“Not him again!”

They say “cold calling is dead” and they’re right from the traditional perspective; that is, calling a complete stranger, unexpectedly, for the sole reason that their company has money that you and your company need to operate.

Every business needs customers to sustain financial viability so the primary purpose of sales calls is to get customers. Having no warm leads to call and no inbound calls coming in, the traditional salesperson hits the directories and calls new prospects – a lot of them before he or she can find even one person interested in talking with them. Even then, they can only begin the first phase of a sales cycle that can easily end in no sale, for multiple reasons.

Look at “cold call” as first contact or first impression.

Salespeople have many communication modes beside their voice and telephone. Some of you may remember the “Marketing Mini-Me” article. Marketing people can teach salespeople a lot in this day and age.

Who says cold calling has to be done on the phone or strutting through a door?

Changing the idea of cold call to “first impression” helps us understand the selling dynamic much better. Advertising is one-way, one-sided sales communication. Content marketing is sales communication that begins with idea exploration and invites a two way conversation which attracts people already interested in what you’re selling.

“We need to call this guy!”

So you write a highly informed blog post that points out a common business problem and a proven, affordable solution. Then you share it all over your social channels, email it to your newsletter subscribers and post a short video testimonial on YouTube of a customer successfully using your solution. In essence, you just made a cold call (first impression) to every prospect to whom the post registers. For the average salesperson, this is dozens of people, probably hundreds, and for some, thousands!

At a bare minimum, you’ve left a brand impression with everyone who sees the post. For those who read the blog article or watch the video, you’ve given them the equivalent of a meet & greet over coffee, maybe better. It could be a “eureka moment” for someone struggling with that problem that you point out. It could generate a closed deal that a random cold call could potentially push away.

To be fair, marketers can be informed by salespeople of real problems in the field associated with products, prices and promotions. Salespeople see first hand what competitors are saying and doing to win business from their prospects.

Those same salespeople needn’t wait for marketing to improve the lead generating campaign. They can do it themselves using email, social media, networking and publishing. What else can you think of? Viral videos, public speaking, seminars, leading breakout sessions at trade shows, Chamber of Commerce ambassadorships… Nobody can truthfully claim “there aren’t enough opportunities for that stuff in my market.”

So go ahead and “cold call” like crazy. Just change the approach from interruption to invitation by thinking “first impression” instead of cold call. Everyone knows how important it is to make a good first impression!

The post First Impressions trump Cold Calls appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Marketing and selling on LinkedIn is a big deal for business today. Just about everyone in business is now on LinkedIn (over 300 million users) and most are staring at their screens thinking, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

Salespeople who have moved away from cold calling are turning to LinkedIn as a new opportunity for canvassing their markets. It’s a fine prospecting tool for certain, but LinkedIn will not work as a “target rich” environment to pick off prospects. People on LinkedIn are just like you. They want to sell, not get picked off!

I’ll offer you in this article what I’ve experienced using LinkedIn since about 2006. A visit to my profile will inform you of my content, connections and online resume. LinkedIn calls me an “All Star” for whatever that’s worth, and I only have a free account.

My professional network on LinkedIn is among my most precious business assets. I’m connected with most of my identifiable business prospects in my market. LinkedIn is the perfect searchable Rolodex, and when I need to contact someone for any business inquiry, that’s where I go. There’s tip number one! Make LinkedIn your interactive business connection database. Okay, but then what?

How do you grow your business and earn more money on LinkedIn? 

The answer is simply this: Use all of LinkedIn’s features for searching, connecting, networking, branding and publishing. Do you want some bullets? Here they are:

• Brand
• Profile depth
• Content value
• Connections – quality and volume
• Presence and interaction

LinkedIn does its job very well. In fact, it will continually prompt you to be a better user. The rest is up to you. How interesting are your messages to your connections?

Humans behave pretty much the same online, no matter where they are. For example what gets more likes, comments and shares on Facebook? It’s usually family and personal drama, controversial topics, frivolous musings, cool pictures and videos. That’s what gets them buzzing.

People want to be entertained no matter what, and on LinkedIn, some even want to be educated. These are your LinkedIn watchwords for post content: Wise, Fresh, New, Bold, Disruptive and Valuable.

Asking a timely and baffling question will get you more interaction than a technical blog post or sharing a typical business article.

