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Salespeople have questions, Jeffrey has answers.

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I get a ton of emails from people seeking insight or asking me to solve their sales dilemmas. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life, and (most important) your sales thought process right now.

Dear Jeffrey, I have cold called in the past and didn’t have a problem with it. But now I am having a hard time getting people to even hear me out. What is the best way to handle cold calls about a free hearing screening for senior citizens and follow up on a direct mailing? Sherri

Sherri, Cold calling sucks. It’s for people that have no other way of marketing. Senior citizens meet in groups. They have conclaves. They have bridge parties. They have mahjong parties. They have bingo parties. Go to the parties. Stop cold calling people. It’s a waste of time.

What you need to do is sit in a room and in a normal voice and say, “How many people can’t hear me? Well, I guess you’re not raising your hands because you can’t hear me.” And then talk about your free test and ask, “Who would like to take it?” Maybe bring the test to the group. Go to a Kiwanis or Rotary meeting. There are both retired and older people there. Your job is to figure out smarter, better ways to eliminate the cold call.

If you’re gonna use direct mail (goodness gracious!), it’s okay, but its passé. Everyone knows it’s passé. The bottom line is if you get a response from it, then figure out a better way to communicate with those who are interested. Often, the senior citizen will have an email account. Often, the senior citizen will have a Facebook account because they are communicating with their grandchildren. Figure that out. Then make the call. Best regards, Jeffrey

Dear Jeffrey, How do you advertise and get customers to your business with no money? Jamie

Jamie, Actually, it’s easier than you think. If you have some customers, get them to start advertising. Get them to post a little bit of a testimonial for you on their Facebook page and your Facebook page. Start LinkedIn. Start Twitter. And start to use social media to build your business and build your reputation. It’s free. You don’t have to worry about the cost of an ad, which may not bring you the results you’re hoping for anyway. Advertising is more free than it has ever been. Your job is to figure out a way to take advantage of it using existing customers and social media. Best regards, Jeffrey

Jeffrey, I work in the agriculture industry. Most of my customers wear blue jeans and cowboy boots. Everything I read about sales says dress up. When I do, some of my customers make comments about being a city boy, or they say I look like their banker (even though I usually wear dress slacks and a long sleeve shirt with polished shoes). In your opinion, how should I dress? Doug

Doug, Wear what you like. Wear what makes you feel comfortable. If you’re uncomfortable wearing city boy clothes in front of cowboys, then stop doing it. Wear nice, fashionable cowboy clothes. Make certain that if you’re going to wear boots, that they’re polished and have some nice brand name to them. The goal is that your customers will say, “Nice boots!” or “Nice belt!” or “Where did you get that shirt?” That’s what you want. You want one of a kind stuff. Wear vintage stuff. There’s plenty of vintage cowboy stuff out there. Make certain your look, even though casual, is one notch better than the customer would wear when you’re in that meeting with them so the clothes become a positive discussion rather than a drawback. Jeffrey

Jeffrey, I have recently started in sales at a radio station. I have read a few of your books and we follow all of your suggestions as far as selling. I am right out of college and I look it, if not younger! I’m afraid if I try to make appointments in person I will be turned down right away because of my age. How would you suggest I overcome this? Sarah

Sarah, First of all, stop believing that your age is a barrier. Second of all, pre-prepare a 30-second commercial (of around ninety words or less) about the customer before you ever walk in the door. Record it. Walk in and say, “Hey, I just did a commercial for you. Would you like to hear it?”

If the commercial is cool, creative, maybe a little bit edgy, and has a little music in the background they will listen to that commercial and call other people in to hear it.

No one will care about your age if you prepare in terms of the customer. Best regards, Jeffrey

Jeffrey, I recently joined a business broker who has been successful for six years. I am the new boy. It appears revenue is generated from listing fees and commission on sales. Listings are obtained from direct mail, drop ins, and customers seeing our website. Lots of groundwork has to be done to build up listings from zero in my case. Purchasers are coming all the time, and converting them to sales doesn’t appear to be a problem. It only takes one purchaser and the commission is good. What concerns me is we seem to be using old methods to get listings. Snail mail and cold calling. Do you have any suggestions on what you would do to fast track the listing process? David

David, When you start in a job, there is no “fast track.” There’s only what has been done successfully before. Start there. And when you do start there, you’ll be seen as “fitting in” and “part of the team” or “part of the process.” Yes, you’re on your own. Yes, you make your own commissions. You know what? You can’t come in and fight traffic from the first day. What you need to do is harmonize with what’s happening in your place of business. Do it the old way first and then figure out a new way on your own. If it were me, I’d be using social media. I’d be using testimonials. I’d be using every new strategy I possibly could, but not until you’ve made a few sales with the old way. Start there. Best regards, Jeffrey

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

LinkedIn is great for business – er, I mean SMART business.

