Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

Game Changer Provides FREE B2B Contact Data

Wow! There is Revolution Happening in the World of B2B Prospecting Data Providers!

I remember when I was VP of Sales and had to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for prospecting lists. At the time there were a couple of main data providers and they controlled the prospecting data marketplace so they were free to charge whatever they liked. Worse yet, negotiating with them was a frustrating ordeal and even after paying all them all this money, my inside sales teams and field reps would continually complain about the quality of the contact information.  Well, I am excited to tell you that times have finally changed…

Where Can You Get Over 5 million B2B Contacts For FREE?

LeadFerret offers a free online B2B database with complete data for millions of business contacts. It’s 100% free, no gimmicks, no subscriptions, no need to upload your contacts to get contacts, and every record is complete, including the vitally important email address.

Ok, It’s Free… But How Accurate is the Data?

That was exactly the first question I had about LeadFerret so I conducted my own test. Of 1,000 random contacts I selected directly from LeadFerret, 83% were correct! This is an awesome accuracy rate that puts many other data providers to shame (and the price is right too!!!).

 

Other Articles You Might Enjoy: 

The Seven Deadly Sins of Salespeople

Why Did We Lose the Big Deal? (5 Questions for the VP of Sales)

A Salesperson's Most Important Competitive Weapon

Today’s customers are smarter and more sophisticated, and technology has become a way of life for them. For example, our cars have global positioning and mapping systems based upon satellite communications. The appliances in our kitchens turn themselves on and off. Our entire music collections are carried on digital devices the size of a deck of cards. We take pictures, play games, and send text messages to friends with our cellular phones. Over Nintey-five percent of all homes in the United States have personal computers. Via the Internet, customers can research products, prices, and opinions. Collectively, this has raised the level of sophistication of the customers we must converse with and sell to.

Perhaps the most interesting change is how people receive information. According to one university study, the world’s total yearly production of media content for newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet would require roughly 1.5 billion gigabytes of storage. This is the equivalent of 250 megabytes per person for each man, woman, and child on the earth. Because of this information overload, customer attention spans are shorter than ever.

Information must now be packaged with the customers’ shortened attention spans in mind. For example, USA Today, the largest selling newspaper in the United States, was designed to stand out visually. The colorful newspaper always includes bold diagrams and numerous pictures so that time-pressed readers can pick up a story’s message with minimal effort. Even the racks used to sell the newspaper are colorful boxes with rounded edges as opposed to the black square boxes of other newspapers.

Shortened attention spans have changed the nature of information itself. USA Today distills and condenses the news into easy-to-read chunks. A paragraph is rarely longer than three short sentences. Every article is written with the reader in mind, using a “what’s in it for me?” style. USA Today’s style is best summarized by the newspaper’s tagline, “An economy of words, a wealth of information.” If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, USA Today is the most successful newspaper ever because newspapers everywhere have adopted its format.

But even USA Today has had to continue to change both their online and print editions to maintain readers… This Brings Us to The Main Point of This Article:         

Have You Changed The Way You Communicate to Connect with Today’s Customer Who is Smarter, More Sophisticated, But has a Shortened Attention Span?

Successful communication is at the foundation of all sales. “Sales Linguistics” is the revolutionary new field of study about how customers and salespeople use and interpret language during the decision making process.  The conversations you have with customers are quite complex, they consist of verbal and non-verbal communication that are sent consciously and subconsciously. Sales Linguistics will help you learn to say the “right” words at the “right” time to convince skeptical customers to buy.

You must be able to adapt your use of language to a customer’s thought process and personality. You need to understand the process of communication and how it determines the level of rapport that is established between people. Language can be directly linked to customer behavior. It can be deciphered to predict the future, determine truthfulness, and used proactively to influence a customer’s thinking and opinions. 

The salesperson’s most important competitive weapon is his mouth, and the winner is the salesperson who uses words to reduce the customer’s doubts, ease his fear and fosters his fantasy. That’s why it’s critical that you learn sales linguistics before your arch-rivals learn to speak more persuasively.

