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Sales Focus: Online Channels vs. Traditional Tactics0

The Pipeline Guest Post – Megan Totka

The Internet has opened up a whole new world of marketing and advertising tactics. And although this isn’t breaking news, people are coming up with new ways to utilize the web every day when it comes to sales. But are we letting more traditional sales practices fall by the wayside in lieu of solely committing to digital tactics?

In my experience, the companies with the best strategies are making the most of both types of marketing. Finding a winning combination of traditional marketing and Internet marketing can take some trial and error, but it’s worth it for your company in the long run. Consider these perks of focusing on online advertising and sales:

• Less Expensive
While running a business website isn’t necessarily cheap, there are many ways that you can advertise online for very little cost. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer great outlets for marketing and a variety of tools to help you build your network and share your message.

• Bigger Reach
It typically costs less to reach more people with online marketing. Using social media accounts and websites can generate thousands of views—even hundreds of thousands for successful companies—each month. It’s difficult to reach that many people with traditional marketing tactics and a small business budget.

• More Outlets
There are so many ways to advertise online. Some of the most obvious include social media networks. The biggies include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are hundreds of other social media sites that you might consider using based on your type of business and your audience, among other factors. Community-style message boards, blogs, and websites may also be ideal channels to add to your digital strategy.

Although digital tactics can undoubtedly be effective, traditional advertising and sales still carries a number of benefits, too, including:

• Tangible Nature
Some people like advertising materials that they can see in person or touch. Some examples might include business cards, postcards, or business swag (think branded water bottles, key chains, or pens).

• Increased Permanency
Marketing campaigns such as billboards or magazine ads can be placed for a longer period of time without needing changes. Online, it’s more necessary to keep content new and changing constantly to not only serve your audience, but also search engines.

• Appeal to a Larger Audience
Don’t confuse this with having a larger reach. While online advertising may have the ability to reach a higher number of targeted people, traditional marketing techniques reach multiple generations and income levels and typically aren’t as segmented as digital alternatives.

Your best bet as a business owner or salesperson is to find a balance between the two types of marketing. It’s important to gauge your audience to see which kind of marketing best suits your clientele. If you can find the right combination, you’ll be able to reach a huge audience and give everyone something that they want—not to mention using a variety of marketing techniques will help you increase sales and expose your company to new customers.

(Photo Source)

About Megan Totka

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.

Mar 29th, 2013 Business Acumen, Change, Communication Strategy, execution, Guest Post, Marketing, Social media, Social Selling

Change, Communication, execution, Guest Post, how to sell better, Marketing, Proactive, Sales 2.0

Shock Treatment – Sales eXchange 1922

by Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Last Monday I posted about the overlooked opportunity in that segment of buyers know as Status Quo, pundits and sellers alike commiserating each other about the difficulty of selling to a ready group of buyers, vs. taking orders from self-declared buyers.

I’ll be the first to admit change is hard, especially for business buyers who have their handful, trying to make headway in a competitive market. Change is time consuming, a drain on resources, creates upheaval, usually expensive, and fraught with risk, for the organization and the individual at the centre of the decision. Moving the dial with these types of buyers requires more than a bit of effort, which is why change is also hard for sellers; it is much easier and safer to rationalize, and wait for a referral.

This is why there is a healthy and growing industry of sages ready to sell indisposed sellers every mean of just waiting at the edge of the forest, encouraging them to wait for something to come out to them, rather than entering the fray and winning business most sellers seem reluctant to peruse.

How much effort does it take? Well take a minute, step back and look around you and study what it takes for people to make critical changes in key their lives. Frighteningly, you discover that people don’t often make big changes, right changes, preferring to avoid and live with the consequences of the Status Quo. Even when they know that the new state is preferable to their existing one. The naive notion which many buy into that people will move to a better mouse trap has cost both sellers and buyers much time and money. You can build the better mouse trap, Trap 2.0, and people will rodent infestation will maybe look your way, then rationalize why they shouldn’t beat a path to your door.

Don’t believe me, how many people do you know who continue to smoke, even after their father expired due to lung cancer; how many people do you know who continue to biggie size it, despite the fact that they have to buy a new wardrobe every six months? People can change these with a effort if they wanted to, but it takes effort. How many times have you watched companies go to the brink or beyond because the devil they knew was a better alternative to the one they didn’t know?

