Archive for Sales
January 22, 2010 at 1:53 am · Filed under Living With Networks, Sales, Sales Hall
Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your career search. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Silicon Valley Career Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job faires scheduled for 2010 across the US.
How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Faire? The contention can be significant, but you can help yourself stand out from the gang with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your targets. Use the web to research the organizations that are there ahead of time. Go to their sites and see if they have their jobs listed. Pick a moderate number to target, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 10 in a day, and 3-5 is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and contacts you know. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You should end up with a page or two of research for each company/job.
Second, if there are job openings on the web, read them to see what the organization is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the prerequisites of the job. Make the terminology match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring company.
Third, create a ‘mini sales pitch’ for each potential company/position combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally describing why you are a key candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job kiosk.
Fourth, modify your resume for each job type. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re targeting. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the achievements and skills that most clearly match the job requirements. Especially at a Career Faire, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be obvious to see that you’re a match based on your resume.
Fifth, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each position - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a intelligibly labeled folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be well groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or fragrance meagerly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
December 26, 2009 at 6:34 am · Filed under Living With Networks, Sales, Sales Hall
A modern job search campaign is by nature fairly involved. While the net has offered a variety of new channels, it also creates increased competition for choice jobs and potential challenges for job hunters.
Job search needs to be thought of as a highly personal, highly directed marketing operation where you are the product. Your resume is an ad. Your extended network is your inside source for information and job leads.
So where does the web fit in? At AA-Careers, we just posted a job on a popular job board and got more than 650 responses in a week. For a single opening. That’s increased competition.
Had a strong person contacted us before we ran the posting, they could have secured the position prior to running in to all that competition. How? By knowing someone at our company who became aware of the job prior to posting. Everyone knew of the job for at least 13 days before it was posted. Who in your network might know of a job that’s coming available soon?
Be sure to check your cover letter and resume carefully! When we did an analysis of the 650 resumes, we found a large number of errors. 63% of the applicants were easily taken out with a fast triage process. How? The same way any employer would. By eliminating resumes where the objective didn’t match our job. By rejecting prospects whose cover letters gave us reasons not to engage them, like "I know I’m overqualified but I really need a job". By eliminating prospects whose documents that didn’t open properly. And by passing over job hunters who didn’t bother to spell check their cover letter and/or resume.
So the good news is that job sites give you a feel of what companies are hiring, and for what kinds of positions. But once those jobs are posted, the competition is intense. You can still compete, if you have a well thought out resume, designed to appeal directly and clearly to the recruiter. And if you have practiced interviewing – so you don’t stumble at a critical point.
Another downside to be aware of is how quickly you can be looked up on the net. As we Googled several job hunters, we ran into some personal web pages that were in questionable taste. Nothing larcenous, but enough to swing our thinking about who to hire.
AA-Careers provides a broad set of services for Bay Area job seekers, providing our clients a personal career consultant, a managed job hunting campaign, modern tools like a personal website, video, highly targeted resume, and much more. Let us know if we can help you.
Be careful out there, and good hunting!
September 24, 2009 at 9:17 am · Filed under Net Commerce, Online Marketing, Sales, Sales Hall
This type of marketing resembles an auction house. You feature the merchandise on your web pages and for all your effort, you will get a cut from every transaction. There’s much less work, few operating costs, it sells 24/7, and what’s even better, it’s relatively easy to pick up. The first step you need to take is to determine exactly which area most suits your interests. To achieve this, determine what specific solutions to a given problem a particular group of individuals are expecting, and then which solutions are available to assist them. An easy method of achieving this task is to find unique extremely drilled down words and phrases; there are fewer internet searches for these in general, but they will convert far more. To obtain these lucrative words and phrases, it is recommended that you use applications such as Micro Niche Finder. Data collected by Micro Niche Finder or similar computer programs and software packages gives you related keywords in a comprehensive list format allowing you to have a great placing in an internet search and generate tons of traffic.
Micro Niche Finder will also let you know detailed figures on the words and phrases, the exact number of other sites using the particular word or phrase, and how successful those websites are. Ultimately, the information returned will help you find the right domain, assist you in putting together your internet site, and even draw your attention to the best merchandise for you to sell. Building a website is next; but there are still fundamental things to do. Having the best placing on web based search engines needs the fine-tuning of your web site. Products like SEO Elite should make this easier. Competing sites are examined by SEO Elite information which then provides suggestions to increase search results.
With software such as SEO Elite, data provided by the application advises you where to look for links, the most lucrative keywords, and even an extensive listing of article submission internet sites to refer to. Briefly, Seo Elite information is the same sort of information that an SEO professional might offer. Once you have discovered which market segment you’d like to focus on, plan your product ads, and your internet site is ready to go, it is time to get your web site up in the search results. The profits will roll in on regular basis and you will question why you ever struggled to make enough money!
July 21, 2009 at 12:07 am · Filed under Net Commerce, Sales, Sales Hall
In essence affliliate marketing is very much like a consignment store. You feature the various items goods and services on your web pages and in return, every last lead brings in money. There’s less work, few operating costs, it works twenty-four hours a day, and it’s easy to learn. At the start, you must make a choice as to what products or area you’d like to work in. A good way to do this is, find out what specific solutions to a problem a unique customer profile is going through, and determine a way to deal with those problems. One of the most efficient means to determine this is to find unique sets of highly targeted longtail keywords and phrases; there are fewer searches for these generally, however many more of these result in a sale.
These profitable keywords can be discovered by using Micro Niche Finder. Data generated by this software or other applications or services results in a list of associated words and phrases allowing you to earn a headstart in the rankings on an internet search.
