Posted on March 16th, 2012 by admin
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Check out a few of the great posts on the myGreenlight blog this week:
Enjoy!
Posted on January 27th, 2012 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts on the myGreenlight blog this week:
Enjoy!
Posted on November 29th, 2011 by Keith Ferrazzi
The great Harvey Mackay's new book is out – The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real Word. Covering everything from how to find the right mentor to earning
the loyalty of your customers to overcoming rejection, Mackay delivers road-tested, real-world selling advice that has stood the test of time.
As today's post, I give you a taste of the new book with Harvey's ABCs of Selling – I encourage you to tweet one of these, or make it today's mantra!
A - Availability for your customers is essential, so they can reach you with questions, concerns or reorders.
B - Believe in yourself and your company, or find something else to sell.
C - Customers aren't always right, but if you want to keep them as your customers, find a way to make them right.
D - Deliver more than you promise.
E - Educations is for life - never stop learning.
F - Follow up and follow through. Never leave a customer hanging.
G - Goals give you a reason to go to work every day. When you reach your goals, set higher ones!
H - Humanize your selling strategy by learning everything you can about your customers.
I - I is the least important letter in selling.
J - Join trade organizations and community groups that will help you both professionally and personally, such as Toastmasters, Chamber of Commerce or Junior Achievement.
K - Know your competitors and their products as well as you know your own. Read more →
Posted on November 11th, 2011 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts on the myGreenlight blog this week:
Enjoy!
Posted on October 21st, 2011 by admin
Check out a few of the great posts that appeared on the myGreenlight blog this week:
Enjoy!
Posted on March 24th, 2011 by Keith Ferrazzi
I met sales trainer Greg A. Cozine recently at a lunch set up by RMA’s West Coast head of sales. Greg shared some great insights into the sales 
process, so I asked him to put together a guest blog to share one with all of you.
Here’s Greg with the easy-to-implement tip that he has found has a HUGE effect on his trainees’ success:
Understanding the difference between a suggestion and a direction is one of those nuances in the sales process that can really have a huge impact on your closing ratio.
Suggestions are close cousins of opinions. You know what they say about opinions right? Everybody has one...at least one. While well thought out opinions and helpful suggestions can be useful in moving your presentation forward…in and of themselves they do not actually close deals. In the closing process, ultimately what really matters is not what you suggest to your prospect/client but what you actually direct them to do.
Here’s an example of what I mean in day to day life. Suppose I want to get a group of coworkers to head out to a great sushi spot for lunch. If I say, “Hey guys, I heard of this new sushi place that’s supposed to be really good. Do you want to give it a try?” In effect what I’m doing is asking for their opinion. But if I’m really confident in what I’m offering why am I hedging? Instead, I should say, “Guys, there’s this great new sushi place… you’re going to love it…let’s go!”
By being directive, you instill confidence in those that are receiving your offer. People often have a need and desire to be directed and to be directed by people who have absolute confidence in their product or services, especially when what’s being offered is something new. This can apply to lunch or a major financial transaction. Now, of course, you’d better have solid reasoning and intelligence behind your directive – you need to deliver the goods! If the sushi absolutely sucks, it’ll be the last time anyone ever takes a lunch direction from you.
Suggestive: “Brett, I know this is a new approach for your company but I think if you give it a try you’ll not be disappointed…and I promise I’ll give you great customer service with the deal…so what do you think…you want to give it a try?’
Response: “Well let me think about this a little and I’ll get back to you blah blah blah…”
By being suggestive as in the example above, you’re just setting yourself up for an ambiguous reply. Everybody wants to hedge their bets, especially if they are offered a hedge.
So here’s the directive approach:
“Brett, this offering is going to get results that make a difference – and we’ll back that up with customer service that is second to none…let’s do it.”
Response: “So how much is the total cost again? And how does your customer service work? Will that be primarily through emails and phone or will you come to the office for follow up…”
Now the prospect is asking buying questions…which is exactly what you want.
If you’re speaking to a real qualified buyer (the decision maker) and you’ve given a great presentation and all that goes with it along the way…you’ve earned the right to be directive and ask for the deal! If the buyer has any unanswered questions there is nothing like asking for the deal to get him/her to start asking them. Don’t hedge and don’t think that asking for the deal means you’re being aggressive. Rather, you are confident of what you can deliver.
Think about the film business: I’ve yet to see a film that has a “suggested by” in the credits. It’s called a director for a reason…as in “directed by.” And nothing attracts great actors like a director who is absolutely confident about what they want, why they want it and how to achieve it. Same thing applies to the relationship between you and your prospect or clients. This is your movie! Be the director!
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
Greg A. Cozine is a sales trainer, coach, and speaker with over 25 years of experience.
Posted on October 28th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi
No one can give you clearer advice about how to run a great company than Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy. Now, Build a Great Business! is the 
perfect prescription for a much more profitable and personally rewarding business. Here, for example, is a checklist from the book on how to develop a great marketing plan.
1. What exactly do you sell, defined in terms of what your product or service actually does to improve the life or work of your customer?
2. What is your competitive advantage? What are the core competencies that make your product or service superior to anything else available?