The answer is not offering the “right” or “better” solution, or in becoming their friend. It is about penetrating the barriers the buyers have erected to protect their current state. Your only choice is to shock them, shock your way past their fortress of hope. Hope it will work out, hope it will last, and hope no one will notice. For the “be found crowd”, this is not an issue, the buyer has dismantled the barriers, and are ready to change, but for the Status Quo, intervention time.

Now I am not talking about clamping a couple of electrodes to your buyer’s temples (or elsewhere); but I am talking about asking hard and very direct questions, which at best could be called provocative, at worst a punch below their reality belt. One does not have to be rude, but one does have to shake things up, which means the ultimate relationship you have starts out a bit rough, but ends up being a solid one, built on being a reliable resource, not a cuddly friend.

There is plenty of writing and thinking out there about how to succeed with the Status Quo, mine, others who provide means and questions you can use. But the first step is for you as a seller to recognize and decide how you want to deliver value to your buyer. Once you decide that you can do more than just take orders from ready buyers, and win more business who may not think they need you or your offering, there are plenty of resources to help you, but as with other changes, you need to first admit that you are a card carrying member of the Status Quo.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

The Pipeline Guest Post – Zoe Maldonado

Cutting overhead costs is one of the best ways to help your business succeed. With many businesses, the expenses are far easier to control than the profits. Cutting overhead doesn’t only help you on a financial level, but it also simplifies the management of your business. Cutting overhead costs is extremely complex and depends on the industry that you’re in, but here are some good ways to get started.

Move key resources to the cloud

Cloud computing is a relatively recent development and has been adopted by many companies as an excellent way to save money and operate at peak efficiency. With cloud computing, you take advantage of an array of computers over a private or local network like the internet. You can use these computers just for data storage or to host and run your business software.

Cloud computing is inexpensive, secure and Eco-friendly. Taking advantage of cloud technology means that you won’t have to spend any money on your own network or multiple software licenses; and you don’t need to have space for your own data servers. This saves you on both your technology budget and your rent and storage. Cloud computing also enhances the efficiency of your business because it allows your sales staff to access files and data from anywhere in the world. This efficiency can easily translate directly into increased sales. In addition, new studies are showing that businesses using multi-tenant cloud data centers produce less carbon than businesses utilizing the same types of services in-house.

Process sales on the go

Mobile credit card processing is the wave of the future. Even the big box stores have started taking advantage of this technology, and for small business use it has many clear advantages. With mobile credit card processing technology you can take a payment from a credit or debit card anywhere you go. These types of services often have a small credit card reader you can attach to a tablet or smart phone in order to swipe customer’s cards and close the sale right away.

Ditch the office space

With all the mobile apps for businesses available today, a physical location isn’t even necessary for many business owners. If you find that your staff is mostly on the road, and that you can do your work from home, ditching the office space can be one of the most cost saving decisions you make. If you need a storefront office, you can always down-size and allow some of your employees to “work from anywhere”.

Hire independent contractors

Independent contractors are on an hourly basis and can’t claim the benefits most employees do. Of course, you need to follow the government’s guidelines on whether your staff qualifies as independent contractors, but many do. You may not be able to get them for as many hours, but the savings will pay off.

Ditch the land-lines

Phone systems are often one of the most expensive initial costs for a company, but this goes back to the olden days when phone systems were the core of a business. Consider switching to mobile phones if it’s at all possible, because this will not only save you a lot of money, but it will also enable your staff to be more accessible to clients. Land-line phone systems have expensive monthly costs and are chained to a desk, so if your sales staff moves around a lot, land-lines are virtually useless.

About the author

Zoe Maldonado is a freelance writer and blogger for TechBreach who enjoys writing about all things mobile and electronic and spending time with her very active twin boys.

Mar 15th, 2013 Attitude, Change, execution, Guest Post, Leadership, Sales Leadership, Sales Strategy, Sales Tip

Attitude, Change, execution, Guest Post, how to sell better, Planning, Sales Success, sell better

Just Do It NOW! – Sales eXchange 1850

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

I often think that Nike got their famous tag line only half right, they should have added the word Now to Just Do It!

If you are a follower of this blog, you know I am big on process, a structured approach and a tight approach to time and what activities we spend time on. Many mistake this for rigidity, and often push back on how it limits their creativity and spontaneity. I beg to differ and here is a specific reason why.

