Sales 2.0 and modern day selling are hot topics right now, as more and more sales professionals and business owners are seeing the benefits of applying these concepts within their day-to-day sales processes.

Social media and the internet have become big players in the business world, but few professionals really understand how to use these online tools to develop their sales techniques and generate qualified leads.

As many of you will know by now, MTD Sales Training’s MD Sean McPheat is at the forefront of the modern day selling revolution, and has written a bestselling book on the subject– entitled eselling® – which provides readers with a step by step guide on how to use social media and the internet to prospect, network and engage with the c-suite decision maker online. 

In November of last year, Sean was invited to give a keynote presentation of the concept of eselling® to over 1,000 sales professionals from across Europe at the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management’s (ISMM) Successful Selling Conference at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

The short video above is a quick excerpt from Sean’s presentation on modern day selling at the ISMM, which will give you a good overview of what eselling® is really about, and how you can put these techniques into practice within your business.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

Today’s buyers are a lot more sales savvy; they conduct research online about your products and services, your company and your competitors all with a few clicks of a mouse. The internet and social media in particular are now your buyers’ best friends, as it puts them in control of the modern day sales process, so what are you doing to redress this balance of power?

Here are some scary facts and figures for you:

• 90% of buying decisions are based on internet research – Gartner research
• 2 out of 3 decision makers place more trust in their own research than in sales people – Market Transformations
• 80% of sales are lost because the salesperson failed to establish an element of trust and credibility with the buyer – The Marketing Edge

The way your buyers make their purchasing decisions has changed, but are you changing the way that you sell? Social media can be a powerful sales tool when you know how to get the best from it, especially when it comes to using LinkedIn.

You’ve definitely heard of LinkedIn, you might even have a LinkedIn account and you’ve heard of the benefits and the power that LinkedIn can provide you in terms of prospecting and selling….but your LinkedIn account is just sitting there gathering dust simply because you don’t know what to do with it!

Or is it because you have yet to be convinced of the real value of the site? Well, he’s a few LinkedIn stats for you to digest:

• 1 new member joins LinkedIn every second – LinkedIn Press Centre
• Over 40% of LinkedIn’s users work in companies with more than 10,000 employees – LinkedIn Ads
• Nearly 50% of the LinkedIn members are in a decision maker role (such as Manager, Director, Owner, Chief Officer or Vice President) – LinkedIn Ads

Considering this information, it’s unsurprising to find out that in a recent survey conducted by advertising agency OgilvyOne found that 93% of UK sales professionals have received no training in using social media, and 53% of these want help with learning to use social media platforms as a business tool.

As a modern day sales professional it is so important to understand how to harness the power of LinkedIn for your business, and MTD Sales Training are here to help.

We have created a complimentary report for you which will help you to understand how to get the most out of LinkedIn as a business tool.

“Ultimate LinkedIn Essentials For Sales Professionals” is free to download and will show you how to tap into the potential goldmine of prospecting resources and additional sales opportunities that LinkedIn has to offer. With a killer profile and the right approach to hunt out, prospect and engage with your target market, you will maximise your prospecting time and generate qualified leads.

Simply click the link below to download your copy:

http://www.mtdsalestraining.com/lireport.htm

If you still need convincing of the power of LinkedIn or if there’s anything you would like to ask me then leave me a comment below and I will get back to you.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

Stop scratching around for sales and learn how to sell the modern way with my FREE 40 minute online training session. Click on the image below to find out why you’ve got to be changing the way that you prospect and sell…

Recent statistics released by the LinkedIn Ads group showed that nearly 50% of LinkedIn members are in a key decision maker role such as Manager, Director, Owner, Chief Officer or Vice President – once again proving that LinkedIn really is the biggest and best decision maker search engine in the world!

So how can you delve into this network of key decision makers and engage with them on a one-to-one level? Well, a great way to gain direct contact with these desired connections is to strike up a conversation with them in one of the many LinkedIn groups that the platform has to offer.

The chances are that you will already be connected to some of these key decision makers through your current groups, but you can also research which groups these ideal contacts are members of simply by visiting their profile. Here you will find a list of all the groups they are involved with, so it’s wise to go in to a few of these and see which ones they are the most active in – as most people will join lots of groups but may only contribute regularly within a certain few, so seek these out.

Once you have found out where your key contacts are hanging out on LinkedIn, you can then enter the discussion and strike up conversation with them by commenting on their recent posts or starting a relevant discussion of your own which you feel they would be likely to interact with.

The key to being successful when prospecting and networking via the LinkedIn groups is to be genuine with your interactions and contribute useful content – without turning everything you say into a sales pitch. By all means share your blog posts and link to your webpages in your responses, but only if this adds real value to the discussion.

