Posts by Erica Stritch
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- Free Webinar: The Missing Link to Winning More Sales
Date: Thursday, May 30, 2013
Time: 2 p.m. ET
Duration: 45 minutes
Presenters:
Mike Schultz, President, RAIN Group
Author, Rainmaking ConversationsJill Konrath, Sales Strategist
Author, SNAP Selling & Selling to Big CompaniesYou’ve likely been taught that in order to win the sale, you need to listen to your prospects’ needs and present compelling, effective solutions. But there’s a problem—everyone else has been taught the same thing.
In today’s competitive sales landscape, you must take an additional step if you want to stand out from the crowd: you must collaborate.
If you treat your prospects as partners, and work closely with them to find the best solutions to their problems, your success rate will be much, much higher.
In this fast-paced and engaging session, RAIN Group President Mike Schultz and sales expert Jill Konrath will discuss why collaboration is so essential to your sales efforts and how you can use it to separate yourself from your competition.
Click here to register (limited seats available).
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- RAIN Group Brings Home 6 Top Sales Awards
The votes have been counted and the results of the 2011 Top Sales Awards are in. We are thrilled that RAIN Group brought home 6 awards in total including the gold in 4 categories:- Top Thought Leader: Mike Schultz and John Doerr
- Top Sales Book: Rainmaking Conversations
- Top Sales Resource Site: RainToday.com (taking home the gold for a second year in a row)
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- Vote for the 2011 Top Sales Awards
It's that time of year again when all of the "Best of 2011" blog posts, newsletters, and magazine articles are coming out – from the best new business books to the best restaurants in every city.This year we are thrilled that RAIN Group and our online publication RainToday.com have been nominated for an unprecedented total of 7 Top Sales and Marketing Awards.
But the voting ends tomorrow!
With stiff competition in each category, we need all the voting help we can get. If you find that we're deserving and you would be willing to vote for us, we're up for:
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- 3 Ways to Get Cold Prospects to Talk to You
Use these 3 techniques, and you'll warm up cold prospects and fill your pipeline.Cold prospecting – reaching out to targets you don’t know to generate an initial meeting – is one of the hardest parts of sales. Partly, it’s a numbers game. With decision makers more insulated than ever, it’s getting harder and harder to get past gatekeepers and beyond voicemail.
But what happens when you do get a cold prospect to pay attention – whether it’s because they picked up the phone, or responded to an email or a direct mail piece? Do you feel like you nail it every time?
Much prospecting success is determined in this first interaction. Many opportunities die here before you have a chance to engage.
What can you do to get cold prospects to shift from “go away” to “sounds good, let’s talk?”
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- 10 Ways to Boost Your Sales Success
Is there a silver bullet key to sales success?Wouldn’t it be great if there were a silver bullet that would make you more successful in your sales efforts? One thing you could do to really boost your sales success?
I hate to disappoint, but the reality is, there is no silver bullet. Sales success takes hard work and commitment along with skill and savvy.
While there is no one thing that will work for you, there are a number of things you can do to help boost your overall success. You can start by following these 10 sales tips...
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- I Hate Selling: So Now How Do I Convert Leads (and How to Win an iPad 2 – Today Only!)
Our friend John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing is doing a fun giveaway each day this week to celebrate Small Business Week. We at RAIN Group are happy to be a part of that today.Our very own Mike Schultz is featured today on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog, and you could win an iPad 2 by just giving his post a read.
Thing is, you may not know which post is his.
Let me explain.
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- $5.00 and 30 Minutes of Your Time—In Aid of the Japanese Disaster Fund
How would you like to get sales advice from some of the top sales experts in the world for $5.00? You can by attending the online presentation of your choice during the 2011 Sales & Marketing Success Conference beginning Monday, May 9th through Friday, May 13th.
Organized by Jonathan Farrington, over 35 sales experts are each giving 30-minute presentations on critical sales topics. What’s even better than the price is that, all the proceeds go to the recovery efforts of the recent Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident in Japan by way of the Red Cross Japan Disaster Funds. Help yourself while you’re helping others! Check out the full schedule now.
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- Dear Seller, Here’s Why I Don’t Buy from You (Avoid these Sales Mistakes and Adjust your Sales Process)
I write to you today, seller, because I want you to succeed.Dear Seller,
Sorry it didn’t work out this time, but I have to say “no.”
I tried to buy from you, but too many things got in the way. You made too many sales mistakes that ended up losing you the sale. This has happened to me more times than I’d like to admit in the last few months. If you’re trying to sell to me, and you’re willing to change a few things in your sales process, we have a good shot at making it happen next time.
Reading this letter is a great start. If you want the next time to turn out differently, here are a few things you can do to tip the scales in your favor:
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- Free Webinar: The Keys to Mastering Sales Conversations
Join us for this live webinar tomorrow, April 5!Much of your selling success depends on how well you lead conversations with potential clients - a lot has to happen between, "Nice to meet you", and, "Here's a check, let's get started." If you're like most sellers, you struggle to move these conversations towards the close.
