5 Tips for Falling In Love With Sales

Posted on March 30, 2015 by MarleneMB

No business can survive without sales. If revenue is not coming in, your company will be out of business. Small business owners are more vulnerable to closing up shop due to lack of sales.

Of course, there are myriad of reasons why a business fails, but lack of sales is one of the more prevalent ones. The underling reason maybe bad marketing, wrong product, or poor customer service. Yet, when I meet with some of my clients that want to start their own business, fear of sales or lack of sales experience pop up often.

They will tell me: “I don’t like selling.” “I don’t have sales experience.” “I never sold anything before.” Jokingly, I would tell them: “Yes. You have sold before. From the time you were born, you were selling your mom and dad that you are so cute that they have to feed, bathe and clothe you.”

My view on sales is “sales is about forming relationships.” I also have to believe that through my products or services I can serve others. If a business owner does not believe that his or her products and services are not valuable or does not benefit his/her clients; then, they should close up shop right away. Why delay the inevitable.

There is no magical potion to sales. Sales is a game of numbers. The more qualified prospects you put in your sales funnel, the more likelihood you will close deals. But learning how to form relationships with your clients, delivering solutions to solve their problems and being present can result in magical moments in your sales results.

Here are some approaches I used when selling solutions to my clients:

1) Start with the Low Hanging Fruit: There are days when I don’t feel up to making the calls or going out prospecting for new clients. To get myself mentality prepared , I think of folks that are in my inner circle that could use my products and services. I focus on the ones that are pleasant to speak with, or it’s fun to be in their presence.

I don’t go with a hidden agenda. When I contact them, I ask how things are going and inquire if there is anything they are struggling with that I may be of assistance to them. If there is, they let me know. Then I offer to meet with them to see where there is a fit.

By starting with the folks that I have a great relationship builds my confidence to call on the ones that are newer to me. It makes me not fear getting a “no.” By the way, getting “no” isn’t such a bad thing. It gets you closer to a “yes.”

Having a hard time starting your sales day? Start with your low hanging fruit. Reach out to people that you know, people that you have sold to in the past, people that like and trust you.

2) Sell Only What You Believe In: When I worked in the corporate world, I had to believe in the products the companies were offering in order for me to go out and represent them. Being connected in that way made me passionate about selling those products or services.

The result of this passion was that I had more sales. There were times when a client wasn’t sure about the product, but due to my knowledge of the product and the passion I had about it, they bought from me. This is the same now that I am a business owner.

If you don’t believe in what you are selling, you will not come across as being authentic to your prospects. If you don’t believe it, why should they.

3) Sell Only What Your Clients Need: The consulting process I utilize, helps me to learn what issues my clients are experiencing in their businesses. By asking key questions, they open up to me; allowing me to learn where my products and services may be solve their business needs.

There are times when my products and service aren’t a good match for what problems they are facing. At this point of the consulting process, I let them know that it’s not a fit. I would rather lose the sale than deliver something I know will not work for them.

If you are out selling to your clients, don’t sell them an orange when they need an apple. It will make you feel better. Your honesty will pay off in the long run. Walk away from the sale. Before you do, ask them for a referral. Those that appreciate your honesty will be more than willing to open their list of contacts to you.

4) Be Present: As I mentioned previously, sales is a numbers game. If you are not on the phone making calls, networking through social media, attending networking events or visiting existing clients; you are missing out on opportunities to sell.

When I was writing my book, it took me out of the loop for a while. It was amazing how low my opportunity funnel declined. Once I kicked myself in the butt and pushed myself to Be Present online through my blogs; go to events and making the phone calls; my funnel increased, tremendously.

“I’ve found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances, be more active, show up more often.” ~ Brian Tracy

If you are struggling with connecting with others due to an out-of-balance schedule, doing something small can still keep your sales funnel healthy. Make two are three calls a day to existing clients or new prospects may be all you need. Going to one event every other week might also prove to be of value.

5) Make It Fun: Life is too short to work from a place of fear, boredom, or misery. When I feel a spell of doubt about selling, I implement a reward system. I set a goal for how many calls I would make for the day. Or I may set a goal of how many qualified contacts I will make at an event. Then I would reward myself with something. It maybe as simple as treating myself to an ice cream cone or watching a playful movie.

Selling to me, is the “wine and dine” period in the sales cycle. If I’m wooing a client, I have to present the best me. This means I have to walk into any meeting on get on a call with a positive, upbeat attitude. This attitude is often infectious to the client, also.

No one wants to work with a dud. Find a way to make selling fun. Take the fear out of it. As a business owner, you have got to love selling or else find someone who does. If you don’t, your business will not be around for long.

