Posts Tagged ‘sales’

What to do now for 2010

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

I love this time of year — one of the few periods that I come up for air and can look around.  The agenda:  family, friends and fun…and getting ready for next year.  If you’re gearing up to hit the ground running, here’s my suggested to-do list:

  • Check out your sales results:  How many conversations did you have this year?  How many of those were with qualified buyers?  What percentage of those did you close?  And most importantly, what were the top three reasons for not working with you?  These answers are a great barometer.  Change your prospecting, your process and your pitch accordingly.
  • Assess your infrastructure:  How’s your website?  Is it still accurate?  Does it position you well for picky buyers?  If not, list your needed changes.  Checklists get done faster than the mental list of to-do’s.  If your websiite is fine, then great.  Repeat this process for your media and other marketing tools.
  • Plan out your promotion:  What are you promoting when and to whom?  Make a list then step back and ask yourself:  Is this enough?  Too much?  Will my community support this effort?  Do I have options for all my target markets?  This is a great time for tweaking copy and timelines.

This is a great time to “sharpen the saw.”  Next year is going to be a zoo…

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What a book really does

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

I just love it when someone calls the game. A couple of weeks ago I ran across this article in Fast Company by Po Bronson. Written back in January and highlighted in FC’s email digest in June. Bronson is a New York Times best-selling author and thisarticle shows why. His books take on compelling subjects and turns what you think about the topic on its head.

He’s not afraid to call something stupid, even if it’s popular. And his reasoning is simple yet brilliant. He shows his prominence in his stories. This is what I want to want to tell folks about on Tuesday’s Here’s the Deal call. The book only showcases what you already have and who you already are. If you are not acting like a seven-(and eight) figure visionary, do you really think a book will make you that? Unless you have built in sales or distribution systems (and those can evaporate in a heart beat) then why do you give up almost a year of your life?

A book is just gasoline to launch a rocket already built. I can’t wait to explore the other reality checks we all need before devoting our life to a book (or website, or any other tool). Click here to join me.

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Big branding blunder

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Has this ever happened to you? A buyer will show great initial interest, then ignore your calls after you send the information they requested. Frustrating, isn’t it?

We drilled down on this at length on Tuesday’s Here’s the Deal call on competing in crowded markets. (You can purchase the MP3 file of the call here.) Here’s what takes place: in crowded markets, experts will cast the fishing net out wide, depending on the clever slogan to get initial attention. And it does. The buyer likes the witty play on words enough to ask for more information. (Which leads said expert to think, “YEA!! I’m gonna get this job!”) But when the buyer checks out the website or that speaker one-sheet, they find there’s nothing interesting past the slogan. That’s when wittiness isn’t enough for the next round of consideration and the brand-by-tagline expert is immediately disqualified. The buyer is busy, and really doesn’t know why you didn’t make the initial cut, so they don’t bother to return your calls.

The lesson: where there is money, there is competition. And in the heat of competition, it’s easy to brand ourselves with cleverness, thinking “If I just get my foot in the door, I’ll get the assignment” (or job, or speaking engagement, whatever). Don’t do it. Compete for the final round of consideration, not for the cheap thrill of “Sounds great, do you have any information I can look at?” You’ll spend a lot less time selling and more time closing.

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Listen first, sell later

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Ready to gear up that sales campaign? Not so fast. Before you hit the streets making cold calls, remember that there’s gold in your natural network. The key: you must be willing to be curiously different and look for the non-obvious venues.

Poster child for doing it right: executive coach and turbocharge client Allan Milham. To promote his “Bold Moves” concept for change management, Allan went to his favorite folks and asked “here’s what I’m up to — what do you think?” And because we framed his concept beyond the obvious, his message adapted perfectly for what’s going on now. His champions saw the fit immediately and came up with their own suggestions for bringing him in. Why? Because they knew he was good — they just need to know what he was doing differently. They created the fit — in ways he could never have imagined. Result: Allan’s got the inside track to five big-time keynotes in the first quarter alone. Apparently the tough economy is not slowing everybody down…

Bottom line: your advocates know you are talented — but that’s not enough. They need to know what you are up to NOW. And it better be different. So do you have enough “yeses?” My Turbocharged Business Model Toolkit has a process to map out your revenue streams for maximum revenue generation. Click here to learn more.

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