In our technology-obsessed world, we regularly hear new words and phrases—ones that someone made up and then created the definition. Words that are overused and mostly unexplained.

Here are a few, just for starters: Gamification, Web 3.0, Sales 2.0, Finger in the Wind, Facipulate, Wallet Share, Weighing the Pig, The Buyer’s Journey, Word-of-Mouse (give me a break…).

Get E-Quainted

I love Southwest Airlines and I love reading Spirit Magazine. Here is the Spirit Lexicon Entry #9,824:

“e-quaintance\e’kwanten (t)s\noun

1. An electronic acquaintance
2. A casual contact one interacts with only through online communication
3. Akin to an interweb friend

Usage: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites have created a wide realm in which to make e-quaintances, who are often corralled to spread information or confided in to glean advice. In business, some seemingly insignificant cyber contacts can translate into real-world job prospects, or even (gasp!) an actual face-to-face meeting.”

(It can be overwhelming. Here’s how to attract sales prospects in a tech-focused world.)

Get Connected, Get Informed

Yes, you meet people online. Yes, buyers are well-informed before they ever talk to you. Yes, people do business without ever speaking. Yes, some buyers tell you they never want to talk to you. (Are they afraid of a sleazy sales pitch?)

Get In Touch

Here’s how the real world really works: It’s great to begin an online conversation and make acquaintances (or “e-quaintances”, in this case). However, unless you’re selling a commodity, nothing beats a personal conversation. Why? You ask great questions and uncover hidden issues. You may learn that what the prospect thought they needed is indeed not the case. If you sell software or financial services, you know exactly what I mean. (Selling is about paying attention throughout the entire sales process. Read, “Selling Is Never About Closing”.)  

E-quaintances only take you so far along the sales journey. Ensure that you and your sales prospect choose the same path. Don’t end the sale before it begins.

Let’s Get Acquainted

What are your greatest connection challenges? What works for you? Comment here and join the conversation.

Tom Searcy, of Hunt Big Sales caught my attention with his 3 sales myths’ post on CBS MoneyWatch. First, I loved the title. Second, I agree with his points of view. Third, I realized that I was subscribing to one of the myths, and I stopped immediately.

Tom brings home the message that it’s not about the number of prospects we have, but about the quality, that most of us leave so-called prospects in our pipeline way too long (we “hope” that nurturing will lead to a sale…), and that many clients are just not worth having (read, “Dump the Junk: It’s Time to Clean House”).

Without further ado, here’s Tom’s article:

 “You don’t have to sell everyone and you don’t have to serve everyone. The idea that companies should chase every piece of business out there and that if they don’t they’re leaving money on the table is antiquated. The negative impact of chasing the wrong prospects and serving the wrong customers is HUGE. To change your approach you may have to remove the myths that you may believe. Here are three:

Click here to continue

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What’s Bogging You Down?

Which myth is bogging down your sales effectiveness? Scrutinize your sales activities carefully. It’s never too late to delete an unproductive behavior. Comment here.

You can check out more of Tom Searcy’s work at www.huntbigsales.com. Tom is an author, speaker, consultant and foremost expert in large account sales.

You might anticipate my answer to what I think America needs most is referrals. You’d be partly correct. It’s not only what America needs; it’s what the world needs. You know by now that referrals don’t just happen. Referrals must be the focus of our company (adopt a targeted referral strategy) and an integral part of your sales plan. Referrals become your business-development priority. You incorporate referral selling into your sales process and create metrics and accountability to ensure sales results.

I invited Jim Horan, President of the One Page Business Plan Company, to share his unbiased view of the primary sales activity for our success in 2012. His perspective might surprise you.

Guest post by Jim Horan | President, The One Page Business Plan Company

“Fill in the blank: Most of you think the blank should be filled in with JOBS! I think there is a better answer…

I think what America needs now is SALES! When sales increase, companies hire people. When people have jobs, they spend money, buy products and services, pay sales tax, use tax, and a whole host of other consumption-related taxes. They also pay income taxes. America needs more sales… and so do you!