Whether you follow these tips or not, remember that no business that rely on revenue can exist without sales. Find a way to fall in love with the sales process and take your business to newer heights.

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Thank you for reading my post. Please hit the “follow” button at the top of the page to allow me to share more Purposeful thoughts, ideas and experiences with you. Feel free to leave a comment or share the article with others.

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Marlene M. Bryan is a Distinguished Toastmaster, DTM. She is a certified speaker and leader by Toastmasters International. She is currently the District 47 Public Relations Officer, and leader of the Public Relations Team. Sheprovides her services to over 3800 members throughout the district. Marlene is the owner of Marlene M. Bryan, Corp. She is a speaker, an author, and a coach. Pick up the latest copy of her book Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters at [email protected]andsmallbizevolution.com.

Entrepreneurs: A Major Lesson Learned from the Academy Awards Committee Faux Pax – Diversity

Posted on January 16, 2015 by MarleneMB

OSCARS DIVERSITY.001 — Image from cloudfront.net

The envelops were opened to announce the nominations for the coveted 2015 Academy Awards. Generally, this is a highly visible occasion to help build the excitement leading up to the televised Academy Awards event.

But something seemed amiss. None of the nominees were people of color. Also, a majority of the behind the scenes categories excluded women. The “Twitterverse” exploded with tweets of condemnation. YouTube lit up with videos of people ranting in disbelief. Not has something like this (exclusion of people of color) happened since 1998!

You may think: “What does this have to do with my business? I don’t care about the Academy Awards.” It does have a great lesson to offer you in your business decision making: Make Room for Diversity.

The Academy Awards Committee members are estimated to be close to 6000 people. According to an article in the LA Times 94% of these members are Caucasians and 77% of male. Only 2% are Blacks and 2% Latinos. This does not reflect the audience that view movies in the United States, let alone across the globe. Hence, the greater probability a situation like this will occur.

Here is some of the things you can do to avoid making the same mistake:

attracting-a-diverse-audience — Image from Soapboxsample.com

1) As an entrepreneur, it is critical that you think of the demographics of your target audience. Include folks on your staff (if you have employees) or in your circle of advisers (especially if you are the sole-proprietor) that reflects your target audience. We are told that one should diversify one’s financial portfolio to maximize the gains in the marketplace. The saying is true if you want to maximize your probability of the success of your business.

older-worker-handshake — Image from medreps.com

2) Oftentimes I have witnessed older workers being pushed out of corporations or not hired due to their age. This is not a great practice in my opinion. Some of my best advisers have been older workers, or as I liked to call them “seasoned workers.” They have years of work and world experiences that I can harvest to help me solve problems that I encounter.

Technology changes. Usually, people’s emotions and some behaviors remain the same for generations. Some of my seasoned advisers have helped me avoid bad business decisions that have saved me money. They have also given me great advices that caused me to earn more money.

3) In the same breath, don’t excluded younger workers because you perceive them to have less experience. I would rather take a chance on someone with less experience that have the willingness and the ability to learn quickly; than someone that has the experience but has no enthusiasm for the job.

A friend of mine was being considered to speak before a particular group. The event planner told someone that she (the event planner) thought my friend wasn’t seasoned enough in that particular area. Yet my friend helped her clients take their income from 5-figures to 6-figures in a matter of months! Obviously to me and my friend’s clients, she was doing something that was working well and could offer great information to the event planner’s audience. But the event planner had blinders on that state one has to have certain experience over a length of time to be considered “seasoned.” How unfortunate for this event planner and her audience.

Large group of ethnicity — Image from Mitchcommongroup.com

4) Include women, men, and minorities on your staff and in your circle of advisers. We all have our individual experiences that may limit our views that also limit our marketing reaching. Having a well-rounded source of viewpoints from various backgrounds (regardless of race, creed or sexual orientation) may give your business the spark it needs to attract more clients on a local, national and global level.

I thought my target audience were immigrant women. The more I deliver my keynote speeches or sell by books, I find that my message resonates with a lot of men from various backgrounds. It was a wonderful surprise. Now I include more men on my lists of advisers. This gives me a greater opportunity to spread my message and to earn more income.

globe450 — Image from smallbiztrends.com

5) Include people of many nationalities as you can; if you want a global reach. As you know, the explosion of the internet has allowed entrepreneurs to have access to international markets. It seems wise to include people of different nationalities in your circles.

My circle of associates, advisers, and clients hail from many different countries with different cultural experiences and spoken languages. I revel in this diversity, because it has enriched and enlightened me in so many ways.

Did the Academy Awards committee miss a great opportunity to promote its brand in a golden light? Only time will tell. It seems that the uproar from the lack of diversity of the 2015 nominees has dulled the shine on this body of decision makers, and unfortunately taken some of the spotlight off its nominees.

