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Referral Expo 2008 – Register for Free NOW

1 Oct

There’s a little more than one week left to take advantage of the Referral Expo 2008. We’re in the last stretch of 2008: Gain insight, expertise, new ideas, and power yourself through this these challenging economic times.

The Referral Expo is a virtual event, conducted over the phone. It’s free to attend, but registration is limited:

  • Breathe new life into your business
  • Generate more referrals
  • Find better quality referrals

Get new, innovative ideas! Bolster yourself against the economy. The Referral Expo 2008: Register now.

In times like these, building relationships and creating referrals are the keys to success. By attending this virtual expo, you’ll get loads of innovative ideas and strategies for generating referrals – all from the comfort of your home or office.

The Referral Expo 2008
Tap into 15 world-class marketing experts as they share their best referral strategies. I’m honored to be included in the team presenting at this year’s Referral Expo.

What: Referral Expo 2008
When: Now through October 10th

  • Each 1-hour presentation will be conducted over the phone on successive weekday evenings.
  • Monday – Friday at 5:00pm Pacific / 6:00pm Mountain / 7:00pm Central / 8:00pm Eastern

Cost: FREE
Register now!

See you there!

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Cup of Joe and Great Monday Postings

22 Sep

Wow, some of my favorite bloggers all wrote great articles over the weekend and posted them this morning for me to read over my afternoon coffee.

Brian Carroll wrote about top performers building relationships with the right people BEFORE they’re ready to buy. These top performers become trusted advisors.

Paul McCord wrote about why decision makers hate cold calls. He looks at answering a cold call from their point of view. And it’s not pretty.

Geoffrey James says that if you must cold call, try these 7 ways to make it easier. Maybe you can have some of your colleagues cold call your boss to get them to understand how effective (or not) cold calling is.

EyesOnSales has a great post from Lee Salz on why expecting a purchasing decision to be rubber-stamped by the boss is a bad idea.

And for another way to look at cold calling fun, take a look at this video by the HubSpot guys.

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Dilbert-style management from the manager's point of view

6 Sep

Do you have a pointy-haired boss?  Have you experienced the kinds of bad management shown in the Dilbert comics?

How does management feel about this? Now management has their own vehicle to express their feelings about employees.  Just check out these videos from Despair, Inc! They are (I hope!) a tongue-in-cheek view of how management should deal with employees.

The picture above is not clickable so click on here instead.

Thanks to Geoffrey James and his recent blog post for pointing me to Despair’s site.  I’m still LMAO!

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Seth calls it "intangibles" I call it "reputation"

14 Aug

I met Seth Godin years ago at one of those kids activity centers where parents host their pre-schooler’s birthday parties. If you have kids, then you know that pre-school birthday parties means “no drop-off” thus you can’t run a few errands or stop by Dunkin Donuts. I was reading his “Permission Based Marketing” book amongst the happy screams of little kids and I notice out of the corner of my eye that 2 people keep walking past me and smiling. One of them finally approaches me and says, “My husband wrote that book!” The other person walking past me turned out to be her husband, Seth. You’d think that I’d recognize him since his handsome dome was right on the front cover of my book!

I was reading this while my kid was here

Seth’s recent post is about how intangibles are what allows you to charge more for your service vs the commodity-oriented competition. Some of his ideas include participation, enthusiasm, speed, focus, generosity and hope.

Hope? No, not “I hope this deal will close” as that’s not an viable or effective tactic for beating the competition. Instead, “is your offering going to be something great.”

As I’m reading this blog, it struck me that I consider all these intangibles to be my reputation. Just like an intangible, it’s hard to quantify reputation. You either have it or you don’t. Your reputation with your customer is what keeps them coming back to you instead of saving money with your competitor. Your reputation is what gets you the warm welcome when you meet with prospects.

Here’s a few suggestions of mine on ensuring you have the intangibles, the reputation, it takes to compete and win.

