I had actually set up a draft of this post several months ago (title only) and then had promptly forgotten all about it. Then a couple of weeks ago, one of our NetWorks! Boise Valley members, Justin Tarpley with CableOne Business, pipes up in the meeting and thanks everybody for the general shared leads that people had been providing and indicated that he had actually called on a number of these and had been able to successfully secure their business. I was floored. “Justin, let me get this right. You are actually calling on leads that were not specific referrals for you and you are making sales!!!???” Well, what a novel idea 

Referrals and introductions are great. We all love them. They provide us with a competitive advantage and a distinctly higher chance of closing the sale. However, they generally also have a couple of other things in common … 

• The prospective customer has already identified a need
• They have shared that need with the person who sends you that referral or introduction
• Most likely, they have also shared that lead with others who may also be referring your competitors if they have not already spoke to your competitors directly

So, you have an advantage but, you also find yourself in a competitive situation. For that matter, is your advantage any greater than that your competitor also enjoys? Maybe. Maybe not.

Did they call your company after looking in the yellow pages. Count the alphabetically listings before yours and identify your competition. Google search? Hopefully you have the best SEO. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter recommendations? Are you even active in social networking?

On the other hand, if I create a deal out of nothing by carefully prospecting, asking excellent questions, and then presenting the benefits of my product or service … I have an opportunity to create that need and secure that sale. The common inventory term, FIFO, also applies to sales. If I am “First In and First Out”, there is no competition. And you, my friend, are a true sales pro!

Related articles

• 20+ resources for prospecting, organising & researching link opportunities (skyrocketseo.co.uk)
• Keep Tabs on the Competition with Social Media Monitoring (radian6.com)
• Social Media for B2B Sales – 11 Tips for Building Better Client Relationships! (windmillnetworking.com)
• Social Media for B2B Sales – The 16 Rules of Engagement (windmillnetworking.com)

Have a target market that is business – We have made the choice to focus our groups on B2B vs. B2C. In this way, our members share a common target market. We do have members who do both and even have a few who I would say are primarily B2C. B2C members will rely largely on referrals and introductions vs. general leads. That’s great but, those do take more time as our current members will need to get to know that new member fairly well before they will directly refer them to one of their accounts or friends. At the same time, this B2C member will be expected to contribute B2B leads as that is the focus of our groups.

Provide a product or service that would be valuable to a large number, and different types, of businesses – Narrowly defined products or services, for example something that can only be used by a specific industry, will likely not be a good match for our groups. The wider your market, the more opportunities you will be presented with.

Have some skin in the game – We have some members who pay their own dues while others are fortunate enough to have their company pay those for them. Personally, if a member is compensated by his or her company at least partially by commission or based on performance bonuses, I think that they should pay for at least a portion of their dues. When you have a little skin in the game, you tend to take things more seriously.

Are compensated at least partially based on commission or performance – Commissioned based people are more likely to follow-up on general, or warm leads, that are generated by the group. As their compensation is based on results, they tend to be a little hungrier and I always like hungry.

Are tasked with finding and generating revenue from new business – Well, IMHO, everybody in a company should be tasked with finding new business. That being said, if that is not at least a part of your job description, I am not sure why you are even here?

Are not afraid to make warm or cold calls – They like to prospect and they thrive on the results. You are going to magnify your opportunities ten-fold if you are willing to do this.

Understand that networking is hard work – Networking is more than just showing up (although it’s a good start). It’s about participating, helping others, and doing all of that outside of the weekly meeting. 

Place the needs of their fellow members above their own – Givers do get. ‘Nough said.

Always contribute in terms of leads, referrals, or introductions and this includes when they miss a meeting – If “givers get”, then get giving. Even when you are not at a meeting, you will be receiving a copy of the leads that were shared by those who attended the meeting. If you are in town, and are not flat-out on your back, there is little reason why you would not be able to fax or email your leads, your contribution, in.

Meet with other members off-site in an effort to get to know them better and to leverage shared connections – This is magic yet, too few members do it. Learn more about each other. Share your contact lists. Talk about who you would like to connect to and see if your fellow member can maybe help.

