Discovering Chet Holmes, a great Sales & Marketing Expert

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I recently discovered a series of videos on YouTube presented by Chet Holmes, who passed away about three years ago. Mr. Holmes is one of those rare breeds who was an expert in both sales and marketing. I’m surprised I never heard of him before until now.

Working with Business Breakthroughs International (BBI), he conducted a series of workshops over the years that have been recorded and made available on YouTube. I also found out that he wrote a book called The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies, which I just completed reading.

Here are some key takeaways from both his videos and book that I would like to share with you –

1). Cold Calling – your tonality has 5 times more impact than the words you use. If you really want to get through the gatekeeper and make an impression on your prospect, you must sound like someone important, i.e., like someone the prospect already knows and is expecting a phone call from. I’m sure we have all received those weak and wimpy phone calls from salespeople who sound almost apologetic in their tone. That’s the wrong approach to take. You must sound confident. If you act like a professional, you will be treated like a professional. If you act like a salesperson, you will get the brush off.

2). Marketing Material – no one wants to receive the same old tired email each time from a salesperson. Spice it up a little. Send some interesting and relevant material that the client would like, e.g., white paper, case study or an interesting article. Maybe send a humorous note. Or maybe send some testimonials. Or perhaps a short video link about how you can help your client.

3). Try a Fax Machine – remember those? Hey, they still exist. Rather than just sending emails (which can be quickly deleted), why not send out a fax or two. Sometimes having a document in hand sends a more powerful message to a prospect, and in most cases, he will be forced to read your document (yes, it could still end up in the trash can, but at least he read it and didn’t delete it).

4). Persistence matters – the one with the most passion wins. We all know this, but some salespeople still give up after only one or two attempts. That’s not enough. According to the videos, at least 5 percent of all salespeople will try 4 times to get a sale. In reality, it actually takes 8 rejections before you get the respect of the prospect. And don’t worry about bothering or pestering a prospect – they are in business too – they understand sales. A smart prospect will begin to respect a persistent salesperson. How much respect do you think he would have for a salesperson who makes only one attempt and then gives up?

If you truly believe in your product or service, and you feel what you are offering them will help your prospect, you owe not just to yourself, but to your clients to keep contacting them. Sure, you don’t want to call every day (a common mistake with amateurs). Space out your contacts – maybe once every 4 days or so.

5). No doesn’t always mean No – if a client says No, should you give up? Of course not, you are just getting started. Maybe the prospect is having a bad day or doesn’t quite understand what you are offering. OK. Take a deep breath. Think this through. Come at him from a different angle. Maybe circle back in a couple of weeks.

6). Whittle down your Prospect List – one of the biggest mistakes many companies make is that they send out marketing material or make sales calls to every company under the sun. Wrong. Take a hard look at your existing clients. Develop a client profile. Who are your best clients? Why are your higher-end clients buying more than your lower-end clients? Rather than use the shotgun approach to prospecting, narrow down your list to the top 100 clients and start targeting them.

No marketing plan is an island7). No Marketing Plan is an island – there are at least 7 marketing weapons at your disposal – direct mail, the internet, company brochures, advertising, public relations, and trade shows. At some companies, these marketing tools are handled by different departments that don’t always interact with one another. Big mistake. Mr. Holmes recommends that you use a stacked marketing approach and develop a consistent theme. Also, don’t forget to provide your salespeople with marketing pieces that they can use in their sales presentations.

8). One hour a week – most companies, especially small ones, are so busy trying to generate revenue that they may be losing money by using ineffective or duplicate efforts. Mr. Holmes recommends that you take at least one hour a week and review your business procedures. What’s working and what’s not working? Can you improve your ordering process? Can you improve your upsell or cross-sell offerings? Can you help your salespeople make more productive sales calls? Taking one hour a week could save you a lot of money and time down the road.

If you are interested in learning more about his book or would like to purchase it, please click here – The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies.

Please let me know if you have any comments about his publication or videos.

Recommend: “Hack the Bird” by Adam Khan

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Just when you thought you knew everything about Twitter, someone else comes along and writes another book about this social media tool.

Let’s face it – there are literally hundreds of books on Twitter. In fact, according to my count, there are more than 5,000 books on the topic alone on Amazon.

And there’s so much conflicting advice about how to use Twitter.