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I am NOT a LinkedIn expert, but I do have more than 15,000 LinkedIn connections. Do you?

I may have more visibility and notoriety than you do, but we are equal in exposure and linking possibilities. And 98.5% of my LinkedIn connections are the result of people wanting to connect with me.

I do not accept everyone. I click on everyone’s profile before connection. Many are impressive. Most are average or less. Some are pathetic.

How’s yours? How many connections do you have? How are you communicating with your connections? How are your connections helping your sales or your career?

Your LinkedIn profile is one more social media image. And you choose exactly what it is. When others search for you on Google, LinkedIn is one of the first links they click on. You have a chance to make a positive business and social impression.

THE GOOD: When I realized the business significance of LinkedIn, I immediately sought professional help. I hired Joe Soto at One Social Media to help me with the keywords, layout, and what to include on my profile page. He also recommended what and how to post.

It must be working. In the two years since I hired him, I have added more than 9,000 organic connections. Or should I say, more than 9,000 potential customers. Huge opportunity. At an acquisition cost of ZERO.

REALITY OF LINKEDIN: I receive requests to link and I also get messages. Some are very nice, some are self-serving, some are insincere, and some are stupid (very stupid). And ALL messages are a reflection of the person sending them. That would be you.

Here are some THINGS about LinkedIn to make you think, re-think, and act:

  • Your picture is NOT an option. Show a professional, but approachable, image. Be proud of who you are.
  • Have a LinkedIn profile that gives me insight, not just history. Not just what you’ve done, but also who you are. Your profile is your pathway to connection.
  • DANGER: DO NOT USE stock LinkedIn messages. It shows your laziness, lack of creativity, and overall lack of professionalism. Standard LinkedIn messages need to be replaced with your own. EVERY TIME.
  • If you’re looking for a job, or working a lead, tell me WHY I should connect. (Where’s the value?)
  • If you’re looking for leads, use the keyword feature (rather than the job title option) in the ‘advanced search’ link to the right of the search box. It’s free, and you’ll find hundreds of people in your industry or in your backyard that you never knew existed.
  • • Why are sending me an e-card on Easter? I’m Jewish, not a good move. Three words to ask yourself with any message you send or post: WHERE’S THE VALUE? E-cards are a total waste, unless it’s family.
  • If you’re asking me (or people) to join your group, TELL ME WHY I SHOULD.
  • If you’re asking me to connect you with a 2nd level connection, DON’T. The only way to ask is from 1st to 1st. And tell me in a sentence or two WHY you want to connect.
  • Asking for a recommendation or endorsement is BAD. If you’re asking your connections for a recommendation: DON’T. It is perhaps the dumbest, rudest thing on LinkedIn. Think about it, you’re asking people to “please stop what you’re doing and tell me about ME.” Two words: GO AWAY. If you have to ask, it’s probably because you don’t deserve. Think about that.
  • Don’t tell me you “found something interesting” in your group message, especially if the link is to join your MLM down-line or attend your ‘free’ webinar.
  • Allocate 30-60 minutes a day to utilize this vital business social media asset.

THE BAD and THE UGLY: Here are some examples of MESSAGES and INVITES I have received on LinkedIn. Hopefully they’ll make you think, re-think, and act…

BAD: Hi Jeffrey, My name is — with —, a leading — provider that helps organizations connect with their customers through email, mobile, and social networks. I would like to connect about a potential partnership to help Buy Gitomer, Inc. increase their interactive marketing ROI.
This is a typical self-serving (and deleted) message. Why not give me a tip, and ask if I’d like more like it? And stop using dead sales words like ‘ROI,’ and ‘helps organizations.’ Help me, don’t sell me.