Are not afraid, rather they relish, the opportunity to present their business to their fellow members - We encourage members to make presentations regarding their business, or if they have some other business-related skills or knowledge, to their group. I am constantly amazed by those who will do practically anything to avoid this opportunity. We also offer our members the chance to write articles for this site. Less than 10% have taken advantage of that to-date.

Make frequent use of the words “please” and “thank you” - And do it publicly as in thanking another member for their lead, introduction, or referral.

Promote their fellow members - Promote them in meetings and promote them to your customers!

Are always at meetings and always arrive on time because … they make it a priority! – The only time I miss a meeting is when I am out-of-town or on those rare occasions when I am deathly ill. When I point that out to others, their response is “You have to be at meetings. This is your business.” That’s true but, however you look at it, attending is a priority for me. Now, I know that there are times when other duties may have to come first. I’d like everyone to apply this rule. If I had a meeting with another important client, or I was going on vacation, or I was scheduled for surgery, would I miss this appointment to take another? If the answer is … “I’ll try to find another time for this meeting because I can not miss what I already have scheduled”, your weekly NetWorks! meeting should be the same because … it is a priority. If it isn’t, maybe you shouldn’t belong to our organization. Arriving on time? That’s a choice too. When you don’t arrive on time, I also assume that this is how you will treat anybody who I might refer you to. Fact is, I assume that when I look at all of your behaviors, good or bad. It is what it is.

Gather their leads to share during the week and not during the meeting. They are prepared – Better and more complete leads come based on preparation than they do based on panic.

Make every effort to vet their own leads for completeness and accuracy – You get upset when another member’s leads suck or are inaccurate. Please report these issues to me but, only after you have taken a good long look in the mirror.

Understand the difference between an investment and an expense and they are willing to invest in themselves – Stopping at Starbucks on the way to work for that $5 latte is an expense. Taking a client to lunch is an investment. Beers after work with co-workers are an expense. Belonging to NetWorks! Boise Valley is an investment. Expenses reduce the thickness of your wallet. Investments increase that thickness. If you have difficulty understanding this basic concept, don’t call me. I’ll call you.

Do you think that you have what it takes to be the consummate NetWorks! Boise member? Please take our 10 point questionnaire and then leave us a note!

A couple of days ago I needed to update a few of the plugins on the sites and this is a regular occurrence and a very simple process except that, on this day, the system would not allow me to do so on either site. After spending several hours with live chat support, and being consistently told that it was my issue and not theirs, and after having my requests to escalate this to a higher support channel flat refused, I gave up. I was done and I was done with them! That night, I contacted my web designer, Scott Prock, and informed him that we were moving. “Find me another host, I don’t care who, and get me and my sites the hell out of here and yesterday is already too late!”

Scott took it upon himself to contact the web hosting company, and this is a 1:00 AM, and managed to get them to create a ticket for escalated support. There was a response in my inbox when I got up the next morning which included a lot of technical jargon and suggested that it was fixed. It wasn’t. The next message I received indicated that it was now fixed, my server had been getting “flooded” and they cut off access to my WordPress updates to help stem the flood but, they had now made an exception to allow those to occur. Once again, I’d been hosed. The server that I was on was constantly getting hammered by traffic, authorized or not, from other sources and I was the one who was always paying the price. It might have been fixed but, we were still done with this company. Scott then suggested that we both write emails to their main support line and share with them our experiences. We did so and we let them have it with both barrels.

To my amazement, the messages started pouring in from several different departments and most appeared to be from upper management. One by one they fell on their swords (smart move) and they then told me that they were willing to move my sites to a new super server which had stats that I even I could appreciate. A conversation of healing continued. They did not attempt to throw money at me by way of free months of service which was also smart as money is not what I wanted and I would have been offended and disappointed by that offer. What they did do was they made it right. They moved my sites, followed up, and continued to ask me more questions about my experience and for any details that I could provide to help them to track down the parties involved and make sure that this did not happen again. They demonstrated concern.