Writing a controversial LinkedIn Pulse post will get people commenting and direct messaging you while sharing your latest newsletter will simply be another brand impression.

It’s fine to post something relevant to your business audience every day and those impressions will only fortify your personal and company branding. Don’t expect the floodgates to be opened, but rather a gradual rise to “top-of-mind” status within your LinkedIn network.

Use LinkedIn like I do and trust me, your messages will be seen and noticed by hundreds and potentially thousands every week! Your brand will be reinforced and you’ll be short listed by your connections when they have a requisition and budget for your services.

Your quality professional network will keep growing as long as you stay active on LinkedIn. You will begin to form relationships inside the minds and hearts of your wider online network without even knowing it.

There’s bad news for those thinking of LinkedIn as a replacement for the telephone which was once a fairly effective “dialing for dollars” machine. Social media including LinkedIn discourage spammy or unsolicited sales messages. Connecting socially and fostering relationships online is the purpose for LinkedIn and other social media.

Look at LinkedIn from the relationship, not sales perspective! Get acquainted with fellow professionals and make friends just as you would on Facebook. Just be authentic about it and remember to keep the tone professional, even when using humor.

LinkedIn is actually a very sociable platform. It’s just dressed for professional life instead of a back yard barbecue. Once you have someone in your network, it will be natural to contact them with relevant, valuable business information. An invitation to lunch through a LinkedIn direct message is more likely to be accepted than a meeting request from an unexpected phone call.

Continuous thoughtful updates and interactions with your LinkedIn Groups and Connections will improve your business development results, without question. It’s not a matter of IF it will work, it’s a matter of spending the time and doing the work to actually generate the results.

The post LinkedIn Does its Job. What about you? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Sales is tougher than it used to be, and for some, much tougher. Salespeople who keep selling the 20th century way are running into walls. These walls have been erected at many of the same prospect companies that used to have doors swing wide open. Quite literally, doors to lobbies with friendly receptionists were open to salespeople to come in and inquire about how they could help the company with their products & services. Telephones rang off the hook. Half the calls were from customers & vendors and the other half from salespeople. Selling was a lot of fun back then!

 
Formerly and still potentially excellent salespeople will tell you how they used to kill it in the 1990s (20th century) and maybe up to the post 9/11 boomlet. Something began to change around 2003 and then very rapidly in the years following. That change is now complete.

 
The number one sales problem that many CEOs will tell you is they can’t find any good salespeople and many complain about the ones they have. They aren’t delivering results. There are fewer good salespeople in the market because sales is less sought as a career and 20th century strategies are still in place along with the corresponding tactics that fail.

Unless you have an inside contact name and a referral, you’re shunned. Just try cold calling your way into an enterprise class or big business today. It’s sometimes possible but extremely difficult. If a live operator actually answers, it’s likely they are prohibited from putting a call through without a verifiable appointment or relationship. Cold calling can still work at small businesses, but if you’re going after the real money B2B client, you need a pre-established relationship or good luck Charlie!

 
My point here is to encourage salespeople and executives to sell successfully. The successful career salesperson today is a branding, marketing and networking expert. Their name is already familiar to their prospects. Their company is known for being in the top tier of providers in their category. When prospects are ready to buy, they get called in.

 
Every salesperson has the opportunity to brand himself or herself in a way congruent with their company branding. They can be their company’s Marketing Mini-Me and deliver hot leads. Ready to learn how?

• They can attend copious networking events, establish relationships and build an organic database.
• They can join trade organizations, Chambers and other B2B organizations, contributing knowledge and skills.
• They can send branded email newsletters free or super cheap.
• They can have personal websites with great blog content, also super cheap.
• They can have searchable LinkedIn profiles and network online 24/7 free.
• They can tweet pithy, relevant messages and reach thousands or more daily.
• They can print their own unique and memorable business cards and flyers cheaper than ever.
• They can support their marketing teams with field intelligence for more targeted messaging, driving more inbound leads.
• Their wise CEO or division VP can accompany them on sales calls and show prospects how serious their company is about delivering the best value in the market.

If a salesperson is still behind in catching up with 21st century sales opportunities, they can work extra hours at home. It might take a year or two to catch up, but the new way of selling is a lot of fun too!

