Sales and Marketing

Something Different

2008-01-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

I'm going to do something a little different in this blog today. I don't normally mix my business blogs or sites, but today I am going to stray from sales and marketing and talk about a site that allows you to make money for doing things online that many of us do every day. There is a site called Yuwie which is a social networking site. Yuwie is very much like MySpace and other social sites, the difference is you get paid for just moving around the site.

Now, I said it is a social network. However, most of the emails, comments and blogs are about how to make money on Yuwie and other sites. But there are a lot of good friends there that also like to just connect and talk about other topics. For example, I have found friends that attended the same school I attended, lived in the same towns and have similar interest. With these friends we talk about like interest as well as how to promote our sites. So, you see, while we are connecting socially we are also making money.

Yuwie also is in the process of expanding. Just recently Yuwie added a shopping site that accesses 100's of stores with discounted prices. This shopping club also allows you to open a membership that awards points (for lack of a better description I will call them points) back to your Yuwie account increasing your earnings on Yuwie. While shopping you can also earn rewards by having others shop there as referrals.

Anyway, Yuwie can explain it all better than I ever could. So, if this sounds interesting to you check it out. For complete information go to http://r.yuwie.com/jwilli2493.

Having A Better Year

2008-01-14T23:36:00.000-05:00

Today, in my business, we kicked off a new year of selling, and I was very much reminded of what it means to be a sales rep. As I watched and listened to the sales team attack the new season with vigor and a renewed sense of positive energy I recalled my days as a sales rep. I believe it is very easy to forget where you came from once you journey down the management path and that is a mistake.

When I was selling I too came in at the start of the year ready to set the world on fire with more sales than anyone would think humanly possible. But, as time advanced and I began to wear down and become complacent with my performance those dreams of breaking records and increasing commissions waned. This doesn't have to happen. I hope that anyone who starts out with a positive attitude and strong will can sustain it throughout the year. However, this actually takes work, and, a plan.

If you are starting a new year or if you just want to refocus your energy to have the best selling year ever, here are a few tips.

1. Set some goals.
2. Make a plan to achieve those goals.
3. Have a way to measure your progress.
4. Be your own worst critic.
5. Adjust your plan.
6. Have fun getting there.

Lets start with number one. When you are setting goals don't be ridiculous. Think about what you want to accomplish. By this I mean; what is your ultimate goal. Is it to make more sales than last year? To increase your income? To move into management? Exactly what is it you want this year to bring? Lets say it is to increase your income. How will you do that? More sells should help, right? Or is it the same number of sales, just a larger volume per sale? What ever you decide as the ultimate goal there has to be smaller goals to get there. These are known as steps. When setting each step goal, make it realistic and then stretch it just a little. Goals have to be realistically obtainable to avoid frustration and defeat but they have be just enough out of reach to make you stretch to reach them. It is in this stretching that you grow and ultimately obtain your final goal. Don't keep your goals to yourself. For a goal to be truly effective as a growth tool it has to apply some level of pressure on you to achieve it. Write them down and post them where others can see them. This form of applying pressure through peer knowledge of your goals will increase your odds of getting there. No one wants to make their goals public and then not hit those goal, right?

Okay, you have set your goals, now how to achieve them. This is where you have to plan. For example; your ultimate goal was to increase income, remember? Lets say your first sub-goal is to increase your sales in the month of January by 5% over last January's sales. How? It might look something like this: I will work an extra 15 minutes per day by coming earlier. I will take less breaks throughout the day. I will spend less time on dead end sales calls and bring an intensified focus to those calls that show promise. I will critique my performance each and every day and look for ways to increase my efficiencies. I think you get the idea! How ever you put your plan together, again write it down. Don't worry, you don't have to make your plan public but keep in mind, you can't drive to some place you have never been without directions.

Alright, so far, so good. Now how do you measure your progress? Well, this is really pretty simple. In our example here you need to know what your sales were for last January. Next, how does that sales volume break down by day, by sale, by product or service line? If you have this information you are able to compare year over year how you are progressing. Outside of this example, it is the same just substitute your particular industries key factors.

Now be your own critic. This is by any other name a gut check. What have you changed? Are you making progress, staying the same or doing worse? Regardless of the answer, the next question is why. By determining the "why" allows you to effectively alter your course as you progress. Be honest with yourself, the only person you can ever count on to tell you the absolute truth about your performance is you. You can be brutal with yourself without feeling targeted, picked on or singled out. Nobody else knows you called yourself out on any issue. There is no embarrassment, no gossip about getting called to the office for poor performance, no written statements. No one knows about your "corrective action" but you.

After these gut wrenching heart to hearts with yourself take what you have learned and adjust your plan to ensure you stay on the straight and narrow. Remember what you are trying to achieve and make the necessary course corrections to get there. What you are very likely to discover is that your adjustments to your plan are very minor. And they should be small adjustments, large sweeping changes in your plan may very well capsize the boat! Make your changes and repeat the process. I know this sounds like it is turning into a lot of work. It is really much less than you think. You will find that you do a lot of this without even thinking about it as you progress through your day, you just have to be aware of it.

Are we having fun yet? So far it sounds like we have been pretty tough on ourselves to get to the goal. Well, trust me, if you don't have fun getting there you won't get there. Make sure you reward yourself for achieving your milestones. It could be dinner somewhere special or new cloths or a movie you have been wanting to see or anything at all! The point is, when you find yourself saying, "man, I would really like to do that some day", apply that, what ever that is, to one of your sub-goals and make it a reward to yourself once you achieve the goal.