I have spoken many times about the customer service experience. If your customer comes away from a transaction feeling that they got what they expected, I count that as a loss. Nobody remembers “what they expected”. If, on the other hand, you have exceeded their expectations, that is a win. Everybody remembers an expectation exceeded. Here’s another one for you and this is really the point of this post …

A negative customer service experience can be turned into an exceeded expectation, and an even stronger customer relationship than you would have had without the occurrence of the negative experience, provided that you correct that deficiency in a satisfactory and timely manner.

How can that be possible? Not that difficult to explain. If you are dealing with just about any product or service, there will come a time when something will go wrong and that will require some level of service. When nothing does go wrong, that meets my expectations (at least my hopes) and that is a neutral experience. If I am a realist I recognize that, at some point, I am going to need service and I am wondering what that experience will be like. Will they take care of my issues or won’t they?  Having spent the last week in the service lake of fire, I now know what I can expect from this company in the future. They stood up to the plate and they took care of me. If I were to move to another host … is the grass always greener or might it be brown?

Right now, I am a very happy. My sites are screaming fast. I have a closer relationship with this web hosting company than I probably would have had we not gone through this.  I would have to give them an “A+” for the final results but an “F” for the process that I had to go through to get to that “A”. I’ve told them that. Time will tell but, for now at least, I am willing to give them another chance to continue to earn my business. 

I know this to be true because I meet or exceed all of the above mentioned concerns. My focus tends to be task oriented. I’m intently private with all those who I am not close to. My cynical nature constantly fuels my privacy concerns. That being said, there is a HUGE difference between somebody who is social on the surface and somebody who is relationship oriented to the bone. Who will be more successful in the long run? The social butterfly who flits from person to person at a party or the relationship-builder who has deep and meaningful conversations with the few?

I know a lot of folks who are very much like me who have not yet made the move to becoming active on social networking sites. Here’s my advice if you wish to consider a move …

• If it makes you uncomfortable, don’t do it. I closed down my FourSquare account because, frankly, the whole thought of somebody knowing where I am and what I am doing flat creeped me out. 
• If there is something that you don’t want people to know about you, or what you are thinking about saying is intensely personal and reserved for the few, for cripes sake, don’t put it on the internet. Assume that anything and everything that you say or do will be read or seen by others. Apply that filter and you will be fine.
• Don’t be concerned about how well you are doing it, just do the best you can. Your best will already be far superior to what is already out there.
• If you are worried about whether or not your contributions will be appreciated, don’t be. Those who like what you have to say will be attracted to you and those who don’t won’t. It’s no big deal and it’s just like everything else in life.
• Maybe you will like Twitter but you will despise Facebook. Being active on one out of two is far better than being inactive on two out of two. Facebook, for me, is an uncomfortable platform at best but, I have learned to use it in a way that gives me both pleasure and comfort. OK … I tolerate it

And my biggest piece of advice of all? Don’t dismiss off-hand that which you have not investigated. At lest make an informed decision and roll with it from there.

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Jed Reese – Allegis Financial Partners – Financial Advisor – 208.631.4989 – jed.reese@allegisfp.com

Wondering what’s new in Nimble 2.0?

Nimble 2.0 has arrived and we think you’re going to love it!

Over the past 365 days the Nimble team been listening to your feedback. We heard when you said you wanted to integrate your Facebook Pages with Nimble, we listened when told us you needed the ability to add custom fields to contact records, and we understood when you said you needed more privacy options. All of your great feedback is the reason why Nimble 2.0 now exists! 

Nimble 2.0 focuses on three pillars: 

Social Discovery – Each day, it’s hard to know where to start strengthening your relationships.  Nimble makes this easy. Every morning Nimble sends you one email full of new engagement opportunities. You’ll also find one unified stream of all your incoming messages, requests, likes and more in the Notifications section under the Social tab.