EncoreAlert, a Washington, D.C. based Twitter marketing company, argues in its Blog post “Favorites vs. Retweets (And Why One is More Important Than the Other),”  that Retweeting is more important than favorites.

But Hillel Fuld, a self-described CMO Zula, Tech Blogger, Startup Advisor, and Steak Lover, writes in Tech N’ Marketing, that favoriting a Tweet “has replaced Retweeting as the most powerful marketing tool on Twitter.”

Confused? Well, I am!

So, why am I recommending that you read Hack the Bird: ADVANCED TWITTER PLAYBOOK: Counterintuitive Twitter Strategies and Hacks for Startups, Brands, and Entrepreneurs by Adam Khan?

Because I believe his advice makes sense and clears up a lot of confusion. Mr. Khan, Head of Digital Transformation at L’Oréal, has spent more than 5,000 hours researching the psychology of engagement on Twitter. He has developed a step-by-step guide on how you can gain more followers, build your brand, and increase your credibility.

But before I review his book, I have a confession to make – You see, I thought I was an expert on Twitter. I thought all you had to do was constantly Tweet my blog posts, and Retweet other people’s Tweets, and Tweet a bunch of articles I read online, and voilà, I suddenly gain thousands of followers, and my blog will be read by hundreds of new visitors every day.

Wrong. That’s not the right approach at all.

Then, I thought, why not buy followers? I mean we all receive promotions all the time from “experts” who claim if you give them your hard-earned money, they will dramatically increase your followers, and then you will be the way to Twitter fame and fortune.

Wrong. That’s not the right approach at all (and could get you in trouble with Twitter).

And finally, I thought, why not hire a  social media expert to work on my Twitter account for me. After all, a woman who attended a Washington, D.C. General Assembly course “How to crush it on Twitter” (conducted by Mr. Khan), confessed that she spent $500.00 a month for someone to manage her Twitter account.

Wrong. That’s not the right approach either (although I have to admit I wouldn’t mind having someone pay me $500.00 a month to manage their account).

So what’s the answer? How do you gain more followers and be successful on Twitter?

Mr. Khan lays out a game plan on how you can be successful. Without revealing all the details, here are some interesting tidbits I got from both Mr. Khan’s book and his workshop at General Assembly –

1). Twitter is a quick conversation. The attention span of most Twitter users is fast. So fast, in fact, that Mr. Khan states that you only “get 10 seconds and the first four tweets” on your Timeline to convince someone to follow you. That’s it. So you have to think intelligently about what you want to Retweet, and what kind of information you want to Tweet. The attention span of most Americans is shrinking. According to an Entrepreneur article by Cynthia Price, the average adult’s attention span is down to just 8 seconds. I’m not surprised. Think back to those old 1960’s TV reruns – do you notice something? The TV shows had a much slower pace back then compared to today’s fast-paced shows. People had more leisure time. They had more patience. You could actually drive home from work, eat dinner and watch the 7:00 news. These days, with longer commutes, 50 hour plus work weeks, and other demands in our lives, you are lucky to even be home by 7:00 p.m. And by the time you get home, you are usually stressed out and have little patience.

We are skim readers – we skim our mobile phones, we skim our tablets, we skim our laptops or desktop computers. We skim all day. So you have to offer something that’s going to grab someone’s attention quickly.

2). It’s not always about you.  One of the most important points he makes in his book is his 70-30 rule, which states that “70% of the Tweets on your Timeline should be your own and 30% should be Retweets…” Mr. Khan’s point is well taken. You don’t to be a promotion hog who only cares about himself. By Retweeting others, potential followers will begin to notice that, and hopefully they will follow you because they feel you will Retweet their material too. Thus, you gain more followers. As the old saying goes, you scratch my back and I will scratch yours.

egg3). An Egg Shape is not your head. We all see them. The newbies on Twitter who don’t take the time to put a photo on their profile page, so you are staring at an egg shape picture. Who is that mysterious person? Are they for real? If you want to be taken seriously on Twitter, you need to show who you are. Don’t be shy.  And hey, tell us something about who you are, what you like to do, and where you are located. Sure, space is limited. Mix it up with both professional and personal information. And please, forget the hashtags in your bio – those are for amateurs.