Avoid the faux pax of the Academy Awards Committee. Include diversity in your staff and circles, professionally and personally. Let the tweets award your business with praises for its inclusions and successes.

Find out how I learned these tips and more from my Diamond Cutters, my mentors and coaches, pick up a copy of Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters today.

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Thank you for reading my post. Please hit the “follow” button at the top of the page. This will allow me continue to write and share with you on a variety of topics.

Webinars Suck – Is That Right? – Part 1 of 4

Posted on December 16, 2014 by MarleneMB

Come on. Admit it. You joined a Webinar that you really wanted to learn something new to advance your business practices, implement new ideas or utilizing new tools. You finally get added into the session after five or ten minutes of downloading software or multiple retries…only to be greeted by hundreds of beeps, bings, and bangs as other folks join. It is so annoying that you want to yell to the moderator: “Mute the “Beeping” call chimes!!!

Okay, maybe it’s only me. But I would guess that a lot of folks have encountered this experience. Some may have even walked away with a bad impression of a Webinar session; if this was their first experience.

Speaking with a friend the other day, I asked him if he thinks Webinars work. He said most of his clients believe they don’t. In fact, some of them think Webinars suck! Wow! This should make a lot of Webinar providers and presenters happy. Not.

In my humble opinion, Webinars can and do work; if done in the right fashion. Over the years of conducting Webinars as a Sales Engineer Manager, a Product Manager, Marketing Director, a trainer and now as a small business owner, I have learned that to present a successful Webinar I was must include or do the following:

Great Content
Organize It
Make Interactive
Select the Right Webinar Provider

There is quite a lot of information to share with you. I don’t want you to ask: “Where’s the beef?” Therefore, I will share these tips in each part, spread out over four posts especially for you “multitaskers” (you know who you are)! Today, we will examine how having the right content will contribute to your next Webinar’s success.

Content! Content! Content!

Maybe I’m being a bit dramatic here (I’ve been accused of worse), but in planning your Webinar session you need to take into consideration how the content meets the need of our audience. Too often, I have participated in Webinars in which the presenters spent most of the time pushing the products and services. While they spend very little time discuss how these products and services will benefit the participant’s business or individual’s requirement.

Or they conduct the bait and switch approach. They promised one type of experience, but when you get in the session it has nothing to do with what was promised. In fact, the content was not relevant to your needs.

Here are a few ideas for great content:

Make it informational (Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em) – Address a problem that the audience may have. Share ideas with the audience how to address this problem. Example: “Not sure how to maximize your LinkedIn connections to get new business leads? The Five Tips on Maximizing LinkedIn Connections for Business Growth Webinar will give your the methods to Convert Connections to Clients.” or “Learn How to Convert LinkedIn Connections to Clients”
Show them – Give step by step instruction is a great way for people to remember and learn a subject. We love lists. We were conditioned to remember lists. We make a list when we go shopping. We make To-Do lists to get tasks done. We take lists of questions to our doctors for health issues we may be experiencing (if you don’t, you should).
Give them proof that it works – Providing your audience with a strong case study of how you or your company helped solve the problem for someone just like your audience. Back the case study up with a testimonial from that person or persons.
Summarize (Tell ‘em what you told ‘em) – It is a good idea to summarize the problem and solution again at the end of your Webinar. Remind them of the key benefits and value they will get.
Give a Call to Action – Include a call to action in the content of your presentation. You may softly mention the call to action a few times in the Webinar session, then state it stronger at the end.

Throughout your content be clear, get to the point and concise your message as much as you can without losing valuable information. Don’t make it too long. One hour or less is best. Use this quick mantra: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Show them. Give them proofs and examples. Finally, tell them what you’ve told them.” By incorporating some of these tips into creating content for your Webinar, you should be able to make it more attractive to your target audience. In the next post, we will move onto getting organized in part two of this four part series.

Find out how I learned these tips and more from my Diamond Cutters, My Mentors and Coaches, pick up a copy of Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters today.

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Beat the P.I.P.

Posted on December 2, 2014 by MarleneMB

There is a reality show on CNBC called “The Profit” that I occasionally watch. Marcus Lemonis, the star of the show, helps struggling small businesses to improve the profit of the businesses. Marcus invests his own money into the rejuvenation of them. In the last episode I watched, Marcus is trying to help a floral business get back its footing.

One of the issues Marcus identify was that the general manager (GM) was not performing the role of the GM to the level that was expected of her. He recommended that the GM be demoted. Marcus told her what her new role was and what was expected of her. She was placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (P.I.P.). She was obviously hurt by the demotion as evident by her tears.