Improved Usability – At the heart of Nimble is the contact record – the embodiment of the relationship with the customer.  Nimble contacts have an all new and improved user interface which effortlessly pulls together all related messages, activities, deals, and includes the contact’s live social stream.  Nimble has also added custom fields and tabs to support the unique ways our customers relate to their contacts.  In addition, Nimble is just plain faster throughout the application with improved navigation and better data importing tools.

Marketing Integrations– Nimble now includes the important ability to choose which messages to share with your team either by default or on a case by case basis. It also allows for powerful third party integrations with apps like Wufoo, HubSpot and MailChimp! 

The Nimble team invited a few beta testers to try Nimble 2.0 early and here’s what they are saying:

“What I love about this product is the user interface. It’s very easy to find relevant information when I need it. The integration with contact management, activity management, sales and marketing automation, traditional and social media communication tools, and collaboration features into one web-based solution makes it very convenient for people like me to get a pulse of what’s going on in my network.” Michael Brito, Edelman Digital

“Nimble is by far the most advanced of the cloud-based CRMs out there. I’ve tried SalesForce, Solve360, Zoho and Affinity Live. Nimble is the cleanest CRM that I’ve seen; and automatically pulls down social network profiles of all your contacts. Seamless integration with Google calendars (a first compared to all of the other CRMs listed above). It’s far more reasonably priced than SalesForce, and a far better product for Google Apps users. It’s obvious that it was started by the same minds behind Goldmine; and why Google invested in the company.” – David Schulman, CloudOPX

“Nimble is the bedrock of our engagement toolset which nurtures our client relationships so that we can successfully meet their needs with our programs and services. Thanks Nimble, for putting engagement first in your product.” – Israel Vicars, Aegis

“I use many different systems, some for team management, some for client communication, some for task and productivity. I recently started using Nimble and find that it is among the top 4 windows that need to be open on my desktop at all time. It’s a really intuitive CRM that connects my email, social media and contact and deal information in one easily accessible location. Highly recommended if you’re looking to make your business more efficient and productive.”– Steve Lack, Genlack

Visit the Nimble website to view all of the exciting new ways you can use Nimble to engage your community!

If you have any questions you can leave a comment below, email us at craig@salesresultsllc.com or tweet to us @craigmjamieson! Use this link to get a free 30 trial on Nimble Business today!

Attend any or all! You MUST register for each session that you wish to attend.

Session #1 – Introduction to NetWorks! Boise Valley – 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM – FREE

Without a doubt, and particularly in today’s economy, networking remains the most cost effective method known to increase your revenues. We’d like to introduce you to NetWorks! Boise Valley B2B Networking Groups and to our unique methods for achieving that goal. The best way that we can think of doing this is to invite you to come as our guest to a mock meeting where we will show you how we do it and why it works.

This will be a live meeting. You will meet other professionals from the area and you will also exchange contact information and business opportunities. This meeting will be open to all who wish to attend (up to our meeting capacity) and the only requirement that we have is that your business focus must be Business to Business (B2B) vs. Business to Consumer (B2C).  

Session #2 – Introduction to Social Selling – 10:30 AM – 12:15 PM – $29.00

The whole sales game has changed! Why? A large part of the reason is that your customers have changed. They are more mobile, more connected, and they are busier than ever. They are no longer satisfied to be merely spectators; they want to be a part of the process as well! While they still communicate on the phone and via email, they are also talking on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, they are talking to each other and, yes, they may be talking about you and your products. Learn the new rules, get back in the game, and engage to win!

Session #3 – LinkedIn for B2B Salespeople – 1:00 PM – 2:45 PM – $29.00

LinkedIn for B2B Salespeople – You are “on” LinkedIn but, are you really? When people look at your profile, are they moving right past it and looking elsewhere? Have you taken advantage of LinkedIn’s powerful applications to demonstrate your expertise? When people are looking for products and services in your area, whose name comes up first? How can you find new revenue opportunities on LinkedIn? Would expanding your network and further solidifying your business relationships be something of interest to you? These questions and more will be answered!