Mr. Khan offers other great advice in his 114-page book, including how to gain your first 100,000 followers, how to convert people who you want to follow, and how to Retweet yourself.

From IQuantum Digital, 15 Digital Marketing Tips and more

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seo and digital marketingWant a quick lesson on the key tips you need to create an effective digital marketing plan?

Check out IQuantum Digital’s presentation offering 15 Digital Marketing Tips on YouTube.

Here are some key takeaways –

1). Look at your website first to see if you are attracting enough traffic and obtaining well-qualified leads.

2). Examine your social media sites, including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. and ask yourself – Do you need them? Which ones do you need?

3) Do you have Consistent Branding across the board?

4). How many unique visitors are coming to your website per month?

5). What percentage of new and repeat visitors are coming to your website per month?

6). What can you do to improve things?

IQuantum Digital also offers a great series of blogs, including “Key Trends in Digital Marketing,” “What to do when your Website Sucks,” and “Is your Digital Marketing Strategy working for you?”

Some of the key takeaways from their blogs –

1). Consumers are spending more time making buying decisions based on the opinions of industry thought leaders from social media sites like blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn. This means in many cases salespeople are having less influence in persuading clients to make purchasing decisions.

2). Consumers are impatient when it comes to dealing with bad websites. If there is too much friction in making a buying decision online, they will go elsewhere. Given the amount of competition these days, you can’t afford to have clients walk out the door, figuratively speaking. The point – have a great website with easy to follow instructions, good visuals, and quick access to help via email or phone, and I would suggest a good FAQ format.

3). Your website must help you to quickly convert visitors into prospects, who in turn, will hopefully become sales leads. If your website has that 1990s feel and look to it, it’s time to enter the 21st century — quickly, before you lose business to your competitors.

4). Your website must look good on both your phone and tablet, along with your desktop computer.

5). You only have a few seconds to make a strong impression on visitors. If they don’t like the look and feel of your site, they will quickly move on.

6). Are you integrating your website with other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to generate more leads and brand awareness? If not, do it.

I would encourage you to check out their website. Meanwhile, please check out their video below –

What are some key Cold Calling Techniques?

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cold calling in salesWhile some sales experts argue that cold calling is dead, I believe that cold calling is very much alive and well – and needed, if you are going to increase your sales. While it’s great to receive inbound calls or make warm calls to prospects who are already familiar with your company, at the end of the day, you have to make your share of cold calls in order to survive.

Gavin Ingham, a sales motivational speaker, argues that cold calling will make you feel more control of your destiny and more empowered.

I agree. Sure, you can sit around waiting for the phone to ring. But really, is that a great plan? No. You have to be more proactive. While social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) and marketing (e.g., trade shows) can help, you have to reach out to your prospects directly if you want to increase new business.

Mr. Ingham offers 10 tips for making cold calls. I will add some tips and insights of my own below.

1). Plan and prepare your opening statements. A good way of doing this is to tell the prospect up front who you are, why you are calling, and mention that you have a product or service that could help them (e.g., save money, improve productivity, save time). And then ask the prospect if you could ask him a few questions.

For example, you may say “Hi, I’m Bob Smith with ABC software company. We offer a software program that can help you prepare taxes for your clients more quickly and efficiently.”

Then you go on to say –

“We have helped our clients reduce their workload by 40%, so they can focus their time on other activities like seeking more clients. I’m confident that I can do the same for you. Would you like to learn how?”

As Mr. Ingham points out, put yourself in the client’s shoes – what will your product or service do for my business and why should I care?

All prospects have fears and concerns. Is your price too high? Are you a highly reputable company? What is the availability of your customer service or technical support team? What is the difference between your product vs. your competitors?

And also, what value are you offering your prospect? What makes you different compared to all the other vendors out there selling similar products or services? You don’t have to go into a long explanation, but find something that stands out that your client will remember you, and hopefully, he will be asking you questions.

What you don’t want to do is use deception or tricky when you reach your prospect. Do that, and you will be dead in the water before you had a chance to proceed.

2). Get in the right state of mind, and expect success. You don’t feel like making cold calls today? Too bad. Whatever negative feelings you have, bury them deep, think positive thoughts, and start calling. Maybe watch a positive motivational video on YouTube to get you in the proper frame of mind. Or take a short walk around the block to clear your head.