Once you have gained a decent level of interaction with these key decision makers, and offered plenty of friendly and free advice (without trying to sell them anything straight away) you can then send them an invitation to connect with your personally.

Better still, you could contact them directly by email or on the phone to see if they would like you to send over your latest whitepaper or pop into their office for a chat about how you could help them in their business.

Certain groups even organise networking events for their members, so if you find out one of your key decision makers is attending one of these get-togethers then why not offer to meet them there, and turn your online networking into a face-to-face interaction.

Networking and engaging with your desired prospects in this way is none threatening and is likely to yield a better response than spamming them with emails or trying to cold call, so make the most of your LinkedIn groups and show these connections why they should want you as a contact.

That’s all for now folks, see you again soon for another Techy Tuesday.

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

(Image by Idea Go)

Your LinkedIn “teaser” is the short header section which appears at the top of your profile on the site, and includes your picture, name, profession, location, industry and most recent status update.

It’s known as the “teaser” because it’s the only section of your LinkedIn profile which shows up when you appear in the platform’s search results and when you contribute to a discussion in one of your LinkedIn groups. This is the equivalent of your first impression on the site, and it is so important to optimise this part of your profile to the fullest to encourage people to click through to your full profile and find out more about you.

The basic rules of optimising your “teaser” for best results include using a professional image of yourself (no holiday snaps please!) and making sure the name you use is the one that you are referred to as within your professional environment – so no nicknames or abbreviations.

It’s also important to include the most relevant industry and the local area of your company within your teaser so that people can who are searching for the products and services you provide in your local area can find you easily when they are searching online. But the really important factor lies within your professional headline.

Your professional headline should be a one line power house of a bio, which explains in good detail but in few words exactly what your company does, your role within the company and most importantly what you and your company can do for your prospects.

You need to choose the keywords that will trigger a response when a prospect is searching for somebody in your area of expertise and make sure you clearly explain to them how what you do will benefit them.

For example, my headline on LinkedIn could simply read “Marketing Manager at MTD Training”, but although it does explain my role within my company, it doesn’t explain what my company does or sell me as a professional within my industry.

So, I have optimised my LinkedIn headline to read “Marketing Manager at MTD – We Help Businesses To Improve Their Sales People, Their Managers & HR Capability” – as this clearly names my company, describes my role and explains what myself and my company can do for potential clients. Bingo!

Your “teaser” – and most importantly your headline – is critical because this is the first thing people will see when you show up in their search results or respond to their post in a group, so you need to fully optimise your teaser and polish up its appeal.  Not only will this help you make the right first impression but it will also encourage new connections to read your full profile and potentially choose to connect with you.

That’s all for now folks, see you again soon for another Techy Tuesday.

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

So how exactly do you prospect on LinkedIn?

Most sales professionals and business owners are only aware of their first degree connections. These are the people that you probably already knew before LinkedIn; friends, colleagues, people you have worked with in the past etc.  But these connections might not be potential prospects for you, so how can you get to the key decision makers who you really want to engage with?

The real gold which LinkedIn has to offer (more than any other social networking site) is the ability to be introduced to key decision makers you may otherwise not be able to reach. It quite literally is a prospecting power tool…in the right hands.

The real value in the site doesn’t necessarily come from who you are connected to, but who your connections are connected to – and the great thing about LinkedIn is that it doesn’t just show your own network, it also shows your network’s network. In fact, LinkedIn even shows you how you are connected to these prospects so that you can ask for an introduction from your shared connection in order to make that first contact.

Say for instance you are already connected to the Sales Manager of particular company, but the connection you’re really interested in is the Sales Director of their company who they are already connected to.

By building up a solid relationship with your current connection – giving them good advice, offering solutions to their problems or suggesting interesting content that may help them – you can then ask them with confidence to recommend you as a connection to the key decision maker you are keen to network with. After all, you’ve proved to be a good connection to them so why would they not consider recommending you to their colleagues?

But it goes further than that. Whilst asking for a recommendation to connect on the LinkedIn platform is a start, what you really want is to get to talk to this key decision maker outside of the site, via email or on the phone.

If you have a new product or an interesting whitepaper you feel would really benefit the Sales Director of the company, email or call your first degree connection and speak to them directly about what you have to offer them and the company, and then either ask to speak to their Sales Director directly or set an appointment where you can meet with them both to discuss things further.

If you have a good relationship with your first degree connection you will find it much easier getting them to pass you on to their superiors and setting an appointment with them – you are literally bypassing the gatekeeper and getting right into the heart of the company.  