The post Be a Marketing Mini-Me appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Money is often the last thing that comes up in business dealings because many people are afraid of broaching the subject. Why? Because before price is discussed, eyes are wide open to opportunities. People are eager to talk about the mutual benefits of working together, or they can envision how a new product will perform for them. Potential customers usually have a price range in mind, even if they have no idea what it will actually cost. When the eventual price revelation is above the perceived range, tension or mutual disappointment enter the room.

Both seller and buyer fear the eventual price revelation because it can sometimes shatter expectations and render a hoped-for deal just a pipe dream. There are plenty of exceptions to this scenario, but anything of very high value comes with a high price. As long as others in the market pay the cost and show benefits from the investment, the product or service settles at the highest price point the market will bear. That is the only way that profits are sustainable in a competitive marketplace.

My point isn’t economics 101 but rather a solution the the price “objection.” This is really worth a further look!

I was struck by a recent post by Lee Salz. It had one of those must-read headlines. “Never encounter the price objection again, guaranteed!” If you or your company sell anything (all of you), you need to find out what he’s really getting at, don’t you?

After I read Lee’s piece, a number of successful business dealings ran through my head and I realized he was on to something, something big when it comes to sales.

Examine your own buying behavior. When you want something that can help your business, you naturally have concerns about shelling out the money. Could it be invested somewhere else? Will the value of this product or service actually work for you? Your concerns are completely legitimate. Very often you’ll “bite the bullet” and you’ll pay, maybe with reluctance at first. Eventually you’re glad you made the purchase decision as you reap benefits.

As a seller, you know there’s high value in your product and it’s worth the price. You can prove it by testimony and real data. Your confidence brims about dealing with price objections (concerns to the customer). Then, if you’re not careful, hubris overshadows your attitude and you attempt to counter the price objection. It becomes either a tense negotiation or worse, a conflict. Nobody wants to go there.

What if you approached price concerns with the same positive energy and enthusiasm that you and your potential customer had before price was broached? When price is the issue, try rolling up your sleeves and becoming a customer’s teammate instead of opponent. Make their concerns your concerns. In most businesses, there are delivery options; customized product configurations and service levels to provide for the customer’s needs and still make you money. Several of my good clients were won over by this approach and have given me referrals. I don’t know where my business would be without them.

Now please, let me offer you this concept concerning your purchased marketing services. Chuck Sink Link offers unique and customized service packages that deliver very high value at price levels that might surprise you – opposite of “sticker shock.” Maybe we leave money on the table, but that’s okay. My sales and marketing experience spans decades. My personal and company brand enjoy fine reputations and my clients are successful.

Some of you may be asking, what do you get from Chuck Sink Link? Working with a senior brand strategy consultant and master copywriter, your business will have new life breathed into its internal and external communications. Your marketing executions and public relations will be designed and written to resonate with your your exact target audience. For a fraction of the cost of an internal marketing director or fully staffed marketing agency, you will increase your brand equity and better support your selling efforts. You will enjoy having a partner who shares your business concerns and helps you achieve your growth goals. Let’s have a conversation.

The post Price: Are you giving what you’re paid for? appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Engaging your audience is easy when you know what motivates them. You can grab their attention, hold it and then persuade them to take action with more ease if you use one or more of The Six E’s of Audience Action.

Way back during the dawn of social media marketing development (like around 2010) I worked for a marketing agency that talked about the “3 E’s of social media engagement.” They were Ego, Entertainment and Education. I knew there was more to it than those 3 things so I’ve been striving to come up with a short yet comprehensive list of motivators that would cover all or most of what moves us humans to take action, and maybe even buy things.

Striving for simplicity, so I can understand my own concepts, I wanted a simple guide or formula that could make business communications resonate with target audiences. I wanted a set of guiding principles which work across a broad spectrum of constituencies and media. Serendipitously, the 6 best keywords I considered happened to start with E. Therein is the simplicity of my new guide to audience engagement.

When you examine each of the motivating factors that move people to action, you’ll see that each one fulfills a strong human desire or need. Beyond basic survival (food, clothing, shelter) these motivators are all part of our instinctual nature. In a manner of speaking, we were born to respond to them, and so they are very effective when used for strategic communications. Let’s take a look at the 6 E’s:

Ego

Empathy

Education

Enrichment

Enthusiasm

Entertainment

These are not in any particular order other than making a word pyramid, but Ego being at the top is actually quite helpful. We all have an ego! To discount it’s power over the individual would be remiss. Everyone loves to be recognized and we love hearing our own name called out in a positive way.

