Walk into any business on a rainy day and for the most part, they’re empty. Everyone is relaxed. You get great service and lots of attention. No one seems to be really busy which seems to me like a perfect time to cold call. The owner is in. Business is slow. They don’t really have anything to do but talk to you. Chances are you’ll be the only sales person that walks in the door today. Why not?

This dawned on me early in my sales career. When you’re out there every day competing for the attention of a buyer or business owner, you look for ways to stand out. I realized that all my counterparts were in their little cubicles doing paperwork, making phone calls and setting appointments for tomorrow when it wasn’t going to be raining.

So, I grabbed an umbrella and hit the road. It was amazing. Very rarely did I walk into a business that I didn’t get to speak to a decision maker. I mean, think about it. I just completely set myself apart from everyone. I’m the one that will get out in the rain, get my feet wet and work a little harder for the business. This speaks volumes to someone you’re trying to do business with. Who wants to give their money to someone who only wants to work when everything is nice and sunny? Get it?

I went to a business networking meeting this morning and attendance was pretty bad. This is a weekly meeting that people pay to go to so they can get referrals to make more money. But it was raining. It was raining HARD. Apparently, that was enough to keep at least 50% of the regular attendees from venturing out. It just looked like another opportunity to me.

Do you know what a rainmaker is? Dictionary.com says a rainmaker is “One who is known for achieving excellent results in a profession or field, such as business or politics”. Is that you? What do you do when it rains? Are you one of those people who would have skipped the meeting? Do you sit in your office and try to get people on the phone? Are you doing your expense report? Stop.

Try it just once. You’ll be surprised at the results. Be a rainmaker. Next time it rains, put on your best suit. Give yourself a little pep talk, grab your umbrella and hit the streets. Take plenty of business cards and be ready. I bet you make a little money.

Michelle C. Ritter is a the owner of http://www.e-worc.com , a web design and sales consulting company where she works with many types of product and service based industries in developing sales and marketing plans and effective online programs. She specializes in cross-industry communication and teaches a series of seminars for MTI Business Solutions http://www.mobiletechwebsite.com that focus on teaching others to enjoy success in sales by learning how to speak in the language of the buyer.

Author: Michelle Ritter
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital Camera Times

1. Linkedin.com Inroads: Linkedin.com is a great resource for networking with other professionals within your in-dustry. You can make connections with thousands of individuals that you can ask for advice from and network with. Most people who join the website want to move forward with their careers or they would not take the time to try networking online. Use this website to find professionals within a company you want to work at, identify potential new employees, and propose new partnerships. Linkedin.com is free and backed by a leading technology venture capitalist firm, Sequoia Capital. To join my network, send me an email at Richard@RichardCWilson.com.

2. Easy Email Access Many people are hard to reach. This is not an accident. They are often busy or would simply receive too many sales pitches or spam emails if they are contact information was open to the whole world. 95% of all email addresses within established corporations use standard email formatting. For exam-ple if you worked at Widgets, Inc., your email address might be Richard.Wilson@Widgets.com and your co-workers email addresses might read Mark.Helmick@Widgets.com and Chris.Hege@Widgets.com. Every personal email ad-dress within the company is probably formatted so they read FirstName.LastName@Widgets.com. Remember, email addresses are not the same across companies, just usually within a single company. This turns your quest of contacting your targeted professional into a much easier game. Visit their “About Us” “Contact Us” or “Customer Service” web pages online. One of these areas usually includes somebody’s personal email address, which will reveal the formatting across the entire company. If you do not have any luck finding an email address try sending a short note to their customer service department and wait for a response that will usually come directly from an individual with a standard email address.

Although most people wont mind you doing this, or even ask how you got their email address, you should be cognizant that some people might react negatively to being “bothered” by someone they do not know. Many people have told me that they admire that kind of intelli-gence and tenacity in trying to get things done. Keep your message very brief and to the point, and keep it as professional as possible. This tactic will help you gain access to people that others would give up on after checking a website or trying to call a few times. The point of emailing someone that has not provided you with their contact information is not to pester or sell the contact on something they have not shown interest in. This tool should be used to network and suggest a meeting for coffee or discussion of an idea over the phone that might benefit both parties.