I have been working with a group of experienced (or at least tenured) sales people. Many too experienced to learn new tricks or skills, they know what they are doing and resist new things, man that sounds a lot like some prospects we all know, don’t it. Working with one fellow, I noticed he had a running list of names on a note pad, when I asked he explained that these were people who popped into his head during that day, people he should call. Either because he “had an angel on something” or he had not thought about them, and thought “I should give them a call”. When I asked him when he calls them, he said “as soon as I get around to it”; when was the last time he did, “just before Christmas”, why the wait, hadn’t gotten around to it yet, nor did he get around to getting quota, coming in at about 83% last year. What was he busy with that he could call them, was the initial thought still valid, no answer.

Personally, I call these people right away, hand held laws be damned, if I think of a good reason to call a prospect, or an up-sell potential client, I do it right away. Before the thought and ENGERGY fade. Call Now is my mantra. If I am in a meeting, I make a note in my note book and it is the first thing that gets done when I am out of the meeting.

Waiting has a lot of risk. First and foremost, is the call not getting done. Even if it gets done later, it lacks the urgency and energy of a call made right there and then. This kind of energy is just electric over the phone, the prospects feel your excitement and get caught up in the moment along with you. There is few things as effective as telling a prospect “Hey Jon, I was just thinking about you!” People love to be thought about, and if you tell them why and what you see happening next, it just gets through and makes a clear and powerful point. The spontaneity, the excitement in your voice is contagious and effective.

I attribute my ability to make these calls, and succeed in making them to my process, the time I build into my day to experiment with selling and do off hand things like this when they present themselves.

So here is the challenge, next time you think about calling someone, call them, don’t make a note, don’t rationalize, call them, you never know what will happen, but I can predict what will be the outcome if you don’t. So just do it NOW!

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Many sellers believe that Objections are the bane of their existence, and one can understand why. On the other hand, if you step back, you can actually see Objections in a more positive light, and see them as something you can leverage to move sales forward, and win deals other less enlightened sellers may miss.

Below is the first of a series of videos dealing with objections, and how to make them work for you in winning sales.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Last week I posted about the how trends don’t use calendars and the flaw in trying to tie trends and the start of a new year; people on the other hand are different and do make effective use of calendars and planning to make improvements or changes in the way they do things. This includes sales people and the way they sell, and I would encourage people to set more time based objectives, and develop and execute a plan for achieving the desired results by or within a targeted time frame.

The new year is a natural time for people to set these objectives, hence the ritual of New Year’s Resolutions, interesting concept, not often effective. According to Knowledge Wharton Today, “Nearly half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions each year. Of those, only 8% are likely to succeed.” Not great odds, not even a good closing ratio if you are in sales.

I have seen sales people resolve to make more calls in the coming year, to go after accounts they were reluctant to approach, and other things that they see as a major change in the way they sell. I am all for “stretch goals” in the various senses of how the term is used in sales, but to be effective the “stretch” needs to be reasonable, not extreme. Sure if the extremes were achieved that would be great, but in most instances they are not, and turn out to be negative and discouraging. As the article points out, they become counter-productive.

The goal is to set reasonable attainable goals, building on what is already working, adding new elements of execution or strategy. The key is to set both goals and execution plans. There are times where people set a reasonable goal, but fail to develop an execution plan, and the outcome is negative, and the goal is abandoned. But if you set a series of doable goals, each building on the other, you can truly evolve your sales game. As you succeed at the first goal, you can celebrate your success, reap the benefits of their progress, and have the confidence to move to the next goal/challenge.

This allows one to evolve through the year, through their career without the shadow of a big resolution, and the disappointment of not achieving it. The approach can be applied to a number of aspects of sales, not just sales techniques or skills. You can look at market trends and evolve your product or message to leverage the trend, buyer habits or practices and more. The key is to make sure that you set yourself up to win, not just to play and be disappointed.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with resolving to do big things, just make sure that you have also set to evolve in small ways. If you achieve both, great; but if you miss on the big resolution, you still benefit from your new year evolution.

What’ in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto
Book 15 minutes with me!

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

As of the time of me writing this piece, America was still rushing head-long towards the “Fiscal Cliff”, by the time you read this, they may have even gone over. A pretty stupid thing for a bunch of guys who every two years spend a lot of time telling how smart they are; some of them will even try to convince you that it is indeed an accomplishment. But many sales people we have seen and lived the “cliff” scenario at times over and over, throughout their career.

The root cause for both is the same, a lack of execution; in both instances there is a lot of talk, but there is no action; there are a lot of excuses, but no action; there is plenty of blame to go around, but there is no action. In both cases you have a group of self-professed professionals, well paid, pampered and tolerated, who take the goodwill of others, and turn that goodwill and trust into a sham.