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The Sales Machine Machine

4 Aug

Are you reading Geoffrey James’ blog, “Sales Machine” yet? I was introduced to his blog by Joanne Black of “No More Cold Calling” fame and I’ve enjoyed reading it ever since. Unlike the frequency of the Inquisix blog posts, Geoffrey is posting almost every day and I find them all worth reading. I was recently looking at all the starred items on my blog reader and was surprised to see that I have stars next to 16 of his blog postings, which is the largest number of stars I have for another blog.

Some of the posts are advice on how to improve your selling. Here, here and here.

Others focus on dealing with difficult co-workers and bosses. Here.

Others are about my favorite topic of referral selling. Here, here and here.

He has a recent series of posts where readers email him with sticky issues and he offers advice ala Ann Landers. Here and here. The questioner may not like his answers but I always find something interesting in them.

Like this afternoon’s post. He reviews a company’s video elevator speech and offers a suggestion on how to improve it. First, I always like people who offer solutions when bringing me a problem. Second, the company he’s critiquing is in the business of developing other companies’ elevator pitch. How ironic! Geoffrey, will you help Inquisix with our pitch on being the best networking site for referral-based businesses?

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Reputation Matters

13 Jun

I have over 1,500 names of business contacts in my Outlook folder. But there’s only about 100 business people that I know well enough to accept a referral from me. I have earned the right to make referrals to these busy people because of my prior interactions with them. So when I make a referral to them for you, it’s because I value my relationship with them and not necessarily because I’m doing you a favor. And I expect you to treat that referral like gold because how you handle the referral is a reflection on me.

Rick Roberge hammered this very issue home in his recent blog posting, “Why am I calling?” A guy could have received a great referral from Rick to one of Rick’s trusted contacts but that guy’s reputation with Rick earned him a “No”. A well-deserved “No” in my opinion. And I just loved Rick’s description of this guy in the second to last paragraph! A great lesson and one that made me laugh.

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1+4 Cold Calling Tips

1 Apr

Why would a blog posting from Inquisix mention cold calling tips? After all, we’re about exchanging referrals amongst sales people. Unfortunately, there are times when that referral is just not available and cold calling is required. This discussion came up in a previous blog posting, “Cold Calling Works?” where some sales experts chimed in with their thoughts in the comments.

I read a recent posting on DigIt! about a Cold Calling Tip. Just one! Elinor Stutz suggests the following to increase your response rate on cold calls –

“After leaving the voice message, immediately send a duplicate short email. But, here is where it will be slightly different. In the subject line, you can type ‘follow-up’. Begin the message from the reader’s point of view by stating, ‘I realize it is easier to press the reply key then to dial back. Per my telephone message…’ Keep your message down to one or two very short paragraphs.”

What do you think? Will this work effectively? I almost always follow-up a voice mail (cold call or not) with an email because some people prefer to return communications via email instead of phone. So I give them a choice. But to state, “I realize it is easier to press the reply key….” in your email? I’m not sold on that. Tone is often misunderstood in emails and this sentence can be read wrong too easily. What do you think?

Instead, I suggest that cold callers read this posting that provides 4 tips for cold calling from an inside sales rep that’s living it every day.

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Please…something new

22 Mar

Enough already

An insides sales expert who I’ve known for almost 10 years and started blogging around the same time as me called me up recently. She said, “Don’t be offended by this but your blog is getting boring.”

I’m thinking, “Boring?!? It may not be as funny as Ken Sasser over at The Sales Wars but boring?” Alright, wait a second, let me give her a chance to explain what she means. So instead of saying what I was first thinking, I asked her why.

“Your blog is always about referrals. I get it, referrals are important. But does it always have to be about referrals? I know you have more things to say that readers will find interesting. How about writing something new?”

So I did a quick mental review of the blog and realized, “Hey, she’s right!” I’ve been so focused in building Inquisix and explaining how referrals from fellow salespeople are just as important as customer referrals that I got caught in a loop. Time to get out of that! So I’m working on some new posts that will discuss my thoughts on other parts of the sales cycle. And maybe Trish will start reading my blog again instead of just skimming titles!

