Why does everyone stop work this time of year?

My good friend Caryn Kopp wrote a great article on why it is so important for salespeople to keep working during November and December.   I have started with several new clients this month and I am doing lots of follow up to move sales through my funnel. Caryn outlines 5 reasons to keep prospecting in December.

Fill Your Pipeline In December

Why spend the last two weeks of December cleaning out files when you could be filling next year’s pipeline with new business?  Most business owners and salespeople believe that trying to reach prospects at year-end is pointless and instead spend time getting organized for the coming year.   In doing this, they miss out on one of the best times of the year to reach decision makers live.  Here’s what we’ve learned about prospecting in December…

1. Companies have fewer internal meetings during the last two weeks of the year due to employee vacations and mid-day holiday parties.  This means decision makers are more likely to be working at their desks and available when you call.
2. Many assistants take year-end time off (especially if they have school-age children), leaving decision makers to answer their own phones…without gatekeepers.
3. Decision makers who are in their offices at this time of year are more relaxed and chatty.
4. Your competitors don’t think this way.  They usually stop calling prospects the 2nd week of  December.  Your “share of voice” when leaving voicemails and reaching prospects live will be higher and you will get more accomplished with each call.
5. Decision makers will typically not accept a meeting from mid to end of December. However, if you request a date to meet NEXT year (which is just days away), their  calendars are usually wide open.  Ask for a meeting in early January and watch your calendar fill up.

This works especially well with hard-to-reach and senior level decision makers.  Connecting with prospect decision makers is just the first step in getting the door open.  Once you have a prospect on the phone you will need to deliver a content-rich message that is so relevant and compelling your prospect will invite you in for a meeting.  Does the message you are using now accomplish this for you?  Of course you must also be prepared to answer the objections that will inevitably come your way.  How much time have you spent pre-thinking answers that will get you past the objections you face?  Don’t forget to couple your objection response with a request for a next step.  How often do you do this?  What are you planning to do to develop new business this December?

About the author…Caryn Kopp, is the Managing Director and Chief Door Opener® of Kopp Consulting, LLC., a nationwide company which helps its clients secure initial meetings with high level, hard to reach, decision makers.  This program is called the Door Opener® Service.  Caryn is the author of The Path To The Cash! ®  The Words You NEED To Bypass Those Darned Prospect Objections!  This is the go-to book for getting in the door with prospects.  For more information go to www.koppconsultingusa.com.  

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

When people ask me if they should be on LinkedIn I always ask, “Is anyone you do business with or want to do business with on LinkedIn?”  If the answer is yes, then you need to be on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a very powerful tool when used correctly.  But just “being” on LinkedIn is not enough. Having a profile on LinkedIn will get you about the same thing as going to a party and standing in the corner. Someone might come up to you but you can’t expect any results. If you want to get results you have to learn to utilize the tool and interact.

Having a complete profile is the bare minimum. Review your profile. Be sure it is complete and represents you well. I find so many people without a photo. To be effective you need a current headshot. A photo that looks like you so that someone who has met you in person would recognize you.

Next you need connections. A big mistake many people make is connecting with people they don’t know. What good is a long list of people you don’t know? What can you do with it? The idea is to build a strong useful network. One that you can reach out to for help. That means you need to know them and they need to know you, like you and trust you. Only then will the network be useful to you.

Here are my recommendations for building a strong network.

1. Connect with people you know. Start with friends, family and co-workers, then add clients and past clients. Add people you meet networking and people in your professional organizations. Don’t try to connect with people you don’t know. That comes later and it will be much easier and more effective once you have connected with everyone you do know.

2. Make it personal. Always send a personalized note, even if you know the person well. The idea is to connect and build the relationship. Example:

Hi John,
It was great to see you at the business networking event last night.  I’d like to talk to you further about the technology group you mentioned.  Let’s get connected on LinkedIn so we can share our networks. I look forward to talking again soon.
Best Regards,
Alice

3.Interact just like you would in real life. Login to LinkedIn daily. Answer emails, post your activity, and check out what people in your network are sharing and click “Like” or make a comment. Find more people you know and get connected.

4. Get involved with some groups. Notice I didn’t say join. Joining is not enough. You won’t get results. You have to get involved in the discussions and share valuable information. When people you don’t know from that group interact with you it gives you a reason to ask them to connect which widens your network. Find professional organizations that you belong to and join their groups on LinkedIn. Join your alumni association. Then search for other groups that would be interesting for you to belong to. This is one of the best ways to connect with people you don’t know.