3.Informational interviews: Informational interviews are meetings usually initiated by a professional looking to learn more about an industry, company, or potential set of positions. It is a meeting where the goal is to edu-cate someone and establish a relationship. Infor-mational interviews can be a great way to get your foot in the door at a new organization or learn about poten-tial positions that are not open to the public. Many in-formational interviews lead to company tours, resume forwarding, and employment offerings. While being careful not to mistake this informational interview for a formal interview, creating a strong rapport with your contact and really selling yourself can create an inside “champion” of your skills and abilities. I have conducted over 30 informational interviews and I have only been turned down about 5 times out of about 35 requests that I made over the phone or in person. I was paid more when I graduated from high school then my teachers and the same as my college professors when I gradu-ated from college and both of these jobs came from conducting informational interviews. They work.

4. Resume buffing: Your resume is an extension of your-self. Until a company has gotten to know you well, it is you on paper. While most reports and documents should not be passed on to others without going through five drafts, resumes should be reviewed 20 times before, being forwarded to a potential employer. It should not exceed one page in length, so the time to review it each time should not be too bad. If you have never done this before pass your resume around to a few close professionals that you trust and have them help you. Make sure that your resume is unique, action word packed, and professional, stating real accom-plishments and testimonials from past supervisors, peers, or professors. What could you do to improve your real skill sets while improving your resume? Toastmasters? Publications? Networking? Association Memberships? Ask what hiring managers care about and work on acquiring those experiences.

5.Persistence: The importance of persistence in network-ing cannot be overstated. Start making it your goal to have lunch, coffee, or an informational interview over the phone at least once a week within a professional in your industry. Some people will answer on your first phone call and give you any information you need, while others will take months to track down. Never take any of their responses personally. My father always said “no response means nothing.” Try to understand their point of view and learn from the situation for your next networking initiative. While networking, you will run into all types of people and learn how to read each unique individual and adjust your approach accordingly. If you leave a voicemail on Monday, follow up with an email, and wait 4-6 business days before leaving a second one. If you network enough, you will gain a very sensi-tive feel for how much persistence is helpful without be-ing so pushy that others do not want to take the time to help you.

6.Website: Create a website that describes your experi-ence, education, and any relevant professional publica-tions. I have found it very useful to have my resume downloadable directly from the website in Microsoft Word format. This enables you to be “Googled” and lets you give people your web address over the phone or on a business card. For an example of this type of a website visit http://www.RichardCWilson.com.

7.Presentations: Your ability to effectively communicate ideas, create PowerPoint presentations, and give speeches will greatly help build your personal image and career. No matter how early or far you are in your career, it can be built stronger by improving your speaking skills. Join a local toastmasters club, or start speaking at local schools and associations. The best part about presenting information is that it turns you into a source of value and brings people to you.

8. Publish: Publishing articles, books, newsletters, columns, and websites are other ways you can become a valuable resource to others. If you don’t think you can write well enough to publish anything professionally, start writing your first piece today and have a friend or peer at work help you edit the work.

Richard Wilson is the author of “Rainmaker” a practical sales, business development, and negotiation instruction handbook. Contact him through RichardCWilson.com and access his book on Lulu.com/RichardCWilson.

Author: Richard Wilson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Hybrid and Electric Cars

Leaders face a near perfect storm today. Making sales and profit goals are tougher in the “new normal’, employee disengagement is near epic levels and Gallup research cites nearly one in three payroll dollars are lost because of disengagement.

The savvy leader begins to sort and understand what is going on in the larger economy and their own organization. One of the biggest challenges is an epic rush of resumes. Recent survey data from the Wall Street Journal, November 2009 cited nearly 87% of employees are distracted by thoughts, daydreams or plans to leave the organization. The 87% looks like this…60% actively seeking other employment, 21% networking, and 6% updating resumes. Bottomline, organizations may be about to experience a massive round of “free agency employees.”

The challenge for leaders is to reach out and engage employees… inspiring a new age of honesty and engagement. And reach out to actively disengaged employees. Often disengaged employees are fearful and they no longer trust…trust has evaporated. The loss of trust is serious and there is a cause and effect. The organization may not have met their needs.

Here are 3 tips to purge the wrong attitudes for excuses, whining and negativity.

1. “It’s the economy”, words of the employee blaming the economy. Every organization faces a tough economy. An employee who substitutes excuses for results is not a team player. The response: Discuss expectations of no tolerance for excuses. When mistakes happen, as they certainly will, the correct response is a simple “I’m sorry” and the employees adjustments if any to be sure mistakes are minimized.

