Are you on the road to sales success?

Lots of things can determine whether you win sales. Buyers might not understand the value you offer. You might come on too strong and push people away. You might not have identified your ideal clients, and so the people you talk to have no need.

The list can go on and on. But here are four things that are essential for not only making a one-time sale, but establishing long-term buying relationships with clients—becoming a trusted advisor on whom they rely.

1. Market Your Services According to Buyer Preferences

You know you have to market your services using methods your ideal clients prefer. You have to go where your buyers are. If they use Twitter, you have to be there. If they prefer email notifications, you need to update them via that form of media.

Fairly new to the game is mobile marketing. Companies may be reluctant to adopt that type of marketing, but they shouldn’t be, says Jeff Roberts in his article Mobile Marketing a Must for Firms. Millions of people now use smartphones and other mobile devices, and if your firm doesn’t have a mobile website, chances are you’re not reaching those buyers, he says.

“Mobile websites are here to stay and are fast becoming one of the dominant ways that buyers access content,” Roberts writes. “In fact, Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2014, more people will access the Internet from mobile devices than from computers. And according to Google’s study, “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users,” nine out of 10 smartphone searches results in an action (purchasing, visiting a business, etc.).”

If you’re new to the mobile marketing game, Roberts’ article can help you get started.

2. Provide Sales Training

You’ve identified your ideal client, you’re marketing where they hang out, your value proposition is crystal clear, you’re publishing content to help potential buyers and prove your expertise, and you’re ready for your sales team to start bringing in the clients. But they’re struggling. Even the “sales superstar” you hired is having trouble.

The problem could be that you haven’t prepared your sales team. They might not understand the firm’s value proposition and therefore aren’t communicating it well. They might not know what is expected of them.

Companies can’t expect their sales force to “just know” how to sell their products and services, writes John Doerr in his article Sales Success Calls for Building a Better Road: Define, Support, and Drive Action. They must provide a framework that salespeople can follow systematically to move prospects through the pipeline, as well as help them set goals and put plans into action.

“Most would agree that there are right and wrong ways to do just about everything, and sales are no exception,” Doerr says. “Process and methodology are essentially guides for behavior. They help you know when to do certain things (process) and how to do them well (methodology). It should be the basis for any sales training program looking to increase sales efficiency.”

3. Make Sure Buyers Are Ready to Change

As you talk with potential buyers you have to be careful that you accurately judge prospects’ interest, warns Jill Konrath. You might assume they’re ready to buy when really they’re still trying to decide if they should change from the status quo.

Your prospect would “prefer not to [change] because it takes a lot of extra time and effort. But if they can see that all the hassle and pain leads to a better outcome, they’ll do it,” Konrath writes in her article Promiscuous Sales Behavior Is Damaging Your Reputation.

She also points out that 90% of the people you meet are still in that deciding phase. Get them past that and onto the next phase—selecting a service—and then you can talk about your solution.

Sales expert Adrian Davis agrees that getting buyers to change from the status quo is a significant step sellers need to do well. In fact, the status quo is often a business’s greatest competition, he says in his podcast interview How to Become a CEO’s Trusted Advisor.

“Most people don’t seriously consider how much competition the status quo poses,” Davis says. “They’re seeing themselves as competing against another vendor, and really what they should be thinking is that they are competing against the status quo. And they should work with the chief executive to figure out how to move the organization out of the status quo.”

4. Work with the CEO

Getting a chief executive to take action on what you propose calls for a different approach than when you present a proposal to a department manager, says Davis. The chief executive has the final say, and there’s a level of risk involved. It’s on his shoulders if he makes a decision that hurts the company.

That means you have to present a business case and explain the ROI. With a business case you work with the CEO to uncover the real needs of an organization, agree on the requirements, and present tangible and intangible benefits. And you use an ROI to back up your claims.

“What’s going to make the sale is emotional engagement,” Davis says. “When that chief executive has completely bought in emotionally to making this change, then they’re going to look for ammunition that will support the change that they want to make. And one of the most powerful pieces of ammunition is ROI.”

What other things should firms do to make sure their services sell well?

Photo by Rob Owen-Wahl

Whenever somebody says “trust me” don’t you instinctively put up your guard? I do. If you have to tell me to trust you, then you aren’t doing your job. I need to feel I can trust you—and so do your prospects. They need to feel you have their best interests at heart and that you can truly help them.

Often the first feelings of trust—or mistrust—come when potential buyers read your marketing copy. If you don’t know your buyers and you aren’t relevant, they aren’t going to give you the time of day let alone trust you. That means you must research your buyers, uncover their concerns with buying from you, and help them weigh the tradeoffs of buying from you, writes Kristin Zhivago in her article Secrets to Writing Marketing Copy that Customers Can’t Ignore.

“Once the copywriter knows what the tradeoffs are, he can and should address them as a friend would, not as a ‘formal’ copywriter,” she says.

