Mar 15, 2014

22 March 2014

We are on the path to 1,000 sales leads by Jeffrey Gitomer

Last week I wrote about the big picture of what it would take to attract 1,000 leads, both the philosophy and structure of what would create the attraction. I also talked about all the research I did to find “the best time” to tweet, re-tweet, post, and take other social actions in order to get the full measure of exposure. Turns out no one really knows the best time. Pretty interesting.

CLARIFICATION of purpose and process:

THE WHY: These messages, promotions, and solicitations will be used to attract people interested in becoming Gitomer Certified Advisors. Certified Advisors will be able to use, teach, and resell my classroom and online offerings.

THE SYMPHONY: We are going to use all our social media sites and outlets, in harmony, to achieve this objective and strategic plan. In order to do so, I must message all of my LinkedIn connections, Twitter and Facebook followers, blog subscribers, e-zine subscribers, and YouTube subscribers. From there, I am going to send out a master email every week with the subject line “Build your own or expand your existing sales training business.” This same message contained in the email will be broadcast worldwide through all of my other social media and Internet sources. 

Based on that information, and the fact that I am all about value-based (non advertising) messages, tweets, and posts, the campaign will take place “at random” until we discover the best times and places to elicit response.

Luckily we’re in the age of data analytics, so it should be a relatively easy task to see what comes from where, and when. It will not be a 100% accurate evaluation, but over a short period of time we’ll be able to take smarter (analyzed) guesses.

WHAT’S IN THIS FOR YOU? As you read (hopefully study) our plan of action, see which elements you might be able to use to build your own lead-generating program. For me, this will be the measure of how valuable my social media time investment has been. What could it be for you?

Achieving 1,000 leads will be an amazing return. 

Here’s the detailed outreach game plan:

• Strategic E-Blast. An initial mailing to my entire list on a Wednesday morning. Thereafter on the following Monday. And 11 days later on a Friday. This gives me maximum penetration of my own list. The email will link to my promo video and information site (gitomercertifiedadvisors.com). The copy in the email will be short and sweet. It will make NO promises other than “start or build your own sales training business using my material and my brand.”

• Facebook posts on both my personal and business page. We will link the post to our informational video promo, and offer a value message rather than an ad. It will be a message based on better presentations or better selling. It will ask questions and create a desire to find out more. When they click the link, there will be no registration barriers whatsoever.

• Facebook testimonial posts from existing advisors. Both video and text. This will authenticate my requests, and make interested people less reluctant to respond.

• Daily tweets with varying messages. All with a shortened link to take the interested people right to my info site. No barriers to the information.

• Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter ads that will target similar sites and messages. That’s right, you can put target ads on the competition’s social media pages. Love it.

• A small but targeted LinkedIn ad campaign. Similar to the ads on my competition’s pages, but intended to reach people based on background and title.

• Daily LinkedIn messaging to my entire group of 19,000+ connections. Sending them a link, requesting they take a look AND make their contacts aware of the opportunity.

• Targeted LinkedIn messaging. Searching for people with training, sales management, and coaching backgrounds and inviting them to “take a look.”

• Several short YouTube information videos in addition to my existing ones. They will be loaded with keywords and hash tags.

• Blog posts twice a week with information on how to be a better sales trainer or coach. Value-based information with an ability to click for more information.

• Weekly e-zine ads and informational tips. Similar to the blog, my weekly e-zine, Sales Caffeine, will feature training tips and a “for info on how to become a Gitomer Certified Advisor and build your business using my name, my brand and my material,” click here button.

THE EXPECTED RESULTS: A steady flow of semi-qualified incoming leads who will discover our team of knowledgeable, friendly people who can convert them to happy, enthusiastic buyers.

THE PLATFORM IS THE MEDIUM: The reason I’m able to attract anyone to my message is because I have (slowly) built a solid platform of customers and followers. So can you. I started with ONE. Pretty low number. So can you.

Study my sites and follow my results. Those lessons will teach you the real law of attraction: VALUE ATTRACTION.