2. “If only we had….” The whiner’s theme. It’s ok to find gaps and soft spots in the organization. But it serves no one to put energies into whining without smart solutions. The response: Ask that the whining to stop. Reach out and ask what could be better, what is missing? Ask employees for their personal commitment to help.

3. “Negative Nancy’ this is the naysayer, the one who loves to rain on everyone’s parade. The Response: When Negative Nancy says we “can’t”…respond… “I understand why we haven’t…tell us how we can”.

Try this as a leader. Write down all the things going on in your organization which bug you. Keep writing until you have at least a list of 20. Throw out the ones which are numbers…like sales numbers, profit…those results are simply symptoms of people issues. You want to focus on the human element. After the list of 20 personality irritants..the human things…group into patterns…keep working until you’ve sorted into a list of 3.

You’ve begun to sort and clarity…all will help you focus on the most important blockers to your organizations success. Your purpose is to clarify the 3 big blockers…the things that bug you…what does it call you to do? You may be ready for expert help to go to the next step. The next step is hard work…but the payoff is huge.

We’ve tackled big issues and big challenges and have been involved in just about every important phase of business. http://lighthouse-leadership.com By the way, do you want to learn more about creating a powerful workplace culture? If so, download our brand new free ebook Three Elegant Strategies for Your Organizations Survival Elegant Courage Jodi lead the cultural turnaround which was core to financial recovery. Mike is innovative and persistently explores new ideas.

Author: Mike Krutza
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Hybrid and Electric Cars

There is usually a hype-cycle that occurs during the early adoption phase of anything new. And in the Social Media Marketing (SMM) space, you will find a broad range of vendors, consultants and suppliers who have rushed in to take advantage of the “next big thing”. While most are honorable in their intentions, there is a subset of vendors who will:

• Make it sound so much more difficult than it is
• Promise unrealistic and over inflated results

This occurred during the early years of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and this hype is now occurring with social media. Do not be fooled by the “rainmakers”. There is a lot of snake oil being sold today. If you are going to use an outside agency or vendor to help you please make sure you vet their qualifications fully. The best way to not get taken advantage of by the Social Media Rainmakers is to do your homework first, develop a plan and even consider taking a marketing benchmark to see what your competition is doing. You may still get hounded, but the power of knowledge can help keep you from wasting your time.

Web 2.0 Marketing: For the last five to ten years, the Web was largely an informational channel. However in the past few years, the Internet has become increasingly interactive and social in nature. New forms of community-based channels, driven by a change in customer behavior, are starting to evolve the landscape of the Internet. Social Media Marketing (SMM) has now been added to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and other marketing practices that comprise Web 2.0 Marketing

5 Helpful Social Media Tips: As with any form of communications, if you follow sound marketing fundamentals, use good judgment and take the time to learn best practices, the use of Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing does not take a rocket scientist to implement. Experienced marketing and corporate communications professionals can easily obtain the skills and knowledge to effectively take advantage of the benefits. There are a lot of free tools and sites available that you can use and learn from. But keep in mind, that while there is significant upside to this new media if done right, there are also documented case studies of companies doing it wrong that has hurt their brand reputation. It is important to approach this new media in the right way. Here are 5 helpful tips:

1. Not all Social Media Sites Are Created Equally
   Creating connections with your target audience is important. However, are you making contact with the right ones that will provide you value? Each social media site has a slightly different brand, member make-up and topics they are interested in. Spend time to understand the sites that are out there and select the ones that attract the audiences you want to interact and build a relationship with.
2. Focus on Giving Value First
   Social media is all about giving to the community. Before you get accepted you need to first give value. If you are seen as only there to sell or for your own self-interest, people will not respond to you. It is a great place to showcase to them your thought leadership. Look for ways to differentiate yourself by providing valuable content and they will seek you out.
3. People Do Business with People They Like
   Customers want to buy from people they like and respect. Once they have an affinity for your expertise and what your company/product stands for they will reward you. It is ok to open up and show your personality. Social media is based on trust and making connections that create a mutual benefit. Like-minded contacts will follow you.
4. Create a Fan Base
   Social media communities are becoming an important way where people trade stories and provide critiques on products, companies, people, etc. The people in your community can represent the best way to advertise – by word of mouth. Create a reason for your contacts to be a fan and to become a referral for you.
5. You Can’t Evaluate What You Don’t Measure
   There are a variety of free tools that allow you to monitor the conversations that are taking place on various social media and blog sites. You need to monitor, evaluate and judge the dialog that is taking place regarding your company and products. When keeping a close watch on the dialog you can make corrections or change to the way you interact with your communities to create the greatest value.