But what really impressed me was that she didn’t toss in the towel and quit. She stayed on and actually earned Marcus’ respect. She showed up each time with a positive attitude and did what was asked of her. In the end Marcus told her that he believed she should be the person in charge of the business at all times…even more so than the owner should be. The owner on the other hand was mostly negative throughout the episode.

As a manager, it was not pleasant for me to put an employee on a Performance Improvement Plan (P.I.P.). At this point of the decision, I found that the employee was performing his or her job way below expectation. In this case, I would work with the Human Resources representative to create a 30-60-90 day plan with measurable goals. Goals that were fair to the employee and the company.

Are you on a Performance Improvement Plan? Here is what you can do to Beat the P.I.P.

Understand what is required of you:

Review the Performance Improvement Plan with your manager to ensure you understand each goal and what is expected of you.
If there is something that is not clear to you, ask questions.
If the Human Resources representative is not present (in person, on video or on the phone) ask if you can have that person involved in the discussion.

Take it seriously:

Don’t take a P.I.P. lightly. If you want to keep the job, then seriously take stock of what you need to do to meet the goals. Create your own plan and start implementing the activities that would get you there.
Your feelings may be hurt, but this is an opportunity to show that you can rise above this low point. Put some sweat equity in. Action is what gets the job done…not sitting around and wishing things will work out.
Like the general manager in the opening story, don’t quit. Reach out to those that may be able to help you meet your goals…whether it is an existing client, a co-worker or a mentor. Be open and willing to do some of the things that they advice you to do.

Maintain Positive Attitude:

Be positive. I’ve seen so many people get put on a P.I.P. and immediately their attitudes become negative. This is not going to improve your manager’s opinion of you. It will validate that he or she is right about putting you on the P.I.P. in the first place.
Start your day off with something that inspires you to push through. I sometimes like to watch an inspirational video on YouTube or read a quick affirmation statement to get me in a great frame of mind.
Encourage others around you. The demoted general manager did not take her demotion as a defeat. Instead she maintained a positive attitude and started to encourage her peers and her direct reports. She provided positive feedback to them.

Being on a Performance Improvement Plan doesn’t mean that you cannot do the job. It simply means that you may need to make some adjustments that would move you to a higher level of performance. Just remember: understand what is required of you, take it seriously and maintain a positive attitude.

Many of my mentors have helped me and continue to help me attain my goals. Learn how they helped me in my book Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters.

I leave you with a short video that inspired me today:

GET INSPIRED – Never Give Up On Your Goals!

Remember the Diamond is within you on Timeless Tuesday!

Thank you for reading my post. Please hit the “follow” button at the top of the page. This will allow me continue to write and share with you on a variety of topics.

Relax and Enjoy It

Posted on November 25, 2014 by MarleneMB

Learning to drive at an early age in New York City was a challenge. Unfortunately, I picked up the bad habit of being an aggressive driver. I can be one of the calmest folks you meet until I get behind a steering wheel! It took me a while to learn to relax and enjoy the ride instead.

Many of us are hitting the road to visit family and friends for the Thanksgiving Holiday in the USA. If you driving to your destination, I encourage you to relax and enjoy the ride.

Here are a few tricks I’ve learned:

Audiobooks: It is amazing how time flies by when I listen to audiobooks. I love mystery stories, especially ones that keep me at the edge of my seat. Sometimes I get to where I’m going and I sit in the car just to hear the ending!

Educational CDs or Podcasts: Driving gives you a great opportunity to improve your knowledge by listening to CDs share valuable information with you. Listening the experts in my field teaches me ways to make improvements in my business. They also generate new ideas that I may implement in my workshops.

Music:
There is no way that I feel aggressive when I’m listening to Neil Diamond, Luther Vandross or my faith based songs. But if I hear certain Rock, Reggae or Rap music…Uh oh! I leave these type of music for when I’m out of the car!

Silence: There are times when I roll up the windows and simply enjoy the silence. I use this time to meditate and reflect on something that I want to better understand or master.

Leave Early: Heading out on the road with more than enough time to get to my destination, makes it less stressful for me. I don’t like being late; therefore, it makes sense for me to get a good head start to avoid being late.

Let the other guy or gal go by: If someone is riding my bumper, I no longer feel the need to let the New Yorker Marlene out! I just move over to the other lane and give them room…I also say a silent prayer for them and the rest of us on the road.

Now, I’m not saying that I have mastered being a great driver, but the more I practice these methods, the more I’m enjoying the drive. I hope these tips help you on your next drive. Drive safely!

If you don’t have a mentor or coach, learn about finding great ones. Pick up a copy of my book Live a Diamond Life, A Life of Purpose: Diamond Cutters.

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Until next time, keep Living a Diamond Life with much gratitude on Timeless Tuesday!