How Will You Generate More Sales in 2012?

Will you choose to be patient and wait for the recovery, hoping you catch the rising economic tide? Be totally opportunistic and take each day as it comes, hoping you are in the right place at the time with the right products at the right price, and that the right people remember who you are and like you?

Wishing & Hoping Don’t Deliver Sales…

I don’t think wishing and hoping are strategies for success. I doubt you do either.

Let’s be honest, the economy hasn’t been your friend the last three years. It may not be your friend this year. If 2011 was a decent-to-good year, it is because you were focused. You paid close attention to your business, worked your plan (written or unwritten), were creative, experimented, and you fully played the game all year long. And it worked! In other years, with this level of focus and discipline, it would have been a banner year.

Focus & Discipline Drive Sales Success

If 2011 was a bust, after complaining about the economy, I suspect you would eventually admit to not being very focused. It was a year in which you could not find your groove, were easily distracted, chased too many bluebirds, spent too much time at pity parties, and just could not get focused. It was easy to be unsuccessful in 2011.

Some recommendations to make 2012 your year:

• Commit to the next level of focus and discipline in 2012. Move to the next level of discipline in your thinking, communication, decision-making, execution, and accountability.
• Commit to improving the skills you know are suppressing your sales. Whether it’s networking, sales planning, follow-through, timeliness, or (fill in the blank)…
• Commit to rethinking your business. Somebody is buying the products and services you are selling. Why aren’t they buying from you?
• Commit to unlimited thinking. Revisit why you have the limiting thoughts you do, and take action to expel them.

Find your voice. Use it to move forward with strength, confidence, focus, and discipline!

America needs sales. The New Year starts now!”

Jim Horan is an author, speaker, publisher and sr. advisor to business executives and high-performance sales organizations. He is also President of The One Page Business Plan Company, located in Berkeley, Calif. His best-selling books, One Page Business Plan solutions and enterprise software are distributed through 500 licensed consulting firms.

“Connect with people, and you have the sale. Connect with the business issue only, and forget it.” I wrote something like that in my book, and it still rings true. However, “connecting” doesn’t mean using slang and words and phrases that annoy your sales prospects and clients.

(Before we head into what you shouldn’t say, here’s something you shouldn’t do: Salespeople should never cold call. You knew that was coming.)

I share with you here, the latest from The Marist Poll and its list of the most annoying words (please, if you haven’t already, drop them from your lexicon):

Whatever, You Know?

“According to The Marist Poll, “whatever” remains the most annoying word or phrase in conversation today. 39% of Americans despise the often tossed about term. The uber-filler “like” is deemed the most irritating by 28%. “You know what I mean” is considered the biggest verbal gaffe by 15% of the population. “To tell you the truth” grates the most on 10% while “actually” receives the dubious distinction from 5%. Three percent are unsure.

In October 2009, “whatever” was crowned king with 47%. Other annoying words and phrases included in that survey were: “you know” (25%), “it is what it is” (11%), “anyway” (7%), and “at the end of the day” (2%). Eight percent were unsure.

Younger Americans, those 18 to 29, currently have a different take. 44% of these residents wouldn’t mind if “like” is abolished in everyday conversation. Their older counterparts disagree. Among those 30 to 44, 37% say “whatever” gets on their nerves the most. 46% of Americans 45 to 59 and 40% of those 60 and older agree.” (Here’s the link to the full post on The Marist Poll.)

The words you choose really do matter. Speak well, speak real words, and say what you mean.

What Bugs You?

Um, like, what’s the most annoying, overused business, sales term in your world? Because it’s good to share. Comment here.

The New Year’s Resolution checklist: Every year it’s the same—we make New Year’s resolutions about everything—but mostly about eating better, losing weight, and better managing our finances.

Some of you may even have “build a referral business” in your list of resolutions (hurrah!).