This is the gold on offer through the LinkedIn platform, and by putting in the time and effort with your current connections you could soon find yourself being recommended to the key decision makers you are looking to work with – an opportunity you may not otherwise get.

That’s all for now folks, see you again soon for another Techy Tuesday.

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

(Image by  Jannoon)

According to the latest facts and figures released, Facebook is now used by every 1 in 13 people on earth, and with over 50% of these logging on every day, the ability for prospecting and connecting with your followers through this platform is at an all-time high.

As a sales professional or business owner you would probably love to be doing more prospecting on Facebook and be able to utilise this platform to the best of its abilities – but as with most social media sites, this can be very time consuming and many companies struggle to dedicate this time in order to gain the real value of the site.

With Facebook receiving so much traffic every day, it can be hard to manage all of your comments and interactions on the site, and this is where a handy little tool called Vitrue comes into play.

Vitrue excels in helping you make the most of your Facebook presence, by enabling you to quickly and easily moderate any comments left on your Facebook page, and automate sending targeted messages to people who have “liked” you or your company.

This service is designed specifically for businesses, to help companies grow their social community whatever industry or size of business you are, so it’s well worth taking a look at the solutions they have to offer.  As this particular platform offers bespoke solutions to each requirement, they don’t have set price for using their service, but you can sign up for a free live demo via the Vitrue site which will help you establish how this platform can best help manage your social media activity – specifically on Facebook.

Also on offer from Viture are some great white papers on managing your Facebook community and detailing how to structure a top-notch post to engage with your followers,  so it’s well worth visiting the site for the free content alone.

Facebook can be a lucrative platform for you and your team to engage with your online audience and build good social relationships which can turn into valuable leads for the company, but as time is often the issue for so many sales professionals and business owners it’s great to have a nifty little tool like Vitrue under your belt to help manage the process – and your time – more effectively.

That’s all for now folks, see you again soon for another Techy Tuesday.

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

(Image by Marco Pako)

When the Google.com domain first went online in 1997, few could have guessed it would soon become the massive online entity that it is today. With over 620 million visitors to the site every day, who produce more than 87 billion worldwide searches every month, Google should be considered any business’ first point of call when it comes to building a successful online presence.

Thankfully, Google provides you with a whole heap of fantastic tools to help you boost your business through the site – so this week I have been taking a closer look at Google Alerts, to show you how you can make the most of this brilliant free tool.

Google Alerts allows you to create free searches related to yourself, your company and the products or services you provide which run continuously.

So how can this tool help the modern day sales professional and business owner?

Well, each time there is something new found in the Google search you can be notified by email, meaning that you can continuously track the success of your online presence.

By setting up Google Alerts for your name, the name of your business, your competitors’ names, your client’s names and key phrases related to your company and the products or services you provide you can be involved in the whole world of news and discussion surrounding your business.

Google Alerts can help you to manage your reputation online. If someone mentions you, your company or products and services you are informed of this and can track and monitor any further updates or discussions closely.

With Google Alerts, you can track what the competition is doing and find out about the latest news and developments within your industry, so you’ll never miss a trick.

Also, by searching for related keywords surrounding what you sell you can find out what discussions are taking place online and where, and then go in and enter these conversations – enabling you to engage with potential buyers and create qualified leads for your business.

If you haven’t got Google Alerts set up already I urge you to get started today, as this is a great tool for gathering online intelligence and listening out for potential opportunities.  Head to http://www.google.com/alerts to see what this tool can do for your business.

That’s all for now folks, see you again soon for another Techy Tuesday.

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

(Image by Ari Herzog)

We have heard for years about how much today’s consumer detests receiving the dreaded cold-call. We all know that cold calling has become increasingly difficult and the modern-day buyer has become more evasive, defensive, suspicious and even hostile towards getting a telephone solicitation call.

As a result, there are tons of training and tips on how to handle such obstacles as well as many alterative prospecting avenues. However, my take is that to develop any solution, you must first truly understand the problem.

So, join me as I diverge today, and instead of giving you tips on how to overcome objections, get past gatekeepers or project a positive image; allow me to share some insight into WHY consumers have come to feel the way they do about receiving a cold call.

If you can genuinely understand and honestly empathise with the person on the other end of that telephone call, then you can begin to learn how to handle the situation from the inside– out!

#1. Privacy Violation
Of course, you have heard buyers complain that a cold call is an invasion of privacy. However, think of this analogy:

You are sitting at home with your family, relaxing or eating dinner or you’re in the middle of writing an important document at work. Suddenly a stranger bursts in the door and begins to walk right up to you. What would you do? Better yet, what would you actually say?