Social Media is Different: While social media can be viewed as an extension or a component of Search Engine Marketing, it really is quite different. In many respects, it fits under the broader category of word-of-mouth marketing – which can either be online or offline driven. The key difference is that it relies on the collective nature of social groups that have similar interests, like to share information and who want to establish relationships. When integrated into your overall Web 2.0 marketing plans, it can be a powerful new strategy. There are many objectives achievable through Web 2.0 marketing and social media:

• Drive increased Web traffic
• Create relevant links to your Website
• Increase brand awareness
• Improve conversions
• Stimulate conversations
• Establish relationships and create brand affinity

Focus on Strategic Planning: While outside agencies can be a big help, do your homework first to learn what makes social media tick. Spend time visiting and participating in online communities and doing a little reading. It really is not that difficult to implement correctly. Before deciding on the social media path that best fits your business model, you need to gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs, wants, issues, passions, concerns, and the communities in which they participate in, and so on…

Benchmark Your Current Position: As part of your strategic development process you should also benchmark your current execution level, gain a better understanding of what your competition is doing and develop a road map focused on what you want to accomplish through social media channels.

Social Media Marketing is not as hard as it seems or in some cases portrayed by social media rainmakers. If you plan to use an outside resource, the more you know about social media yourself the better you can manage the value you gain from using agencies that focus on building your network/community/following. Social media is a new channel you can take advantage of. Do your homework first by developing a plan and you can achieve success.

Jim Arnold is a results-oriented marketing professional who has held leadership roles with IBM, EDS, Sabre/Travelocity and other notable companies. He is a forward-thinking strategist who has a passion for testing innovative ideas, developing new go-to-market strategies and leveraging the latest Web 2.0 marketing technologies to drive increased levels of business value. He recently co-founded MetricsBoard, a new Web 3.0 performance benchmarking company that is crowd-verified and crowd-generated.

Metricsboard.com provides FREE automated benchmark assessments covering a broad range of business topics. The benchmarks take less than 10 minutes online to complete. In return, you receive a full results report with free comparison data on best practices, a maturity rating against your competition (peer group) and strategic recommendations. There is a benchmark for Web 2.0 Marketing, B2B Sales and IT Infrastructure – with more subjects to come. Your privacy is protected and you will not receive any sales follow-up calls.

Find out how you compare against your competitors? Learn the latest Web 2.0 Marketing and Social Media best practices and performance tips. Download complimentary ePapers. Visit: http://www.metricsboard.com

Author: Jim W Arnold
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times

What are employees missing? What might inspire individuals to find new energy, excitement and joy to motivate them? Companies try all kinds of gimmicks to motivate people. And motivation is a personal choice. Based on well known surveys, employee motivation is at epidemic lows.

What draws people to the company goals? What attracts people to want to go the extra mile? Unlock secrets to inspiration and you have a better shot at employees choosing motivation. Let’s face it, isn’t it natural for people to seek happiness and joy…to feel like they make a difference. Do we really believe organizations are only transactional exchange between other humans to exchange $$?

Stick with the belief that employees are only a transaction and you’ll lose your best employees.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship.” Alexander Tyler, 1770 book, Cycle of Democracy.

Hers the secret…a place where values are clear and lived. There is a sense of purpose, clarity, consistency so that employees find “certainty” in a risky and uncertain world. Following are our top 10 favorite values.

1. Honesty…your word is your bond and is your code of honor. You mean what you say and say what you mean. Without honesty there is no trust.

2. Elegance…graceful, simple and understated approach. The absence of pushy, shouting

3. Courage…chooses to stand up. Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry. Courage is the antidote for fear. Without courage, you settle for slavery to others.

4. Respect…the lack of dismissive or brashness. Respectful means an honest curiosity of the other for their ideas, their contributions and their opinions.

5. Hope…the opposite of hope is despair, withering and death. Hope is a belief that a better tomorrow is possible if you commit to a greater sense of purpose.

6. Humility…the opposite is hubris and arrogance, building empires. Humility owns your mistakes and our search for truth is our inspiration.