Articles about resolutions are all over the media: newspapers, magazines, online, radio, and TV spots. Email inboxes are crowded with email marketing chock-full of New Year’s resolution products and programs. (I Googled “New Year’s Resolutions” and got 34,600,000 results.)

Isn’t there anything better to talk about? (Perhaps it’s just a slow news month.) There’s a lot of energy put toward resolutions that are typically dumped or forgotten by the end of January.

Resolve to Go Weekly

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, because I know it’s an exercise in futility.

Here’s what I do instead: I create weekly goals. Each week I decide what I want to accomplish, whom I want to thank, and whom I miss talking to. That’s much more manageable, and I don’t forget.

Resolve to Go With Referrals

Here’s tip to get you started on the right foot: Top Tip #1: How to Ask for a Referral
When you just get a name, you’re making a cold call. Stop. Referrals make your calls HOT!

Thank You & Happy New Year

I’ve received so many lovely holiday greetings, and I sometimes wonder why we wait until December to let others know that we value their business, their friendship, and their contributions.

So, thank you. Thanks for all you do, thanks for weathering another year, thanks for committing to referral selling, and thanks for working as hard as you do to build your business.

Here’s to a great 2012!

Resolutions, Challenges & Sales Success! Comment

What are your greatest sales challenges this year? Comment here and let’s clear the hurdles together.

I know it’s PC to be green. We all want to protect our environment, and a decrease in paper consumption is always a good thing. But I’ll be honest: I do love receiving a paper card in my real-life mailbox.

Life Is High Touch

Thank you for all of your heartfelt holiday messages. Special thanks to those of you who took the time to buy a card, write your message in the card, stamp the card, and mail it.

All of your cards now decorate my fireplace. I love opening the cards, reading the messages, and reflecting upon how I know you—whether we know each other through personal or business friendships. I love catching up on your families, your travels, and your work.

(For the record, I believe in a paper follow-up in sales, too. Read, “The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up”. Trust me, a paper note is rare, noticed, and appreciated now, more than ever.)

My Inbox Is Work

I noticed my behavior as I received email after email with holiday greetings. I thought, “Yikes, it’s year end, I’m swamped, I have plenty of business emails in my inbox that I must read, when am I going to read this one…and the next one…and the next one? Some of you even included videos in your messages. Very clever, but it takes me even more time to look at those.

I know some of you like to read these messages on your smart phones or computer tablets as you run from place to place. I don’t.

My Mailbox Is Personal

I like to sit and read my cards. Yes, sometimes I watch television at the same time, but I only read your cards during commercials. Your messages make me smile, recollect, and realize how fortunate I am to receive your note. And how honored I am that you took the time to buy a card, write a message, stamp the card, and mail it to me.

Thanks for staying in touch the old-fashioned way.

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Trust me.”? Uh, huh. Sure.

Some people engender trust immediately. Most don’t. Those who do have a special way about them:  they exude self-confidence, and they connect and contribute. Others—well, others we would never trust.

Shake the Sales Rap

Salespeople know that trust can be difficult to achieve. Alas, sales has a bad rap. I believe this is because most consumers view salespeople as pushy, arrogant, in your face—pushing product, and wanting only the quick sale. (The used-car salesman scenario comes to mind.)

When we encounter a really good salesperson (unfortunately, sometimes few and far between), they do right by their customer:

• They listen
• Offer suggestions
• Are empathetic
• Ask good questions
• Refer someone else if their solution is not a fit

Yes, they’re willing to walk away, but not before they help you out.

Earn Trust and Deliver

So what is trust, anyway? There’s commentary and research about what trust means and why we trust people. In a recent Wall Street Journal Article, “Trust Me”, Robert Hurley, professor at Fordham University and author of “The Decision to Trust”, outlines five principles to follow to embed trust in our companies. His premise is that we don’t have a crisis of ethics in business, but a crisis of trust.