Write copy that allows people to think positively about your firm, allows them to picture real, experienced people who take a smart approach to their business, Zhivago says. (Read examples in Zhivago’s article.)

Trust-based Networking

You can also establish trust through networking. Rather than just finding out how others can be helpful to you, “search for others to whom you can be helpful, write Charles H. Green and Andrea Howe in their article Trust-based Networking Critical for Business Success. Focus on others, and the rest will take care of itself, they say.

“This approach has two characteristics: it is inherently longer-term, and it forces focus on the other’s needs,” Green and Howe write. “The reason the trust-based approach is so attractive is the fundamental shift in business, from vertical control to horizontal influence. Coercion can work when you have control; when you don’t, you’d better try influence.”

Trust-based networking works online and in person. And the greatest thing you can do is introduce two people to each other, Green and Howe say. Other ways to practice trust-based networking include collaborating with others, recognizing others’ contributions publicly, talking about your partner more and about you less, and dropping the sales pitch.

How Well Do You Listen?

When a prospect talks with you, do you really listen to what they say? Or are you thinking about what you can buy if they agree to the deal?

Many service professionals and salespeople get dollar signs in their eyes and tune out when a prospect approaches them and says they’re ready to buy. They get excited about the money and “run roughshod” over people, says Dan Waldschmidt in his podcast interview A Key Component to Winning More Sales.

“We blame it on passion,” he says. “‘I’m just passionate,” we say. What we really are is a little bit inconsiderate. We’re a little hurtful. So, what we have to do is start listening—listening to what’s being said. Most of what gets said is never spoken. It’s either inferred or implied. It’s never actually said with our lips. It’s said with body language and eye sight. You really have to listen to what the soul of the person is saying.”

Trust Between Sales and Marketing

Companies would like to think they have one team responsible for generating revenue—sales and marketing teams working together. The reality for most, however, is different. Sales and marketing “exist separately, communication between the two teams is usually informal and irregular, and their data is siloed in ways that make it impossible to share,” says Dan Goldman in his article How an Inbound Marketing System Can Help Increase Revenue.

Add to that the fact that the two often don’t agree on what a qualified lead or buyer is, and the problem grows. Salespeople don’t trust the leads given them, they discard them, and sales suffer.

To improve this, Goldman suggests integrating sales and marketing teams via inbound marketing and marketing automation. With the right mindset, shared goals, and appropriate tools they can join forces to pull buyers to them and make sure each team has the same information about marketing campaigns and potential buyers.

With such a system companies can also better determine the ROI of marketing campaigns and stop spending money on those that don’t work.

“Integrating sales and marketing teams can be made to work and work well, but you have to make it an official goal and know what you want to achieve,” Goldman says. “And it has to be a top-down and bottom-up approach to get the right focus of effort and buy-in.”

Photo by Omar Naeem

When it comes to generating new business, there are things salespeople know they should do—things they’ve read about and trained for.

And then there are things, because of their personalities or misinformation they’ve heard along the way, that they do badly—or shouldn’t do at all. They’re making mistakes, thinking they’re doing the right thing but all along their sales steadily drop.

For some salespeople, the mistake starts right out of the gate with their initial contact with prospects. They send one email, send a follow-up email, and a follow-up phone call, but the prospect doesn’t respond. Or they call the prospect a couple times and leave voice mail, and then follow up with an email. Again, they get no response from the person.

One’s natural inclination is to think the prospect isn’t interested, but that would be wrong, writes Dan McDade in his article The Costly Assumption Most Salespeople Make. In fact, of all the incorrect assumptions salespeople make, this is the most costly in terms of losing valuable opportunities, he says.

That’s because chances are when you’re reaching out to a prospect, he isn’t yet ready to make a purchase. Analysis shows that it takes 12 touches, using various media spanning multiple buying cycles before a prospect indicates he’s interested, McDade says.

“One of the most important processes is the systematic application of an integrated multi-touch, multimedia, and multi-cycle contact strategy. This type of approach is required to engage today’s buyers given their hectic schedules and multitasking work styles,” he says.

Along those lines, sellers often forget that they can—and should—use holidays as a reason to reach out to prospects and clients. Don’t think that they’re too busy with holiday planning, personal or professional, to respond to you. In actuality, people are more apt to respond to a holiday-related email, writes Kendra Lee in her article Use Holiday Emails to Give Your Prospecting a Boost.

The key is to not push a sale in those emails. You’re simply reaching out to tell them you’re thinking about them on a special day, she says.

“As you put together your holiday emails, you shouldn’t be looking to gather leads or opportunities in a straightforward way. In fact, when you do receive responses from prospective clients, my advice is to keep things light and simply remind them that you’d love to get together to catch up,” Lee says. “When they respond to that, then you can set a time for the appointment.”