7. Hard Work…entitlement is the virus which kills democracies. When society vote them largess from the treasury…fiscal Armageddon is the future.

8. Personal Accountability…the opposite is to blame, whine and act like a victim. If the country is losing democracy, and near bankruptcy, what role has each of us played.

9. Sincerity…is who you are, be genuine. The opposite are demagogues and hypocrites.

10. Friendship…how many real friends do we have? Friendship is the ecological missing element in organizations, business and government. It’s the missing element to evolve organizations. We’re humans…not machines.

If you’d like more information about Organizational culture download your free book Organizational Culture.

Wiff and Krutza lead the organizations evolution from despair to success. http://lighthouse-leadership.com They have been involved in just about every important phase of business.

Author: Mike Krutza
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Electrical Pressure Cooker Online

Before you agree to speak or to write an article, you must ensure that your time will be well invested. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I writing for the right audience? Writing for the wrong audience (meaning, an audience composed of people whom you do not serve) will not bring enough benefit to justify the investment of time, so ask this foundational question before you begin. Your business development plan will define the right audience.

2. How much time will this require? Short, practical articles (done well) will deliver good results in a reasonable time. Longer articles can be valuable in building your credibility, but they take a greater investment of time. Be realistic in your estimate – before you begin.

3. What results would make the expenditure of time worthwhile? As with any business development activity, you must measure the results that you get. What’s more, you must know, before you begin, what results would make it worthwhile for you to have written this article.

4. How does this activity, the writing or speaking compare to more immediate high-yield activity? Regardless of how terrific your article is, and regardless of the subject matter and the kind of results that you achieve, writing is a slow-yield opportunity. It is incredibly unlikely that you will write an article, have it published, and have your phone ring with a potential client calling you only because they saw that article. So, you must consider, before you begin, whether you would be better advised to invest your time in something that is a higher-yield activity.

Writing can be a simple way to increase your professional reach, or it can be a time-consuming and ineffective approach. Going through these questions will help you to make foundational decisions that will get you on the right track – before you begin writing.

Julie A. Fleming, J.D., A.C.C. provides attorney development coaching for associates and partners, and she is a speaker for law firm retreats and workshops. Topics on which she coaches and speaks include professional development, business development, leadership development, career management, and work/life integration Julie holds a coaching certificate from the Georgetown Leadership Coaching program and holds the Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential from the International Coach Federation. Julie writes extensively on matters of interest to lawyers on the Life at the Bar Blog at http://www.LifeAtTheBar.com/blog.

Author: Julie A. Fleming
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Electrical Pressure Cooker Online

In one of my leadership positions we were faced with how to reach out to the high performers. You know…the individuals, who are the employees who have been “go to” people when things needed to get done. In my case, we needed to energize our sales team. We needed more “rainmakers.” Try these 6 guiding techniques.

1. Ask the “go to” rainmakers for their help. Clarify what the company is calling for. More sales are needed. You don’t know all the obstacles. You believe the wisdom and talent is in the staff. The company needs more business and only rainmakers can make that happen.

2. Describe what can happen if rainmakers emerge. Describe what more growth does for the company. Calculate how it affects profits, and how will leaders and owners feel. Its not likely this inspires sufficiently for the “go to” players to sign up, at least not yet.

3. Ask the high performers if you understand the situation correctly. What is missing? What are better options and how would they guide if they were in charge? The result is the company creates more clarity from proven boots on the ground leaders. That is powerful information.

4. Determine what is needed for them, as individuals, to help move the ball forward. Reach out to define exactly what they need to commit to help. What are the top 4 things they need to commit.?

5. Clarify the impact to them as “rainmakers” when progress inevitably occurs. What do they feel is the appropriate recognition, influence, and compensation for their sign up as rainmakers.

6. Be grateful and humble. The choice is theirs which only they can make. Acknowledge them. Be gracious and thank them. Be honest with recognition. When results emerge…they deserve the credit.

Do you want to learn more about leading? Download our brand new free ebook Three Elegant Strategies for Your Organizations Survival Elegant Courage.

We’ve tackled big issues and big challenges and have been involved in just about every important phase of business. http://lighthouse-leadership.com

Author: Mike Krutza
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Humorous photo captions

Many of the most successful chiropractic practices, in terms of collections, are not the best chiropractors. And, many of the best treating chiropractor are often the least successful… in terms of collections.

How is that possible? Simple, it is boils down to the type of practitioner who is leading the practice.