Click Here to Read More About Sales Linguistics

 

Closing Techniques Using Sales Linguistics

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles about how to use Sales Linguistics to close sales calls. It is based upon my new book Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics: 101 Advanced Sales Call Strategies for Senior Salespeople.

Remember the last time you were being pressured into doing something you didn't want to do? Whether the pressure came from a boss, colleague, spouse, or child, your natural response was to resist and push back. It's human nature to resist high-pressure tactics. So, how should the closing of the sales call be structured? The answer is to create a primary closing strategy, utilize fallback positions, and select the appropriate technique to deliver the close.

Your primary closing strategy should be based upon securing the main objective for the meeting. The objective could be to be granted a follow-on meeting, have the customer start a product evaluation, receive approval to conduct a site survey, or negotiate final purchase terms. You also need fallback positions, alternatives you prepare ahead of time to present should the customer reject your primary closing strategy.

Your primary closing strategy and fallback positions are based on choosing to issue a command or presenting foreground and background suggestions. A command is an instructional statement that creates a binary type of yes or no response from the recipient. It is typically associated with a hard close and "take it or leave it" mentality. Foreground suggestions (medium close) are explicit, but they deflect the source of the request from the demander. Background suggestions (soft close) lead recipients to believe they are acting of their free will when in fact they have been directed to follow a message.

Let's pretend I am a passenger in your car and I feel you are driving too fast. A command would be "Slow down!" A foreground suggestion would be "You know the speed limit is forty five miles per hour and police ticket a lot of speeders here." A background suggestion would be "A speeder was in a horrible accident last week in this exact spot." While the background suggestion may be more subtle in its delivery, it can trigger a more profound reaction.

In a sales situation, a command might be "We always recommend you benchmark the products you are evaluating." A foreground suggestion might be "Consumer Reports gave our product the highest rating and recommended it as the best buy." An example of a background suggestion is "One of my customers tried the other company's product and recently switched to ours."

After you have determined your primary closing strategy and fallback positions, select the delivery technique to be used during the meeting. Here are some examples, assuming the main sales call objective is to close the business deal:

Time-based technique. This technique incorporates a time-based deadline.

            Command (hard close). "This is the last time we'll be able to extend this offer and we need your answer now."

            Foreground suggestion (medium close). "My boss told me that this pricing expires December 31 at midnight."

            Background suggestion (soft close). "Think it over tonight and I will call you at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning."

 

Linkage. This technique connects different events, subjects, or ideas.

            Command (hard close). "If we give you those terms, then you must have our contract signed by the end of our quarter."

            Foreground suggestion (medium close). "I'll talk with my boss and if he okays the terms, could we have the purchase order by month end?"

            Background suggestion (soft close). "Our implementation team will be fully booked starting in September, so to complete your project by year end, we'll need to have the contract signed in the next couple of weeks."

 

Power of Print. This technique leverages a document or printed company policy.

            Command (hard close). "Our new price list is coming out in thirty days, and I can't hold these current prices for you after that."

            Foreground suggestion (medium close). "Here's our volume discount schedule. If you spend another $100,000, you'll receive an additional 10 percent off the entire order."

            Background suggestion (soft close). "Should I send you a formal quotation that details the purchase price and terms?" 

Always maintain control of the sales call so you can employ your primary closing strategy and be prepared with fallback positions should your primary closing strategy fail. You can sequence your primary closing strategy, and fallback positions with commands (hard close), foreground suggestions (medium close), and background suggestions (soft close). For example, your primary closing strategy might be based upon a hard close; first fallback position, a medium close; and final fallback position, a soft close. Or, your strategy could be completely opposite depending upon the circumstances and the type of person you are meeting with. 

Read More About Sales Linguistics Here

If Sigmund Freud Was Your Sales Manager

Here's an excerpt from my book Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy.