5. Ask for introductions. If there is someone you don’t know that you want to be connected with find someone who knows you, likes you and trusts you to introduce you. This is much more effective than sending a connection request to someone who doesn’t know you. To increase the likelihood of being connected to people you don’t know by someone you do, you have to spend time getting connected and strengthening relationships with people you know. So go back to point 1 and 2 above.

Once you have done these things, LinkedIn will be a powerful way to stay connected with people you know, develop stronger relationships and get connected with people you want to know.

Read more to learn how to get people to follow your company on LinkedIn.

If your company needs sales training on how to use LinkedIn to get connected and build relationships we offer training webinars  or onsite training tailored to your industry.  Please call 775-852-5020 for more information.

This article is published in this month’s Start Up, a special edition of Entrepreneur Magazine from my interview with Katie Rossomano. It’s available at your  local bookstore or online.

Most entrepreneurs know networking is important, but they may not realize just how crucial it is to the success of their new venture.

“Building a network helps entrepreneurs get their product to market and get the right people in place,” says Alice Heiman, networking and sales expert and author of e-book Connecting Your Way to New Business. Heiman suggests five basic rules for building a trusted network that will help your startup succeed.  Read more . . .

I just finished reading Gerhard Gschwandtner’s 9/21 blog post,  Social Media Is Getting Tired…Social Business Is the New Frontier . I can really relate to the term Social Business.  I agree with Gerhard that social media is looked at as a waste of time and in many instances it can be.  However, for salespeople being present and interacting on social media is a must but the way they do it is critical.  As I’ve said many times, if you put up a profile on any of the social media channels and just sit there, it’s like going to a room full of all the people you need to know and standing in a corner.  Although someone might come up to you, your odds are not good so it’s basically a waste of time.  Utilizing social media channels to build relationships is a good use of time.  Using it to follow thought leaders in your industry and interact with them, and using it to follow trends in your industry and your customer’s industries is critical.  Social media makes it easier than ever to do these things.  Salespeople need to be connecting, interacting, building relationships and sharing knowledge which will all lead to sales.  But as Gerhard points out, “The big question is, why aren’t more salespeople getting with the program?” He shares some things he learned from his conversations with successful sales executives. Click here to read Gerhard’s blog.

And if you are not already subscribed to Selling Power Magazine, I highly recommend it. Their website has a wealth of information for salespeople and those who manage sales.

If you would like to learn how to do Social Business to get more sales, call me for a complimentary 30 minute phone consultation 775-852-5020.

It never hurts to go back to basics and  regroup.  When it comes to social media, things are changing so fast it is tough to keep up.  Here are 8 tips to help you look at your social media plan in a basic way that will help you excel.

1. Take a look at your current marketing plan and review the ways you are reaching your target market.  Ask yourself, what’s getting you results and what’s not?

2. Think about your ideal customer, what social media platforms are they using?  Look at the demographics of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and any others and see if they match those you are trying to reach.  Ask your current customers what social media platforms they frequent.

3. Take a look at your competitors, how are they using social media?

4. Think about your brand and the messaging you want to use to communicate, which social media will help you do that best?  How does that integrate with any traditional marketing you may be doing, your newsletter or your blog?

5. Make an editorial calendar for your content. Good content is the key. It is what engages your audience and gets them to interact with you. Push out good content on a regular basis to develop your status as an expert and increase your following and then you can pepper in your events, programs or sales specials.

6. Determine who is going to be responsible for your strategy and for executing your strategy.  It needs to be done professionally and consistently.  This may be a good one to outsource to and expert.

7. Review and evaluate the results of what you have executed. Make changes to your strategy based on this information.

8. Measure your results, did you generate any leads with your social media plan?

If you need help with your sales strategy, please feel free to email me at answers@aliceheiman.com or schedule a free 30 minute strategy session.

Why is it so hard to find top sales talent in today’s marketplace ? 

Top salespeople are usually employed, so in today’s marketplace it may be difficult to get people to switch companies.  You want to have a good pool of candidates so you don’t have to settle for hiring the ‘best of the worst’.

I think working with a recruiter is worth it’s weight in gold, but realizing some companies aren’t going to do that, then you need to get the word out by writing a great job ad and posting it in the right places. A book I always recommend is You’re Not the Person I Hired, by Janet Boydell, Barry Deutsch, & Brad Remillard. It’s a must read if you’re doing any hiring.

Listen to my recent interview with Erik Luhrs from the Guru Selling System to learn more tips on how to hire a great salesperson!

I just returned from the National Speakers Association Influence 2011 Conference in Anaheim, and everyone was talking about Google+. Since many of the experts there say it will be the next big thing,  I thought I’d share a few great posts and articles I’ve read recently on how to get started.  As of today, Google+ is still in limited field trial so you can’t join without having an invitation, but it’s still a  great time to learn more about it.