If you’d like to see the exact email and subject line I’m using, and links to all my social sites, go to www.gitomer.com and enter the word ADVISOR in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of twelve best-selling books including The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. His best-selling 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling is now available as a book and an online course at www.gitomerVT.com. For public event dates and information about training and seminars visit www.gitomer.com or email Jeffrey personally at  .

©2014 All Rights Reserved. Don’t even think about reproducing this document

without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer. 704/333-1112

22 March 2014

One of the Emerging New Rules for Sales:

The Value-Added Sales Call

By Dave Kahle

 "My customers seem to have less time available for me than before.  They are harder to see, and when I do get in front of them, they often seem rushed or preoccupied.  What can I do about this?”

It may be that the problem is you.  You may be irritating and abrasive, and over time your customers may have decided that they don't want you around.

But it's probably not you.  It's your customer.  No matter what you sell, it is likely that your customer has more to do and less time in which to do it than ever before.  Your customer's lack of time is a relatively recent phenomenon.  It wasn't much of an issue a few years ago, but it has become universal and growing in intensity day by day.  Your customer is overworked and pressed for time.  As a result, there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done.  Some things have to go.  A long, leisurely conversation with a sales person is often one of those things that is going.

I believe we are at the beginning of a new trend – a trend with awesome implications for sales people.  It used to be that being viewed as a "value-added” vendor was a desirable position to occupy in the customer's mind.  That meant that the product or service you represented brought your customer more value for the money than the offerings of your competitors.  It was why they did business with you.

Notice the focus was on the product or service you represented.  The process involved - the sales calls you made on the customer, and the discussions you had with him or her – were viewed as a means to an end.  It was what both of you did in order to come to the exchange of money for your value-added offerings.

Those were the rules, and customers and sales people understood them.  But the rules are changing.  We are at the beginning of a new paradigm for the field sales person.  The new paradigm is this: Today, not only must the product or service bring value to the customer, but the time you spend with the customer must also be of value to him or her. 

In other words, the sales process itself must bring value to your customer.  Your customer must gain something from every sales call.  He/she must see a reason for spending time with you – a payback for his investment of time.

In today's time-compressed and overwhelming world, your sales call must bring the customer some value.  Here's a way to visualize this emerging new rule.  Suppose you were to make a routine sales call on a regular customer.  At the end of the call you filled out an invoice, handed it to him and said, "OK, John, that will be $150.00 for my time.”  In other words, you charge him for the value he received by talking with you.  Would he pay your bill?  Would he have derived enough value from the time he spent with you so that he would gladly pay you for it?

OK, the illustration may seem a bit over the edge.  Most industries are not at the point, yet, where they will charge for sales calls.  But in the information rich, too-many-things-to-do world in which you and your customers live, time is more precious than money.

When you ask for your customer's time, you are asking for something very limited and very precious.  If you take 30 minutes of his day, he has invested 6.25% of his workday in you.  He has a thousand other things he could have done in that time.  What did he get for that investment with you?

The point is this: If you are going to be successful in the Information Age economy, you must focus on bringing something of value to your customers every time you ask them to invest their time in you.  You must view every sales call through the perspective of the value you can bring to your customers.  A sales call is no longer just about the objectives that you want to achieve, it is also about the objectives your customer wants to achieve.  It's as if you present that $150.00 bill at the end of every sales call and expect to be paid.

So, how can you adjust to new situation?  Here are some proven practices that will help you make the transition:

Your customer expects you to know something about his business, his customers, his processes and his problems before you visit.  That means that you must spend more time before a sales call gathering information about that customer.  Check to see if the customer has a website, and gather useful information from it.  Call and ask the receptionist to send you a company brochure.  Ask around your company to see what other colleagues might know about the account. If you don't know that the customer is qualified and worth your time, you will be wasting his. 

Put yourself in the shoes of that customer.  What else does he/she have to do other than talk to you?  What problems is he facing, what opportunities?  How can you bring him or her something that will simplify his job, help him overcome his problems, or reduce the amount of time he spends on your project?

To read the expanded version of this article, visit:    

                                
This is a simple little technique that can make a huge difference in your performance.  Before every sales call, stop and think about this question: What will the customer gain from the time he/she spends with me?  If you can't articulate some gain for the customer, consider not making the sales call. 

