1. Cold calling is the ultimate penalty and learning experience for new businesses and new salespeople that do not have a clearly defined business plan or marketing strategy. They must resort to cold calling or find a more accurate method of finding prospects.
   
   
2. Cold Calling is for any business that can afford to spend both time and man power to weed through contacts because they don’t have a clearly defined customer profile to narrow the prospect search in a more logical manner with an online search solution.
   
   
3. Cold Calling is for a business or someone that has something that almost everyone wants, because it is a HOT product or service that is unique and is not readily available online or in stores. It should be something that can be recognized as – I want this!

Based on the information I have outlined, do you need to make cold calls? Ok, lets’ assume that you must make cold calls because it is your only option at this time. Your first mandate is to define the perfect customer profile that you can use to measure prospects against. This action is a must. You should have at least three criteria that will determine if a suspect is a prospect. You will use this criterion to script questions that will flush out prospects for your business.

Let’s say your ideal customers have an average sales volume of over $500,000.00, employ 20 employees or more and manufacture over 20 products with an average price of over $100.00. With this information, you can script a few questions to ask any prospect that will determine if they are a suspect or a prospect. This becomes your measuring tool.

Questions are the Power Tools of Cold Calling

Before you get started, here is what you must understand. The questions you ask put you in the drivers’ seat in cold calling and turn the tables on who is going to be rejected. If you ask the right questions, you decide who qualifies and who doesn’t – thus, you are the one that rejects contacts. Cool huh!

Cold Calling Facts

• The people you call on view you as an interruption in their day.
• If you act and look like a salesperson on a cold call, you will be rejected most of the time.
• People don’t like to be rejected! If you are the one rejecting, you are in control.
• Most people you call on are willing to help someone who needs help.
• If you ask for help and a little time with a smile, you will get help most of the time.
• Most prospects aren’t ready to buy, when you are ready to sell them. You must wait.

Remember, when you approach a prospect, you need to come with questions. When you make your approach, lead with the questions and not with whom you are and not with what you do. If you do, you will appear like a salesperson and be rejected. Instead, your goal in a cold call is to identify prospects. You are not to sell something on the spot. Keep this in mind when you are making cold calls. I have listed below a few questions to ask someone based on the information we created in our sample customer profile earlier.

1. Is this a company that manufactures a product?
2. How many employees work at this location?
3. Where can I buy the products made here and how much are they in stores?

I need to say this again – “the goal of cold calling is to identify prospects and eliminate suspects” with the profile script questions you developed. If you walked into almost any manufacturer and asked good questions, you might be surprised at how easy it is to get this quality information. The secret is how you ask and if you are perceived as someone needing help. If you ask for a little help prior to asking your questions, you will get good information. If you also act as though you are lost and really need help, you will get assistance from some of the nastiest people who want to help you. It is all in the way you approach the gathering of information and asking your questions.

Remember, the definition of a successful cold call is when you are able to define and identify a prospect. Think of it as finding a diamond among many stones. Cold calling can only be a good strategy when the percentages are in your favor rather than against you. What I mean here is that there are more likely prospects than rejects in your territory. Otherwise, it is not a good strategy.

Why I don’t Cold Call

I don’t cold call because there are easier methods of identifying who is a viable prospect for my business. Instead of cold calling on the streets, I work with technology, online services and use the abundance of profile data and information available to qualify and quantify prospects on line. I adopted a sales and marketing strategy of finding likely prospects and warming them up to me with automated email and letter correspondence. With this system, prospects will actually become receptive to me, my products and services and let me know when I should contact them. This system works because it is an automated, systematic approach to selling that makes cold calling a relic of the past instead of a viable strategy for today.

By Steve Martinez - Your Sales Magician for Business Development. http://www.sellingmagic.com  (951) 277-0080

Start with Good Research

In many ways, selling is like dating and we should approach selling and building relationships in the same way. I can remember when I first became attracted to my wife, Sallie, whom I’ve been married to for over 21 years now. Little did I know that I would follow the best practice of selling to win her heart.

I met my wife in a Sunday school class and I was immediately attracted to her. I wanted to know more about her. I did what anyone in my position would do, I did a little research. I asked questions and learned that she was a single mother and wasn’t in a relationship at the time. Not that is would have mattered to me. I say this because in selling, we often come across prospects that already have a relationship in place. Would this stop you? This shouldn’t stop us when we learn that a prospect is already involved.