He further states that the most trusted companies have lower employee turnover, higher revenue, profitability, and shareholder returns. Who wouldn’t want that—no matter what size our company?

Finally, we have a way to think beyond trust as something that’s nice to have, but now we have a checklist for specific ways to build trust.

The Five Principles to Demonstrate Trustworthiness

1. Show that your interests are the same. We trust people when they serve our interests.
What does this mean for us? Always focus on your customers. Clients don’t care about us. They only care about what we do for them and how our solution impacts their business.
2. Demonstrate concern for others. Do the right thing, even if you make a risky decision.
What does this mean for us?  Be willing to walk away if your solution is not a fit. Share information you’ve heard from others, even if the news is bad. Someone needs to say what’s really going on.
3. Deliver on your promises. Follow through and execute.
What does this mean for us?  Do what you say you’re going to do. The fortune is in your follow-up.
4. Be consistent and honest. Trust comes from always striving to honor one’s word.
What does this mean for us? When you make a promise, deliver on that promise. No one cares about good intentions.
5. Communicate frequently, clearly and openly. Because trust is largely about relationships, communication is critical.
What does this mean for us? Err on the side of frequent and open communication. That means not just email, but phone and in-person conversations. And how do you build trusted relationships? One word: Referrals. (Here’s how to ask for a referral.)

Bill Wiersma, in his book, “The Power of Professionalism”, quotes Warren Buffet:  “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”

Bill continues: “Trust is to human capital what money is to financial capital. Of those few things to get right, trust is on the top of the list.”

Earn Trust By Doing Right

Comment & Continue the Conversation

I believe in the power of referrals and the power of being honest, forthright, and serving my customers. Trust is an everyday action item. How do you demonstrate trustworthiness in your sales business? What are your greatest challenges? What’s at the top of your list?

Comment here.

Why is it the one of the first things we hear from a software salesperson is “I’d love to give you a demo”? Of course you would. You want to show me your cool technology with all the bells and whistles.

Bells and Whistles and Disinterest

You haven’t even taken the time or shown interest in my business challenges.

I just attended a trade show and that was pretty much the dialogue I heard. Yes, I know it’s tough working a trade show. I’ve worked more than my share. But really… how about asking a few key questions and learning about me?

You see, I don’t care about you and your cool technology. I only care about what you can do for me. And the same is true with every one of your prospects and clients.

Read, “Attention, Salespeople: Your Clients Don’t Care—Top salespeople deliver true business ROI. Do you?”

Sound harsh? You bet. But the harsh truth is that we easily slip into our corporate jargon and forget that we’re not here to push product. We’re here to connect the dots between the client’s problem and our solution. It’s hard work, but if we leave the work to the client, we won’t get the sale.

The “Pain Point” Is Not Technical

My client, a sales vice president, clearly communicated to her sales team that their job is to understand and help clients solve their pain. Their pain is not technical. It’s at the business level. My client challenged her sales people to leave their engineer at the office and make the first sales call themselves. Their goal was to ask questions and uncover the pain. Period.

Of course you’d love to do a demo—but not until you know the pain. The problem is never the technology.

Move through the Pain to Progress

What’s your greatest sales process pain point? How do you address your clients’ greatest concerns? Comment here.

My colleague in New Zealand, Graham McGregor, has recently released an amazing 396-page eBook loaded with useful marketing tips, techniques, and strategies.

The Unfair Business Advantage Report includes interviews with 32 top sales and marketing experts (including yours truly) from 5 countries. Graham has made this eBook available to the No More Cold Calling community free of charge. 

• Click here for your copy: When you get to the landing page, scroll to the bottom, fill in minimum information, and you’re in business.

Gain Your “Unfair Business Advantage”

The report is a treasure trove of helpful sales and marketing strategies. I invite you to grab your complimentary copy at www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com.

These sales and marketing pros share their favorite strategy or tactic and show you how to apply it quickly in your own business.

