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Recently I spoke with OpenView Venture Partners Managing Director Brian Zimmerman about the importance of having a strong value proposition as you build your company. Listen to the audio.

Too many sales managers assume that their reps are all on the same page, when in fact many are sharing fractured pieces of the value their company brings. They have a slanted point of view, based on what they sell, who they talk to and what their prospects tell them. It is critically important to do regular mini-sessions as a team to get your entire team – inside sales and outbound sales – with clear written and conversational communication about the business value they can bring to prospective client companies.

Think of it more as a quarterly tune-up, not an overhaul. As a sales leader you want to help tweak the messaging to get to the business value, and incorporate power words – words that are stronger than others and help exude confidence in what you do and say. They are not cheesy or expected – words need to be selected carefully, and a shift of just one or two words can change everything. A shift of tone or energy can change everything – so it’s not just what you say but how you say it.

Michael Boylan on putting TEETH into your value proposition

Geoffrey Moore on elevator pitches

Jill Konrath on value propositions 

What are your power words and how do you message what you do to prospective customers?

Lori Richardson of Score More Sales was recently ranked as one of the Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012. Read the award-winning blog and sign up for the twice-monthly newsletter  with sales tips to grow B2B revenues.

As a seller you are working hard to create a full pipeline (funnel) and now that you have all of these companies and some actual sales opportunities on your radar, how will you bring them to closure?

Here are 5 tips to help you gain and nurture more sales opportunities:

1. Re-educate yourself and all that you know about selling. Start by reading about the Buyer Experience Funnel and how the buyer’s process has changed to being nearly unrecognizable by old school sellers. Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions has written a four-part series called, Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum where she talks about the BEF and the very fluid content marketing continuum. She is one of the smartest people I know on the topic, and anything she writes is worth reading.
2. As a mid-market company, you likely do not have as many formalities such as written sales processes and a clear set of tools to help you build revenues. Work to gain clarity on creating a formal process once marketing has sent potential leads to sales. If you are even less formal and have combined marketing and sales, create a clear roadmap to sales closure for each and every customer scenario. This becomes the foundation for scalability and in training new reps.
3. Work closely with marketing so that you are getting good educational content to where your prospective customers are before they contact you. According to IDG Connect*, less than 40% of buyers say they spend their time in the buying process either  interacting with your sales team or reviewing promotional content. The other 60+ percent of your future customers say they are:
   1. In discussions with colleagues (23%)
   2. Searching the web (19%)
   3. With educational content (19%)

[*source: How Online Publishing Changes the Game, Albee]

  4. We know it takes ongoing follow-up to not only reach your prospective customer but actually interact to add value – so where is your plan to do this? It needs to be incorporated into your process and understood by marketing and sales.  Most mid-market sales teams either lack the leadership to create and make sure reps follow a clear and specific nurture plan or they are simply ignorant about understanding their future customer’s buying cycle. We could spend 100% of our work with our clients in this area, so we know there is a great opportunity for your company to put a roadmap together on how to continuously add value with your more-probable prospective customers.

5. Refine and refine again. Look closely at your messaging – what sellers are saying and how they are saying it. Take a random sampling of emails going out to prospective customers as well as any other follow-up communication. Is it clear? Is it compelling? Does your rep sound excited and are they able to convey that to prospects? Is it free of mumbo-jumbo terminology and focused on adding business value to the client company? Coach your sales reps on this regularly – not just when they are new in the on-boarding process.

Don’t forget that it is ok to simply pick up the phone and call your prospective client to ask a direct question or two about the opportunity. Many times they are deluged with other issues, and sometimes they really don’t see the value to move forward as you do (or others around them).

Try these ideas and post comments as to how they work. If you already use some of these, post as a comment what has worked best for you. When you do that, it helps others.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Lori Richardson is recognized as one of the Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012 and speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside and outbound sellers in technology and services companies. Subscribe to the award-winning blog and the “Sales Ideas In A Minute” newsletter for tips and strategies in selling.

Just a quick post to share a tip posted today over at Jill Konrath’s Fresh Sales Strategies Blog encouraging sellers to be more succinct, and to communicate in the way that your prospective customer wants. Can’t stress it enough – this is one of the biggest foundational issues for success in selling.

Jill is doing a whole series on what salespeople should never do - based on an interview that Forbes Magazine did with her.

Years ago when I started in B2B sales, there was one way to keep track of customers and prospective customers – writing on lined, yellow note pads and putting these precious notes into manila file folders. appointments were kept in our Daytimers and planners – all paper based. Some of my sales colleagues would hand-write on the tabs of the file folders  and add tabs to hanging folders– these tools were our “lifeline” to keeping track of potential sales opportunities and all our connections.

Once Microsoft Outlook came out, well – life was anew. Some of us cutting edge sellers gradually started to trust this system to corral all of our contact information, flawed and all – and then the advent of big, high-end customer relationship management systems started to appear. For many years they were cost-prohibitive for small and mid-market companies.