3). Know why cold calling is important to you – it’s unrealistic to assume that you are going to close a sale on the spot with the first call. So why are you making a cold call in the first place? Simple – to set an appointment. That’s it. Your goal is to set up an appointment so you can go into more detail later about what you have to offer. An appointment can be a face-to-face meeting, a phone conference or schedule a webinar (demo).

4). Practice delivery. You should have a couple of good opening statements written down. Practice them repeatedly until you feel so comfortable making your statements, that it sounds natural and unrehearsed.

questions for cold calls5). Plan and prepare relevant questions – I always have a list of questions to ask before making any calls. Also, it helps to do a little research on the prospect of contacting him. A great source is LinkedIn, the company’s website and industry newsletters.

At the end of the day, you have to find out if what you are selling is going to help solve your client’s problem. But sometimes your clients may not even know if they have a problem until you ask good questions to raise some concerns.

What you don’t want to do is ask lame questions like “How are you doing today?” – especially to high-level clients who are probably very busy, stressed out, and most likely are not doing very well at all.

And never ask “Is this a good time to talk?” – because you are giving your prospect an opening to end the call on the spot before you even have a chance to speak further.

6). Have your support tools to hand – don’t forget to have pens and paper handy for taking down notes. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to have a comparison sheet of your products and services vs. your competitors, or some other notes highlighting some of your key benefits. In short, be prepared to answer questions.

7). Divert calls and minimize interruptions –  If you are working in an office, from home, or in a high cubicle, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, it may be more difficult to do when working in an open space environment. Hopefully, your employer is using white noise to minimize the noise level, and you are sitting in an area where you are not going to be distracted, or dealing with a lot of multi-tasking projects.

8). Set clear objectives – don’t wing it. As mentioned above, your goal is to schedule an appointment to move the sales process further.

9). Don’t put your phone down or better yet, wear a headset. Personally, I prefer wearing a headset so it frees up both my hands.

10). Master your physiology. Sit straight. I know of some salespeople who use a small mirror to force themselves to smile while speaking to prospects.

I would also add that using scripts could help you when making calls. Eventually, you will develop your own voice and techniques and abandon the scripts altogether, but in the beginning, using scripts can help. Yes, of course, your goal is to understand the value that you can offer your prospect, understand his problems, and ask good qualifying or needs-based questions. But using a script in the very beginning can help you until you feel more confident speaking to prospects until you can get it down cold.

Speed matters too. I don’t mean speaking fast, I mean have a process and system in place that allows you to make a lot of calls on a daily basis.

Here is Mr. Ingham’s video below –

3 Tips for building Trust and Rapport

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Michael Bernoff, a sales and business coach, makes 3 key arguments about developing better trust and rapport over the phone with prospects –

trust in sales1). Tone matters – are you excited when you are on the phone or do you sound exhausted? I once received a phone call from a salesperson who was selling financial services. He sounded very exhausted and I could tell that he had been making too many phone calls. I advised him to take a break, drink some water and relax for a few minutes. He told me he couldn’t because he was required to make between 80 to 100 calls a day! I told him good luck with that.

2). Physiology check – how do you feel? Are you sitting straight in your chair or slumping over? When I speak over the phone, I always pretend that the person on the other side is seeing me. It helps me to stay focused. I’ve known salespeople who actually use small mirrors next to them while making calls. It forces them to watch their facial expressions and ensure they are projecting a positive attitude.

3). Emotional drivers – you need to better understand people’s emotional drivers. If they are worried about paying their mortgage, don’t focus on the worry, instead focus on finding a solution. In sales, our goal is to be problem solvers. Yes, find the problem, but don’t belabor the point. Instead, focus on asking good qualifying questions and then slowly arrive at a solution.

Below is his video –

Interesting Song – “Sell it All” by Kelly Anne Howard

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sales at shopping mallsI came across this song on YouTube that I would like to share with you. It’s called “Sell it All.” It is written and performed by Kelly Anne Howard, a musician, and designer.

From a sales point of view, we would all love to sell it all. And on the surface, maybe you could interpret this song like that.

But the song has an almost hypnotic quality to it. Is it criticizing rampant consumerism? Is it a commentary of today’s disposal here today, gone tomorrow attitude? Is it condemning sleazy sales tactics with offers of guarantees? You be the judge. Please let me know what you think.