DUMB: Hi All, As I continue to work on building my network, can I ask that you do me a huge favor and endorse me here on LinkedIn? I would be more than happy to return the favor and endorse you as well. Thank you for your support! (name withheld to avoid public embarrassment)
Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Give me a break. Spare me. Beg someone else.

BAD AND DUMB: I got this in my message box (I get a few like this every week)
(subject line) Your Opinion please. (name withheld) Supplier Business Executive
If you’re hoping for an endorsement or a recommendation on LinkedIn, or anywhere, here’s the two-word mantra: EARN IT!

LinkedIn is the business social media site of today AND tomorrow. Harness its power, do notabuse its options, and you will reap its rewards.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The Twitter you may not know. But should.

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What’s in a tweet? For most people it’s a post and a prayer.

For me, it’s value, information others can use, followers, reputation, image, re-tweets, customers, referrals, sales, and money. Is that enough?

Twitter has the power to generate awareness, create value attraction, keep you or your brand at top-of-mind status, and build relationships. Is that enough to get you to participate?

I want to share some advice about twitter: I am NOT passing myself off as an “expert,” and there is nothing to buy, and no free webinar to attend. These are just my observations and successes based on the past four years of my participation.

Here are my stats as of this writing:

  • My twitter handle is my name: @gitomer
  • Followers – 60,580
  • Following – 17,109
  • Tweets – 3,127
  • Average tweets per day – 4
  • Average links to view a video or an offer – 1 per day
  • Average number of re-tweets/favorites per day – 25-75 per tweet
  • New followers per day – 30-50

Here are 3.5 things I recommend you do in order to really benefit from Twitter:
1. Have an objective and a strategy. Twitter is intended for you to inform with value, influence, brand, and (on occasion) to converse or respond, not chit-chat. The value of your tweets will determine who stays with you and re-tweets you. When I see someone with 14,500 tweets and 285 followers, two words come to mind: NO VALUE. I often use the direct message feature to respond, rather than an open tweet – that’s meaningless to everyone else.
2. Create a list of value-based tweets and subjects you intend to tweet about. Be prepared at least a week in advance. Keep a Twitter file that documents ideas and possible tweets. Itweet quotes from my books, and thoughts that come to me during the day (ornight). You can also re-tweet others if you believe it helps your followers.
NOTE: I try to leave at least 10 characters open, so that others can easily re-tweet me.
NOTE: If you re-tweet me or favor me, I’ll follow you as a courtesy.
3. Approach followers of strategic value. You have an email list. INVITE each person to follow you PERSONALLY. In an email, tell each person about your twitter participation, LIST A FEW OF YOUR TWEETS, and ask them to follow you by clicking a link and the follow button. If you have 1,000 people on your list, and 250 follow you, it’s a GREAT start. Continue to send your tweets out weekly to the rest of the list, and re-ask them to follow you. This will take time, but the earning potential exceeds the stupid TV show you’re watching.
3.5 Be consistent. Tweet every day, at least once a day.

Don’t DM (direct message) me saying “Thanks for the follow.” It’s an annoying waste of my time and yours. Instead, how about sending me the same kind of message I sent you – ONE OF VALUE. A message to make me think, make me smile, or make me money. Insincere politeness and phony thanks makes you sound like a bad flight attendant, reading from a script, into a bad microphone, behind a wall.

Don’t re-tweet the news. You are not the source. Originality counts – especially if it’s valuable or thought provoking to your customers.

Your twitter outreach is not going anywhere if:

  • You talk with other people in superficial chatter more than 10% of your tweets.
  • You re-tweet others more than 50% of the time.
  • You fail to tweet your own thoughts.
  • You have nothing but sales messages with a link to buy something.
  • You’re only trying to get people to ‘go here’ to ‘read this’ and ‘see my blog post’ or ‘watch this video.’
  • Your tweet to follower ratio is out of proportion. You should have a MAXIMUM of one tweet for every 10 followers. 100 tweets = 1,000 followers. The lower the ratio, the better.