To help, join us on April 5 at 2:00 p.m. ET for the live webinar, The Keys to Mastering Sales Conversations – In Person, on the Phone, and Online with Mike Schultz, President of RAIN Group, Publisher of RainToday.com, and co-author of the breakthrough new book Rainmaking Conversations.
During this webinar, you'll learn:
- How to convert more prospects into customers
- How to uncover your prospects' needs and sell the largest solution set - at the highest margin
- The secrets to running sales meetings that move you toward the close
- How web conferencing enhances the client relationship and cuts travel costs
Special Bonus: 10 lucky attendees will receive a free copy of our new book, Rainmaking Conversations.
Register today
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- The Keys to Leading Masterful Sales Conversations
It’s 4 PM on a Thursday and you’re about to meet the CEO of a major company you’d like to win as a client. The conversation starts as you walk into the office, approach the CEO, stretch out your hand, and say, “Nice to meet you, Jill. I’m Steve Webb.”
Fast forward to a meeting about 7 months later. You head into the office. Jill gets out from behind her desk and says, “Good to see you again, Steve. Here’s a check for $1.2 million. Let’s get started.”
Suffice it to say, a lot has to happen to get from, “nice to meet you” to “here’s a check, let’s get started.” Yet two things are true:
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- Are Your Sales Presentations Putting Prospects to Sleep?
Keep your prospects engaged, and lead them to the next step.Imagine you’re a business leader, and you’re considering buying a new technology that could help your business succeed. You log in to the web presentation and, after a few pleasantries, the presenter starts in, “We started in 1978 by John Doe and have grown into the market leader in the space. We provide efficient effective solutions leveraging a unique combination of people, process, and technology to help you achieve results…Here’s a sample list of our clients…Now let me log in to the software. It’s all hosted online so you can login from wherever, whenever you need to…Over here is where you control admin rights of the users…”
Boring. Unfocused. Unhelpful.
At some point comes the time for every sales person to deliver a presentation. For some this may be early on in a demo of your product or capabilities, or to share a new approach to solving a problem. For others it may be later in the sales process as you present your proposed solution. In any case, delivering engaging sales presentations is a key to success.
Why, then, do so many professionals and sales people put prospects to sleep during their presentations?
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- Selling Professional Services in the New Economy
The New Rules of Selling Consulting Services in 2011Selling in professional services firms has changed. Gone are the days when repeat business and referrals were enough to grow your practice, when providing great service and results led to more business, when you were the only consultant, accountant, lawyer, or engineer on the block providing your specific service specialty.
Prospects are busier than ever, there’s ten-times more competition, and price pressure is rampant.
Despite these challenges, there are many service providers thriving in the new economy. To help you overcome the selling challenges and grow your firm in 2011, we’ve created the special report, The New Rules of Selling Consulting Services in 2011.
In this report, our very own Mike Schultz not only reveals the new rules for selling professional services, but also explains how you must transform the way you sell in 2011.
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- Best Sales Blogs, Online Publications, and Tweeters of 2010
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Last week I shared my top sales and business books of 2010. In this post I share part two of the “best of 2010” series with the best sales resources, blogs, and tweeters that I follow and find most helpful.- 3 Comments Topics:
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- The Annual Top Sales Awards: And the Winners Are…
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RainToday Takes Home the Gold for Top Sales Resource
I am pleased and honored that our online magazine RainToday.com was chosen as the Top Sales Resource of 2010. Thank you to everyone who voted for us and to the judges; we couldn’t have won without your support.
I’d also like to send a big thank you to Jonathan Farrington who did an excellent job putting together this much needed event. Bravo!
Congratulations to All the Winners
Winners were named in 10 sales categories and I encourage you to check all of them out. There’s a wealth of information to be learned from these sales leaders...
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- Best Sales and Business Books of 2010
- This post started out as one about the best sales books of the year. However as I was looking through my bookshelf I couldn’t help but add a few of my favorite new business books too.
So without further ado, here are my top reads of 2010 (in no particular order)...
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- Top Sales Resources of 2010: Cast Your Vote
It’s that time of year again when all of the “Best of 2010” blog posts, newsletter, and magazine articles are coming out – from the best new business books to the best restaurants in every city.The inaugural Top Sales Awards hosted by Jonathan Farrington is a new addition to this year’s lists. The awards recognize the best of breed in 10 sales categories, including the top sales resources.
I was honored to find out that our online magazine, RainToday.com, is nominated in the category of Top Sales Resource. With stiff competition in the category, we need all the voting help we can get. So click here to cast your vote for RainToday.com.
While you’re at it be sure to vote in some of the other top categories, including...