Social Media Faux Pas

Social media has been the greatest thing since sliced bread for sales and marketing professionals. When used well, you can develop relationships with buyers, get referrals, and establish yourself as an industry expert. When used badly, you become more chatter in a wall of noise—or worse, blocked by people you want to connect with.

The biggest mistake is doing things that remove the “personal-ness” of the medium and eroding trust people have in you, writes Charles H. Green in his article How Social Media Can Help—or Hurt—Your Reputation.

“Any social media attempt at mass-scale communication, or at mass-produced content, is doomed by its nature to appear impersonal at best and crassly selfish at worst. It cannot create personal trust. And thus it cannot be a good foundation for reputation,” he says.

To have a trust-based reputation, you must provide consistent trustworthy customer experiences, Green says. This is not new; only the medium is different.

“The power of social media, for those willing to see it, lies in making the world more personal, not less so. You do that by simply behaving personally in a trustworthy manner, online as in everywhere else. Your reputation will rise in comparison to those who don’t, he says.

Don’t Disregard Relationship-Based Selling

It’s no secret that people buy from people and organizations that they like. Not only that, but if you and your organization maintain a strong relationship, chances are you’ll get referral business. Relationship-selling works, as evidenced by Simplicity Consulting, which went from generating $300,000 in revenue to $11.5 million in just three years following that model.

CEO Lisa Hufford’s approach is to focus on the deliverable, writes Mary Flaherty in her case study of the firm Relationship-Based Sales Model Grows Consulting Firm from $300K to $11.5M in 3 Years. Projects often change in Hufford’s industry, so she works closely with clients from the beginning to get a good handle on the work required. The quote is based on the deliverable, and then she carefully matches a consultant to the project. The goal is to meet the clients’ unique needs.

“I believe it’s all about quality, not quantity,” Hufford says, “Clients don’t have the time to screen candidates. They just want to go somewhere they trust to find quality resources.”

Hufford’s relationship approach is a large part of her marketing, as well. She spends a lot of time networking, speaking to groups at large corporations, and educating companies on how to reduce costs and leverage resources in a new way.

“In a people business—especially one just starting out—it’s all about relationships, and that takes a lot of face-to-face meetings,” says Hufford.

A Salesperson’s Failing Trait: Arrogance

With success comes confidence and pride. Confidence is a good thing. But when that confidence morphs into arrogance, watch out.

“Attitude is altitude,” says Harvey Mackay, author of The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World and Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive. A positive attitude helps you succeed. Too much attitude, however, can cause a salesperson’s failure, he says.

“I’ve studied companies and why they go under. I’ve studied individuals and why they go down, why they’re not successful. It’s because arrogance sets in,” says Mackay in his podcast interview The Trait that Causes Salespeople to Fail. “People get successful, and they get chapped lips from kissing the mirror too much. Hubris sets in.”

And arrogance isn’t something you can mask, he says. Buyers can see right through a salesperson who is so full of himself that he doesn’t think he has to develop client relationships. Arrogance prevents buyers from trusting you. And “without trust, you have nothing,” Mackay says.

Images by Cecile Graat

There's money to be made in social media if you sell the right way.

There’s money to be made in social media if you sell the right way.

There’s this age-old problem with selling: If we could only get more people to pay attention to us, we could build relationships that lead to sales.

Fortunately, social media offers an amazing source of business opportunities. If you approach it the right way, you can build many relationships that could be crucial to your business growth and success.

This article is about successfully selling (not marketing) with social media. And by selling, I mean the “two people getting to know each other and starting up a conversation that might go somewhere” kind of selling.

Here are eight ways to strike up social media conversations with people you want to meet:

1. Boil the Frog

There’s an old wives’ tale (some truth to it) that says  if you put a frog in boiling water, it will sense the heat and jump out. But put a frog in cool water and turn up the heat slowly, and the frog will hardly notice.

When reaching out online to people you’d like to meet, don’t come on like gangbusters. Nothing screams “jump out of the hot pot” more than a blatant “let’s talk so I can sell you something” message.

Start cool and warm up slowly. Comment on their blog post. Retweet them thoughtfully. Compliment something they wrote. Become familiar to someone—even if they don’t engage you right away—and it’s more likely that they’ll engage you in the future.

For example, this person wrote to me personally, said something pleasant, and left it there. Nice start!

Dr. Rachna Jain, who studies the psychology of social media, says, “When people see you more, they like you more. The shorthand is that familiarity breeds likeability. Especially if you’re seen as giving them value or good content or information.”

2. Givers Gain

The world of social media changes faster than the Clippers change coaches. But some things never change—like the golden rule of networking (social or otherwise).

The golden rule? Givers gain. (Bet you figured that out from the section header.)

As Dr. Jain said, “…especially if you’re seen as giving them value or good content or information.” How? Share a white paper. Share a relevant piece of research. Invite them to a private local business event.

Remember, starting relationships can take many touches. Do this right, and people will perceive you as valuable even before you interact with them personally (which we’re getting to), and you boil the frog at the same time.