Noble Studios recent post How to Get Started on Google+ offered a list of tips for getting started on Google+ including creating a profile, building circles (to filter and group contacts), sparks (real-time search engine based on interests), controlling your network visibility, and more!

In Heidi Cohen’s post,  Google+ Has Mark Zuckerberg’s Attention, Shouldn’t It Have Yours? she offers 7 Ways to Kick Google+’s Social Media Tires Now!:

1. Build a presence on Google+
2. Be where your customers & prospects are
3. Make your content sharable on Google+
4. Explore breadth of Google+ product suite
5. Watch for Google+’s impact on other social media entities
6. Know search will be involved
7. Test your brand on Google+

Read more of Heidi Cohen’s post on ClickZ.com

Finally, there was a very interesting article on Google+ by Mike Elgan on PCWorld entitled, How Google+ Ends Social Media Fatigue. Elgan says, “For most people Google+ can replace every single medium of online communication.” We all have so many means of communication including email, a multitude of social media sites, blogs, text, instant messaging, etc. and it can be quite daunting to keep up with all of them.  “Google+ is an email service, blogging platform, micro-blogging site, news feed, video conferencing system, chat service, location-based social network and more”, says Elgan.  So it begs the question: Can Google+ replace all of them?

What do you think? Is Google+ the next big thing? Can one platform outdo the rest by consolidating all their features?

Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Some of you might know that I use to be a reading specialist and that I have a rather large collection of children’s books. So what might you ask does that have to do with sales. Well, often times it gives me a chuckle because as I am working on all things sales, children’s book titles pop into my mind and while preparing for my Facebook training this one popped up, Do You Want to Be My Friend?

I get so many friend requests on facebook but very often I have no idea who the person is, sound familiar? It reminds me of the little mouse, in the book by Eric Carle, running around asking people if they want to be his friend. Everyone is on a quest to gain more “friends” on Facebook, but what is the definition of a “friend”? It’s like running up to people at a networking event that you don’t know and handing them your card. Does this make them your friend? How useful is having a list of people you don’t know anything about? What can you do with it? It’s not even a qualified leads list.

If you want me to be your friend then connect with me, tell me who you are, tell me what we have in common, don’t just send me a friend request. I won’t accept it anyway. When someone takes the time to send a friend request with a message, I feel they are genuinely interested in connecting with me personally and not just ‘accumulating’ friends. I wonder if most of the people on Facebook even know you can send a message with your request?  If they do, they don’t use it. I get about 40 friend requests a month and maybe 2 of them have a message that helps me know who they are. Since I don’t know who 38 out of 40 of them are, I take the time to look up each one of them on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google to decide if I want to accept their friend request. Once I have decided I send them a personal message that goes something like this:

“Thanks for connecting, I see you are a speaker. Are you a member of NSA? Since we don’t know each other I am curious how you found me and what inspired you to connect. I live in Reno, NV near the mountains and love all of the outdoor activities. I enjoy sailing, skiing and hiking. My business is helping companies increase sales. Let me know more about you.”

It’s like writing to a penpal when I was a kid. Some of you are thinking, why tell them all of that if it is on your facebook page? Well, remember, depending on your settings you may not be able to see anything about a person except their name. If they don’t answer my message I don’t friend them. Why would I? I want to connect with people, get to know them and determine ways I can be of service to them. And for business purposes, people only buy from you if they know you, like you and trust you, so how would having a bunch of “friends” that don’t know you help you increase your sales? For many of you the urge may be to just click ignore on people you don’t know and if I wasn’t a public figure I probably would too. There are several each day I do just ignore, but the most amazing things have happened from my willingness to try and connect, even though they didn’t.  Since something inspired them to send me a friend request they were open and willing to answer my questions and now some of them are doing business with me.  It was well worth the extra 2 minutes it tool me to send them a note.

If you have a business and would like to learn more about getting connected and generating leads with Facebook, join me on August 9th at 11:30am (Pacific) for my online training webinar, where you’ll learn:

• Why it’s important to have a business page

• How to interact & get connected

• How to build a fan base

• How to generate leads

Register Now and save with early bird pricing

Networking is not about selling, is about connecting, learning about people and building relationships because people buy from people they know, like and trust. However many people are not great networkers because they don’t know what to do and they’re uncomfortable.  Listen to my recent Executive Networks teleseminar with Michael Dulworth author of The Connect Effect to learn what you can do to get connected and get results when networking.