I realize that this is a change in thinking for a lot of sales reps.  But it's a change that is coming, whether you want to make it or not.  Your choice is to be a leader and thus gain a significant edge over your competition, or to wait until the market forces you to change.  The choice is yours. ###

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Dave Kahle is one of the world's leading sales authorities. He's written ten books, presented in 47 states and ten countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations.  Sign up for his free weekly Ezine.  Check out our Sales Resource Center for 455 sales training programs for every sales person at every level.

You may contact Dave at Kahle Way® Sales Systems, 800-331-1287, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

22 March 2014

A game plan to generate a thousand social media leads.

By Jeffrey Gitomer

I have a goal and a plan to attract 1,000 leads in the next 30 days.

Six months ago I launched my Gitomer Certified Advisor program. It allows others in the coaching and training field to use my brand and sell my classroom training and my online platform along with their offerings – or by itself.

After a very successful (but limited) launch, I want to take the program to the next level and need to find interested and qualified people to do so.

THINK ABOUT YOU AS I TELL YOU ABOUT ME. Before I get into the strategy and actions I’m going to take, I want you to understand why I’m writing about the process. I want you to compare it to how you attract, how you prospect, and how you connect with willing buyers.

• How do you get leads?

• How do you prospects?

• What is your strategy to socially involve and attract?

• Is your personal platform strong enough to attract?

• What is your social media lead-conversion rate?

The answers to these questions will significantly impact results.

BIG PICTURE: The strategy for this “attraction campaign” is to use every form of social media and electronic outreach to find interested people, and offer them multiple ways to connect with me. The goal is to give information immediately without a barrier of registering or giving me their information. I want to get my messages BOTH responded to and passed along.

THE TARGETS: In order to get 1,000 leads, I am going to mass mail my contacts and connections AND specifically target existing coaches, existing sales trainers (corporate and independent), and anyone looking to start their own sales training business that wants to use the Jeffrey Gitomer brand to increase authenticity. As a Gitomer Certified Advisor, I provide them with the content, the brand, and the training to make it happen.

TIMED SOCIAL MESSAGES: Posting time and frequency are directly proportionate to the audience reached and their likelihood of response. From my personal experience, my social media consulting expert, Joe Soto, and the article, “The Scientific Guide to Posting Tweets, Facebook Posts, Emails and Blogs at the Best Time” in The Huffington Post, the best times to post on social media are as follows  :

Facebook. Best post times are between 1pm and 3pm Monday through Friday; engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays.

Twitter. Tweet later in the day. Re-tweets on Twitter are higher at 5pm compared to any other time during the day; the best times to post are between noon and 6pm. This same study found that people are on Twitter 181% more during their commute.   Think about it. Aren’t you more likely to be all about your life and how to improve it before or after work?

1. LinkedIn The Media Bistro suggests LinkedIn is most often used right before and after work hours (specifically on Tuesday and Thursday, but no one knows exactly (except maybe LinkedIn).
2. Blog readers read in the morning, with the “sweet spot” being Thursdays around 11am. But that’s a subjective opinion as well.
3. has no “best time.” By comparison to others, its visitors are more search oriented, so I intend to be both searchable and findable. And my new video posts will go out to all my existing subscribers.

CRAP SHOOT REFINED: No one really knows. All messages are different, and all experts are flawed. (I’ve been proving that for years.) I believe that content is a bigger key than what time you post it. And key words will get you found. So that’s where I’m concentrating. I’m going out to my audience, and asking them to go out to their audience (re-tweet, repost, forward, like, comment, and anything else that spreads the word organically).

My overall goal is to generate at least 1,000 leads by May. You may think that is an aggressive goal, but highly achievable through social media and email. Generating 1,000 leads will create a pipeline that will lead me to one sale per day by June 2014.

And I am going to give you the complete detailed outreach plan for you to use as a guide to creating your own game plan for new leads – next week.

If you’d like to see the exact email and subject line I’m going to use, go to www.gitomer.com and enter the word ADVISOR in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of twelve best-selling books including The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. His best-selling 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling is now available as a book and an online course at www.gitomerVT.com. For public event dates and information about training and seminars visit www.gitomer.com or email Jeffrey personally at  .