What we need is a set of criteria that helps us determine whom is a good prospect for us. This criterion is vital to making good decisions on which we place on our all important prospect list. Trust me, I did quite a bit of research and determined that Sallie was a good match.

Getting Noticed

There are countless ways we can use to generate interest in our prospects. In my case, I used networking. I attended many of the Church events for singles and found myself talking to Sallie in casual conversations. When I’m doing this for business, I do the same thing. Sometimes it requires attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting or a Business Expo where I know my prime prospect will be attending. We can also use social networking with LinkedIn, Facebook and many others that help us create and generate interest in our prime prospects.

The goal at these networking opportunities is to get noticed and initiate a connection. In sales and in dating, it might take a while. For my wife, it took a few months before she actually noticed me and we started dating. In business, there have been many situations that I have tried to generate a response. It could take months and sometimes years to be noticed. In each case, we need to be on our best behavior and we should be persistent in what we will do. I say this because; we never know what will spark the interest we need to initiate a relationship.

Don’t Give UP!

The sad part about selling is that most salespeople will give up after the first contact. A few will move on the next steps. However, it will only be a few who will be persistent enough to get noticed. This is where a selling process and a sequence of events need to be choreographed to develop a relationship. What do you do that generates interest and are you persistent enough to get noticed on your prospects timing, not yours.

Perfect Practice and Focus

A baseball player who wants to improve hitting will spend time in the batting cage to hit more baseballs. While he or she is in the batting cage, a batting coach will watch and critique the swing of each bat. With technology, they can film the swing with slow motion actions to break down the swing. When the batting coach or batting experts can do this, they can analyze small details of how the batter swings at the ball.

The goal of batting practice is to correct the small details. Anything and everything that will improve the batters swing at the plate. The batter might be taking their eye off the ball as it streaks across the plate. The batter might be dropping their elbow as the ball approaches. It could be a leaning back and way from the ball instead of leaning into the ball. All of these small details can be corrected to improve the results.

If the batter is in a slump because they got away from the fundamentals, the player must retrain their body and approach so they return to the form that gets results. The perfection of practicing each move will get the results they want. This improvement strategy is the same in selling.

Practice and Perfect Your Selling Process and Approach

When a salesperson gets out of rhythm in selling and is not following a proven selling process, they can quickly get into a sales slump and not know why. Their confidence level will drop and the salesperson will begin questioning themselves. When this happens, salespeople need to re-focus on the fundamentals of the selling process. A selling coach can help in determining what is wrong. If you are able to record what you are saying on sales calls or the telephone so you can play back your words, you might discover simple ways to improve selling techniques. You might even hear it in your voice.

When I am on fire with selling, it is like a baseball player who is in a hitting streak. When this happens to you, you don’t want to change anything and you look forward to stepping up to the plate so you can repeat your actions. Your confidence will rise and it creates an unfair advantage of sorts against the pitcher. You will expect to hit the ball out of the park each time.

If we are talking about selling, your prospects will sense your confidence from your voice. Prospects will close themselves because they want what you have. I know from experience that when I have a high confidence level in what I’m selling and I have an expectation of closing business with my prospect, the closing is simplified. Following a proven selling process is also fundamental to success. I know when and where I am in the selling process of a prospect. When you have confidence in your selling process, you are one up on your prospects.

By Steve Martinez – the Sales Magician for Business Development

http://www.sellingmagic.com

Selling to a diverse group of people isn’t easy. This is particularly true when the groups are separated by generational differences and perspectives. I have a brother for example that refuses to join Facebook and I guess that I should be happy he has a telephone. My mother won’t join twitter and my grand daughter is too young to have a Facebook account. People prefer to communicate differently and we must adapt to this. It is critical that you understand the dynamics of who you want to sell to and how to sell them with the right marketing strategy and sales tactics. Let us examine a few common differences and think about how we can better reach each person on an individual basis.

Bob – the 70 year retired Plumber

Reading the paper and watching TV is how Bob gets his news. If you want to connect with Bob, you better use the paper and the telephone book or pay for an evening news ad on TV. A good recommendation from a friend is the best source for getting Bob’s business. If you try to send Bob an email, you are wasting your time and an internet connection is going to remain dormant in the house. Bob doesn’t understand where the traditional values went and likes to pay for everything with cash or by check. The best way to reach Bob is with a personal letter or note.