Additional data is also accessible by Micro Niche Finder, such as how many searches every word or phrase gets, exactly how many different web sites who use those keywords, even competitor information. Ultimately, Micro Niche Finder information can help find desirable domains, assist you in putting together your site, and point out the best sales opportunities. Construction of a website is next; but there are still crucial things to do. Having the best ranking on the search engines needs the optimization of your web site. Products such as SEO Elite should make this easy. This computer program automatically analyzes competing internet sites and will provide you with advice on what you should do in order to get top place in the search engine listings. With applications such as SEO Elite, info supplied by the program advises you on links, what words to focus on, and information on where and how to submit articles. Succinctly, the data created are much like to the information that an SEO professional would give. When you find your target marketplace, have your product ads, and your internet site is finished, then you are ready to positively refine your search engine rankings. Your profits will roll in regularly and question why you did not try this type of marketing earlier!
May 16, 2008 at 10:55 pm · Filed under Sales
Sales managers frequently approach me for advice on how to keep
salespeople motivated, especially when sales reps get into a rut
- and seem to keep slipping deeper into it. Telling managers
what not to do usually solves the problem. Most managers do
things to de-motivate salespeople without even knowing it.
Let’s take the idea of funnels and forecasts, for instance.
Funnels and forecasts are important aspects of running any sales
operation. Both salespeople and managers need to know where they
stand in terms of potential opportunities, and funnels serve to
track those opportunities. No successful business can operate
and properly plan for the future without accurate forecasting.
In theory, these are absolutely essential to the success of any
operation. In reality, however, few words strike terror in the
hearts of salespeople like “funnel” and “forecast.”
For most salespeople, the term “funnel review” equates to
micromanagement, probation and performance improvement plans.
Just hearing the term is enough to shift a sales rep’s frame of
mind from positive to negative. He or she suddenly loses
enthusiasm and doesn’t know why. Many managers increase funnel
reviews as performance slips, which causes performance to slip
further, and in the end nobody wins. Endless funnel reviews,
especially if they’re not positive, only serve to reinforce
salespeople’s self-doubts and limiting beliefs.
Forecasts are a similar problem, but in different ways. Few
salespeople forecast accurately. Nobody wants to fall short on
their forecast, so they embellish, exaggerate and make sure the
numbers add up to where they should be rather than where they
really are. This results in managers who expect those numbers,
and salespeople who dodge managers because they know they aren’t
going to perform as forecasted. Then there are salespeople like
myself who do the exact opposite - since I hated nothing more
than having a manager constantly ask me, “When is this one going
to close? When is that one going to close?,” I intentionally
left good deals off my forecast. While it eliminated the problem
of constantly being asked when all those deals would sign, it
created another form of stress in having to deal with the
consequences of a funnel that fell short of expectations.
Another word that instantly de-motivates salespeople is
“activity.” Unfortunately, in the absence of any other viable
advice, most managers simply blurt out, “You need to increase
your activity” to anyone who isn’t at quota. This accomplishes
nothing other than setting up the rep to believe that a series
of funnel reviews and performance improvement plans are soon to
follow.
Finally, I see entirely too many managers pushing too hard to
spend extra time with salespeople who are falling short. While
it’s necessary to spend time with these people, it’s not a good
idea to keep asking them what they need help with and to insist
on riding along with them. This only turns up the heat another
notch on an already stressed-out rep. Nobody who is having
trouble likes to be singled out, especially when the extra
attention easily can be mistaken for micromanagement.
To keep a struggling salesperson motivated:
1. Keep the talk of funnels, forecasts and activity to a minimum.
2. Offer help without being overbearing.
3. Put your trust and confidence in that salesperson.
Stick with these guidelines and you’ll not only do a better job
of helping those who are having difficulties, but you’ll see an
overall increase in your sales team’s motivation and enthusiasm.
April 8, 2008 at 1:42 am · Filed under Sales
You’ve had a few good meetings with a prospect. You’ve successfully overcome their objections. Before you close the deal, you must ask yourself a very important question.
Should you do business with the prospect? Your answer should not be automatic. Before you move forward, you need to put yourself in the prospect’s shoes. Does it make sense for the prospect to do business with you?
When answering that question, you must be objective; something that’s not easy when your ego is on the line. You must also be totally honest; something that’s not so easy when commission is on the line. Will the prospect be better off choosing you over your competitors or just not taking action at all?
While it’s easy to get excited about closing a sale, closing the wrong prospect will damage your credibility. The wrong prospect may receive some value from your product or service, but that’s not enough. The wrong prospect becomes a bad client. A bad client, in turn, has more issues that will take the time of you or your colleagues to address.
There is an opportunity cost associated with dealing with problem clients. Every minute spent trying to satisfy them (in what may be a losing battle) is time not spent building stronger relationships with your best prospects and clients.
It’s really boils down to choosing to do business with those prospects that have the potential to be raving fans. They’ll become raving fans if your product or service meets and exceeds their expectations. By focusing on these types of clients and weeding out the bad ones, you’ll be in a position to exponentially grow your business through positive word-of-mouth and referrals. This won’t happen if you are willing to sacrifice the wrong prospect’s satisfaction for your immediate gratification.
Will Turner is the Founder and President of Dancing Elephants Achievement Group, a sales training and consulting company. Will has over 20 years of sales and sales management experience and is the author of over 150 sales-related articles and programs as well as the co-author of the book, Six Secrets of Sales Magnets. Will can be reached at Will@dancingelephants.net.