It is hard for some of us to understand why this is, and why these two groups of professionals seem to expend more energy not doing things, things they are paid to do, especially since they would have to actually expend less energy if in fact they did execute. Both have demonstrated, much of the excess output is consumed by vile smelling rhetoric generated in the process of achieving nothing. Often less than nothing, because they stand in the way of those who could deliver given the chance; but of course the current incumbents – the reps in the territories and those in the legislator – make sure that nothing gets done by anyone.

Let’s be clear these people are not lazy, each will go the extra mile, go to the matt, to take their company or country down to prove their “principled” point. No my friends, conviction is not their issue, they will go down fighting for your right not to have something other than what they see as the right thing. “Hey, if my solution is not the right one for you, no other solution will do.”

What is odd, is that with both groups their employers do have a choice, a choice each oddly refuses to exercise, which begs the question, why the employers refuse to execute the obvious course of action – firing the non-performers. I guess in each case one gets what one pays for. So even if congress does pull something off, it is likely to be a Band-Aid, too little too late, just like a reps who rationalizes his missed targets by talking about how bad things could have been; each group “earning the right” to give it another go, another chance to fail to execute.

In the end, I doubt many in congress are reading this, but I suspect some sellers are; for those that are, I simply ask, why? Why not take action to achieve, rather than complete inaction to fail?

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Sales Boxing Day30

Gift box There numerous histories and origins attributed to Boxing Day, so it’s only proper that we add to tradition from a sales point of view.

While I normally encourage sales professionals to think out of the box, in this post I will suggest you take some specific things and put them in a box so you can store them and get them out of your way to being more productive in the coming year.

While it is true that sale cycles tend to transcend numbers on a calendar page, people do have a habit of marking time, change and commitment to specific dates, especially the new year. A time when we make it a goal to do, stop doing and other resolutions that we hope will make the new year better than the one that just passed; although on reflection 2012 was pretty good.

But in order to make room for new habits, we must first discard some old habits, habits that have kept us from realizing full potential. These will differ for most of us, but the process of deciding – or avoiding – what needs to go in the Box, to make room for the new is not that different. Take a look at your performance for the year, did you get to you desired results? Here I don’t just mean did you hit quota, but your own personal targets, as they relate to you as a sales person, not those in your personal life. Did you develop that skill you committed to hone 12 months ago; did you stop doing things that were detrimental to your success.

One way to maximize this effort is to look at your sales in 2012, all that you started, look at the ones you won, lost or that ended with no definitive decision. Take a look and see if there are any elements that are common to each of the three, or some that are common to two or all three. For example are there actions that you failed to take in both losses and those sales without outcome, clearly something worth changing. There could be things you were doing that are sabotaging your success, if so, clearly something worth putting in the Box. As an example one thing I need to improve right across the board is generating more referrals, even from prospects who chose to go with something other than Renbor program.

As discussed in the past, wholesale change is not a realistic goal, but neither is marshaling on without an honest look at what can improve; just pick one thing and take the step to change it. Now is a good time for sales people put the old in a Box, and make room for new things outside the box.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Want to make more money, sell to the Status Quo. Here are three ways you can start:

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

One of the greatest things invented by the financial service industry was “Compound Interest“. Save for the fact that no one is paying much interest on money these days, the reality of Compound Interest still holds and delivers added gain regardless of how low of high rates are. I was watching a teacher explain the concept to a grade 5 class, and he brought it down to “a little to start, a little from here, a little from there, and over time you end up with more than straight interest”.

As you assess your plan for sales success in 2013, you can take advantage of “Compounding” to achieve greater success. Rather than resolving to do new things in new ways in 2013, why not resolve to improve a little here and a little there with things you already do or need to do; but do it in a way that ends up being greater than the individual gains on your efforts.

Read On…

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

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What's In Your Pipeline?

Shock Treatment – Sales eXchange 1922

5 Tips For Cutting Overhead Costs and Unleashing Your Sales Team’s Potential0

Just Do It NOW! – Sales eXchange 1850

Objections – Not What They Appear to Be (#video)0

New Year’s Evolution0

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

“Fiscal Cliff” Selling – Sales eXchange 18139

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Sales Boxing Day30

3 Ways To Trump Status Quo (video)34

Compounding Your Sales Successes40

Read On…