Do you wish there was more time in a day?
For those of us that manage our time and energy well, we will have more of both. Yet for those of us who manage time poorly, we will find ourselves struggling to get things done. Have you ever wondered why some people can get an incredible amount done in a short period of time, while others struggle to complete a single task? This is a great year to resolve to have better time management! This Friday, we are offering a free webinar to help you meet that goal. Make the Most of Your Time will provide tips and techniques to improve your time management skills and your overall time management skills. You will learn six key principles underlying effective time management, how to ensure that your activities are consistent with your goals and how to be proactive rather than reactive with your time.For more information, view our website link at http://www.valueselling.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=68
How else will you resolve to meet your goals in 2010?
What is your biggest challenge in proactively managing your time and productivity?
Is James Cameron’s Avatar the “future of movies?” James Cameron, acclaimed director of the Titantic, has a new movie to be released this month called Avatar. This movie took 12 years to produce, has cost more money to produce than any other movie to date, and uses leading edge computer technology created specifically for the movie. “The most expensive and technically ambitious film ever made,” reports the influential Hollywood trade magazine Variety.
Did you know that our ValueSelling Essentials courses also uses leading edge technology with Avatars? These courses utilize enhanced technology including live voice-overs to the avatar characters to create an engaging and entertaining learning setting. Check it out under our solutions menu at www.valueselling.com.
Today’s webcast highlighted some of the key tenets and components for ValueSelling Account Managment. What additional best practices have worked for you in your sales experience?
Carlos joins our team having already experienced the ValueSelling Framework® to increase sales and revenue, and motivate his teams to sell more effectively. Based out of Atlanta, he has 20 years of experience in the enterprise software industry, including sales, service, business development, creation of partner alliances and business operations. Carlos is a partner at Visualize-Inc. (Visualize-Inc. is a licensee of ValueSelling Associates), a sales and service business assisting companies to bridge the gap between marketing and sales while maximizing the effectiveness of their sales organizations and positively impacting the bottom line. He works with companies, including Telus, The Ladders and Interwoven and has experience rebuilding sales teams and turning around business units. While at Amdocs, he successfully grew sales revenue of his business unit by more than 250 percent. While overseeing the services department at Amdocs, he used the principles of ValueSelling to increase services revenues by 76 percent in 12 months. Carlos can be contacted at (678) 464-1238 or carlos.nouche@valueselling.com.
ValueSelling Associates will be conducting a complimentary one-hour webcast on October 6, 2009. What topic would you like to see? Please select the topic that would add the most value to you during the fourth quarter or suggest one of your own.
Overcoming the budget objection
Tips for improved account management
Strategies for finding new prospects
The topic will be announced by Tuesday September 8, 2009.
The telephone is a tool that is prevalent in its usage for sales. Whether to conduct sales calls or secure an appointment - our ability to use the telephone successfully can be the key to our success.
I will be conducting a complimentary one hour webinar on effective telephone skills this week. The content is based on our newest ValueSelling Essentials e-learning course. To improve your communication skills - please join us on Wednesday at 9 am PT.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/island/webinar/registration.tmpl?id=684258163
The easy business is gone, now what are you going to do?
Selling in this economy requires more skill than ever before. The world we live in has changed. There seems to be no doubt that getting the attention of buyers, learning about their issues and problems, and educating them on our solutions and their impact can be a challenge for even the most senior sales executive.
Here are my observations on the impact of the global economic situation:
1. Clients are risk averse. They are not willing to jeopardize their professional credibility and take chances with unproven solutions.
2. Cost cutting. Companies continue to conserve cash, cancel or postpone capital acquisitions and reevaluate every project, initiative, and expense.
3. Decisions are made much slower. The time to convince our prospects to act has been extended.
4. New relationships must be built. There are organizational changes that have resulted in layoffs or early retirements complicated by the fact that the approval process has likely changed and there are new executives involved in purchasing process.
With all of this said, companies are still spending money EVERY DAY. They are solving the critical issues that will enable them to survive this turmoil and continue to thrive as a business.
What strategies have proved successful in selling in this difficult time?
A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to participate in an incredible day with the Fifth Regimen of the Marine Corps. While I have always been in awe of the individuals who choose to go into the military - the first hand experience that I had with the young men at Camp Pendleton was truly awe inspiring.
While spending the day on the base, we had a tour of the command headquarters. The colonial came out to speak with all of us, a group of CEO’s and business executives from Southern California. When asked how he had led his team and minimized the injuries and casualties in his Regimen, he responded as follows: “The more training we have the luckier we become and the better the training, the better the luck!”