Sneak Peek

• Legendary marketing strategist Al Ries shares the one thing he advises all his business clients to do if they want to be amazingly successful.
• Business expert Michael Port explains how to get ‘booked solid’ with new clients by using a simple strategy that takes only 10 minutes a day and costs no money.
• Marketing consultant and best selling author Jeffrey J. Fox  shows you how to “dollarize” the real value of all your products and services: easily outsell low-priced competitors and still bank super-healthy profits.
• Copywriting expert Bob Bly shares a great strategy to charge higher prices and attract better clients who are eager to buy from you.
• Fred Catona, the pioneer of direct response radio, shares the exact formula he used to take one client from a standing start to more than a billion dollars in sales in less than 18 months. (Use this same formula to add an extra six figures or more in profits to your bottom line in a surprisingly short time.)
• Dave Garofalo shares the “outrageous” thing he has done for the last 17 years to become the highest-volume retailer of premium cigars in the United States. 
• Marketing expert Bob Serling explains his super-simple system to instantly create brand-new sales and profits for 95% of his clients.
• Dr. Ivan Misner founded BNI, the largest business networking organization in the world. Ivan explains how to use the VCP Process of Networking ® and why it is so effective in creating new sales and clients. 

Plus a goldmine of proven profit-making and sales-boosting strategies from many other top sales and marketing experts.

Get the Inside Track: Download your free copy of this amazing new marketing resource: Click here to get your Unfair Business Advantage Report now.

Consider this sales scenario: You conduct a great meeting with a business prospect, engage in smart conversation, and exchange ideas. The sales prospect:
    •    Thanks you for the insights you provided
    •    Agrees that your solution meets their needs
    •    Engages in a preliminary discussion and understanding about pricing
    •    Asks you to prepare a proposal
    •    Goes so far as to discuss start dates for the project

You leave the sales meeting excited and confident that you have the deal. The customer gave you every buying signal you ever learned.

(Related: “How to Seal the Deal with Real-Life Results”)

Sales Success Starts Before the Follow-Up

You write the proposal, review with your team, include detailed pricing and timelines, and send the proposal to the client with a well-crafted email.

Silence.

You call, you email. Silence.

You’re dumbfounded. What went wrong? What happened to the great relationship you thought you had? Why won’t your sales prospect return your messages? I certainly don’t know, but you need to.

Maybe they got busy, went on vacation, changed roles within the company, or ran into barriers for approval and feel too embarrassed to talk to you. Maybe it’s none of these.

Assume Nothing, Predict Everything

If we assume that you uncovered all of the prospect’s needs, and we also assume:
    •    The prospect has complete knowledge of the impact of your solution on his business
    •    The prospect has decision authority
    •    You know and understand the approval process
    •    The prospect understands your pricing…

What could you have done differently? Could you have prevented this crushing sales scenario? Yes, here’s how:
    •    Prepare a Discussion Document, which summarizes the business issues, the ROI of your solution, and a pricing range
    •    Schedule a time to review this document before you leave the meeting

You put a lot of thought and work into a Discussion Document or Proposal. Don’t ever agree to write one unless you have a follow-up meeting on the calendar.

Everyone Has a Job (the Prospect, Too)

Never leave a meeting with a list of things for you to do and nothing for your prospective new client to do. Everyone needs an assignment. Without one, your client isn’t invested in the solution. Engage him in his success: You may ask him to provide you with materials to review, to conduct research, or survey his internal team. Whatever you decide is appropriate: Make sure your sales prospect has a task.

And, always, always, leave your meeting with another meeting scheduled. If your prospect is noncommittal, that should be a huge red flag that you have been too quick to jump to a proposed solution.

Double Your Sales

Of course, the most successful business-development plan is one based on referrals. Get started now: How to Ask for a Referral.

What’s Your Winning Sales Secret? Comment Here

What’s your greatest sales-close challenge and solution? A great sales presentation is a well-prepared conversation. What helps you seal the deal? Comment here.