Responses to this person
Your first response might be questions like:

“Who are you?!”
“What do you want?!”
“Why are you here?!”
“How did you get in here?!”

You are doing nothing more than protecting yourself/family from a possible harmful source. It is a natural defensive reaction.

Now, if the answers to those first questions were inadequate, your next responses would turn more aggressive:

“We don’t have any valuables/money!”
“Get out of here!”

Responses to the Telephone Intruder
You have to realize that when you make a cold call, essentially you just “materialised” in that person’s dining room or working environment. When the prospect picks up the telephone, you are instantly in their living room, their office or perhaps their bedroom! Just like the above example, you just burst in the door, unannounced, and charged up to the person. Can you see why they react as they do?

Responses to a cold call:

“Who are you?!” “Is this a sales call?”
“What do you want?!” “What are you selling!?”
“Why are you here?!” “What are you selling!?”
“How did you get in here?!” “How’d you get my number/information/pass gatekeeper?”

These are not objections! They are normal and natural defences erected for protection from an unknown potential threat. If inadequate answers ensue, then real fear sets in:

Responses to a cold call:

“We don’t have any valuables/money!” “I’m not interested!”
“Get out!” “Click!” They hang up.

Can you understand why some tell you, “I’m not interested!” before they have any idea of what you sell?

#2. Personal Space
In addition to the intrusion, a cold call violates personal space. Think about it; when someone is talking on the telephone, where is the phone? It is right up against their face. You are a total stranger and suddenly you are right there, virtually nose-to-nose with the prospect. You are literally in their face!

#3. Lack of Knowledge
When you call someone, you immediately prove that you have more knowledge of him or her than he or she does of you. First, you called them, which means you have their telephone number and in many cases, it is a private number. You also knew the exact whereabouts of the person: you caught him at the office or her at home.

You know his name. You know her address. You know his job title. In fact, with very limited prospecting information, you could know what they do, where they work, how much money they earn and what kind of dishwashing detergent they use. However, at the time of the call, the prospect knows almost nothing about you.

People can feel this imbalance of power and it makes them uncomfortable.

#4. Lack of Control
Finally, with all of the above, the prospect was powerless in preventing any of it. They hired a sharp gatekeeper, set up voice mails, eluded calls, and still you caught them. The prospect simply had no control over your entrance.

This lack of control is what sends real fear into the hearts of today’s buyer and is why you have heard buyer’s use the term, “violated.” It is this severe, often hopeless feeling of a lack of control that is at the heart of the problems with cold calling.

However, if you think about it, there is one very simply thing the intruder could have done to avoid all of the first natural defences and the following unnatural defences.

All the intruder had to do was knock on the door.

Safely behind the door, the homeowner/decision maker could look and decide to let the person in or not. The resident could ask questions of the would be intruder—before they gained entry. Most importantly, the buyer would have the choice, the option of opening the door.

The buyer would feel as if they were in CONTROL of the situation.

That is the problem with a cold call. There is no way to give the prospect the immediate feeling of control. There is no way to knock on the telephone.

Or is there?

Posting Jan 6, 2012:
How to Knock On the Telephone

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

Stop scratching around for sales and learn how to sell the modern way with my FREE 40 minute online training session. Click on the image below to find out why you’ve got to be changing the way that you prospect and sell…

As 2012 dawns I have been thinking a great deal about how best to consolidate and optimise your social media efforts for the year ahead, and I have been researching some fantastic online tools which can help you to easily manage and increase your level of social media activity to continuously provide reliable leads and boost sales.

Twitter has grown significantly over the last year to become one of the most powerful social media platforms out there, and considering that Twitter users are now averaging a record breaking 200 million tweets per day – according to a report by Marketing Gum – it has never been more important to consolidate your activity on Twitter, and ensure that you are getting the most out of your efforts without wasting your time.

So, I’ve researched a free online tool called SocialOomph.com, which is designed to help you manage and consolidate your activity on Twitter to ensure you’re getting the best out of the platform.

One of the main time-saving features of Social Oomph is that you can schedule a selection of tweets to post throughout the course of the day, week or month to ensure that you are consistently updating your followers without having to do so manually. Whilst I am in no way suggesting that you should load Social Oomph up with a year’s worth of tweets and not bother with it again, having a catalogue of interesting and relevant information about your business whirring away in the background – supporting your to-the-minute updates about the company – does help to keep your corporate Twitter account brimming at the forefront of your followers newsfeeds.