As a closing, let me point you to one my favorite posts from Rick Roberge about not getting emotionally involved. I think I passed that test!

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Sleep "Marketing"

7 Mar

Is worrying about sales keeping you awake at night? Don’t sleep walk, instead get a good night sleep and market while you’re catching up on those zzz’s. So says business coach C.J. Hayden on the EyesOnSales blog. While she’s suggesting how independent consultants market while they sleep, her tips are applicable to sales reps & business owners, too.

sleepingsheep

What I love is that she talks about getting referrals from people OTHER than clients. Everyone (see my last blog post) talks about how important it is to get client referrals.

But C.J. says, “Instead of spending all your time trying to build relationships directly with prospective clients, focus some of your efforts on getting to know people who could be reliable referral sources. Anyone who shares your target market is a candidate to refer clients to you……. The best potential referral sources are those whose services are complementary but not competitive.”

I agree!

Amen, C.J. and pleasant dreams!

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ABN = Always Be Networking

27 Feb

Note from the Editor – I saw Scott Ginsberg (aka the NameTagGuy) write a post over at RainToday and enjoyed it so much that I followed his suggestion #14 and asked him if Inquisix could re-post his entire article here. The content is Scott’s but the links are from Inquisix. Those of you who are familiar with Glengarry Glen Ross and Alec Baldwin’s ABC rule – Always Be Closing, will find our title familiar!

The Federal Bureau of Labor published a study a few years back that showed 70% of all new business comes from some form of networking. What other motivation do you need to start?

Below are fifty thoughts to help you on your way. Before you read on, remember: if you think you’re poor at networking, don’t worry, you’re not alone. It’s not a skill we are born with but one we have to learn.

1. Come to every networking event with three great questions ready to go. Be sure they begin with, “What’s the one thing?” “What’s your favorite?” and “What was the best part about?”

2. No matter where you go – the mall, church, out to dinner, the gym – have at least five business cards with you.

3. Be able to give an unforgettable personal introduction in 10 seconds, 30 seconds and 60 seconds.

4. When someone on the phone says, “May I ask who’s calling?” get excited. Say something unique that makes that person say, “Um, okay…please hold.” Be unexpected. Be cool. Be memorable.

5. Get Google alerts on yourself, your company, your area of expertise and your competition. If you don’t know what a Google alert is, just Google it.

6. Networking isn’t selling, marketing or cold calling. It’s the development and maintenance of mutually valuable relationships. Don’t mix these things up.

7. The most important four letters in the word “networking” are w-o-r-k, because that’s exactly what it takes.

8. If you give your business card to somebody and they don’t reply, “Hey, cool card!” get a new card.

9. When attending networking events, come early. Check out the nametags. See if you know anybody, or find people you’d like to meet.

10. Sit in the back so you can scan the room for specific people you’d like to connect with.

11. Email articles of interest, links or other cool stuff of value, (not spam), to people you’ve met.

12. Publish a newsletter or ezine. Interview people from your network and feature them as experts. They will take ownership of their inclusion and spread that publication to everyone they know.

13. Spend one hour a week reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. If you don’t know what a blog is, you’re in trouble.

14. When you read an article you like, email the author. Tell him what you liked about it and introduce yourself. He’ll usually write back.

15. Have an awesome email signature that gives people a reason to click over to your website. Just be careful not to have too much information included.

16. Get involved with social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace and Squidoo.

17. Remember that networking doesn’t have to be in person. The Internet is a great place to connect with people just like you! It’s called Internetworking. (Yep, I made that word up.)

18. Make your own words up. It’s really fun.

19. Have business lunches at least once a week.

20. Attend local events once a month.

21. Figure out where your target market hangs out (online and offline). Then hang out there.

22. Create your own regular “business hangout,” like a copy or coffee shop where you can regularly be found working, networking, reading or connecting with other professionals.