So, let’s look briefly at all 6E’s of Audience Action:

1. Ego – You make it happen. Thank you!
2. Empathy – I totally identify with you and know exactly how you feel.
3. Education – Understanding this material is the key to your success.
4. Enrichment – This will bring you security, comfort, fun and enjoyment.
5. Enthusiasm – You are delighted by my energy and excitement.
6. Entertainment – You will enjoy passing the time this way for hours.

• Egos aren’t stroked by manipulation.
• Empathy can’t be faked. You have it or you don’t.
• Education should edify or it’s meaningless.
• Enrichment can’t be given if you don’t have value to offer.
• Enthusiasm can’t be put on or faked because it’s an internal gift.
• Entertainment is the result of real talent, creativity and skill.

The post Motivate Your Audience with E’s appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

While analyzing the reports from our first round of email newsletters, my client instinctively knew where to focus on improving open rates and conversion results. Before I could begin to demonstrate my experience in this area, the client was already talking about the subject line and the newsletter content itself. The other part of our discussion concerned the mailing list – how it was gathered and the company’s relationship with the contacts on the list.

Noted in the previous paragraph are the three things on which you must focus for your email marketing to be successful.

• List
• Content
• Subject Line

We’ll offer a succinct overview of each email marketing success component. The technique I will mostly use here is to ask questions. The answer machine in your head will guide you toward improving your email marketing.

Who is on your list? Who should be on your list? Who should NOT be on your list? Are your contacts signing up or opting in from online and offline marketing and events? Is your sales team gathering prospect contact info with each conversation and at every networking event? Simply mentioning that you have an informative newsletter and would like to send a free copy will add willing new recipients to your list. Include as many prospects or potential referral partners on your list(s) as you and your team can gather in your prospecting work.

Your content must be excellent. Your target audience is mostly indifferent regarding how successful your email will be, so how can you reward them for opening the email and reading it? Promise them something in the subject line and deliver it the content. Ask a compelling question that exposes pain in your customer’s or prospect’s business. Deliver solid recommendations and solutions. Include research, strategy and tactics when possible – provide meat for carnivorous consumption. You may also want to veer off topic with something of general or human interest as your audience grows to know you.

The subject line must arrest and attract. A good subject line will make any inquisitive professional pause and read an email now or mark it for an edificationbreak when they have time. Examine your own behavior when it comes to scanning through your emails. Which sources do you consider authoritative? What in a subject line makes you pause from the delete button and think: “I better have a look at this one…”?

To close this article, thank you!  I’m extremely grateful that you took a few minutes with me today to read this blog post. I hope that you find value, even if just reminders, in the 3 success drivers of email marketing.

The post Email marketing success – 3 things you must do well appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Goals are fine but I gave up traditional goal setting awhile ago. Then I started surpassing some of my goals. Similarly, I realized sales forecasting is no more than a snapshot of last year with a wish list on top.

Maybe you’ve heard, “When setting your goals, aim for the stars, and if you miss, you’ll at least hit the moon.” Are you setting the stars as your goal this year, hoping for the moon? Maybe you should allow yourself another 9 – 10 years because that’s what it actually took an entire country following JFK’s lofty national goal in 1961 of landing a man on the moon.

If your sales were $200,000 last year and you make your goal $1,000,000 this year with the same apparatus, your’re probably just seeing pie in the sky.

My opinion about business goal setting is that it’s overrated. Time spent on calculating goals, also known as “guestimating,” could be better spent executing a disciplined work process day by day, week by week. Valuable (billable) work leads to business goal achievement.

Here’s the raw deal with goals: They are attempts at predicting the future and controlling outcomes. Those of you who practice the habits of predicting and controlling know well the feelings of restlessness and discontent. You cannot control the motives and actions of others and we all need others to assist us in accomplishing our goals. Therefore, no matter how well you conceptualize, strategize, plan and execute, you may be just as likely to fall short of your goals as to achieve them. The whims of the marketplace and dynamic nature of the future will largely determine where you will be in the next couple of years.

As the future is unpredictable, so is everything that happens between the time a goal is set and it’s future deadline. There is a way to take advantage of this reality. Let one of your major goals be to positively participate in your market’s dynamics every day.