Guess what? We are at the end. All year long you have applied the process over and over, you have adjusted time and again, you have set new step goals as you progressed, you have rewarded yourself along the way and now you have arrived.

Am I Ready?

2008-01-11T20:41:00.000-05:00

Today is Friday, and come Monday my new selling season kicks off. So, am I ready? I guess that's the question every manager asks themselves before they dive into a new year. Well, guess what? No matter how much you prepare, no matter how many check lists you exhaust or how much you worry; something is going to go wrong. Not very positive you say? On the contray, that's a very positive way to look at it. If you didn't forget something, someone else did that will directly affect you. Or someone will not rise to the occasion. Your boss will implement a change at the last possible second. Something will go wrong. But you did your best and that will always see you through. At the end of the day it all will be okay.

Hey your a manager, right? Manage. If things weren't going to go wrong, or plans weren't going to change there would be no need for you, so buck up, rest over the weekend and plan for the worst while hoping for the best. If you do that, you will not only survive but succeed.

Nice surprises

2008-01-10T19:37:00.000-05:00

Some surprises are nice. Today I spent the entire day with my sales team rolling out new initiatives for the coming year. As I think most managers do, I anticipated some resistance to some of the inititives. This is where the surprise part comes in. The very topics I expected to get push back on, they accepted and embrased with open arms.

I have may times told sales reps to never prejudge their prospect. Always make the presentation, assume the sale and if the prospect doesn't want what you are selling they will let you know. If you presume to know what the prospect is going to say or how they will react, you will fail to make the sell. Well, today I did the very thing I preach against. Much to my surprise, they found what I proposed to be a good idea and climbed on board.

Managers, remember what you teach and put it into practice in what you do every day. I think I have a great team and even if they had resisted I know they would have still given their all to make it happen. As it is, today the team taught me a thing or two.

Starting To Hire

2008-01-09T20:33:00.000-05:00

Recruiting, what a nightmare it can be! If you make it one. Like everything else, it is all about being prepared. First of all, do you have any idea what you really want in an employee? What do you consider to be the most important trait? Are you looking for a long term employee or a quick fill? The list of questions can go on for ever, but you have to decide the important questions for you unique situation. Make sure your add or search source will give you the best chance to yield the employee you are looking for. A simple example is: the employee has to have a valid drivers license; so, make sure you put that in your add. Why waste time screening out applicants that can't drive.
Any thing like that should also be used in the initial contact screening. For most of us we are going to contact the potential employee to arange an interview. On that call I make sure to ensure the candidate meets any specifics that are required. Also, this is a good time to give the candidate an overview of the position. Then, just like asking for the sale in a sales pitch, you have to ask the candidate if this position is one he/she would like to pursue farther. But, I am getting ahead of myself.
Before you contact the candidate to schedule an interview, make sure you write down a script to guide you through the conversation. I don't care if you have done this a thousand times or if you think you know what you want to say; write it down. I once had a great phone conversation with what sounded like a quality applicant. We covered all the bases and scheduled the interview. When he asked for my zip code so he could mapquest the office so he would know exactly where to go, I stumbled. This is a number I use hundreds of times and yet I couldn't remember the zip code where I work. What kind of impression do you think that left with the candidate? What kind of person was he thinking about going to work for? If this guy can't even remember something as simple as his zip code, what else will he forget?
Be that as it may, I think you get the gist. In every step of the process you have to plan ahead to avoid the pitfalls. As a wise man once said, "Chance favors the prepared mind"
Go forth and plan!

Ramping Up For The New Year

2008-01-09T20:23:00.000-05:00

This is the first in what I hope will be many entries. At this time of year some companies are in a "ramp up mode" especially if there operations envolve winter layoffs or slow downs of their sales teams. Managers can make or break their year in the next few weeks. If you are this position, now is the time when you will set the tone for the year. Many will take a strong stance and let their people know in no uncertain terms what is expected of them and what will not be tolerated in the coming year. Be careful, number one, you can come on too strong especially for new hires and create the very thing that will destroy a sales team before you get started; negativity!
Don't get me wrong, these things need to be expressed but they should tempered with a road map to where you want to go and how these expectations and limits will help to get you there. But before you start to lay down the law, ask yourself a couple of questions. Will you back what you are putting out to your team? What will you do when you star performer breaks the rules? Will you break the rules? Don't back yourself into a corner, this will only cause you to loose respect with your team. Instead, focus on the positive. Let them know what is expected and how you will try to help them succeed should they fall short of the expectations.
Also, let your team know about any all changes to your program. There is nothing worse for a sales rep than to fail because he/she was not aware of updates or changes to systems, methods or operations. Talk about turning a positive into a negative!
If at all possible try to schedule a "training day" to review all these things before you are selling full force. And don't just wing it and try to cover everything you can think of. Instead, keep a specific journal of things you need to, or would like to discuss at this meeting. Then, before the meeting print an agenda to pass out. This will help to give you control over the gathering and allow you to manage the eb and flow of the review. Make sure you set aside enough time to cover all topics and be prepared to answer questions as well as show how the topic at hand will have a positive outcome for not only the company but the rep as well.
One more thing to watch out for; don't diseminate information that is not confirmed. If you put out a change that is not approved yet, it won't matter to the team that you said, "this isn't for sure, but we are going to try..", they heard, " this is what we ARE going to do".
Enough for now. Good luck in the new year.