Technician Chiropractor

As a general rule, the best chiropractors are technicians. They love pounding down the high spots. They love caring for patients. They love improving their spinal skills and knowledge. They devour the latest research and attend seminars on technique.

They enjoy treating patients. They love becoming “friends” with their patients. They look forward to the results from their care. It’s a rewarding experience for any chiropractor. But, what they are not good at is rainmaking.

They don’t enjoy the operational aspects of owning a practice nor do they enjoy marketing, i.e., conducting spinal screenings, hosting chicken dinners, delivering speeches to groups or plowing money into advertising. They prefer that their skills be enough to attract an endless number of new patients and appointments.

You can be the world’s best technician… and you will eek out a living, but you will never grow a mega-practice on this alone.

Rainmaker

The practitioner with the largest practice is often owned and operated by a rainmaker. A rainmaker Chiropreneur is the one who feeds on getting out of the office and marketing his or her brand of chiropractic. The rainmaking Chiropreneur desires to dominate the marketplace. it’s their passion. 100 new patients per month, 500 office visits per week, two million in collections…. this is a rainmaking practice.

Sadly, this type of practitioner is not the best technician doctor. They can adjust and even get satisfactory results, but, it is not what they love to do… they would rather be delivering a speech to a Rotary club than adjusting 10 patients in the same time.

The Best Type

There is no right or wrong choice. You are whom you are. Statistically, about 90% of the licensed chiropractors are technicians and the balance are rainmakers.

If you are a Technician, does that mean you will never build a large, successful practice? Absolutely not. But, what you must do is focus on your strengths and pair-up or hire someone for the role of a rainmaker. You could join a rainmaker group, for instance. Or, you could employ a rainmaker who loves rainmaking…. and this person doesn’t even need to be a chiropractor.

A Technician can learn rainmaking skills, but the heart just isn’t into it. You could block one hour per week to be the rainmaker and in that one hour you could attract 6-12 new patients…. or deliver 6-12 adjustments. Obviously, you have a greater impact on your practice during the one hour of rainmaking versus one hour of adjusting.

A rainmaker on the other hand should ease out of treating and go full time into rainmaking. Employ the technicians to pound down the high spots as you focus your talent and skills on driving patients to your practice or chain of practices!

The profession needs both: technician and rainmaker chiropractors. The way to grow your practice is to use your respective strength and then delegate your weakness to complement your talent.

Peak your practice with the right combination of personal talent.

Lawton Howell is founder and chief executive officer of WellnessOne Corporation, a national alliance of chiropractic offices. The WellnessOne System includes marketing, leadership, human resources, legal, financial, architectural, protocols and systems for growing a practice using turnkey resources. You can contact the author toll free at 877 WELNES1 or 877.935.6371 x201 or email to: ceo@wellnessone.net. For more information on WellnessOne visit: http://www.wellnessone.net. Subscribe to the author’s weekly eLetter, CEObrief, at http://www.chiromarketing.net

It’s your future… be there healthy with WellnessOne

Author: Lawton Howell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Credit card currency-exchange fees

Whether you are the rain-maker in a small firm, a sales representative, or responsible for a national sales force, it’s in your best interest to branch out and create alternative ways to reach perspective customers. Having multiple marketing streams is the life-blood of any lead generation and lead nurturing program. But don’t count on your company’s marketing department to do it for you, it’s not their job to promote you the sales person- they’re supposed to promote the company.

Many rain-makers that I know earn well into the 6 and 7 figures. They know what they are good at and they keep to it. It makes sense but the problem is that by focusing on only one or two ways of generating business, it limits their ability to make even more money for their company and themselves.

So how do you turn today’s salesperson into tomorrow’s rain-maker? I think companies need to reevaluate how they look at their sales team and how they should be deployed in their sales process. They need to go beyond the limiting aspects of established territories, industry verticals, or product focus and begin to allow the sales person to become special ambassadors – mini CEO’s if you will, with their own sales, marketing and promotional strategies and systems.

