports his community.”

“Great, but don’t stop there. Keep brainstorming. Anything else?”

His eyes lit up. “Yah. One of our team parents owns his own internet marketing company. I bet he’d be glad to blog about this and promote it to his social media network so even more people are aware of it and show up.”

“Good idea. That will put even more ‘cheeks in the seats.’ Keep thinking, because the more ways you can make this a win for him, the more likely he is to say yes.

For example, if one of your team parents is a good photographer, you can sweeten the pot by saying you’d be happy to arrange for someone to take photos of the soccer pro with customers in front of the bookstore’s logo for $5 a pop. That money will go toward the soccer team, making it even more of a successful fund-raiser . . . plus, it would give the bookseller a long tail of good will because those photos will stay on people’s refrigerators for a long, long time.

Notice, all the above actions benefit the bookseller and your son’s team. That’s the beauty of this approach. When you create a win for everyone involved; you’re more likely to get a yes.”

Want more ways to quickly win buy-in to a priority project? Join us for Sam Horn’s April 12 teleseminar on Win Buy-In: Get Anyone Intrigued in Anything . . . in 60 Seconds.

8 Questions You Need the Answer to Before you Can Close the Deal

Alice Heiman — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 04:26:43 +0000

Closing the deal doesn’t have to be hard. It starts with building a solid relationship with the people who will make the decision, clearly understanding their needs, matching your offering to their needs to show them the fit, providing your offering for a fair price and asking for the business. (Not to over simplify, I know there are demos, trials, proposals and other things that need to happen in some cases.)

You have t0 do the hard work but I promise you, if you do it closing will be easier and I also promise that closing will be hard to do if you don’t have the answer to the following 8 questions.

What is your budget?
Who else besides yourself will be involved in making the decision?
What is the best way to include everyone involved in the decision making process?
What is your timeline for implementation?
What is your timeline for making a decision?
How will our solution meet your needs?
What other solutions have you considered?
On what factors will you make your decision?

Many times salespeople tell me they are having trouble closing a deal. I ask them to tell me the situation and the answers to those questions. Typically, they can’t answer all of them but they were ready to close. Once they go back and ask those questions they are usually able to move the sale forward or at least understand why the sale is stalled.

Make it part of your sales call planning to ask these questions at the appropriate times and confirm the answers. If you do, closing will be much easier.

SellingPower Blog

Alice — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:55:57 +0000

I always enjoy reading Gerhard’s blog. This link is to The 10 Best Books to Read in 2010.

http://sellingpower.typepad.com/gg/2009/12/the-10-best-books-to-read-in-2010-part-i-.html