Chris – the 50 year old Fireman

As far as Chris is concerned, the Internet is a confusing contraption that crept into his world to show him just how old he is. The computer revolution began just as Chris was entering the workforce so he had to adapt, just not willingly. Chris uses the computer as a requirement and prefers the older methods of communication. Chris has watched his children adapt and grow with computers but would rather watch TV and read the newspaper. He tolerates the computer to connect with some of his friends and has slowly migrated to using Facebook so he knows what his family is doing. However, Bob will use the computer to research and find information and thinks of it as a tool to gather information.

Taylor – the 30 year old career woman

The world according to Taylor is connected through the computer and social networks. To some degree, if something isn’t connected to the internet, it is outdated. Taylor grew up with the cell phone and instant messaging. Taylor believes the best way to stay connected with friends is through Facebook YouTube and LinkedIn. When Taylor wants to purchase something, her network of friends and connections will influence the decision of what to buy. Taylor thinks that subscribing to a newspaper or using the telephone book is what old folks do because everything is on the Internet. Taylor likes to hang out with her friends socially at places like Starbucks and reads her friends posts and blogs. Taylor likes to experience life with a global perspective. Taylor rarely pays by cash or check and does most everything by credit card and frequently online.

Apple – the 12 year old student

The computer and the internet has always been part of Apple’s life. She doesn’t know anything different. However, the grounding of traditional values is refreshing to Apple and she has grown to appreciate life’s simple moments. Taylor has been taught about and is aware of the predatory nature the Internet can have and is balanced in her use of it as a tool. The multi-media world for Taylor is easy to adapt to and it seems like she was wired for technology with built in filters to make sense of how to use technology and still remain human to others. Apple has a high conscious level and value for nature, energy with the environment. These values are very important to her and impact her purchase decisions even if they are for a 12 year old.

I hope you see how these people are different and how they see the world from different perspectives. Because of this diversity, we can’t afford to approach everyone with the same ideals and marketing methods. It just won’t work and we must adapt to a personalize approach to increase the response we are looking for.

Personalized Marketing is Possible

Fortunately, the marketing and printing world has adapted and there are new ways to personalize everything and anything. The internet can become the best tool to reach certain clients and it can also be the worst way to reach others. We need to learn how to mix and match the right method of communications to reach each of our market segments individually.

Purls or Personal URL’s is one way to reach a mixed market. This involves using personalized postcards and personalized mailers to increase response rates. The concept is simple. People are attracted to and respond to a personal, old fashioned direct mail that directs them to a personal website. When you receive one of these, you are almost drawn like a magnet to the website, because it is personalized and it appeals to everyone, young and old.

The level of sophistication for these personal mailing is endless. For example, you can develop a target specific marketing message for Chris the Fireman if you put a fire truck on the cover of the mailer and use Fire fighting jargon. To reach Bob, a pipe wrench on the cover will appeal to his memory and invite an impactful response.

I hope you see how personalized, targeted mailings are a requirement for reaching a diverse market. When you want to increase the success of your marketing dollars, the best place to start is with a savvy business printer. Look for a company that knows how to leverage data and digital printing to reach your target market audience. The individual cost per piece will be higher. However, the response rates will be so much higher with personalization that you can reduce the number of pieces sent while you create a value proposition that actually makes personalization a value.

Test the Power of Personalization and Multi Media

One of the best ways of working with a business printer is to test market a few campaigns and see what works best. Because you can often measure the response rates by the consumer actions, you will know what works. Your business printer should be able to create different versions of your marketing mailings so you can determine what works best. Testing is important.

If you are trying to reach Taylor the career woman, you should try using appropriate images on the cover to attract her attention. You would do this instead of putting a golf club on the cover for Bob who enjoys playing golf. Changing the images for each target marketing group can have a dramatic impact on your results.

Using multi-media is also a key to success. When you can orchestrate a marketing campaign that has variable images to target each target market and uses different copy for each group and also blends email campaigns, and video with direct mail – you have a wining combination.

We aren’t done yet. Imagine adding the power of social networking to achieve your goal with Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn so you are reaching all the socially connected individuals. You could drive all your interested traffic with PURLs and your messages to a web page that closes the contacts with unique offers or video offers. Yes, this is how marketing has changed and it isn’t just the future – is how we expect to be reached. This is certainly how the youngest of our group, Apple, expects to be treated in the future.

By Steve Martinez, Your Sales Magician for Business Development.

http://www.sellingmagic.com and http://www.thegameofselling.com

I am sure you have heard the fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. It is a story about an improbable race with an unexpected outcome. The lessons we learn from this fable is not to diddle dawdle when we should keep moving persistent and consistent toward our goals.

