Hi all due to uptake of our Facebook Page and Twitter, not to mention our workload which is all very cool, we are no longer blogging here. All our blogging and updates will be at our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/sellingstrategies .See you there soon.

How many do win or loss reports when you win or lose a sale? if we assume time is your greatest asset then working on deals that you have the greatest chance of winning has to be a major priority. Sounds like common sense but why is it not common practice. The main reason is because most sales people don’t have a common understanding of why working on your best opportunities is important for them, their company and their clients. At a recent summit on worlds best practice in sales I was not surprised to find that the vast majority of successful sales organisations have a proven formula on how to rate new opportunities. Not only do they have this methodology most importantly they have the discipline to use it every day on every call. I asked one sales director about how he administered his opportunity scorecard and this is what he said. “We have spent a lot of time and effort working out where we win and why, we have also spent time on where we lose and why and consequently we can rate an opportunity with a great degree of accuracy. Sure i have some sales people ask me about opportunities outside the criteria and I tell them, I am happy to receive an email about it. I will ignore it but always happy to receive one. We have done the criteria and we stick to the scorecard because it works.” Discipline is tough but as they say when the going gets tough the tough get going.

While in the USA I picked up the latest Fast Company magazine, one of my favourite mags along with Wired, and they had an excellent article on Facebook and its amazing growth in six years to 350 million users. This compares to Google at 800 million users. What is interesting is that in the year 2000 ( you know the year the planet was going to melt according to all the Y2K experts who just changed business cards in 2000 and sold the next over hyped consulting gig) and Google was not the most popular web site, AOL was. Remember America Online who got so big they bought Time Warner? Well things change and you must change with them. The article went onto to say that Myspace will become a niche product for the entertainment and garage band niche and that Twitter was now all about those who Twitter than about the functionality of Twitter itself. Some other related comparisons. In 2000 there were 360 million global internet users and today this is 1.7 billion. Also cell phones reached 34% of Americans in 2000 where as today there is 89% penetration. I am focusing on building up my Facebook and social media prescence through Linked In and Facebook. I don’t have a short term ROI but I do know this is an important brand building exercise for anyone, even those in B2B sales which is my focus. What are you doing with your business on Facebook and how is it working out for you?

Planning the call - its worth it

Today in 2009 , almost 2010 I still continue to see sales people throw away golden opportunities through lack of sales planning. That is they get a meeting via phone, face to face and don’t research for it or plan it. What a waste of a meeting. A client of mine recently brought me in to assist his customer engagement team plan and rehearse for a meeting with a key partner using my Client Centric Conversations program. We spent two hours on the planning and two hours on the rehearsal. Yes the rehearsal, asking the questions and role playing the expected responses. This was a vital meeting for both these parties and too important to be left to chance and “winging it” no matter how good you are.This effort paid off just as practice always pays off whether you are playing sport or running a business. I am told Aristotle Onassis did this regularly before important meetings and we all know how successful he was.

Has business to business sales changed? I am reading a couple of books at present. Both are great. The first is Jill Konrath’s Selling to Big Companies where Jill believes that selling to big companies has changed for a number of well researched reasons. The second is by Paul Cherry on selling conversations where Paul believes that selling has not changed and the same principles apply. In my opinion both the authors are correct. Selling and getting in to big companies has changed over the past ten to fifteen years. However once you are in then the key principles of getting engagement and commitment described by Paul Cherry are just as relevant as they have always been. I  would extend Jill Konrath’s comments to include not only big companies but any company. Recently I was running a workshop on Executive Engagement for a large company that was having trouble getting appointments with its own dealer principals. I know of another company that has trouble getting time with its own retail franchisee owners. Why? its simple they are not perceived as being relevant and adding any value. People are just too busy these days and doing more with less as the GFC still continues to bite for many businesses. This is why pure cold calling of a non qualified list is not worth the effort. Know who you want, research, plan the strategy, get a referral/introduction and then make the call knowing the customers business sector as well as he does.

Happy RDV Team with Rob Hartnett on Regional Roadshow

This comment sounds like a cliche however speaking to over 2000 business owners and sales professionals over the past nine weeks it still holds true. I can give the same presentation including case studies on creative thinking, determination and innovative yet proven lead generation ideas and have audience members take in the message differently. Most will be inspired, motivated and want to learn more. Some are excited to hear someone supporting their strategy from outside their business, while others are sceptical and say things like “I would like too but I don’t have time”, ” I am too busy as it is” or “I can’t see how it would help my business”. It has been proven by positive psychologists such as Martin Seligman that when you are optimistic and happy about today and the future you will be creative. You can’t help it. However if you have a negative, pessimistic attitude you will only see the possible downside in everything. So the next presentation you go to, go with an open mind, ask questions and decide to “give a new idea a go”. The downside will be minimal and the upside may just make you richer.

The reality is in business that some clients may not fit with the solutions your business provides.

Many sales professionals justify pursuing bad accounts, thinking that “ten opportunities with slim chances are better than one,” or “if I put more pressure on the account, it will work out.” Also sales professionals don’t like to disappoint sales managers and like to always show a “full funnel”. Sales Managers need to be vigilant here. But sales professionals who stop chasing mismatched prospects can find more profitable places to spend their time.

To pursue the right opportunities, determine what your ideal customer looks like by placing information in three columns.
List characteristics of your best clients in the first column.
List characteristics of your worst clients in the second column.
Pinpoint the most significant best client characteristics and transfer into the third column
Pinpoint the most significant worst client characteristics and transfer their opposites (willing to provide information) into the third column.
The traits in your final column compose your ideal customer profile. Summarise these to a short list of(5-6 characteristics.
When you come across new prospects, ask: How well does this particular prospect measure against my ideal customer profile? If it matches the criteria of your best customers, they are a better match for your time and resources. If they don’t fit then elegantly and efficiently move them onto a business better suited to them. Not only will the prospect thank you, you will have more time.
Now that you’ve pieced together who your ideal customers are, learn how to better resonate with them. This is a lot easier to do now because you have focus! Focus also allows you to do more targeted marketing and advertising which will result in attracting in the right leads your sales people will want to pursue.

Thanks to http://www.millerheman.com for thought starters above