 

Sigmund Freud is the most famous figure in all of psychology. If he was your sales manager I think he would ask you one very important question, “Why are you in sales?” While your conscious mind might rationalize that you got into sales through a calculated career move or even happenstance, Freud would probably argue that your decision to become a salesperson was made many years ago. This is because your subconscious mind has had a plan for your entire life. You are simply fulfilling your destiny.

Your subconscious mind knows you better than yourself. It remembers how you sought acceptance and recognition since the earliest days of your childhood. Today, it understands you crave adventure and excitement and that you could never be happy working a routine nine-to-five desk job. It also recognizes that you work in sales not because you have to, but because you have to be free. And this fundamental drive is at the core of the human spirit.

Sigmund Freud would acknowledge that you are a very rare type of individual. Most people don’t have the capacity to intentionally endure the emotional and mental stress that is a daily part of a sales career. They don’t have the self-confidence to attempt to accomplish difficult goals or possess the inward drive and perseverance to reach the pinnacle of success. In reality, most people can’t deal with uncertainty and don’t have the propensity to take risks. They are satisfied living average lives working at ordinary jobs because they are afraid to know the truth about themselves. While they shirk from the limelight because they fear their lack of courage will be exposed, you are on a continual mission to prove to the world you’re right.

Sigmund Freud would say your subconscious mind is smarter than you think. It recognized way in advance that sales was the only profession that was right for you. It determined that you needed to be surrounded by people like yourself—modern-day warriors who embark on daily battles to vanquish evil archrivals. It also realized how important it is for you to have earned their respect and admiration. 

Even though your conscious mind may occasionally daydream about doing some other profession, your subconscious knows that you are very fortunate to be in sales. While others have chosen life’s mundane path, sales provides you the opportunity to fulfill your deep-seated drives to leave your legacy and become the hero who was able to make the family’s dreams come true. You should be thankful it selected a career that increases your self-worth and net worth at the same time. Most importantly, your subconscious mind purposely chose this line of work so you could measure the significance of your life. And as your subconscious mind already knows, you are destined for great things.

 

Other Steve W. Martin Articles You Might Enjoy:

Sales Linguistics: The Seven Languages C-Level Executives Speak

Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople - Harvard Business Review

Click Here for 25 More Articles

Four Critical Sales Kickoff Meeting Success Factors

Regardless of whether your company calls it the annual sales meeting, yearly sales conference, or once-a-year sales rally, the annual sales kickoff meeting is the most important sales meeting of the year. Let’s assume you are in charge of planning your company’s annual sales kickoff. You’ve picked the best location, chosen the right hotel, and are in the process of finalizing the meeting plans. 

There are four critical factors that impact the success of the meeting. You have to have the right theme for the meeting, build the best agenda, select the right keynote speaker, and capture the event so attendees can review critical sessions after the event. 

 

1) Selecting the Meeting Theme

The first step toward conducting a successful sales kickoff starts with choosing the right theme. With this goal in mind, here are important points to consider when selecting your sales kickoff theme. One of the most important factors to keep in mind as you choose your theme is the level of the sales force’s morale. All sales forces go through periods of high and low morale. When morale is high, you can be more creative and take bigger risks with the theme you choose.

Conversely, I wouldn’t recommend such an over-the-top theme during tough times. In this situation the theme should be more commonsensical like “Better, Stronger, Faster,” which provides a platform that meeting presenters can use to talk about changes and upcoming improvements. Click here for a detailed article about selecting a sales kickoff theme.

 

2) Agenda Structure

The structure of the meeting’s agenda is one of the key factors that will determine the meeting’s overall success. The main objectives of the sales kickoff agenda are preparation and renewed motivation. Remember, there are three objectives your agenda should reinforce: first, a renewed sense of pride in the company they work for; second, honest enthusiasm to get back into the field and ramp up the new year; and some positive thoughts and pleasant memories about the good time they had celebrating a career that is difficult and demanding but, ultimately, extremely rewarding. Click here for an article of best ideas on how to structure the sales kickoff agenda.