Well, let’s twist this fable a little. What if it was a story about two salespeople and one of the salespeople had the qualities of the Hare. You know what I mean, a salesperson that appears to have everything going right. This would be someone with all the qualities of a super star. The image that comes to my mind is the vision Hollywood would likely cast for the role of a superstar salesperson. You can spot this person in a crowd as someone with good looks, charming to everyone and impressive in stature.

For the Tortoise role in this story, Hollywood would cast someone short, over weight and probably not too attractive. Whomever they picked, this person would not have the leading role character features and he or she would be expected to lose the race.

As the fable goes, the Hare and the Tortoise are challenged to a race that the Hare could easily win. To keep the competition fair, the Fox is selected to map the course and the race begins. Along the race course route, the Hare is so confident of victory that a nap is foolishly taken. Time passes and when the Hare awakens from the nap and sprints to the finish, the Tortoise has already won and is found victoriously napping at the finish line. Don’t you just love this!

Why the Tortoise Wins

One of the features I like about the Tortoise is that in order to move forward, the Tortoise must stick its neck out. This is a wonderful quality that we can all learn from. The natural pace of the Tortoise is slow and steady. This is like the best practices of drip marketing sales activity for a salesperson or a business - slow, steady and consistent.

In my travels, I have consulted with thousands of business owners and salespeople. Some of my more successful contacts have been like the Tortoise and the best qualities I have grown to appreciate of these winners are goal oriented, persistent and focused.

When we examine successful businesses today, we will find success in those with the Tortoise action plan. What I mean is that those businesses that have stuck their neck out and pushed forward with consistent forward action.

Fable Thoughts and Actions

If we read the papers, we are in a down economy; the opportunities for business are significantly reduced today. Unless a salesperson or business has been steadily building and nurturing a pipeline of warm prospects, it is going to be tough. This means that if you adopted the Tortoise strategy with persistent and consistent sales and marketing campaigns, you will thrive and survive. If you are more like the Hare in your selling and marketing activities, you may end up losing and missing out on with limited opportunities.

The moral of this story is the same for children and salespeople. You don’t have to be a superstar to win. If you apply consistent, persistent activity and stick your neck out toward your goals, you will be the winner.

By Steve Martinez - the Sales Magician for Business Development

http://www.sellingmagic.com

Have you ever been in a situation where you could be the hero or the goat? Preparation is the key to success in moments where you are confronted with your greatest challenges. Here is a quote from Juan Pierre – Los Angeles Dodger about preparation.

“It’s a lot of preparation. I need to do some things to get ready for the game. And stay after the game to get ready for the next day. It’s not work for me. There’s nothing better in the world to come out here and take extra batting practice and fly balls. I consider that trying to make me a better baseball player.”

When You are in the Big Game

It’s late in the game. The final inning and you need to score 3 runs to win. You are tired and you are on deck to hit next. The player ahead of you gets walked so the bases are now loaded. At this point the bat feels like it is a hundred pounds. The other coach calls time out to talk about the situation and changes pitchers. This gives you more time to think and wait for your first swing and you start thinking about the situation. You can become the hero or the goat. Your mind is racing and you wonder what the first pitch will be. Your friends are in the stands cheering you on but you are the visiting team so the heckling is louder than normal. You start thinking to yourself, will it be the fast ball you can hit out of the park or the curve you have trouble seeing late in the game. Worse yet, could it be the knuckle ball that confuses you. At this point, self doubt may try to enter your head or your preparation for this moment will impact the outcome.

If there was ever a situation where preparation for a golden opportunity comes into play, this is it.

This is where all the extra time you took in the batting cages pays off. This is where the research you did on the other team’s players and specifically the pitchers will impact your confidence. This is a time to step back and pause. The sound of the umpire shouting, to you – batter up awakens you from your trance. The pitcher is now ready, the pitcher and the catcher know what they are going to send you as the first pitch.

Before you take the first pitch, you step back away from the batters box and the umpire raises his hand to stop play as you take a little more time. This time, the pitcher has to wait for you. At this point, you start your ritual again. You developed a habit you developed when you watched your favorite baseball hero step up to plate. Baseball is a game where players develop rituals for special moments like this. You pick up dirt from the ground and rub it between your palms 8 times. You take position in the batting box and dig your cleats into the ground taking extra time to swing the bat three swings. Now you are ready. In the last few moments you visualized and mentally prepared yourself for the first pitch. You saw it streaking across the plate in the low outside and imagined yourself hitting it to the open left field.