Session #4 – Introduction to Nimble Social CRM – 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM – FREE

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) programs have be widely available since the 1980′s. The problem is, they haven’t really evolved all that much since that time. Nimble is changing that! Your customers, and your prospects, are no longer wanting to communicate with you solely via email or the telephone. They are talking on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Google+ as well. Do you want to be a part of this conversation or maybe merely be the topic of it? Yes, your contacts are talking to each other about a variety of subjects including you, your company, and your products or services!

Nimble Social CRM has been developed by the ground up to tightly integrate all of your social networking activities directly into the CRM itself. It is fast. It is simple. It is … Nimble. It is designed to grow your business! At this session we will take you through a tour of this amazing application which is offered for free to single users (some limitations) or at a very low monthly investment for team environments.

Please register separately for each session that you choose to attend! 

Refreshments will be provided for all sessions and complete workbooks/materials will be provided for sessions #2 and #3.You will be notified by separate email of things you can do to best prepare for your selected meeting(s). 

Still, I hear this all the time … “My company won’t pay my dues”. Assuming that your compensation is at least partially based on your ability to generate new revenues, I’d have to ask … “Why should they?” Of course, if they do, that’s very nice but, if you can invest $100 (time and money) a week and get $200 back in return and you won’t do it because your company won’t pay for your dues, who’s not the sharpest knife in this drawer? If on the other hand, you are a salaried employee, I would expect your company to pay. Enough said about that.

Now then, since you have made the wise decision to make this investment, let’s talk about how to maximize your return:

1. You attend (you personally, not an alternate) a minimum of 75% off all meetings. This will be dependent on your particular groups’ bylaws.
2. You do a presentation to your group sometime during the first 6 weeks of membership.
3. You contribute a minimum of two written leads per week including those weeks that you may be unable to attend.
4. You meet with 6 other members off-site to get to know each other better and you do this quarterly.
5. You provide the group operator with a full-profile on you that is suitable for the groups’ website within 10 days of your start date.
6. You begin to take advantage of any and all of the group tools and resources that are available to you within 10 days of your start date.
7. You meet or exceed any and all of the other requirements for membership as specified by your group.

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

The following is a research paper recently completed by Boise State University students Angela Butler, Annie Densley, Susie Seltzer, and Teresa Kunz for a communications class. I think that it is well worth your read  and it does share information compiled from businesses in our local community. Susie also runs our NetWorks! Boise Twitter account and manages my Sales Results LLC FaceBook Page. Enjoy!

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of social media. The study focused on Twitter and Facebook in businesses within the Boise, Idaho area, and how local businesses compare to national business’s use of social media.  Additionally, researchers intended to determine if this type of marketing is regarded as effective when compared to traditional methods of advertising locally. Using a detailed survey on social media practices–distributed to 88 college students and local residents– the research team examined the online personal habits of social media users.  The data collected was used to determine how often individual social media users engage with businesses online and what contributing factors would cause them to do so. In addition to the survey data, 20 local businesses were interviewed on their utilization, or their lack of utilizing, of online social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.   The interviewers inquired if the businesses were present on SNS, what sites they used, and how they used them for business purposes. In addition to their presence on SNS, businesses were asked about their monitoring practices.  Further exploration inquired about any future plans the businesses might have with social media. The results indicated that local (Boise, Idaho area) businesses use an online presence with social media sites on average with national businesses.  Unexpectedly, we discovered that despite the use of social media sites locally, many of the business we interviewed were not monitoring their results or engaging with customers online.  The implication of this research is that Boise, Idaho area businesses are not using the sites as effectively as they could in order to gain a significant return on investment and time.

The main characteristic of any successful business is its ability to connect to a target audience and persuade consumers to buy products. Traditionally this was accomplished through advertising, referrals, or direct marketing, but these methods could be expensive, time-consuming and ineffective. The advent of the personal computer, internet, and social media is changing how companies do business. “Suits” no longer sit in a room devising the perfect marketing scheme to lure new customers to their products. In fact, companies are losing their ability to control the content of their advertising, the demographics they target and the image they portray. The masses are taking over; they sit home in their pajamas exerting their influence by “liking” and “fanning” products, services and companies (Bulmer & DiMauro, 2009).