23. Talk to everybody. Don’t sell them; don’t probe them, just make friends. Make friends with everybody. Because people buy people first.

24. Take volunteer positions with organizations that are relevant to your industry. Be a visible leader to whom others can come to for help.

25. Every time you meet someone, write the letters H-I-C-H on their business card: how I can help. Then think of five ways to do so.

26. Go to Borders and spend one day a month reading books on networking, interpersonal communication and marketing. I highly recommend The Power of Approachability and How to be That Guy. (I hear the author is super cool.)

27. Publish articles or a blog or both based around your expertise. Use titles such as “Top Ten Ways,” “Essential Elements” and “Success Secrets,” that grab the reader’s attention. Publish them on http://www.blogger.com and http://www.ezinearticles.com.

28. Be funny, but don’t tell jokes.

29. Discover the CPI (Common Point of Interest) with everyone you meet.

30. Carry blank business cards with you in case someone forgot theirs. They’ll thank you.

31. Never leave the house without a pen and paper. Sounds dumb, right? It isn’t. It’s genius. Nobody keeps napkins with scribblings on them.

32. Every week, introduce two people you know who need to know each other.

33. Wear your nametag above your breastbone and make sure it’s visible from 10 feet away. Nobody cares what side of your chest it’s on. Just make it big. And if you don’t like wearing nametags, then you probably don’t like people knowing who you are, either.

34. It’s not who you know – it’s who knows you.

35. People will like you the minute they figure out how they are like you.

36. Fear not to entertain strangers for by so doing some may have entertained angels unaware. (Hebrews, 13:2)

37. If you don’t have http://www.yourname.com, get it. It’s ten bucks.

38. Find local professionals with whom you share common interests, customers, ideas and products. Introduce yourself to them, get together, share ideas and find ways to help each other.

39. Form a mastermind group. No more than four people. Meet regularly to set goals, keep each other accountable and brainstorm.

40. Also, set your own networking goals each month for:

* Events to attend

* People to meet

* Emails to write

* Calls to make

* Articles/physical mail to send

41. Go onto Google and type in “articles on networking.” Read on!

42. Speaking of Google, Google yourself regularly. Find out what people are saying about you. If you don’t show up, you’re in trouble.

43. If you think you don’t need to network, you are right. You don’t need to network: you must network!

44. Stop calling it networking. Ignore the title of this article. Networking – as a word – is tired and old and cliché and it makes people think you’re throwing around a bunch of cards trying to sell, sell, sell. No. All you’re doing is making friends. Not schmoozing, mingling or any of those stupid catch phrases. You’re making friends. That’s it. Friends. Make them every day.

45. If you think you are poor at networking, don’t worry. You’re not alone. But also remember that anyone can develop their networking skills. That’s right, skills. Because it’s not something you’re born with or just plain “good at.” Anyone can do it effectively. You simply need:

* To develop the attitude of approachability

* To read books on the subject

* To practice

46. When strangers ask, “How are you?” don’t say fine. You’re not fine. Nobody’s fine. Give a real answer that’s memorable and magnetic. I suggest, “Business is kicking ass!” or “Everything is beautiful!”

47. When someone asks where you’re from, don’t just say “Austin.” Use the H.O.T technique: “Oh, I’m from Austin, home of the best college football team in the country.” Get creative. Get unique. Watch what happens.

48. Put your person before your profession. Your personality before your position. Your individual before your industry.

49. Don’t be different – be unique. Don’t be friendly – be approachable. And don’t be memorable – be unforgettable.

50. Think about the last five “luckiest” business contacts you encountered. Figure out what you did right, realize that there is no such thing as luck, then repeat as often as possible.

About the author – Scott Ginsberg, aka “The Nametag Guy,” is the author of seven books and writes the #39th most popular marketing blog in the world. He is the creator of NametagTV, an Online Training Network that teaches businesspeople about approachability. For more info about books, speeches, customized online training programs or to Rent Scott’s Brain, call 314/256-1800 or email scott@hellomynameisscott.com.

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