The pitcher looks down at you from 60 feet away. The Catcher gets ready, you are ready and the ball leaves the pitchers hand. As the ball streaks toward you, you see it like it is charging in slow motion. You have already started your swing and your body is compensating for the speed, angle and the direction of the ball. The loud crack of the bat hitting the ball is felt in your hands and the sensation tells you it was a solid hit in the location you expected the ball to be.

At this point, you know from past memories that the ball won’t be restrained by the confines of the ball park. You have released the pressure of the moment with the proper execution of your preparation. Life is good!

The Power of Preparation

The story I just told is almost real, I was a young man when an event like this played out for me. My father was in the stands when I rounded third and the proud smile he had was magic to me. On this glorious day, I hit two home runs and two doubles. I stole a few bases and fielded the ball without errors. I cling to this memory for obvious reasons – it is one for the books. I use this memory when I am confronted with a challenging opportunity to remind myself that I am a winner.

If you don’t have a visual memory like this, I encourage you to commit to memory a successful moment or two in your life and apply them to memory so you can replay them in your mind for confidence building when you need them. The power of visualization cannot be over stated. We should also prepare for life’s moments through practice of our craft of influencing others when we sell. Not just practice, perfect practice of how you introduce yourself and tell prospects who you are and what you do. You should practice for moments of tough questions and situations. When you do this, you are ready for anything. If you need a ritual, develop one. For me, I like to rub the palms of my hands eight times like I’m ready to hit a home run. Good Selling.

Visit us at:

http://www.thegameofselling.com or http://www.sellingmagic.com

I shouldn’t be too surprised that my fair skinned wife, a Tacoma, Washington native of German heritage could fix the best tasting Baja fish taco I’ve ever tasted. It wasn’t the cook, although I will never tell her this, it was the successful recipe she followed. The same is true with selling. It isn’t the salesperson; it is the selling process they follow. This week I was in Las Vegas at the PODi App Forum. I sat in a session on the s3 solution selling program. It was great to hear this printing selling process, because having a selling process saved my sales career.

The Recipe For Sales Success

Years ago, I was interviewing a struggling salesperson who was enjoying sales, but didn’t like the up and down roller coaster sales results. My goal was to uncover the root of the problem. Following my instincts, we began talking about her selling process only to discover that she didn’t have one. We began talking about her successful selling experiences and tracing her steps to the sale. I asked her to carefully retrace each of her sale successes, so I could map them out for her. We did this for several sales to confirm my suspicions. What she didn’t realize is that she was following a consultative, solution selling process each time she was successful. Naturally, she was elated to discover her recipe for selling success. We mapped out her selling process like a road map to success, so she wouldn’t get lost in difficult selling situations.

As a result of her discovery, she began following her sales process for every sale and her roller coaster ride in sales ended. As her confidence grew, she mastered her selling process. Nothing could get her off track from following the six steps to the sale. She also began applying the magical seventh step of getting referrals, which boosted her success off the charts.

Automating the Selling Process Delivers Greater Results

I lost track of my sales student when she took a new job as sales manager for another company. She would enjoy learning how the Selling Magic selling system automates the process she used to correct her ailing sales. She is a perfect student for the system. She learned that following a recipe for success is better than winging it and she would appreciate the advantage of technology to perform her daily tasks.

It is unfortunate that the business owner of the company she worked for won’t return my telephone calls. I want to introduce the Selling Magic selling system to him, so he will never have to worry about a salesperson leaving again. Why, because my automated selling system follows the selling process and is tied to the company not the salesperson. If the salesperson leaves, the system stays and it is the Selling Magic system that follows the selling process. Actually, in many cases a salesperson will find it difficult to leave a selling system that does 80% of the work for them. We invite you to learn more about our selling process and our automated selling system.

Portions of this is a post from an article I submitted to Ezine Articlesa few years ago. I was coming back from Las Vegas and stopped to have a fish taco at Rubio’son my way back. I really liked the analogy of following a good recipe and thought it would be a great blog post for today. The concept of having a selling process is as important today as it was a few years ago - maybe more important.

By: Steve Martinez, your Sales Magician for Business Development http://www.sellingmagic.com

Having patience in sales is definitely a virtue. Unfortunately, many salespeople and businesses in general don’t have the patience or the persistence and apply the perspiration to achieve success for long term sales and marketing results. The temptation for quick results and an immediate response is what keeps many salespeople focused only on the HOT leads.

When you have a long term plan for prospecting and developing relationships, you will reap the rewards of your investment in time, persistence and effort. When the salesperson asked me this question, I quickly remembered several situations where prospect took over two years to develop. Time was needed to nurture trust and wait for the right timing for a relationship to mature.