Another great feature of Social Oomph is the ability to track related keywords and @replies, ensuring that you never miss an opportunity to connect with your followers and discover new leads. Instead of having to go in and manually search for mentions about your company or discussions about the products and services you provide, Social Oomph will periodically send you an email with all of this relevant information so that you can enter the discussion at a time which is convenient for you.

Social Oomph even goes one step further to help you stay on top of your Twitter interaction by providing you with in-house URL shortening which you can track yourself, meaning that you can see how many click-throughs a particular link has had, specifically from the tweet it was sent out in. This will not only help you monitor what content is getting the most response from your followers, but it can also help you work out what keywords in the related tweets work best and even show you what time of day is best to publicise your key content on Twitter.

Social Oomph allows you to take control of your Twitter activity in all these ways and more, and that’s just with the basic free account. If you choose to upgrade to a professional account for around £23 a month, you could access a whole array of other great social media management features, including adding your Facebook to the system and strategically building your followers through targeted follow backs.

Social Oomph really is a great piece of kit to have under your belt when it comes to managing your Twitter activity and with all the great features you can gain access to with a free account you can consolidate and optimise your corporate Twitter account without spending a penny.

That’s all for now folks, see you again soon for another Techy Tuesday.

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

(Image by Slava Baranskyi)

Have you downloaded Sean’s latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

Techy Tuesdays takes the reins of the MTD Sales Blog once again this week as we steer you towards a brighter future in the online world.

Last week I showed you some great uses of the LinkedIn Answers platform when looking to test your marketing strategies and generate ideas for new content, and this week I thought I’d give you some top tips for creating a successful LinkedIn Company Page.

Setting up a Company Page on LinkedIn is a great way to connect with your prospects and keep them updated about your business and your products and services. It’s very simple to set up a basic company profile on LinkedIn, but really you should have more than just the basics if you are looking to position your company as industry leaders and develop your company’s branding – so here are 6 top tips for taking your LinkedIn Company Page to the next level.

1.       Write a keyword rich and concise Company Overview

Creating a short but detailed Company Overview which explains exactly your company does and why will help prospects find you when they are searching for the products and services you provide. Simple but very effective. 

2.       Add in your company’s specialities to increase LinkedIn SEO

As with your personal profile, LinkedIn gives you the chance to link your company to important keywords which best describe your business, which will help increase your chances of being found by your prospects in the vast sea of similar companies on LinkedIn. Consider the words and phrases you would like prospects to use when searching for your business and treat the specialities section as an open SEO opportunity for your LinkedIn page.

3.       Link to a Lead Capture page rather than your homepage

On your Company Page you get given a chance to link out to your company website, and whilst this works well for redirecting traffic to your website, is it providing you with any more value than just extra traffic? Probably not, so instead I suggest linking out to a specific landing page or lead capture page which offers freebies, extra content or has a sign up form included. This will bring any extra traffic which LinkedIn provides you with to a page which is designed to generate leads for your business – rather than the traffic simply landing on your standard homepage and not going any further than that.   

4.       Host your blog feed on your page

As we discussed before, LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to link out to a select web page on your profile and some companies will use this option to link out to their company blog – but I suggest you save this for your chosen landing page which is designed to generate leads, and instead use the WordPress or Blogger application for LinkedIn to host your blog’s RSS feed. This will appear further down on your profile but it will show a list of your most recent posts, which is likely to encourage more people to click through and read your content.

5.       Add your products and services to your Product Page

This page is designed to showcase your products and services so don’t waste it. On a basic level you can simply link out to and describe each of the products or services your company provides, but it is wise to go one step further with this and explain in the description of your product/service WHY it is valuable. Do the work for your prospects and tell them why the products and services you provide are worth investing in.  

6.       Add a Youtube video to your Product Page

If you don’t have a Youtbue video which showcases your products and services then make one especially for this opportunity, as this is one you don’t want to miss. It may not be as great as the fancy, professional video you no doubt have on the homepage of your website but it is still a great opportunity to really show people what your company has to offer. Plus, if you have a Youtube Channel then this is a great way to showcase a selection of your video content over time.

Company Pages are a great way to bring your business, staff and products and services together under one branded page on LinkedIn, and offers you an extra platform to showcase all that your company has to offer – so don’t waste it. Optimise your page and ensure your company profile is something you are proud of – as this page is just as likely to come up in Google’s search results as your company website is. LinkedIn is an authority site and will rank highly in search engine results so ensure your Company Page does you justice.    

That’s all for now folks, see you again soon for another Techy Tuesday.

Regards,

Louise

Louise Denny

Marketing Manager

(Image by KROMKRATHOG)

Have you downloaded Sean’s latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…