In 2012 there are so many tools to help you with keeping track of business, of clients, of prospects, of deals, of appointments, of webinars, of client communities – we are on overload. Time to step back and focus on what is most critical –

People.

People do business with people – not with companies – not with CRM tools. The growing community interaction online and how brands and businesses are integrating into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest is staggering.

Keep your focus on people, and use tools to having conversations with them. Whether you are with a Fortune 500 company or a mid-market business, you won’t suddenly have transactional virtual business replacing multiple, trust-building phone or in-person conversations. Some of the latest web tools are amazing – but they will only give you an ASSIST in building business. They don’t take the place of a phone meeting, a conference call, or an in-person meeting with your voice and your part of a 2-way interaction with them. Yes, you can offer video messaging – it is a huge step beyond words and still photos.  But once you do that, you need to follow-up through voice messaging and connecting live.

If you sell anything that has some nuance or complexity to it, there is no replacement for human interaction. As a seller, work on these two things:

Your communication skills – what you say, how you say it, who you say it to, and how often

What you say is your pitch, your blurb, your intro. This is the point where you have just seconds to engage your reader or listener. If you lose them, they are gone. It’s very hard to get them back.  Work on this! Share the value that you bring to your prospective customer, not how great you and your company are.

How you say it is about your conviction, belief, and passion for your area of expertise. When people do not hear or feel the confidence in your voice or words, you can lose them and not get them back.

Who you are communicating to is critical – if you are not reaching those involved in decisions, you are at a big disadvantage, because these folks will basically be selling you to others. Is that what you really want? Work to understand who all is involved in the project and find ways to loop them in.

How often is your follow-up, which leads us to the next point – whether you have a single or multi-faceted strategy for follow-up.

Your multi-faceted strategy – do not just follow-up by email or Twitter DMs. At some point, suggest or create a call, or send a note, or create a short video and send it to your prospective customer.  This does not always work, but it is clear that just because YOU prefer Twitter your prospect may not – or your DM might get lost. If they DO prefer this as a communications vehicle, you’d be foolish to keep calling them by phone or sending emails. Be flexible, and when you do connect, ask them how they prefer to communicate.

Follow up is often confusing to sellers -  how often to follow-up, and at what point do my many follow-up attempts become a liability? The answer is a bit long-winded – if you believe you have a service or a product that will greatly help or support your prospective customer, it is upon you to follow-up until the point that they understand your offer and accept it or turn it down. In other words, you don’t just stop following up because you don’t hear back from them. Space your contact out – unless there is a time-based deadline, you will follow-up on an on-going basis. The problem for most sellers is that they are just “checking-in” (that’s what you do at an airport, not with your prospects) and not always thinking of how to add value. We’ll talk more about ways to do that in a future post.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Lori Richardson is recognized as one of the Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012 and speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside and outbound sellers in technology and services companies. Subscribe to the award-winning blog and the “Sales Ideas In A Minute” newsletter for tips and strategies in selling.

Today in most of the Western world, Valentine’s Day is celebrated. Valentine’s Day makes me think of passion, love, and romance. From a business standpoint, you can fall in love with the process, methodology, and tools you use to build sales – because your mastery will result in you growing sales. If you don’t love it, or even like it –  we highly recommend outsourcing some of  it. Why? Because when you love what you do, it does not seem like work, it is simple, and it can become a strength. For those who think that follow up to prospective customers is a chore, I would ask if you think it is a chore to go online to your bank account and watch your money grow? It’s all relative, isn’t it? [Note: most people don't follow up enough. Just by focusing on this one aspect of selling - the actions of following up with prospective customers - when done properly - WILL grow revenues.]

Here are 5 ways to boost your revenues, so you can fall in love with  this aspect of business building:

1) Be clear on the value you offer. Clarity – what it is that YOU do (your company does) that differentiates you and might cause someone to do business with you rather than someone else. You gotta know this!

2) Really know who your prospective customer is – who are they, and what makes them tick? This is called demographic and psychographic research. It helps you to find your prospective customer where they are, and it helps you find potential referral partners who also work with your niche.

3) Have a plan – 5, actually…. if you are a larger business, this is basic stuff. Every business needs a baseline business plan – the roadmap for your business growth and to keep employees’ focus. You need a sales plan and method of growing revenues on an ongoing basis. Some companies integrate their marketing and social strategy into the sales plan. The financial plan is the backbone of business growth and success – don’t just bring money in but grow profits while you are at it. Finally, have a plan for work / life “balance” – at least have the plan to shut business down out of your mind enough to participate with family, friends, and those you care about in a way that works for everyone involved.

4) Do a “Monday Morning Check-in” with your sales team. Even a solopreneur can team up with a like-minded business building entrepreneur to do a twice-weekly check in. Monday you declare what business activities you are working on, and on Friday you review what business building activities actually happened. Roll those activities that didn’t get done into the following week. This will keep your focus on revenues on an ongoing basis.