When the question of how long will it take for a prospect to purchase comes up, we should ask ourselves, how long we are willing to wait and nurture the relationship. I can think of many situations that last as long as or longer than two years.  One example is a Canadian customer finally succumbed to my nurturing a relationship after two years. When he finally purchased, I looked back at my records to realize that it was over two years of consistent mailings and an occasional telephone call that kept this prospect interested. If I had stopped my efforts, the sale would have been lost.

One of the ways to nurture long term relationships is to have a sales pipeline of events that don’t require you to expend energy or time to execute. There are many systems that can do this for you and I want to show you what a drip marketing event might look like. When you have a system that does this for you, you can keep track of hundreds of prospects who aren’t ready to purchase now, but will at some point in time. You just have to be patient.

Here are a few features your sales pipeline system should have:

1. If you use email, use a system that will track and notify you when the prospect is active in their interest with you. This can be done by several companies that monitor open and clicks on links to the email message you send.

2. Your communications should be personalized so you maximize your impact with each letter or email you send. The timing of these events should also be consistent with the best practices of selling and marketing.

3. You should have a reminder system built into your sales pipeline so you are reminded to call the prospect when they should be called. This would be based on best practices too.

By: Steve Martinez the Sales Magician for Business Development

Http://www.sellingmagic.com   (951) 277-0080

If you follow my blog, you know, I consistently write about how to improve sales, selling and marketing. I am in a reviewing mode today and will occasionally use Wednesday as a day to review a product or a service that I have come to love or hate.

What is Selling Magic’s Relationship to Mastermind Software and Activator?

Selling Magic is a leading consultant and distributor for Mastermind Software and Activator. We have been selling the product since 2005 and we encourage you to buy directly from us for a number of reasons. I think you should know this right from the start. However, keep in mind that as a Top Sales Expert, I am asked for my opinion frequently. My approach will always be up front based on my experience and biased when I really know the product.

My Initial Impression

When I was first introduced to the program, I was skeptical. The claims for increased sales and sales activity were huge by comparison to others. The system claimed to provide a dream solution for a business owner and a sales manager. The product is designed to work with ACT and Outlook and provides automated follow-up for businesses. The systems come with action plans for industries as a starting point. The simplicity of the system was that it is a turn key solution for business and 80% of the work is already done for a business owner.

The Basic Activator System

The Activator system has several options and can be configured in many different ways to fit almost any size organization. The price points are very affordable once a business owner understands the opportunities for increased sales; the system appears to pay for itself. The system will help a business owner structure a selling process for their business.

My Opinion and Advice

The true power of the Activator system pivots on the customization of the sales action plans and how it matches with your company goals. We have outlined a few important tips for investing into any selling system. This advice is relevant to any CRM system you invest in.

1. Work with a Sales Expert and a certified Mastermind Consultant who is familiar with your industry and someone who has the sales and marketing credentials to help you maximize your investment. You want your consultant to write and customize your letters and create your email templates for you. If you try to do this on your own, two things will occur, you won’t get it done and they won’t be effective.

1. Invest in the Swiftpage optional e-mail option. The power of integrating the swiftpage email marketing component creates a powerful follow-up tool. When you can work with a consultant that has experience in email marketing, you will save yourself time.
   
   
2. Combine and weave social networking into your program whenever possible. As you know, there are growing ways of communicating in business and if you don’t integrate your sales action plans with these options, you will be missing a huge opportunity.
   
   
3. Consider the staff that will be using this system. In my experience, the best prospects for any CRM or selling system are those individuals who follow directions. When the Activator program is configured correctly, by a sales expert, all you need to do is follow the directions and your sales will increase because your activities will be based on the best practices.

By Steve Martinez, the Sales Magician for Business Development

Steve is a Top Sales Expert, certified Mastermind Consultant and a Certified E-Mail Marketing Consultant with Swiftpage and can be reached at: http://www.sellingmagic.com

When you think about it, it is the same as a field of prospects. There are thousands, maybe millions of prospects out there. Somewhere, someone is ripening for your product or service. If you’re there, you can pick it and savor the bounty of a sale.

7 Steps To Prevent Spoiled Sales: One of the sad parts of my hike is to see spoiled oranges on the ground. It is the same with my sales territory. If I’m not around when a prospect is ripe for my services, the opportunity will spoil. Worse yet, my competition will capture the sale. Here are some tips to prevent this.