Five billion people connect to the World Wide Web–via internet or mobile phone–to share astronomical amounts of data each week. As a result businesses are finding social media –Twitter and Facebook–to be their weapons of choice in the fight over marketing control (Bulmer & DiMauro, 2009). However, entering into social networking sites (SNS) to interact with customers may yield positive or negative results for both businesses and customers.

By studying social media’s impact on business we will show: how the marketplace is adapting to its insurgence, the payoffs for business growth and sustainability, and the difficult nature of tracking its influence. We believe this study to be both timely and relative to the impact–good and bad–social media has on business success. This study will be beneficial to any business, especially local ones, that would like to understand social media in an industry setting and learn how to embark in this type of customer engagement in a way that will be useful not only to the bottom-line but to the growth of customer relations.

Download the complete report … Social Media and Business

Import BlackBerry Contact Records – I have a BlackBerry 9780 and I also use Gmail via Google Apps. The only way that I have been able to sync contacts is by using the Google Sync application and it sucks. Half the time it doesn’t work and when it does work, it routinely doubles, triples, or quadruples half of my contact records. Even better, it does the same thing on my Google Account Google Sync will sync contact records and/or your calendar. It does a tolerable job with your Calendar (still duplicates some events) but I flat turned it off on contacts. I do understand that you may be able to correct this problem with a free version of  enterprise but that appeared to be a little too complex for my talent level. Cleaning up duplicate contacts on Google is pretty simple but on BlackBerry? There is no great way but, I did manage to find a .99 app called Contacts Cleaner and it rocks!

While Contacts Cleaner is great for cleanup, the problem remains with my inability to keep my BlackBerry contacts up-to date. Enter DropBox. First, install DropBox for BlackBerry on your phone. Go to your contacts in Gmail on your computer and then export the entire file in a .vcf format and then take that file and add it to your DropBox . From your BlackBerry, open your “Contacts” icon and then hit your menu button and you will see an option to “Import Contacts from DropBox”. Select that and it will take you to your DropBox application, find the .vcf file and select that, and you are on your way! It is incredibly fast and it also identified and merged my existing records. The worst case scenario is you still have Contacts Cleaner if needed. While this does not keep my contacts in sync, it is so fast and easy that it takes me a few minutes to update weekly and, as for me, I’m thrilled!

Transfer PDF eBooks to iBooks – I love my iPad2 and I also love iBooks. What I don’t love about iBooks is that there is no way to rename a .pdf file. You need to go to iTunes in order to be able to do that and now with iCloud, this means turning iCloud on and off so that you can sync with iTunes via your USB cable. I might be wrong about that but, regardless, it has to be done in iTunes.  I spent the better part of a day figuring out what I am going to share with you regarding renaming .pdf’s. The problem with eBooks is that while you see what you perceive to be a “title” is actually a “name” only. In a lot of cases the actual “title”, and this is what iBooks displays, can be something totally different. Things like “mytitle”, “slide1″,  or even “fkekksognjdklg”. And guess what? You can’t change those titles. To check, right click on the .pdf file and select “properties”. Go to the “PDF” tab to view the “Title”. If it is blank, the title will be the same as the name. If there is a title in there, and it is not something you want to have iBooks display, you have a problem. Fortunately, I was able to find a cool free utility on CNET called Quick PDF Tools that will give you the ability to change that title to whatever you would like it to be.

The next challenge is getting these files into  iBooks on my iPad and some are quite large which makes email cumbersome if not unusable. DropBox for iPad to the rescue. The first thing that I did was clean out all my existing eBooks. From there it is a simple task to drag and drop your renamed eBook files from your computer to your DropBox, open them on our iPad and then select to “Open in iBooks”. Now, I check the title on all eBook files prior to opening them in iBooks!

Hope this helps someone! I do believe that DropBox may also have some syncing capabilities. I’ll be tackling that next!

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• DropBox Saved my Data! (futuremusicindustry.wordpress.com)
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• Send your Screen Shots Directly to DropBox with CloudShot (beast4romtheeast.wordpress.com)