3.  Make Henry Kissinger Proud

There’s an old story that’s been told and retold about how Henry Kissinger approached getting the best out of his staff. Before reviewing anything from his people, he’d ask, “Before I look at this… is it your best work?” and the staff would go back and keep working until they could say yes.

When reaching out through social media, give it your Henry Kissinger effort.

RAIN Group and  RainToday have about 160,000 subscribers and followers combined.  And they reach out to me fairly regularly and want to connect.

Many of them remain strangers because they made no effort to relate to me. A standard “my products would be of value” overture does not catch anyone’s attention. No personalization… no genuine connection. Even something better than bad would be good.

But every once in a while, someone reaches out with real effort, energy and thoughtfulness—the kind that would make Henry Kissinger proud. Here’s an example of how one gentleman started a conversation:

This example goes on with several more paragraphs explaining our connections and reasons for why we might both be interested in connecting. This contact effort was obviously customized and it resonated well with me.

4. Be Brave

Call reluctance is common on the phone. It happens online, too. People don’t reach out online because of some kind of fear. “They won’t respond.” “They’ll say no.” “They’ll be angry with me.”

The fact of the matter is most customers believe salespeople don’t reach out enough. In the online world, there’s a heavy emphasis on the concept of inbound marketing. I think inbound marketing is a great approach. But that doesn’t mean proactive outreach—the online equivalent of cold-calling—is either dead or bad.

When you find a particular person you want to connect with, reach out.

As long as you keep points 1, 2, and 3 in mind, you’ll be fine. As business guru Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Be brave. Take shots.

5. Be Positive and Pleasant

When some people gear up their bravery for outreach, they think, “I’m about to reach out to a big-time person. I need to seem big time too!” So they puff out their chest and brag about how awesome they are.

Who made the rule that “important” people should be temperamental and full of themselves? Not endearing. I’ve had the good fortune of interacting with lots of guru types and most of them are pleasant and humble.

Don’t try to come off as the BMOC. The fastest way to come off as inconsequential is to keep saying how influential you are.

Todd Schnick says it so well:

“Actions make you influential. Not your words or tweets. People who serve, people who help others, people who share the cool things that others are doing… those are the actions that make you influential.”

Right on, Todd.

6. Prepare for Window Shopping

When you reach out to people, expect that they’ll check you out. When someone writes to me and I’m curious, the first thing I do is Google them and see what comes up.

Make sure that when the people reaching out to you search for you online, you’re portrayed exactly how you want to be. Determine how your personal brand and online reputation come across, as they’ll greatly affect people’s impressions of you.

7. Release your Inner Battlestar

People build relationships with people they like. If you want to build relationships, be endearing. And the best way to do that? Let your personality shine through.

We’ve received tremendous feedback since publishing Rainmaking Conversations about the core content of the book. But the people that got the most kick out of it caught all the Battlestar Galactica references in the chapters. Geeky? Yes. Me? What can I say.

Boring is forgettable. Personality is memorable. And social media outlets are the perfect place for you to be yourself.

For example, in my research for this piece, I came across articles by Amy Porterfield. I visited her website, and saw her nifty little description of herself:

I BELIEVE in:

• Hard work, but that you have to be able to throw it all away for love and family.
• No drama. Really… not even a little!
• Acceptance. No judgment lives here.
• Wearing my heart on my sleeve.
• Embracing whatever’s next.
• But most of all, I believe that social media should be something you enjoy, not dread.

No drama. Not even a little. I love it!

Now that’s letting your personality shine through.

8. Take It Offline, When It’s Time

Social media outlets are great places for starting conversations, but they’re not the only place to have them. When the time is right, take the conversation offline.

You can start with a phone call or go right to face-to-face (assuming you’ve boiled your frog correctly). In any case, take the leap.

Selling is a contact sport. After you’ve begun your conversation and built rapport, find a good reason to take the conversation offline and see where it takes you.

And a little bonus…

There are so many social media tools available now it can be difficult to keep up. Here are a handful of tools that are helpful for lead generation and sales:

• Google Alerts and Twitter Alerts help you find reasons to create conversations by following trigger events.
• SocialToo can help you keep track of new and lost followers.
• GeoChip is good if you need to focus on a specific geography.
• TubeMogul can help you spread the word with video.

TubeMogul is a video advertising and analytics platform that connects advertisers with highly targeted audiences.

• Twellow finds people you’re looking for with a sort of Yellow Pages for Twitter.

Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts to help you find people who matter to you.

• SproutSocial helps if you’re getting serious about this whole thing. And, of course, the three biggies: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If there were a ninth way to succeed in building relationships and selling with social media, and you were to add it to this article, what would it be? Leave your comments in the box below.

*No frogs were in any way harmed in the process of writing this article.