Here are the critical areas for becoming a well-rounded rain-maker that will boost your ability to earn more income for the company and for yourself:

o Self-Branding. You need to become known for something. Go out and create a platform from which you can tie your views into the product or service that you are offering. Most people don’t know this, but no matter what suit Gary Cooper wore in public, he always wore green socks. I’m noticing today that the bow-tie is making a come back for guests on national news networks. These gimmicks may get you noticed but they won’t give you shelf-life. I’m thinking more in line with my friend Manny Sanchez, Managing Partner of Sanchez & Daniels, the second largest minority-owned law firm in America. He considers himself the Latino Ambassador for issues and trends that he knows are important to his Fortune 100 clients. The CEO’s of these companies rely on him to give them insight into this growing lucrative market. He has created a platform that gets him, and his firm, noticed.

o Corporate Branding. A rain-maker want-to-be should focus their branding efforts for their specific sales area. They will take out ads themselves if their company doesn’t do it.

o Sponsorships – Strategic hand-outs that provide money for events, underwriting newsletters, other corporate outings, or even associations can go a long way. While helping USWeb/CKS grow their revenues, we gave out golf umbrellas that had their logo on it at an industry golf outing. It was a hot sunny day. Many people invited to golf outings aren’t really golfers – we became heroes to those prospects that really needed the shade. Nobody talked about any of the other trinket’s that other companies gave out.

o Advertising – Advertise where your prospects lurk. Online: buy banners on association and exposition sites before the big event, or at industry magazine sites. Look into broadcast advertising and print advertising. I know a real estate rain-maker here in Chicago. He worked out a deal with a billboard company. Instead of buying just one billboard for 12 months, he worked with them to place his advertisement when they had contracts expire. The result netted him staggered one-month exposures on 12 different billboards all throughout the city of Chicago – his market. He paid for it himself. The ads created a huge buzz and a 5:1 return on investment.

o Networking/Referral. This is where most rain-makers spend the majority of their time. It’s extremely effective, but it’s also the major reason so many of them are missing other potential prospects. You can’t reach everyone by networking. Focus on networking with:

o Clients – Your clients are the most influential salespeople for your company. They can lead you into wonderful new accounts simply by making the introduction. I recommend that your client, your prospect, and you, meet together at the first meeting. Your clients are also the first people you should sell/network with when you launch a new product. My friend Bill Rancic did that when he was on his way to winning the first Trump Apprentice. After his team created a client base for one of their tasks he went back to those same relationships to sell to or get referrals from those clients. His team won both tasks and he went on to win the game.

o Alliances – Take a good look at how else you can leverage contacts into revenue generating relationships. Look into current partners, vendors, opinion molders, authors, and experts.

o Channel Partners – When I was growing a software services company, one of the rain-maker areas included establishing relationships with hardware sales reps. I bought them lunch at their team meetings and showed how I could help present business solutions to their prospects (ultimately my prospects too) that would help sell their hardware and made sure my reps went with them at any part of the sales cycle. It was truly win-win-win.

o Friends/Groups – I network with people but my outlook is not quid-pro-quo. Recently I helped the COO of a software company help his business associate help his son try to get an internship (did you follow that?). I put the college student in touch with an extremely influential person in my network. I’ve made the introduction and I’m not sure what will come of the internship – that’s out of my hands now. But as a result the COO wants to do business with me and my company, unsolicited. This happens time and time again. By the way, I even took the time to coach the student. We discussed what to say, how to say it, and how to follow up with calls and thank you cards.

o Phone Calls. Phone calls are very important. I believe everyone should do about 30 – 45 minutes a day of pure cold calling just to keep sharp. Any more and you’ll be headed for burnout. Most of my calls I try to turn into warm calls in some way. Usually it’s through using every one of the tips in this newsletter, and more, to gain a warmer reception to my calls. For the rest of the day, phone work should be used to develop relationships once you’ve met your prospect in some other way. Calling can be used to confirm contact information and to do cross-marketing.

o Email. No I don’t support SPAM. Make sure you understand the wording of the law. For the most part as long as the message in your email serves your prospect, has a viable street address, contact name and phone number, and provides a link for the prospect to get removed from the list, you should be okay.

o One-to-Many – Create an electronic newsletter such as this to communicate with prospects and clients. Send out announcements with a link to take anonymous polls located at your web site or by using sites like http://www.zoomerang.com. It’s a great way to share content quickly.

o One-to-One – Create templates for yourself and your sales team. This is a great way to brand yourself. I make sure that my picture goes out whenever it makes sense. It gets me recognized at conferences and expositions. People see me coming before I even see them and they make it a point to say hello.

o Events. Yes you should make it out to the biggest events for your industry. Even if you don’t have a booth, you should reserve a table for 20 at a restaurant and invite clients and prospects to join you.