Let’s say you spent the day setting the precise numbers you want to achieve, conceiving a detailed picture of the exact tangible results you desire, setting and scheduling time limits, developing strategies and creating detailed master plans to accomplish your goals by the specified dates. Oh yeah, you would also need to spend some time on forecasting, planning and devising your key metrics. Then each week or month you took time to analyze your progress and adjust your strategy. I could spend that same day and the subsequent time actually performing work that generates revenue. At least for that day and those follow up times, I’d be advancing toward my goals while you were just thinking about them (even if writing it all down). I’d be taking advantage of and learning from the dynamics of the market while you were trying to formulate the future according to your desires (or your boss’s).

As you learn new things each day from participating in your business, you can use this information to make nimble adjustments that help your customers or allow you to touch more prospects. This process is known as a feedback loop and it can be very powerful.

What is your system for success? More emphasis should be placed on your system according to a leading fitness coach and personal trainer in Denver. Click to read a superb article on the subject.

Systems versus goals. What is your system for producing successful results? James Clear makes my points clear. In a recent article he explains the difference between goals and systems:

“What’s the difference between goals and systems?

• If you’re a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.
• If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
• If you’re a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.
• If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.

“Now for the really interesting question: If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still get results? 

“For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?  I think you would.”

Mr. Clear goes on in the article to explain how too much focus on goals can have negative consequences on one’s outlook and mood. Mr. Clean clearly agrees.

The post Mr. Clean and Mr. Clear agree on goals! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

The law of sowing and reaping is old, really old, and it won’t go away. The biblical metaphor of the farmer who persistently and patiently keeps sowing good seeds always reaps rewards, eventually, no matter what. The late Jim Rohn made a fortune telling this story many times as his own way of sowing, and his business grew internationally making him among the most respected (and richest) business motivators of the last century.

There are beaten paths, rocky roads, choking weeds and all manner of hazards, some of of our making, that interfere with the growth of the crop (business) we’re trying to plant and raise. It’s easy to plant the seeds of business development and then quit after the first few plantings fail to yield. We can easily be convinced the seeds are just no good or we’re not cut out for the business we happen to be in. Giving up too early is tragic when all that is needed for success is a patch of fertile soil, and the world is filled with such patches even if they’re temporarily hidden.

There is a lesson in persistence here but there is so much more to the parable – story – metaphor. There are many different kinds of thieves – some internal, some external – that rob us of faith and steal our motivation to press on. These thieves are cunning and baffling.

So often have I been experiencing direct success from a sales or marketing activity when at the same time someone is telling me they tried it and it doesn’t work. They signed up and made the team but quit when they missed their first shot on goal. It’s easy to be convinced it won’t work if it doesn’t succeed after one or two tries. Don’t fall for the lies of self deception and beware of the other naysayers out there!

The first quarter of 2014 is gone forever!

Now is the time! Spring is the season of rebirth and renewal, bla bla bla… See, there goes my little demon telling me that positive messages like this are trite; that I need toget my head out of the clouds and look more at scientific metrics. But you know what? I’m going to keep on keeping on: sowing seeds in the form of publishing newsletters, attending business events, public relations, sponsorships, social media networking, online marketing and, yes, even good old sales calls!

We have good seeds to sow and as we keep sowing, some is bound to land on fertile ground. If you know where that ground is, great! Stay there an nurture it. No matter what, keep sowing wherever you’re going. If you happen to find the seed of a good idea in any of our newsletter/blog content, would you please plant it in the mind of another?

The post The wealthy sower – so old he’s new! appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

On March 20, you can learn to save a ton of money for your business! Learn what free marketing is all about.

• Learn how to build a brand…
• Market a company…
• Increase sales…
• All using free tools and methods!

Come to the hands-on single day course: Social Media & Free Online Marketing at Manchester Community College on March 20th!

Register here with CRN # 20774 and Course # NCTD055.

If you have questions about how to register, reply to this email or call me at 603-345-7223.

The post Spend a day, then don’t spend another dime. appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

3/27/14  |  11:45 AM – 1:00 PM

Eastpoint Executive Center, 264 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03113

Register FREE

Meet Kevin personally and hear him speak on how to sell more in today’s changing markets. Email me if you have questions chuck@chucksink.com

The post Learn to master sales in 2014 appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.