Only 2 days left to invest in growing your business. Join Entrepreneurial Selling

Hopefully by now you’ve heard about the charter launch of our new online sales training program, Entrepreneurial Selling. We’ve taken our proven RAIN Selling methodology, refined it specifically for entrepreneurs and sellers at growing businesses, and mixed in sales advice from some of the top entrepreneurial minds in the world—all to help you take your business to the next level.

Enrollment to the program opened last week, and so far it’s been a huge success. But here’s the deal: there are only two days left to enroll in Entrepreneurial Selling at our low charter enrollment price. After that, the doors are closing, and when they open again the price is going to be significantly higher.

Entrepreneurial Selling gives you access to 27 in-depth lessons, teaching you everything you need to know to fill the pipeline, win more deals, and grow your sales. This isn’t theoretical “looks good on paper” advice. We’re going to provide you with the how-to content, templates, tools, and checklists you need to overcome the specific selling challenges you face in an entrepreneurial environment.

For a detailed overview of what you’ll learn in each of the 27 lessons, you can check out the content roadmap. We’ve also got a pretty fantastic video over at www.entselling.com that will walk you through exactly what you get when you sign up.

Once enrolled, you’ll have access to monthly Q&A coaching calls with program leaders Mike Schultz and John Doerr, community forums where you can connect with like-minded professionals, and sales advice from experts such as Brian Halligan, Jill Konrath, Charlie Green, John Jantsch, Marshall Goldsmith, Michael Port, Tom Ziglar, Malcolm McDonald, Scott Gerber, David Goldsmith, Carol Roth, Andrew Sobel, and Jonathan Farrington.

I think you’ll agree this is pretty exciting stuff, and it’s content that we here at RAIN Group are extremely passionate about. We know how hard it can be to get a new business up and running, and in this program we’re applying our years of experience to make sure you can make the sales you need to find the success you’re looking for.

“If you are an entrepreneur and want to improve your sales skills, then Entrepreneurial Selling by RAIN Group is the program for you.”
- Marshall Goldsmith, world-renowned Executive Business Coach and bestselling author of MOJO! and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“The Entrepreneurial Selling program is the real deal. Take a look at all the amazing mentors in the program, and it should be very obvious that this is well worth the price of admission.”
- Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), author of Never Get a “Real” Job, and serial entrepreneur

But remember, this charter enrollment closes tomorrow. Don’t miss out on your chance to learn from the best at a price that fits your budget. Visit www.entselling.com and sign up today. Then you can see for yourself what Christopher here has already discovered:

“I signed up yesterday and have already taken the first two lessons. If the rest of the lessons are anything like these two, I am really, really looking forward to this program. THANKS!!”
- Christopher Grant, an Entrepreneurial Selling member

Are your prospects leaving the conversation?

Sometimes it takes being in the buyer’s seat to realize how sellers fail to do their jobs. In many cases they rush to sell something without understanding your true need, they don’t adequately explain why they’re a better option, and they say things that make you wary of whatever they say.

I ran into this recently when researching tutoring services for my daughter. Geometry—a math unlike any other math you have to take in high school—is proving to be a significant challenge. I started by calling companies such as Sylvan and Huntington to learn what they do compared with individual tutors.

The people I talked to at those companies seem to rely on the organizations’ reputations and widespread knowledge of them to win business. I’m sorry, but just because you’re big it doesn’t mean you’re better or that I will instantly trust you.

The company representatives did ask a few questions to learn more about my daughter and what our needs are, but most didn’t make me feel like they could address them. One person tried to scare me into going with his company, saying my daughter is missing critical learning skills and will be forever lost if I don’t do something now, and tried to press me into scheduling a $185, three-hour evaluation for the next day. He was the first person I called, and even if he did present his services better and didn’t try to scare me, I wouldn’t have signed up right then and there.

I spoke with someone from a smaller, math-specific tutoring service, and she was so much better than Mr. Scare Tactics. She was friendly, caring, talked like she understood the challenges of high school math, explained the backgrounds of the tutors, offered to send me information, and invited me in to see what they do. She put me at ease when I was stressing out about how to address the problem. I’m still researching my options, but if I choose a service company over an individual tutor, her organization is at the top of the list.

Considering what I’ve experienced, here are a few things to consider when selling your services.

1. Make sure you uncover your prospect’s true needs and provide a solution relevant to those needs. Don’t jump on the first problem raised and say you can solve it. Ask questions and uncover what your prospect really needs.

“You really have to find out what’s driving them because that’s the only way you can create any urgency for them to move forward,” says John Doerr in his podcast interview Are You Meeting Your Client’s True Needs?

2. Address the rational and emotional aspects of going with your service. In my case, the goal is to improve my daughter’s grade but also to ease the stress on both of us and help her enjoy high school, not hate it. Mr. Scare Tactics didn’t understand that. He pounced on the rational part only and tried to turn that urgency into terror.