• Visit the grove of prospects regularly and contact every tree for ripe opportunities.

• Increase your contact activity so prospects remember who you are and be consistent.

• Use more than one method of contact. Use the telephone, personal visits, letters and emails to capture the attention of prospects. They may contact you when they are ready.

• Learn the traits of a ripe prospect or someone close to being ripe. The best way is through key questions and asking for the order. They won’t buy if you don’t ask.

• Explore the depth of the grove and profile the best prospects to know when the best fruit will ripen. Measure the characteristics, so you can maximize your prospecting time.

• Develop a system that reminds you when to go back to the ripening fruit tree of sales.

• Finally, automate your selling system so it does most of this work for you.

When you follow these 7 tips, you reap the rewards of the tantalizing fruit of your efforts.

By Steve Martinez - the Sales Magician for Business Development www.sellingmagic.com  (951) 277-0080

In most cases the development of a championship team takes years and sometimes decades for the team to reach peak performance. In team sports it starts with the recruitment of players who will fill strategic positions. Building a winning team requires years of planning, coaching and time to nurture and develop. The successful teams start with a dream to reach the goal and take the first step.

Where to Start

I want you think about where you are today business. Are you building your future – strategically, dynamically with a long term plan? If you can’t look at a single piece of paper that has your business, sales or marketing plan, it isn’t too late. You can start today. The Chinese have a proverb for this:

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”

The To Do List

The best time to set your daily goals was yesterday. If you don’t have a plan, start a daily to do list of the things you need to accomplish today. Having a daily list of goals is where winners start their day.

The Business Plan

Three months ago was the best time to write your business plan. The second best time is today.  If you want to be a winner, you need a business plan with sales and marketing strategies and tactics outlined. Just like in sports, there will be times when you must adjust your game plan, make the adjustments.

Blogging Plan

The best time for starting a blog was in 2005, the second best time is today. Blogging could be the business building tool you need that gives you two way communication with your customers and prospects. Having two way communications with clients is changing the way business is done. What are you waiting for if you don’t engage in social networking?

Sales Pipeline Plan

The best time to start a sales pipeline was last year. The second best time is today. It takes time for prospects to develop and you must plant the seeds and nurture the relationships. When you have a plan of action that performs these activities, you will convert more prospects into clients.

Referral Process Plan

The best time to start a referral process was 3 months ago. The second best time is today. Getting referrals is one of the best ways to retain and maintain clients and develop new ones. It takes more time and expense to create new accounts than if you have a referral process in your business. If you don’t have a plan, what are you waiting for?

If you find yourself at a point where you wish you coulda, shoulda but didn’t. Now is the time to take action. It is the winning teams that take action and the losing teams that wish they coulda, shouda. What do you want to be? Take the first steps to become a winner.

By Steve Martinez, the Sales Magician for Business Development  http://www.sellingmagic.com

It is Friday and I’m sorry the week is coming to a close. This might be a little foreign to some people. I really enjoy what I do and this has been a particularly great week. I call this a fire extinguisher week because I’m very busy coaching and sharing information that can help others. I feel like I’m on fire – a good thing. What is particularly nice is being a business owner with an opportunity to live my dream.

I know that when I help others achieve what they want, they will help me achieve my goals with new business and profits. The important point here is to focus on helping my clients reach success first.

I have been reading “The Secret”, a best selling book on how you attract what you want in life and stay positive. I am also reading Jeffery Gitomer’s Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude. Additionally, I have spent time in my Bible and made time for quiet meditation. I also spend time reading blogs from my friends and look for the positive things in the news.

When I nourish myself with empowering thoughts and exercise my positive attitude with a focus on helping others, life is great. Sure, there is bad news out there and some people believe we are in a recession. I just don’t want to participate and I like living a positive life.

One of the particularly interesting results of being positive is that it attracts business like a magnet. Let’s face it; nobody wants to do business with a loser or a negative person. We want to do business with successful people and companies with a positive outlook.

Be the Bright Reflection

Have you looked in the mirror lately? A mirror is one instrument that reflects what everyone else see’s. If you haven’t taken a good look lately, take a cleaning cloth to the mirror and dust off the grime that might be on the surface so you can get a clear reflection of YOU. You want to see what image you are projecting to those around you.

We live a life of attraction and if we are positive about life, good things happen. Good things happen when things are bad and we are positive. Yes, the world is in turmoil and we can’t control what happens outside our sphere of influence. I can and will do what I can to make a difference and I invite you to join me in making a positive impact on others today. There are a lot of folks out there that need a positive person in their life. Be that person and good things will happen as a matter of reflection.