Here are the MAJORS:
MAJOR CLUE: Being re-tweeted is the key. My goal is 100 re-tweets a day
MAJOR OPPORTUNITY: Photo and video is becoming commonplace. Do not abuse it. Show value, not your backyard BBQ.
MAJOR FAUX PAS: Your links better work – especially if they’re to your website, your blog, or other social media like LinkedIn.
MAJOR IDIOCY: Please don’t offer advice for sale, or call yourself an expert, if you don’t have AT LEAST 50,000 followers.

I am amazed at how few sales professionals and sales leaders are not taking advantage of Twitter. It’s a resource, it’s a broadcast medium, it’s a vital recognition tool, it’s a reputation builder, and it’s free.

Tweet that. I just did. At 7:30am. In less than two hours I had 9 new followers, and 43 re-tweets or favorites that reached (influenced) MORE than 75,000 people. For free.

How’s your morning going?

What a list of my most powerful tweets? Go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time visitor and enter the word TWITTER in the GitBit box.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The biggest thing sales leaders overlook: SALES!

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Letter from a fan:

Dear Jeffrey, I’m a big fan of your weekly column, especially the one about making sales vs. measuring sales activity. Brilliant! It describes my situation to a tee. I’m an outside salesman who spends countless hours filling in itineraries, CRM notes, and reports. I had the biggest ever increase in sales last year by far, yet I have been told at times I didn’t make enough calls that week. Very frustrating. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

My first piece of advice is: Get your boss fired as soon as possible. Get a real boss, leader, coach and helper, and your sales will double.

You seem to be doing the right thing – INCREASING SALES, and having the best year of your career. What else could a manager want? Sounds like it’s your manager that needs to make more calls and increase his activity.

Let me address sales leaders…

REALITY QUESTION FOR SALES MANAGERS: Why would you, as a leader, take an improving salesperson who is having the best year of their career, and tell him or her they’re “not making enough calls”? Why not do something to actually help?
REALITY ANSWERS: (Pick any or all that apply.) You’re an idiot who knows nothing about leadership, coaching, or creating winners. You’re a micro manager with little or no current sales talent yourself. (You may have sold before, but that was before the internet – and you’ve probably never tweeted). You’re an unschooled leader, following the old way rather than learning what’s new. You’re using CRM as an accountability tool, rather than a sales tool. You’re totally clueless about your customer base and what will grow more and profitable sales. OUCH!

Successful sales leaders…

  • Manage the sales cycle, not call activity.
  • Measure the sales cycle, not sales activity.
  • Help make follow-up calls with their salespeople to learn more about the sales cycle.
  • Study the last ten sales to help understand what will make the 11th.
  • Discover their most profitable customers – and then go on to uncover WHY they’re the most profitable.
  • Find where the profit comes from in every sale.
  • Discover their most loyal customer – and WHY they stay loyal.
  • Make a few sales calls together with their people.
  • Teach salespeople to ask better questions that emotionally engage.

REALITY: Maybe by spending more VALUE time with each existing customer it will increase their wallet share and your market share, and referrals will go UP.
REALITY: Maybe making too many calls is actually hampering growth. Someone measuring activity and numbers would never know that. Pity.

‘Measuring activity’ gives you a false read on the reality of sales. And as a leader, a manager, a coach, a teacher, you have a far greater responsibility to help increase sales than to just bellow out ‘more calls’ as your cure-all answer.

And maybe more calls IS the answer, but until you uncover the other ninety nine possibilities, you have no right to destroy or discourage your best salespeople from becoming better.

Or worse, they quit because they’re sick of you and your style.

Sales management and sales leadership is one of the hardest jobs in the world. First you have to know each of your people, why they’re working, why they’re working for you, and what will make them better. Second you have to know your customers, why your customers buy (beyond price), andwhat keeps them loyal. Third you have to be a better salesperson than they are. And fourth, you have to be a great teacher – able to convey your knowledge in a way that others WANT To hear you.

You know these things so that when your salespeople come to you with issues, you can actually help them make the sale – not make more calls.

Make more cold calls? Huh? In 2013? Really?

  • If you’re looking to become a hated sales leader, with lots of turnover, make your people make lots of cold calls.
  • If you’re wanting to drive your best people to the competition, make your people make lots of cold calls.
  • And if you’re looking to have low morale and poor performance on your team, make your people make lots of cold calls.