o Seminars – Create your own. You’re supposed to have the gift of gab – your listening skills should be even better and exercised more than talking however – but what better way to make your pitch than one to many? It doesn’t have to be elaborate. If you sell to industrial park CEO’s reserve a room at the local restaurant and buy your prospects lunch. Establish the menu up front so that it fits your budget but allows prospects a small selection. Make your presentation to them at the luncheon. I know ran-makers that also do this at the Union League Club.

o Workshops – Get the rest of your company involved in delivering information to your clients and prospects.

o Webseminar or Webinar – Video record one of your seminars and post it to your web site. Studies show that if you can deliver content when it’s convenient to your client or prospect, you’ll have a better hit rate than making them all register and go to their computers at a specific time.

o Teleseminar – Technology is such that you can record a sales presentation and make it available to your prospects and clients via the phone. There are companies that will let you set up a conference call that your prospects can dial in to. Record it and re market it on your web site or offer it as a giveaway on CD.

o Conferences/Tradeshows – Show up when you can. Work with industry reporters that will be there and see if there is some way you can help them with newsworthy articles. Make sure you have a plan for getting names, pre-qualifying them and make sure you have a system for following up with prospects. Marketing statistics prove that nearly 90% of all leads do not get a follow up call.

o Create your own web site or start a weblog “blog”. Even if you work for a large company you should have your own web page. Get your company to add a few pages for you. If they won’t do it then they are not working in your best interest. Go online and get your own web domain setup. Create a few pages that will help to establish your expertise and credibility. Post your articles, post podcasts or webcasts so that your prospects can view them at their convenience – that’s key. Give them the kind of content that they are looking for such as helpful links. Promote it to your prospects, industry experts, customers, reporters, etc. as a place to get up to date information.

o Site design – Make it simple and easy to navigate. Let them download information from the site. You can build a prospect database if they give you a name and email address. Test to see if more prospects download without having to give you an email. Latest tests show that requiring a visitor to give up information dramatically reduces downloads.

o SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Make everything easy to find. Use pay-per-click techniques. Make sure you make all copy on the site and in your download information searchable by key words from your prospects.

o Lead Nurturing. There are two approaches in this area:

o Execution Vehicles – these are talked about in other sections of this newsletter such as events, direct mail, email, phone, etc.

o Content Creating – Creating content that establishes you, the rain-maker, as an expert is where you will leave your competition behind. This is where you make your intelligence shine. Newsletters, press releases, articles with links to your site, case studies, white papers, and special reports are just some of the ways that set you a part and build your credibility. These are the ways the rain-maker promotes him or her self. This information can then be easily repurposed into other promotional efforts.

o Public Relations.

o Write editorials for your local paper or trade magazines.

o Public speaking – industry and association events.

o Create your own speaking engagements whenever possible.

o Strive to become a keynote speaker.

o Article placement – write articles and get them published in newspapers, magazines, or online.

o Press releases – make an effort to get at least one release out per month. Find ways to make what you do newsworthy.

o Promote yourself as an industry expert to the TV, cable, and radio media. Try to be the local angle to national news stories.

o Make friends with reporters and the media in your area of expertise. It takes time but those that keep at it are the ones that get articles written about them and their companies.

o Direct Mail. Yes direct mail works. Create a campaign that will turn cold calls into warm calls.

o Dimensional Mail – 3-D mailings work very well. Who doesn’t want to open something they got in the mail that looks like a present? Make sure your list is clean and accurate or you will waste money. And have a phone, email, and fax follow up program to increase your response rates.

o Self Mailer – Have your prospect mail something in to show they are interested in your product or service.

o Postcards – Use them to remind reporters about your expertise. Keep the message the same – repetition breeds success. Prospects will see your message. Most people at least look at the post card compared to never opening junk mail envelopes.

Even if you are a sales rep for a fortune 500 company, I know your marketing department is not creating this kind of credibility for you specifically – that’s not their job. By employing these ideas you will create the momentum of future sales and everyone in the company will be asking you how you do it.

David Wells, Founder of http://www.emdco.com, a provider of business-to-business lead creation, data confirmation and integrated marketing solutions. Subscribe to “The Business-to-Business Sales Strategist’s Tips of the Week” ezine at http://www.emdco.com/registernow.html.

Author: Dave Wells
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty

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