He also relied on his company’s big name to do his work for him. As Matt Drought points out in his article Your Great Idea Won’t Sell Itself, that won’t work. You need to make your prospect’s feel something for you, your idea, and your company. Successful salespeople know they have to tie their solution to their prospect’s very real problems.

3. Understand your buyers’ price tolerance ratio. This is the price range where they’re willing to make a decision without further thinking. As a seller, you want a price that will allow you to make a profit, but you also don’t want to create resistance with clients that hinders the relationship, says Mark Hunter in his article Why You Need to Know Your Client’s Price Tolerance Ratio.

With most of the people I talked with, the price was about the same for each company’s services. But then I talked with someone who has a pricing structure that is so complicated and seemingly high that I tuned them out after they started explaining it. She didn’t make it easy for me to understand why any of their options are good for me.

4. Be a trusted source. If you want people to work with you, they have to trust you. They want you to provide trusted information and materials.

One way to do that, as IT security company Tripwire learned, is to become like a journalist or blogger and interview industry experts and publish those interviews.

Using a multimedia campaign, the company rose from obscurity to being “a trusted agent among the network of security influencers, writes David Spark writes in his case study Company Uses Video to Build Relationships, Become Trusted Source in Their Industry.

5. Be respectful of email. I suspect you get more email than you can bother with. Your prospects are the same. They will give email 2.7 seconds before deciding to read it or delete it. That means you need to make sure you capture their attention with the subject line.

As Jill Konrath writes in her article How to Write Irresistible Subject Lines, anything salesy will have receivers clicking delete faster than 2.7 seconds. Don’t use words such as excited, new service, or free offer. And restrain yourself if you feel the need to use all capital letters.

Instead, use a referral’s name, ask a question, or include an idea. In my case, the emails I received were follow-up warm emails, such as “Thank you for calling. Here’s the information you requested.” Thankfully no one tried to get me to “REGISTER NOW OR LOSE OUT.”

Photo by Jamie Homer

Want to see your sales go through the roof? Join Entrepreneurial Selling

Are you an entrepreneur looking to get your business off the ground? Do you work for a growing company that has great ideas but can’t seem to generate the sales it needs?

If so, I’ve got an announcement just for you: today we’re launching our brand-new online learning program, Entrepreneurial Selling. It’s specifically geared towards entrepreneurs and sellers at growing businesses to help them improve their sales results.

Seventy-six percent of leaders at small- and medium-size businesses cited sales growth as their greatest challenge in 2011. This isn’t because entrepreneurs don’t have the talent to sell. It’s simply because they haven’t been taught how to sell.

That all changes with Entrepreneurial Selling. My business partner, Mike Schultz, and I will guide you through the ins and outs of how to make the transition from budding entrepreneur to successful rainmaker. Having built RAIN Group from the ground up, we know exactly what is needed to take a great idea and turn it into millions of dollars.

But we’re not alone. We’ve assembled an all-star faculty that features the world’s top sales and entrepreneurship gurus, corporate decision makers, and venture capitalists, all of whom have recorded lessons exclusively for this program. They include Brian Halligan, Jill Konrath, Charlie Green, John Jantsch, Marshall Goldsmith, Michael Port, Tom Ziglar, Malcolm McDonald, Scott Gerber, David Goldsmith, Carol Roth, Andrew Sobel, Jonathan Farrington, and Michael Stelzner.

In the program, you’ll gain access to:

• 27 interactive online sales training lessons released over a four-month period.
• Videos, role plays, quizzes, transcripts, mp3 audio, worksheets and exercises, and additional resources in each lesson.
• Monthly Q&A Coaching Calls with program leaders Mike Schultz and yours truly.
• Expert Community Forums where participants receive feedback on their value propositions, sales conversations, proposals, and whatever specific challenges they face when selling their products and services.

Not sure if the program is for you? If you fit any of the descriptions below, we think Entrepreneurial Selling will be right up your alley:

• You sell a new idea, product, or service
• You sell against branded competitors
• You have a limited organizational track record
• It is difficult for you to generate leads
• It is difficult for you to communicate your value
• You don’t have a sales playbook (you’re figuring it out as you go)
• You face rampant price pressure
• Selling is not your only job
• You sell with limited resources

If any of those descriptions resonate with you, I highly recommend you check out the program. For a complete overview of what you’ll learn, you can download our comprehensive Content Roadmap. It will walk you step by step through each of the program’s 27 lessons and give you a great idea of what’s in store for you once you enroll.

I guarantee this program will help you generate the sales you’re looking for. But enrollment is open for a limited time, so don’t wait. Head over to www.entselling.com and enroll today.

B2B professional services sales and marketing are not what they used to be. Where once there was less competition and it was acceptable—even encouraged—to talk only about you and your services, now you must focus on your buyers.