I could not agree with him more! Isn’t it amazing that the harder we work, the luckier we get; the harder we work, the better the timing and opportunities that present themselves. The same principles apply in business and especially in sales.
As we ended the day on base, the Sergeant Major shared with us his Leadership Principles and Traits. A fundamental premise is to lead from a position of respect - not fear; respect is earned through actions.I have taken the liberty of refining to sales professionals. For those of us who lead sales teams and organizations - I personally think these principles are incredibly relevant.
1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement.
2. Be technically and tactically proficient.
3. Make sound and timely decisions.
4. Set the example.
5. Know your sales people and look out for their welfare.
6. Keep your sales people informed.
7. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions.
8. Ensure assigned tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished.
9. Train your sales people as a team.
10. Manage your sales people in accordance with their capabilities.
What do you think? Are these the leadership principles that apply to how you manage your sales organization?
Are you so busy that you can’t get anything done?
Join the club! It seems that there is so much to do and the time needed to get it all done is rarely adequate. One way to make sure you are being as productive as possible is to avoid these time wasting traps.
- Nonessential and nonproductive communication - chatting can be a huge time waster for many. While communication is critical for building and maintaining relationships - much of the communication that goes on today is just wasteful and adds no value. With all of the technology designed to improve communication - there is huge opportunity for talking about nothing. Just like Seinfeld!
- Lack of routine - many sales people spend all day reacting rather than creating a proactive routine for themselves. Block out time for email and voicemail, schedule time with yourself for basic administrative tasks - so they can be completed efficiently. Have a plan of what you need to accomplish to achieve your goals.
- Unorganized - how much time do you spend finding things? Searching email folders, shuffling papers, going through files. By some estimates - people waste between 10-15% of there time just finding things. Get organized, create a filing system - both electronic and physical so that you know where things are and can get your hands on information and documents quickly.
- Rereading and touching correspondence - paper based and email. I recently was working with a rep who had over 1500 emails in his inbox flagged for follow up. How could that possibly be managed effectively? When you are going through email - make a decision: delete, file, respond (not react!), take action.
- Browsing and browsing on the web - yes, some of what we are doing is critical to our success, but there is so much time spent on sites that are interesting but irrelevant to our professional success. Just be mindful of the time on the net and making sure that what you are doing is again consistent with your goals.
In today’s world, it is easy to be busy and not productive….make sure you are purposeful and protective with your time achieve maximum productivity!
Guest post by Steve Richard of Vorsight
Picture in your mind the classic sales funnel. People pour a lot of stuff (good, bad and ugly) into the top of the funnel and over time (and with structured process) it spits out paying customers and clients. As you progress toward the lower stages and the spout, there are fewer prospects and hence more order and control for the salesperson. ValueSelling does an amazingly good job of giving you a framework for getting through the stages of the funnel. What about the top of the funnel? Before you set the first meeting what do you really have with your prospects…NOTHING! Even if you get a perfectly completed web form from marketing, before you call or email this person you have absolutely no chance of closing a deal. In the top of the funnel, chaos rules because there are a lot of prospects and tons of potential outcomes. What you need to enhance your ValueSelling approach is a corresponding pre-sales process prior to even having a meeting. So people always ask me, “Yeah, I get that I need to structure activities before the first meeting, but what does that look like? What are the pieces that my team needs to get good at to be successful?” Good news: the first third of the sales cycle breaks down into five easy to understand components:
- Prospecting – How do I treasure hunt and assemble the puzzle of identifying the correct buyer with direct line and email and seeing where he/she fits into the org chart. What are some good unconventional research approaches?
- Pitching – How do I write compelling talking points to pique interest and tease out a dialogue to get my prospects talking?
- Handling Objections – How do I overcome knee-jerk reaction objections over the phone and get my prospects to agree to a first meeting?
- Emailing and Leaving VM – How do I map out a contact plan with unique emails and voicemails to get past all the vendor noise and increase my prospects’ replies?
- Establishing Process – How do I plan my time, activities, data, and practice to be as efficient and effective as possible?
This is why cold calling is not dead. No matter how good your marketing engine is, you still need to pick up the phone and engage. YOU are the missing piece to success! Getting in the door is all about momentum. Talk can only get you so far, so rather than discussing it, I encourage you to get out there and do it. Please feel free to contact me or Julie with any further questions or insight.