3. Describe your ideal customer. Who wants, needs, and is most willing to pay for the benefits provided by your product or service?
4. What are your most effective marketing methods? How do you attract the greatest number of qualified customers?
5. Who or what are your biggest competitors in the sale of your products or services, and how do you differentiate your products or services from those of your competitors?
6. How can you encourage your customers to participate and contribute more to your company's marketing and product development? How can you create a community for your customers to share ideas, enthusiasm, and challenges in your market?
7. What changes could you make in your products, prices, promotions, places, positioning, packaging, or people - the seven P's of your marketing mix - to make your offerings more desirable to your target market?
Brian Tracy and Mark Thompson focus on SIX other areas of business including Leadership, Business Planning, Hiring, Offering a Great Product or Service, and Designing a Great Sales Process. For more information and for thousands in bonuses, click here.
What one action are you going to take immediately as the result of your answers to the previous seven questions?
Posted on September 14th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi
Everyone could use a few tried-and-true sales tips, right? I asked Dylan Conroy, my head of West Coast Sales for Relationship Masters Academy, to give us some of his best tips. Enjoy!
If you haven't already signed up for our Early Bird special list for the November launch of our Business Relationship Mastery Course - all new and improved program after two pilots - please sign on the list below!
Dylan's top tips:
1. Generosity First: To get a meeting, offer money - that is, the meal's on you. Instead of “Can we meet for lunch sometime?”, say “I’d like to buy you lunch sometime.”
2. Connect Creatively: Invite them to something other than the standard office visit, coffee, lunch, dinner drink. Find out their hobbies or passions. An event with some type of personal enrichment takes them out of their defensive "this guy's trying to sell me something" mode.
3. Be Specific: Lock the meeting down to a specific time. If they say “next week,” tell them “I’ll call you on Monday.”
4. Have a Sense of Humor. Always open someone up on a front call. For example: 'Bob, the hardest working man at Cisco' or 'Joe, the man the myth the legend'. Sounds tacky but you absolutely HAVE to open up with humor and get someone off their guard. If you open up with, "Hey Bob, how are you doing today, this is Dylan Conroy from Ferrazzi Greenlight," you might as well hang up.
5. Be Polite. Always send a follow-up note after a meeting.
6. Don't Fear the Close: This is the way to approach a customer who’s on the fence about buying. Don't forget to ask for the deal EVERY time you talk to them. No one respects a weak close. Add value every phone call and always be closing. And if it's not going your way, then take the offer off the table. The more you try and sell them something the more they will lock up, but if you take it away from them, they'll want it more.
What's your best tip for getting a potential client ready to listen to your pitch?
Posted on February 9th, 2010 by Keith Ferrazzi
I had a great conversation this week with Dev Patnaik, author of Wired to Care and founder of a great firm, Jump Associates, which helps innovative companies like Nike and Target get even more innovative.
I asked for his advice on what marketing and sales folks should do TODAY to become more successful. If empathy is the solution, as Dev proposes, whose moccasins do you need to walk in?
Here’s what he said:
“The first thing they could do is just get outside. It doesn’t matter if they work in aircraft engines, or detergents, or for a grocery store chain. Every single person out there is getting a paycheck from someone out there in the world. That person is shopping in our stores, that person is buying our products – but they’re living in their homes and they’re spending their time in places that matter to them.
So the first thing you could do is get outside of your building. Skip that meeting, leave that conference room, and go spend some time hanging out in the real world. My friend John Morioka, who’s a senior exec at Target, is one of the best examples of this. When he’s trying to think about what he wants to do next in his business, he’ll get someone from one of his vendor companies to meet with him. But rather than spending time in a conference room, he says, ‘I’ll meet you in a grocery store.’ And they’ll have a conversation while they’re walking the aisles, and they’ll see things and know things that the rest of us would have to read about to know what was going on.”
Great advice from a great guy! Wired to Care should be required reading for leaders who wants to help their team, as Dev put it, “make 10,000 better decisions.”
What’s your advice – one thing somebody could do TODAY to improve their sales or marketing skills or strategy?
Posted on October 19th, 2009 by Keith Ferrazzi
"Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step." – Jim Collins
People constantly ask me, “What do I have to offer?” I especially hear this from young people who are looking to approach more senior players. But among both young and old, there are so many people who’ve yet to discover their unique selling proposition (USP) – that “secret sauce” that can open doors to new contacts. We all have one, sometimes many. It’s up to each of us to identify and develop it.
Your USP might be an expertise, a hobby, or even an interest or passion for a particular cause. Here’s one suggestion to build your reputation around that USP: Start a club or organization.
All clubs are based on common interests. Members are united by a similar job, philosophy, hobby, neighborhood, or simply because they are the same race, religion, or generation. They are bound by a common proposition that is unique to them. They have, in other words, a reason to hang out together.
You can take your own distinctive UPS and then take the extra step that most people don’t. Start an organization. And invite those you want to meet to join you. Gaining members will be easy. Like most clubs, it starts with your group of friends, who then select their own friends. Over time, those people will bring in even more new and intriguing people.
And you will be their leader.