That isn’t breaking news. For some time we’ve been talking and writing about how you need to uncover prospects’ challenges, build trusting relationships, and practice consultative selling. But with buyers’ increased use of the Internet, their incredibly busy schedules, and their abhorrence of being sold to, service professionals need to modify their sales and marketing strategies further. Here are four things they must consider if they want to survive in today’s marketplace:

1. The Heart of a Firm Is the Clients, Not the Professionals Serving Them

Many firms still hold on to the traditional belief that they “exist for themselves,” writes Bruce W. Marcus in his article Relationships Key to Firms Surviving Today’s Changing Marketplace. What they are, however, are structures “to deal with the market it serves,” he says.

Further, professionals must take on the responsibility to bring in and keep clients. Marketing teams can certainly help, but the increasing need to develop relationships with clients requires hands-on effort from the accountants, lawyers, consultants, etc. in the firm.

2. Help Buyers Solve Problems

Not only should your services solve buyers’ problems, but your marketing should also do that. Stop selling and pushing your services, and use content to help and draw prospects to you, says Michael Stelzner in his podcast interview Why You Need to Rethink Your Marketing Strategy.

People are overloaded by marketing messages and very few trust businesses, so if you use typical marketing tactics to reach them, chances are they will ignore you, he says.

“If you know that they don’t want your marketing messages, then what do they want? I postulate that at their core everybody wants help,” Stelzner says. “And they want either access to great information or great people or recognition. More important than that most likely what they want is to solve a problem. And if you can figure out a way to help people, and you can do it in such a way that you can help tens of thousands or millions of people, then you can get through—you can cut through the noise, you can connect with people.”

3. Get Others to Promote Your Business

A referral often means the name and phone number of someone who might be able to use your services. While that can be helpful, a better option is an introduction to potential buyers.

“Your contacts can help you build new relationships faster by introducing you in person to people they think need your services,” writes Ivan R. Misner in his article 12 Ways Others Can Generate Referrals for Your Firm. “Furthermore, they can provide you with key information about the prospect. They can also tell the prospect a few things about you, your business, how the two of you met, some of the things you and the prospect have in common, and the value of your services.”

Your contacts can also arrange a meeting on your behalf, invite you to events and introduce you to people, and distribute information for you.

4. Ditch the Email When Contacting C-Level Executives

Think about what your email is like, especially when you have a day full of meetings. Now think about what a CEO’s email is like. C-level decision makers spend most of their days in meetings, they have at least 40 hours of work on their desk at any given time, and they receive more than 100 emails a day. If your email is among those, don’t plan on getting a reply, writes Kelley Robertson in his article 10 Things You Must Know About C-Level Decision Makers. They simply don’t have time.

Your best option is to call them and make sure you give them a really good reason to take the call or meet with you, he says. And be prepared to call them back if you leave a voice mail, Robertson adds. Executives he has talked to say they rarely call a salesperson back because they have too much on their plate.

What sales and marketing ideas do you have for connecting with and building relationships with buyers?

Photo by Ileana Gonzales

We all love a bargain. We love when we can get something of value for less. And reductions in price pique buyers’ interest and can create cash flow for a company. So, you might think lowering your price would be a win-win situation. Not necessarily.

As Mark Hunter points out in his article The Dangers of Discounting Your Price to Create Cash Flow, reducing your price can have negative repercussions on your firm. For example, if you cut your price for one customer, other customers and prospects could find out and also want a lower fee.

“If all of your current and potential customers are going to find out, then all you’ve done is move yourself into a permanent state of always having an issue with cash flow. The reason is simple: you’ll now be selling everything at a lower price,” Hunter writes.

Not only that, but if your competitors find out, they could also lower their price and then you’re caught in a “pricing death spiral.” Everyone cuts their prices until one goes out of business or leaves the marketplace to focus on something else.

Lower Price, Lower Value

There’s also something to be said about your perceived value if you have low prices. For example, Advanced Technology Consulting, Inc. (ATC) started out working with anyone and often gave information and time for free. When it tried going after larger clients, those buyers were leery of the free services, writes M. Sharon Baker in her case study Consulting Firm Attracts Large Clients, Grows Revenue 50% Using Implementation Fee and Guarantee. They also worried about ATC’s size and its ability to deliver.

To fix that and show larger companies that they had their best interests at heart, ATC started charging an implementation fee and spelling out exactly what ATC was going to do to earn that fee.

“With the agreement, we show companies that we have some skin in the game so we become true partners rather than just a company peddling services and begging for someone to give us a chance,” says David Goodwin, co-founder of ATC.

Are You Doing a Thorough Job Selling?

If prospects aren’t buying at the price you set, there’s a good chance you aren’t doing a thorough job selling, adds Hunter.

“A thorough selling process means you need to ask enough questions and follow-up questions—and listen—until you are certain you understand what the customer wants. The more you focus on the fact that what you have to offer is of value to your customer, the less appealing discounting becomes as the only way to close a sale,” he says.

And don’t get caught up with the idea that there’s a secret sales technique or process that will help you close sales, warns Michael W. McLaughlin in his article You Don’t Need a Sales Technique. You Need Creative Ideas. Your expertise and creative ideas will get you farther than any three-step plan or technique, he says.