 

3) Select the Right Keynote Speaker

There are four main types of keynote speakers to choose from: celebrity, motivational, industry mavens, and sales experts. Celebrities (such as entertainment stars, sports heroes, business icons and politicians) will speak mainly about their personal experiences. Conversely, industry mavens are analysts and consultants who talk about current issues and future business trends. Meanwhile, motivational speakers exuberantly try to touch listeners’ emotions. And, finally, there are sales experts who share their specific sales-related wisdom and knowledge with the audience. So, how do you decide which one is right for you?

There aren’t any two sales forces that are exactly alike. Every sales force is unique in three different ways: complexity of the sales process, the average level of sales experience, and the state of morale. Perhaps the biggest mistake when selecting a sales kickoff presenter is picking one whose main message doesn’t apply to the products you sell or resonate with the sophistication of the sales force. For instance, even though a keynote speaker has successfully presented to Midwestern real estate agents in the past, he or she would not be a good fit for a Silicon Valley software company. Click here for a complete article about selecting a sales kickoff keynote speaker.

 

4) Capture the Meeting for Future Review

Based upon my personal experience, I strongly recommend that every sales kickoff be captured for future review. Let me explain why. The average person speaks about 125 words per minute. So, it’s nearly im­possible for meeting attendees to fully absorb the more than 60,000 words they hear each day. A post-meeting review of critical sales kickoff presentations should be available so the sales teams can revisit the key takeaways and important discussions at their own pace. In addition, some salespeople might not have been able to attend the meeting. Also, there will be new hires throughout the year who can view the sales kickoff recording as part of their on-boarding process.

The virtual sales kickoff should be accessible by topics and presenter as opposed to a lengthy rebroadcast that is watched in one long session. This requires that a virtual platform that provides intelligent on-de­mand access be used. Both the speaker and his or her slides should be shown simultaneously. Important presentation materials, slides, sales collateral, and training documents should be accessible for download. Viewers should be provided with interactive functionality so they can submit questions to meeting present­ers long after the presentation and be able to chat with colleagues who might be watching.

Providing on-demand access to the sales kickoff is an extremely economical way to reinforce the meeting messages, maximize the training investment, and extend the motivational afterglow. It typically costs 2% to 5% of the total meeting costs to record and post the meeting to a commercially available online virtual platform. You can expect ten times the number of meeting attendees to visit an online kickoff on average. For example, a meeting with 500 attendees would average 5,000 post-meeting visitors.

Want to learn more?  Please watch this free webinar:

 

The Virtual Sales Kickoff Meeting: Strategies that Produce Results

WATCH THE WEBINAR 
CLICK HERE TO WATCH! 

Sponsored by Selling Power Magazine and ON24 Virtual Events and Sales Meetings

 

Top 10 Annual Sales Meeting Hotel Location Ideas

 

I have had the privilege of presenting the Heavy Hitter sales philosophy at more than two hundred national sales meetings and annual sales kickoffs.  Below, you will find my top 10 hotel locations to hold a sales conference. Be forewarned, this list is based upon my personal experience and I wanted to include properties you may not be familiar with from all across the country. Also, I did not want to focus on mega-hotel locations like Orlando and Las Vegas (you already know all the places there). Finally, my list is based upon reasonably priced hotels (even though some may sound expensive) and these hotels offer something  beyond the generic meeting place.

 

1. Château Elan (Atlanta, Georgia) – www.chateauelan.com  Incredible property, great facilities coupled with impeccable attention to detail at a reasonable price make the Cheateu Elan number one on my list.  Atlanta provides good year round weather and is easy to get to from anywhere in the US and even Europe.

 

2. Camelback Inn (Scottsdale, Arizona) - www.camelbackinn.com  A beautiful hotel in a fabulous Southwestern mountain setting make the Camelback Inn one of the best locations for a sales meeting.   

 

3. La Costa Resort (Carlsbad, California) – www.lacosta.com   North of San Diego, the La Costa Resort is a great place for a meeting any time of year. If your meeting will also include your business partners and channel resellers, this is the perfect place.