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- 5 Deadly Sales Call Sins
Sales people can slip at a variety of different stages during the sales process.People with kids tell me that sometimes you have to let them fail, even when you could have jumped in to save them, so they will learn. Painful to sit by and watch, but necessary for growth. After being on the receiving end of an awful sales call last week, now I know the feeling.
Poor kid (he could have been 60 for all I know, but he seemed like a kid), started sinking from the get-go. Since I couldn't dive in and save him, the future parent in me is dying to share the learning with someone. So here goes.
While I will protect the name of the innocent, I have summarized my favorite (if I can call them that) 5 deadly sins that pulled him down like a pair of concrete shoes in the Mystic River.
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- May 17, 2013
- Free Webinar: The Missing Link to Winning More Sales
Date: Thursday, May 30, 2013
Time: 2 p.m. ET
Duration: 45 minutes
Presenters:
Mike Schultz, President, RAIN Group
Author, Rainmaking ConversationsJill Konrath, Sales Strategist
Author, SNAP Selling & Selling to Big CompaniesYou’ve likely been taught that in order to win the sale, you need to listen to your prospects’ needs and present compelling, effective solutions. But there’s a problem—everyone else has been taught the same thing.
In today’s competitive sales landscape, you must take an additional step if you want to stand out from the crowd: you must collaborate.
If you treat your prospects as partners, and work closely with them to find the best solutions to their problems, your success rate will be much, much higher.
In this fast-paced and engaging session, RAIN Group President Mike Schultz and sales expert Jill Konrath will discuss why collaboration is so essential to your sales efforts and how you can use it to separate yourself from your competition.
- May 16, 2013
- "Your Fees Are Too High": Steps to Handling Objections That Will Get You Closer to the Sale
If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. - Anonymous
How many of us, as professional service providers, have heard from prospects, "Your fees are too high," "Someone else will do it for less," or "I don't see why I have to pay all that money just to have you do an audit, write a brief, create a marketing plan, etc.?" And, more important, how many resist the urge to simply lower our fees to get the work?
The answer: all of us and few of us. The problem with lowering our fees for a particular piece of work is that we forever have established our value as that lower amount. As our anonymous friend said, if we ourselves put a low value on our work, certainly no one else is going to suggest our value is any higher.
Why do so many of us fall victim to these worst tendencies? To answer this, we first have to look at objections in general and how they fit into the selling process for professional services...
- May 8, 2013
- Sales Call Planning: What to Know Before Every Sales Call
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Eighty percent of success is showing up. - Woody Allen
Woody Allen’s advice is pretty sound for salespeople as well, assuming you show up prepared.
We acknowledge that sometimes you do just show up (or—hallelujah—a prospect calls you out of the blue) and you haven't done any preparation for the sales call. It's reasonable to suggest that, on occasion, sales calls are appropriately deemed 'exploratory discussions'; the kind of discussion in which we just talk and 'see where it goes.'
Take this approach in most business development situations, however, and you'll lose more than your share of sales that you should have won. Interestingly, whether you have a two-thousand- or two-million-dollar price point, to increase your odds of winning new clients, you still need to do the same basic planning and know the same essential information before your sales calls.
Here are six sales call planning questions you can answer for yourself before every sales call that will help prepare you for business development success...
- April 29, 2013
- On Relationships, Solutions, and Challengers
Having spent two decades in the sales training and consulting world, I get asked all the time what I think about this or that sales approach or book. When I do, it tends to make for productive discussion and learning. Importantly, it helps people decide what’s right for them when it comes to selling.
Until now, I’ve never been asked about the same approach and book on a regular basis. That approach and book is The Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon. And now that we’ve published RAIN Group’s major research study, What Sales Winners Do Differently, we’re getting asked even more often.
Since we get asked often—and since it’s getting a bit old copying and pasting the same emails to clients and colleagues—we thought we’d open up the discussion to everyone...
- April 22, 2013
- New Sales Research: What Sales Winners Do Differently
After many months of significant effort, we launched What Sales Winners Do Differently this week. This report reveals data and insight from our in-depth sales research on what sellers do to win sales opportunities.
The results are both surprising and fascinating.
Where selling was just a few years ago, where it is today, and where it’s going: these are pretty hot, and hotly debated, topics.
Quite a few people, most notably the authors of The Challenger Sale, have declared the death of solution selling. You know an idea has gained mainstream credence when the Harvard Business Review publishes an article that takes a firm position on it. In this case, the article in the July-August 2012 issue was titled “The End of Solution Sales.”
No hedging in that title. Story over. The end.
We agree that sales is changing, but the question is how.
When we started this research, our goal was to find out what’s currently working in sales. Is solution selling really dead? If so, what should replace it? If not, since we know selling is changing, what do sellers need to do differently in order to find themselves in the winner’s circle more often?