© 2014 All Rights Reserved. Don’t even think about reproducing this document

without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer. 704/333-1112

12 March 2014

I know you love your business. Do your customers?

What’s the “RAP” on you and your business?

What do you mean you don’t know? YOU CREATED IT!

Just ask Mother Google. She is standing by with millions of info-bits and info-bites about you and your business that you (or anyone) can have in a nanosecond. For free.

What is posted about you (not what you have posted about yourself) on Google, or on any social media, is a reflection of how others perceive you. It’s also what others, who are looking for you or what you sell, may think of you once they find you. In short, it’s your “RAP.”

The old word is “rap sheet.” It was a police term for a summary of what was factual about your past – your record of events – mostly bad. It was a forerunner to Google.

I am creating and redefining a new “rap sheet” that encompasses both good and bad. It’s not just about “what was” – your 21st century RAP sheet is about both “what was” and “what is.” And just like the old rap sheet – you create it.

Unlike the old rap sheet, the new RAP sheet can help you attract and grow IF you’re aware of your online presence and how that affects and impacts your sales and your business.

The new RAP sheet – or should I say the “RAP of sales” – is broken down into segments that define the process by letter (R.A.P.) and once you read them, you will at once have an understanding and a game plan to improve in each area. You’ll also have insight as to why the new RAP on you can make or break your business.

Here are the RAP elements:

• Reputation. Built slowly over time, your reputation defines your present situation and your next sale. It documents how you react, respond, and recover from service calls and issues, and it cements your image both online and in the customer’s thoughts. Your reputation is a reflection of your status in the business world, and a reality check from your customer’s perspective.

DO THIS: Take responsibility for your reputation, and take all necessary actions to build and preserve it.  

• Attraction. Not the “law of attraction” – rather VALUE attraction. What value-based messages are you sending? What messages are your customers responding to? How are these messages creating a bigger, more responsive, more positive, more loyal customer base? Everything from daily tweets and blog posts to one-on-one customer interactions create your word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse attraction.

ASK YOURSELF: What’s attractive about me and my business? Why would a customer follow me? What do I have to do to create more positive followers?

• Profit. Not your profit, THEIR profit. Make certain that every customer knows and understands how they win AFTER purchase, how they use and produce, and how they benefit and enjoy. Concentrating on customer value also has a positive internal effect. When customers are happy and feel valued, it creates a loyalty-base of customers AND employees. Profit is way more than money.

Here are a few companies you can look at as examples of good, mixed, and bad:

BAD RAP: Borders, Blackberry, Yellow Pages, AOL

MIXED RAP: American Airlines, Goldman Sachs, JC Penney, DISH Network

GOOD RAP: Amazon, Zappos, Southwest, Bloomberg

It’s easy to see the RAP of others. It’s often way more difficult (and painful) to see your own.

Here’s a bit more on how you create your own rap:

• Your corporate and personal philosophy guides your words, actions, and deeds. Your philosophy is comprised of the principles you live by. Beyond your mission, it’s how you help others and how you live your core values.

• Create a culture of comradery and support, communication and truthful information, service and response, and availability and helpfulness. Culture is your long-term essence. Your spirit. Look at all the companies I listed under “good rap.” They all have amazing internal cultures. Not a coincidence.

• Treat your people right and they will treat your customers beyond your expectations.

Reputation, Attraction and Profit are THE three words that define your business in the minds, responses, posts, and actions (including purchases) of your customers and prospects. Now that you know the words, their definitions, and their impact, it may be time to do a review – both internal and on Google. Identify your RAP, define it, and make whatever positive changes are necessary to build it.

Your RAP is out there – the question is: what are you doing about it?

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of twelve best-selling books including The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. His best-selling 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling is now available as a book and an online course at www.gitomerVT.com. For public event dates and information about training and seminars visit www.gitomer.com or email Jeffrey personally at  .

© 2014 All Rights Reserved. Don’t even think about reproducing this document

without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer. 704/333-1112