 

4. Claremont Resort (Berkeley, California) –  www.claremontresort.com  Just twelve miles from San Francisco, the Claremont Resort is a wonderful Silicon Valley location for small and mid-size meetings.

 

5. Amelia Island Plantation (Amelia Island, Florida) – www.aipfl.com  A very different Florida meeting location (better priced in the off-peak season).

 

6. Rancho Los Palmas (Rancho Mirage, California) - www.rancholaspalmas.com While Palm Springs may require an extra airplane connection to get to, the Rancho Los Palmas is worth the extra effort. Highly recommended activities: rent out the Palm Springs air museum for a nighttime event and “Field of Dreams” softball park for team building event.

 

7.  SeaView Marriot (Atlantic City , NJ) www.seaviewmarriott.com  A great place for a meeting in the Northeast US that you probably have never heard of.

 

8. Marco Island Marriott (Marco Island, Florida) www.marcoislandmarriott.com  Marco Island is interesting alternative to the standard meeting in Orlando.

 

9. Long Beach Hilton and Executive Meeting Center (Long Beach, California) - www.hilton.com Good meeting facilities and a great location that provides some excellent evening event possibilities-- group dinner at the Aquarium of the Pacific or on the Queen Mary.

 

10. Embassy Suites (Burlingame, California) – www.embassysuites.com I know you are probably surprised to see an Embassy Suites on this list, but this is a great place to have a meeting in Silicon Valley for up to 500 people. It’s only 5 minutes from San Francisco International Airport and situated right on the bay.

 

Here are some Honorable Mentions:

Westin - Indianapolis, Indiana

Hyatt Regency - Newport Beach, California

Hartford Marriott Downtown – Hartford, Connecticut

Carmel Valley Ranch – Carmel, California

Biltmore Hotel – Phoenix, Arizona

Pinehurst Resort – Pinehurst, North Carolina

 

Other Articles That May Interest You:

 

How to Choose a Sales Kickoff Theme
What Salespeople Want From Meetings
Five Annual Sales Meeting Ideas for the Best Sales Conference
How to Structure the Sales Kickoff Meeting Agenda
Top Five Sales Kickoff Meeting Mistakes
How to Select a Sales Kickoff Keynote Speaker
Special Presidents Club Meeting Program

 

What are the Top 5 Sales Blogs?

What are the Top 5 Sales Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills? Here’s the list according to Construction Management along with their overview comments:

1. Heavy Hitter Sales Blog - If you’re sick of your sales strategy bunting when it should be hitting home runs, this blog will supercharge your sales game, all while offering practical sales advice for these tough economic times.
2. Garth’s World - Utilizing more humor than most sites, Garth’s world nests all of its advice in blog form, with funny narratives that culminate in practical suggestions.
3. Anthony Cole’s Sales Java Blog - Nearly overflowing with advice, this site offers a number of sales methods broken up by sales type and sales chronology, and also offers tips on how being unique is the best thing you can do in sales.
4. Jonathan Farrington’s Blog - While many sites emphasize the importance of Twitter to sales, few have in-depth articles on how to more influentially tweet, as well as other quirky tips, such as pitching your idea to a bigwig…in the elevator.
5. Alen Majer’s Blog - This site offers tips for presentations, selling your personality, and even the history of American sales culture.

Click here to see their entire top 100 sales blog list.

Why Are You In Sales? The Surprising Truth

When people in other careers ask salespeople why they are in sales, the most frequent answer is “money.” This is the pat answer salespeople give to outsiders who have never experienced the rush of closing a deal or the satisfaction of building a trusted friendship with a customer.

 

Providing the answer “money” is similar to the way mountain climbers answer “because it’s there” when asked why they climb mountains. The questioners can’t comprehend why someone would intentionally endure such physical and mental exhaustion and take such huge risks. They themselves don’t possess the inward drive to reach the pinnacle or the self-confidence to attempt the impossible.

