You're Going To Be Great At This!

In my book, "You're Going To Be Great At This! " I give the reader a break with an occasional story which is pretty dumb, thus the name Dumb Story. Some people have commented that they prefer the dumb stories so much they hope my next book would be filled with them. Instead of making you wait, I've decided to throw some dumb stories into this blog. And the stories are all true, I've just changed the names of people and places to protect the innoncent, guilty and me. Dumb Story Several years back, I was working for a large life insurance carrier. They constantly had training sessions and sales meetings, so it was expected they would hold a huge, 3-day sales conference in a major city. All of the first-year people got to go for free and a few of us in our crew hung out together. Meetings in the daytime, receptions in the evening and to the bars late at night. And that's where one guy, Bob, met a young lady who was very pretty with dark hair and dark eyes....

Over the years I've tried every traditional prospecting method out there. From "warm markets" to cold calling, I've done it all. Eventually I became exhausted of the fair to middling results. Something had to change. In my book , I mention that the first thing we need to sell is ourselves. Getting on a soapbox and telling everyone how great your company is will work sometimes, but first and foremost, we need to promote ourselves. With this in mind I've refocused my energy. And I ran across a great article by Dew Tinnin, which confirmed my suspicions. Instead of promoting my business, Surf Financial Brokers , which I've done for the last few years to mediocre results, I've decided to market myself. Surf Financial will still be there. It's not going anywhere, but looking for people one at a time is a slow, hard process. And trying to get referrals from them is tougher. I took an honest look at my business recently and decided that in order to i...

We've coning to the end of the "networking trilogy", but just like Star Wars, there will be more of this in the future. Let's touch on social media and how to use it to network successfully. In general, the rule here is that if you're going to try to use these platforms remember that you get what you pay for. And since you probably aren't paying much (unless you upgrade to LinkedIn's premium service), you should expect a low ROI.  On all platforms I suggest you take a slow approach to build a rapport. With all of the internet scams out there nobody wants to be "sold" on social media. Make your approaches as low-key as possible. That being said, you are investing your time, and if you can find an efficient use of your time the better off you will be. Don't spend hours on end trying to find out how to use the next Pinterest only to learn that it's not getting you anywhere. I spend approximately 20 minutes a day posting on social media, ...

So you've waited all week to find out how to network efficiently and effectively. I'm so happy you made it back! In Part 1, I gave you some ideas of where to find networking groups. I failed mention that there are two types of groups - exclusive and non-exclusive. Exclusive groups are the ones that typically only have one person from an industry. For example, a group would only have one baker, one realtor, one plumber, etc. Non-exclusive means that a group is open to as many people as want to participate. For now I'm going to discuss non-exclusive groups. If you're introverted or not really comfortable talking to strangers, you can sit at the table of the world's largest networking group, LinkedIn*. If you're not familiar with it (and you should be), think of it as Facebook minus all of the pictures of kids, vacations and political garbage. It's a way to network with people in your area, state, all of the country, and the world too. But it should only be...

If you're in sales, whether it's B2B or door-to-door vacuum cleaner selling, you need to expand your network. I read a book years ago that said, on average, people have 250 friends. If you could get your 250 friends to introduce you to their 250 friends your network would explode. A training school I attended wanted us to set sales goals, and from that we were supposed to work backwards to find out how many cases we needed to open, and from that how many prospects we needed to open those cases. This company was all about finding prospects. I get that, but I took it backward one more step to how many people I needed to meet. I understood immediately that sitting in an office with a nice sign outside wasn't going to get me business. My sales were relying on me getting out and meeting people in my community, almost like a politician. Finding groups of people made me more efficient. Networking groups are great if you know where to find them. Look for groups in your are...

Sales can be difficult, especially if you don't have a warm market, or a built-in social circle to work with. Many companies will encourage you to start off by calling on friends and family. Personally, I think this is a horrible idea. The best way to build a career in sales for the long run is to work off of referrals and new relationships. Why new relationships, you ask? Because they don't have any preconceived ideas about you or your rapport with them. One of the best finds you'll get in your career is someone who will mention you, go to bat for you and be an overall advocate. As long as this person has some decent standing in the community, having someone to endorse you in public is very satisfying and can be fruitful.  Always be grateful and reciprocate whenever possible. In today's world, we call these people influencers. Social media is full of them but finding them and getting them to work on your behalf is difficult. Until you can find a famous social me...

A few weeks ago I had a bit of a chat with a local lady who is a connection on LinkedIn. I've only met her a couple of times in the past and don't know her all that well, but I do know that she is well-liked and respected in the community. From the look of her profile I gather that she's in corporate training, so when she "liked" one of my posts I appreciated it even more. She and I exchanged messages in regard to my memes, which she found to be humorous and I thanked her. Half-jokingly I told her that I was creating the " demotivational sales technique " market.  Her response was priceless. "Own that niche if it resonates with you! I love that. You be you."  Sales people can be very homogeneous. In an age where we're told that we should set ourselves apart from our competitors, do we? The adage of "birds of a feather flock together" should be taken seriously here.  Ask yourself what kind of people do you attract? More...