“Every hour you spend learning about the latest sales “secret” diverts your attention from what really matters: building the expertise that your clients want and need,” McLaughlin writes. “If you want to speed your sales efforts along, let your expertise, creativity, and ideas lead the way.”

Showcase Creativity and Expertise

One of the best ways to demonstrate your expertise and creativity is through content: articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, etc. You can write about challenges your prospects might be facing, offer advice, and show how you helped companies overcome those challenges.

You can post that content on your website or in your blog, but you can also use it in advertising, says John Jantsch in his podcast SEO, SEM, and Advertising, Oh My!

“I still believe that for most businesses this idea of advertising content, advertising the ability for people to learn about something or to get information that they want, is really the most effective way to promote with advertising—as opposed to trying to promote your business or sell your products or services,” he says.

But in order for content-based marketing and advertising to succeed, you have to know who your ideal client is, what type of content they like, and what websites and social media networks they visit, Jantsch says.

Help Buyers through the Sales Process

Not only can you use content to pull potential buyers to you, but you can use it to nurture the relationship and help buyers through the sales process, writes Joseph Riden in his article Using Content to Propel Buyers through the Sales Process.

“High-quality expert content is the magnet that pulls clients onward through your sales process,” he says. “Your offers are their stimulus to move ahead. Publish continually. Send appropriate content to each phase group. Broadcast a steady stream of thought leadership themes.”

You should also use content to maintain current client relationships, Riden advises.

“Content for this phase keeps you top of mind. You can send polls and surveys, price comparisons, information about giveaways, research findings, upgrade enticement, your ratings, reviews, testimonials, information about webinars, training, success stories, case studies, and handy device applications and software tools,” he says.

You can also give clients content to share with referrals, Riden says. Such content includes polls, surveys, research, recorded seminars, and success stories.

When your content-driven sales process is in full motion, it’s only a matter of time before you have a fully referral-driven practice, he says.

Photo by Tim Parkinson

If you’re a consultant, chances are you’ve realized that you need to excel at selling your services in order to grow your business. It’s also a fair bet that for many of you selling is your least favorite part of the job. It makes you anxious and uncomfortable, and it’s not why you got into the business.

But you still have to make the sale. Otherwise, your business is going nowhere fast.

If you read the report we shared on this blog last week, Forget Everything You Know About Sales and Begin to Sell Without Selling, you’ll know that there’s a bright side to all this: consultants already have all of the tools necessary to be great salespeople.

Even better, we’re here to help. For those of you looking to boost your selling skills and take your business to the next level, we’re reopening enrollment to our popular online training program Selling Consulting Services for a limited time.

We’ll walk you step by step through the RAIN Selling methodology, equipping you with the skills, knowledge, and tools you need to make your sales process more comfortable and more successful.

For a complete rundown of what’s in the program, watch this short video and then head over to www.SellingConsultingServices.com:

This is the program you need to become a true rainmaker. Don’t believe us? Here’s what others have to say:

“Selling Consulting Services had a direct positive impact on my business. I was able to turn a prospect that was in my pipeline for the past few years into a significant client. The framework provided by the program really made a difference. One of the most valuable parts of the program was asking questions about my particular situation in the community forums. I highly recommend this program to anyone looking to improve their sales approach, conversations, and results.”
- Perry Parendo, Perry’s Solutions LLC

“When I first started my consulting business I had a few legacy clients and thought that my network would produce enough business for me to support myself. This worked for the first 2 years and then I realized I had tapped that well dry. The RAIN Selling program came at a perfect time for me. It’s taught me how to start new relationships with ‘cold’ prospects and how to foster those relationships into new business. I’ve been able to double my revenue, and I even had to hire two more consultants to help.”
- Eugene, a Company Owner

“I’ve been marketing and selling consulting services for over 15 years and have spent the last three teaching other consultants and coaches how to become ‘rainmakers’ themselves.

“Over that time, there’s only been one external program I’ve ever felt comfortable recommending—the Selling Consulting Services with RAIN Selling program from RainToday. It’s in-depth—with a wealth of video, audio, interviews, presentations, and exercises—and it covers the full range of skills a consultant needs to excel at business development. Right from generating leads through to closing deals. And because it’s online, you can benefit from it without losing precious billable time.

“In fact, I actually signed up for the program myself and was delighted to find that despite my years of experience, there was plenty that I learned from it.

“I got an email a few weeks ago from a fellow consultant who thanked me for introducing them to the program and said how much they’d benefited from it. Frankly, it’s not often people feel compelled to thank you just for making a recommendation, and it’s testament to the quality of the program that it provokes this kind of response.”
- Ian Brodie, world-renowned professional services sales and marketing expert

Limited-time enrollment is now open. Don’t wait. Check out all the details at www.SellingConsultingServices.com.