 

The real answer to the question of why salespeople are in sales is deeper and far more complex. It was best explained by French aristocrat and historian Alexis de Tocqueville when he wrote about the American colonies’ desire to be free from England. “The revolution of the United States was the result of a mature reflecting preference for freedom, not a vague or ill-defined craving for independence,” he concluded. The colonials weren’t as interested in the independence of the colonies as they were in the freedom of the individual. The writers of the Declaration of Independence considered freedom a natural law of nature. Every July 4^th here in the United States we pause to celebrate the most magnificent experiment of freedom in the history of mankind.

 

TIP: The reality is that you are not in sales solely for money. You work in sales not because you have to, but because you have to be free. And this fundamental drive is at the core of the human spirit.

 

Other Articles That Might Interest You:

 

How Ronald Reagan Would Change Your Corporate Presentation

What if General George Patton Was Your VP of Sales?

Handling Tough Questions with Congressman Calvert

Neurolinguistics Sales Lesson: Auditor Obama versus Kinesthetic McCain

Recession Sales Management: Reassign Accounts

In eleventh century England, King William was making preparations to go hunting in the forest. As he was getting ready with his attendants, six exquisitely crafted arrows were presented to him. After praising their craftsmanship, he kept four for himself and handed two to the knight of Poix. “It is only right,” he said, “that the sharpest should be given to the man who knows how to shoot the deadliest shots.”

 

Usually, it is a very difficult judgment call for a manager to reassign an important account from one salesperson to another. Whether the change is initiated by the manager or requested by another salesperson, there are times and circumstances where it must be done for the greater good of the company.

 

Today’s economic recession dictates that the best accounts (those with the ability to generate the most revenue) be assigned to the best salespeople (those with the greatest aptitude to maximize and close the deal). When faced with this circumstance, all parties involved must act with gracious magnanimity, rising above pettiness and overlooking insult.

 

Of course, sales is an “every man for himself” profession, and I respect salespeople who fight for what they believe in deserve respect. However, at times in order for the team to survive as a whole, everyone in the lifeboat has to row in the same direction. Because the sharpest shooter will make the biggest kill, there will be more than enough for everyone to feast upon later. 

 

Related Articles:

 

The Best Recession Sales Strategy

Why Does My Sales Manager Dislike Me? The Seven Different Sales Management Styles

What if General George Patton Was Your VP of Sales?

Selling in a Recession: Avoid the Cesspool

Selling in a Reccsion is different. Just because you won the selection process doesn't mean you have won the deal. At this point you are only half way home because there is an another equally challenging sales process ahead, actually getting the purchase order or contract signed!!! READ BRIAN'S STORY BELOW …”                  

    

Brian was presenting his forecast in front of his teammates and was explaining why a deal that he had originally forecasted to close in the quarter came in three months later. Here’s his story.

    

Brian was excited that the account he had worked on for months had selected his software solution. After several weeks of ensuing price negotiations, a $300,000 purchase order was submitted into the customer’s capital expenditure software system (referred to by the customer internally as the “CES system”). Since several weeks were left in the quarter, Brian expected that he would receive the purchase order well before the quarter’s cutoff.

    

In Brian’s mind the deal was done. The purchase order would be printed and signed and he forecasted the deal accordingly. However, Brian was quite surprised to learn that the rules-based CES system required that a purchase of that magnitude be approved by twenty-one different people. The purchase order had entered the cesspool of order approval.

   

Because of this elaborate sign off procedure, it would take another three months before all twenty-one signatures were gathered. In the meantime, Brian embarrassingly had to explain to his manager why a deal he had positively guaranteed would close wouldn’t.

   

His assumption about the purchase order turnaround time was dead wrong. If only he’d had the foresight to ask about the details of the procurement process before he committed the deal on his forecast. During a recession you should expect every purchase approval to take three to four times longer than normal. Because every organization exercises another excrutiating level of dilligence to ascertain whether or not the purchase is absolutley necessary.

Tip: During a Recession you must always ascertain the customer’s procurement process with the same diligence you devote to understanding the customer’s selection process