What will you do today that will make a difference?

By: Steve Martinez, the Sales Magician for Business Development

http://www.sellingmagic.com   951-277-0080

Depending on your type of business, you will learn what to look for and how to measure the selling skills of an ideal canidate.

Related links:

http://www.sellingmagic.com = website

http://www.sellingmagic.com/sales_journal = Blog

We will talk about Bob, Kim and Chis in this episode of a sales tale. For more information on this story from a blog post, go to: http://www.sellingmagic.com/sales_journal

Thank You,

Steve Martinez

By Steve Martinez, your sales magician for business development.

Wouldn’t it be great to find the perfect salesperson and hire them with a long term contract like a marriage? If you are like me, and I’m someone who has worked with a lot of salespeople over the years, you would have a list of qualifications before you hire anyone.

I compare the assignment of hiring a salesperson to looking for a wife. Since I’m a guy, there are certain characteristics that the ideal candidate must have and some of the items on the list are not as important. For example, a few decades ago, it was important for a prospective wife to know how to cook traditional Mexican food and clean and Iron. While this might have been high on the list, it isn’t important today given the amount of pre prepared food and house cleaning companies available. This is similar to how a salespersons criterion has changed and believe it or not, some selling skills are not as important as they were a few decades ago.

Over the years the importance of having a charming, handsome or attractive, sweet talking sales person representing you has lessened. The reason is that there are fewer opportunities for sales people to interact with clients both in person and over the telephone. Here are important trends to consider when hiring the perfect salesperson.

• The Internet has assumed the most important role of communicating new information to clients. When a prospect is interested in finding a solution to a problem, the client will Google search for it on-line and be pro-active instead of waiting for a salesperson to call. This means that the educational aspects of selling have diminished in many industries. 

• Consultative selling does not require a sweet talking person. What is required is a salesperson that can ask good questions, listen attentively and determine the best solution for a client and follow-up with the proposal in a timely manner. 

• Cold calling? Who does it anymore? One of the best ways to find new business is using information on-line and checking out your social network for recommendations. I’m seeing this more and more and if you aren’t using online information, you are missing opportunities. The goal is to increase your web foot print on line, so you get found.

The criteria that I forecast as important for a new generation or Web 2.0 salesperson is someone who understands the power of connections and can take advantage of sales automation. These qualifications would include how they are able to quickly articulate online with prospects and use social networking to build contacts. The ability to work like a detective, searching online, identifying and reaching target prospects is better than charm, good looks and a nice personality.

Well, that is my spin on hiring the perfect salesperson. Do you agree? Please share your comments and tell me what the biggest waste of time that salespeople do that can be done by technology or sales automation? Sellingmagic.com

Don’t tell my you don’t have time to learn more about your clients and develop accounts. You have the perfect tools for this in your office. You just have to know how to use them.

Today, I held an interview with a new client to learn more about them. The interview was performed over the telephone because we are three thousand miles apart. The goal of this interview was to learn as much as possible about my client. Whenever I do this, I have to bite my tongue and count in my head – one – two – three – four, before I allow myself to interrupt the conversation. The temptation to talk and share is very strong and I will want to interject comments as they open up. If I listen, really focused listening, I will gain valuable insight about them and what their goals are.

TIPS FOR A TELEPHONE INTERVIEW

• Schedule a specific appointment time for the telephone interview.
• Be prepared with 30 open ended questions to start the conversation.
• Don’t interrupt the client and count 4 seconds before talking.
• Pretend you are a reporter who wants to know every detail with clarity.

Because I do these interviews over the telephone and not in person, I must listen to every word they use to describe themselves and their goals. I will usually lock my office door and make sure that I’m not disturbed and I ask them to do the same. I can be thousands of miles away and I will learn more about them in an hour than I can if I sat across from them at lunch.

I prepare for this telephone interview with about 30 open ended questions and I document the answers as clearly as I can. If I don’t understand something, I ask follow-up questions for clarity. The questions are just a guide for the conversation and it is ok if the conversation stray off subject. I try to balance the conversation so they talk 80% of the time. At the end of the hour, you will know more about the client and they will have enjoyed a unique experience. You will have demonstrated sincere interest and empathy by simply listening.

Try it, it works and you will be surprised at how much you can learn by just listening and how powerful a telephone interview can be to develop relationships with out leaving your office.

Steve Martinez

http://www.sellingmagic.com