5) Respond to the Market – Was your website last updated in 1999? Do you know that when people meet you or hear about you, the web is the first place they go to check you out? In years gone by it was the receptionist  who made the first impression to your business – now it is your online profiles, articles, blogs, and other searchable activities. If you have an outdated presence, it gives the impression that you are slow to change – if you don’t want this image, you can alter it. Better to have one great webpage that you direct people to than a bigger, poor website.

What is just ONE area of business you can think about updating? What area did you just update? Brochures? Sales collateral? Your Newsletter? Post your comments and suggestions below – it always helps others, and can help you to articulate it.

Lori Richardson is recognized as one of the Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012 and speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside and outbound sellers in technology and services companies.  Follow the award-winning blog and subscribe to the Sales Ideas in a Minute newsletter for tips and strategies in selling.

What is the value of a saw if you never sharpen it? Having a dull saw will not allow you to get the results you desire when cutting wood. What is the value of dental floss if you don’t use it? The same is true with any cloud-based (SaaS) tools to help you in your business – they must be used, and used properly for you and your company to benefit.

Many still think that CRM tools are underutilized because of two things:

1) many that are widely in use are still deemed too complicated and

2) because most salespeople don’t want to spend time on administrivia. We need to bring the value of the tools – whatever they are – to the sales reps and show them what is in it for them. What is in it for a busy sales rep or sales leader who would prefer to spend any administrative time instead being in front of an extra prospect or two?

For starters, sales leaders benefit big time with a good, solid way of tracking metrics:

What are the steps in your sales process? These must be documented, and your CRM tool needs to be set up to support your process. You have multiple processes depending on the client? This also can be set up within a good, robust CRM system.

How long is your sales cycle? This is extremely valuable information because through knowing an average number, combined with pending sales opportunities, you can create a fairly accurate forecast.

What is your sales forecast? One way or another, you need to have an idea of what deals are out at least 30 and 60 days. Some companies have longer sales cycles and can forecast much further out. These numbers directly affect headcount and profitability and have all sorts of financial implications.  Note: This means your sales reps need to understand what “qualified” is – not just “hopeful.”

What new opportunities are there? How many actual phone meetings or web conferences or in-person meetings are scheduled at any given time? Once you know each sales reps’ close ratio, you can further solidify future potential business.

What activities are going on that will lead to new revenues? Even if business is not closing this week, what are sales reps doing – how many outbound calls, how much response to inbound leads, how much customer service is happening – all metrics that should be understood.

Sales reps:

What if you could determine your annual income for this year? Good metrics can and will help you accomplish that (assuming your comp plan isn’t too convoluted).

What if you could be the most professional sales rep in your industry? Good data will do that for you. By setting next actions with clients and prospects, you will always have a future with that company. They will not fall through the cracks – something that does happen every day in business. Tomorrow’s big opportunity got put on a sticky note or was written down in the wrong place on Evernote and voila! Your competitor is now working with that next big project you should have had. Using a no-fail system to keep everything in about your prospective customer will prevent this from happening.

What if you could see trends with long time clients? Good data will do that for you as well. Before your boss wonders again this year when your client will place their reorders, why not have a system that will give you this information? You can cut down on hours of meetings and emails by being efficient and having real data to compare year over year.

Finally, a good system with clean, updated data will help you be your very best. You will actually save time (I know some people still dispute this) and will be able to make touches to your customer base and prospective customers much easier when your information is tagged and you have a marketing system connected in with this data. You have web visitors’ data going right into your CRM system, and your sales process actions mapped out for next steps.

Remember data does not work alone – it takes you to get it where it needs to be.

Before you shake your head and say it doesn’t work this way, see what others in your space or region are doing. Keep an open mind – open minds will often find small shifts (and sometimes larger ones) that create big boosts in profits.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Lori Richardson is recognized as one of the Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012 and speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside and outbound sellers in technology and services companies. Subscribe to the award-winning blog and the “Sales Ideas In A Minute” newsletter for tips and strategies in selling.

Since the beginning of my sales career I knew of Zig Ziglar – the Southern, memorable motivational speaker that sales people loved to hear preach about life, about setting and attaining goals, and creating the life of one’s dreams. His “Zigisms” or sayings that many of us remember years later make for perfect Tweets, according to Tom Ziglar, his son and CEO of Ziglar, Incorporated. Zig’s stories, seminars, and quotes have made a great impact on my life and in my success after starting out as a teenaged, single mom. We had a fun conversation talking football quarterbacks, Super Bowl,  sales, and creating dreams. Listen for the Ziglar tips for success, and find great resources plus a free chapter of the Ziglars’ new book at Born to Win.

Special thanks to Zig Ziglar (and Tom) for everything that Ziglar, Inc does. Be well, Zig… at 86 years young – you are still very much relevant and appreciated.

To listen to the interview click here.

Lori Richardson is recognized as one of the Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012 and speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside and outbound sellers in technology and services companies. Sign up for the award-winning blog and the Sales Ideas in a Minute Newsletter for tips and strategies in selling.