RSSPhones Are An Underutilized Business Tool
Jul 31, 2009 Sales Related
You hate to cold call, right? Dale Carnegie taught us (in 1937) that we have to get in front of people to make a sale. In those days, there was no other way.
Yet we’re still listening to him, believing that getting in front of prospects will give us an edge – forgetting, of course, that everyone else is just as smart and friendly and oh-so-charming.
We put huge budgets aside for travel; the telephone is looked at disdainfully, as merely an appointment getting vehicle, not as the rapport builder and communication tool that it can be.
And even with the massive failure rate we have, we still focus every interaction on The Sale. We forget that if buyers can’t figure out how to manage those off-line decisions that take place in their workplaces, it doesn’t matter what we’ve got or what they need.
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Tags: business, cold call, failure rate, phones, prospects, sales model, tool, underutilized, youtube
How Do You Grow?
Jul 30, 2009 Friends and Partners
I don’t know about you, but the growth of my company looks like those pictures you see of amoeba: no definite shape and all over the place. It’s a miracle that I’ve somehow managed to grow my company – probably an indication that my message is worthwhile. I’m certain it has little to do with my management capability.
Enter The ROBB Group Holdings. They will teach your company how to grow.
Imagine. Having some smart folks come into your company and show you how to grow – strategically, systemically, and with acceleration or acquisition. These folks will get you in front of the right people, or the right people in front of you. They can do just about anything to get your business as successful as you’d like it to be.
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Tags: conventional sales, revenue hunters international, robb group holdings, saleslife
Changing Behaviors With Attainment
Jul 29, 2009 Favorite URLs
How do you ensure your staff change behaviors – and keep the change?
Tery Tenant, a colleague in the change management and leadership industry, is a committed change agent. He teaches, writes about, communicates about, being a Servant Leader – a term I’ve been using for myself for over 20 years so I’ve got a bit of a bias going here. His company, Attainment Inc., is a franchise of Leadership Mmanagement International, and has been leading change for 21 years with his wife Linda.
Their stuff is really cool: they teach people how to be aware of what they want to change, and then gives them the tools to change. Tery says his job, ultimately, is to ”work ourselves out of a job, as the client grows and can do these things for themselves.” Refreshing!
At the core of their process is facilitating behavior change. They work toward achieving measurable behavior-change results. Attainment says, ”What you are doing differently and the new habits you are forming is as important as what you are learning. We use a two track process. One track provides awareness, ideas and tools. The second track focuses on applying the ideas on the job and achieving small goals weekly.”
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Tags: Attainment, awareness, behavior change, change management, leadership, Linda Tenant, LMI, servant leadership, Tery Tenant
Dancing With My Shoes Off
Jul 28, 2009 Random Thoughts
Tonight I decided to do my very favorite thing in the world: dance.
Of all of the things I do, of all of the things I am, Dancer is #1.
Dancing fills my heart – in that special place that is joy. I don’t often get to feel it in my daily stress that seems to go on way too long into the night.
But when I dance, my heart flutters. And the flutter gets down into my bones. And then I move from inside out.
There is a group in Austin called Body Choir. We are a motley crew: aged 2 months to 90 – median age maybe 40; lawyers, architects, politicians, yoga teachers, musicians, house painters, professors, consultants, chefs, waitresses, authors. The world, somehow.
And a few times a week we dance. We dance for 2 hours, barefoot, silent, in a large studio. About 100 of us at a time. We dance to world music according to the rhythms of Gabrielle Roth – soft to loud to soft; gentle to rough to gentle; inside to outside to inside.
We dance alone. Or with each other. Whatever feels right. And it’s the only place where nothing is expected accept safety. So I can dance, and play with others, and lay on the floor. And just be. With a fluttering heart and whistling bones.
And that is what I did tonight. Thought I’d share it with you.
sd
Tags: body choir, dancing, gabriella roth, heart
Why Sales Fails
Jul 27, 2009 Sales Related, Top Posts
Why do so many of your good prospects not close? You’ve worked hard doing your sales job: you gathered good data and understood their need, you were a trusted advisor, they liked you and your solution. But they didn’t close.
Where did they go?
They went off-line. They went back to their teammates and their old vendors and their old solutions. They decided not to resolve the problem now. A new partner showed up with a fix that kinda resolved the problem. They decide to hire a new staff person with the funds.
In fact, you have no idea where the prospect went.
But I’ll tell you: They went to that place where you can’t go, to that private, off-line place that sales doesn’t give you skills for.
But it’s not your fault.
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Tags: buying decisions, prospects, sales
The Internal Customer: Is It A Sales Job?
Jul 24, 2009 Decisioning & Change Management
What is the difference between selling to an internal customer and selling to an external customer?
Nothing.
At the end of the day, there is the buyer, the seller, and the solution. The influencer, the influenced, and the idea, or request. Regardless of the moving parts, one person wants another person to buy in to something that represents some sort of change.
Whenever we are responsible for having someone else buy in to an idea, change an opinion, help us on a project, we have a sales issue.
But it’s not the sort of sales issue we’re accustomed to. It’s a change management issue: after all, if the Other can’t figure out a way to add our request to their daily activities, their beliefs about their job, their feelings about what is being asked of them, they will do nothing. If we force them to do something they are not internally comfortable with, we’ll have to manage their sabatoge.
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Tags: Buy-In, buying decisions, customers, management tools, teach