NOTE WELL:

  • The new cold call is a social media connection. Start with LinkedIn.
  • The better cold call is an expanded relationship with an existing customer.
  • The best cold call is a referral. One that you earn, not ask for.

BIG REALITY: The object of sales leadership is to IMPROVE INDIVIDUAL SALES, not improve “team” sales.
BIGGER REALITY: Your encouragement and enthusiasm – to them, and with them – will help build both their confidence AND their sales.
BIGGEST REALITY: Managers somehow believe their salespeople want to be on their team and win for the team and the company. To hit some big goal arbitrarily set by management. Nothing could be further from the truth. Salespeople wanna win for themselves and their families – and they wanna win for their customers. Not for you, your other employees, or the company.

Get a grip on ‘why’ salespeople want to win. Give them real-world help. Coach them, and it will have a major impact on their sales, and your leadership success.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The difference between presentation and communication

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How do you communicate?
How good of a communicator are you?

If you want to make a winning sales pitch, it takes a combination of your presentation skills and your communication skills. It’s the little known sales skill: How to get others to listen to you. Or better stated, WANT to listen to you.

SALES TRAINING REALITY: Time is spent on presentation skills, and the presentation itself, but very little or no time is spent on communication skills. Until now.

All your life you heard the lesson: It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
Presentation is what you say.
Communication is how you say it.

The best way to clarify communication skills is to ask you to think about the teachers and professors you had in school. Sometimes the most brilliant ones were the worst communicators – and as a result, left you short of both education and inspiration.

Then think of the teachers you loved. You couldn’t wait to get to their class, and you hung on their every word. In fact, you still remember him or her and you talk about them. They were great communicators.

In sales, great communication skills are one of the lost secrets of success. Sales messages focus around ‘value prop’ and ‘value add’ and other sales drivel. You get a slide deck form marketing, that’s both boring and repetitive – WITH NOT ONE WORD ON HOW TO COMMUNICATE YOUR MESSAGE.

Here are several “wake up” questions to get you thinking about your communication – and I’ll throw in a few challenges:

  • What is the clarity of the meaning behind your message? What’s your motive?
  • How clear is your delivered message? Not clear to you, clear to them.
  • How understandable is your message? Would I get it, and agree with it?
  • What’s the attitude behind your spoken words? What’s the tone of your words? How do they sound?
  • Are your gestures in harmony with your words and your delivery? Do your gestures indicate and confirm a relaxed, confident style?
  • How succinct is your message? Short and sweet or way too long?
  • Does your message or your words sound scripted or insincere? Conversational is the best communication strategy.
  • How organized is your message? Are you fumbling or on a roll?
  • Does your message have a start and a finish? A finish that ends in a commitment from the prospective customer?
  • Do you make solid and consistent eye contact? Especially when asking for the sale or confirming the offer.
  • Are you making statements or asking questions? Who are the questions in favor of? NOTE WELL: Questions create interactive dialog, and will tell you, both by body language and gestures, the level of genuine connection – the smiles, the willingness to talk and tell the truth.
  • How transferable is your message? Does the prospect “get it,” and agree with it?
  • Are you asking for confirmation that what you’re saying is completely understandable?
  • Can anyone/everyone define exactly what you mean to say?
  • Do you talk too fast? Only your recording will tell you that.
  • Are you using industry buzzwords that could create misunderstanding? Classic example of miscommunication.
  • Are you using acronyms that everyone understands, or are you just showing off? Another classic example of miscommunication.

And the ultimate self-tests of communication:

  • Have you ever recorded your message so you can hear your own communication skill level? Most salespeople have not.
  • Have you played your message for others? A huge opportunity for coaching and improvement of your communication skills.

I TWEETED THIS: A passionate message without clarity will fall on deaf ears. #gitomer #communication

The object of communication, especially sales communication, is for others to UNDERSTAND your message, AGREE with your message, and then TAKE the correct ACTION. Buy.

If you’re really interested in better communication skills, take a course in it. Dale Carnegie (www.dalecarnegie.com) offers the best programs. All of them are based around the 75-year-old business book classic, How To Win Friends and Influence People. It doesn’t get any better than that.

If your communication skills are the heart of your sales message, maybe it’s time to uncover just how strong they are.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].