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Blog Sales Advice

In The New Economy, Everyone Is In Sales

Everyone is in SalesThe rules of the ‘new economy’ extend far beyond traditional sales roles. Today, regardless of what you used to do, it’s important to accept that everyone is in sales.

The new economy (a subject Seth Godin loves to talk about) is moving at speeds and in directions that none of us are accustomed to. We’ve never been trained for this. There is no handbook, no guide and no map to tell us where to go. The predictability and stability we’re accustomed to has vanished.

Chances are that the ones who persist are the ones who will end up writing the rules to the new economy. Which means sales is now going to become a lot more important.

Yes folks, that dreaded profession (or last resort of a so-called profession, as society teaches us) is going to be the foundation of what you’ll need to be successful.

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Blog sales training Social Selling

Sales Training: We Need Social Selling and They’re Giving It Away For Free!

Sales TrainingYou know the world has changed and that your sales reps have changed right along with it. Social selling doesn’t have to be scary. With the right sales training, social selling can work wonders for your business too.

Don’t lie to yourself.

You know that deep down, even though your team somehow managed to hit their 2013 sales numbers, repeating this will be very different.

You’ve read the LinkedIn posts about social selling. You might even have seen a few of your sales reps experimenting with selling via LinkedIn. You’ve heard other VP’s of Sales talk about how their reps are driving business through social.

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Blog Sales Advice Social Selling

The Rise of the Micromarketer

Micro Marketing

No one knows your customers more intimately than your sales team. The death of mass marketing has allowed marketers to turn their sales professionals into micromarketers.

In a recent blog by Forrester’s Nate Elliot, he shared an Open Letter to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

There are some eye-opening facts in that post about how Facebook is the least effective form of advertising on social channels (Twitter being the second least effective, in case you were wondering).

Marketers were asked to rate their sentiments and the data is fairly conclusive.

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Blog Demand Generation Sales Advice

Email Marketing – Dare To Be Different!

Email Marketing

It’s time to re-evaluate the approach that salespeople take to email marketing.

That’s it! I’ve had it with email marketing. It’s amazing to me how every company I speak with tries to sell me on their uniqueness.

An off-the-shelf software solution comes with a promise that their requirements are special and it needs much customization.

An interview for a VP of Sales role comes with prophetic statements that their processes are unlike any others. “You’ll see,” they say.

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Blog Sales Social Selling

Blowback! Social Media and the Next Great Corporate Sales Challenge

Sales Challenge

Social media has created a new dynamic in the relationship between salespeople and customers. For organizations still living in the 90’s, embracing this dynamic is the next great sales challenge.

There are many analogies, explanations, laws, theories, concepts and interpretations of karma.

Maybe I’m too simplistic, but I like to think of it as the law of causality (like Wikipedia describes).

In military terms, we’d call it blowback: suffering an unintended consequence due to your actions (or lack of). I don’t think that many corporate leaders today are naïve enough to think that they’re just buying time, imagining they won’t get left behind as the world of business evolves.

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Blog Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Social Selling Q&A

Why Are Canadian Sales Teams So Far Behind the Rest of the World?

Canadian SalesThis story is a great representation of the approach Canadian sales leaders are approaching sales today.

I was recently pitching a major telecom company in Toronto, and felt very confident as we’ve seen amazing success stories in their industry from US clients.

We got together in their boardroom with 8-10 Canadian sales leaders from various departments. As we started talking about the ROI of social selling for telecom sales reps, a sales leader asked me a great question:

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Blog Social Selling

3 Ways That Social Selling is a Waste of Time

Time ManagementIs social selling a waste of time for sales professionals? No? Yes? Maybe? The right answer: It depends.

Here are 3 ways social selling can be an utter waste of time (whether you’re a sales leader or individual contributor).

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Blog Social Selling

The One-to-Many Sales Advantage: Cold Calling vs. Social Branding

cold-callingIf a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear it? If a cold call is made to a prospect and no one answers the phone, does anybody hear it?

No one can deny that a cold call is a very linear form of communication. It’s one-to-one. As a sales professional, you know that you need to spread the message far and wide to your territory. If a cold call lives only for a few seconds in existence, what impact can it really have? I know what you’re thinking: who cares, if I make enough of them it will make an impact. You’re absolutely right about this. Your canned pitch repeated 50 times/day or more can work.

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Blog Social Selling

5 EASY Social Selling Steps Used in Europe!

After working with5 Social Selling Steps the team at TIBCO – Spotfire, their sales team’s ROCKING with Social Selling.

One sales champion – Mimoun Khalloufi has been CRUSHING it with Social Selling. He’s an example of a sales rep that has truly embraced the power of LinkedIn, Twitter and other Social tools.

Here is an example of 1 of the MANY, MANY deals he’s brought forward with Social Selling.

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Blog Sales Metrics Social Selling

How can I track ROI with Social Selling?

Google
KIP For  Social MediaEasily the most common fear sales managers have with Social Selling is the ability to track and keep sales reps accountable. It’s not like tracking calls, or tracking emails – which tools like InsideSales.com have helped managers keep teams on track.