Be a Salesperson – Not a Politician (Perry Mason, Politics and Paychecks)

My latest cinematic masterpiece tries to explain the importance of answering questions that you are asked with actual answer as opposed to pivoting to something you think will make the questioner forget what he asked in the first place.

Why All Businesses Need a Mobile Website or: “I Don’t Think My Customers Use Smartphones”

There has always been a certain resistance to new technology – especially with small businesses. It’s a legitimate point of view that if you invest in every new thing that comes along you’ll be disappointed more often than not. The challenge is to be able to analyze what’s new and make an educated guess about how best to stay current.

Today, it’s more important than ever. Due to the technological revolution of the last 15 years or so, competition is deeper and wider than ever before. A locally run business can easily be challenged by an enterprise that primarily exists in the ether.

When competition for customers becomes fierce, the strong will survive. The strong competitor is defined as the one that provides the best value for the client. Value and service are everything. There is one caveat to that statement:

If your customers can find your competitors easier than they can find you – value becomes secondary.

Cool New Task Management Program Kanban2Go

I stumbled across this a few weeks ago.  It’s still in Beta so I’m not sure if it will look much different down the road but I think this has real potential for people who want a ToDo program that has a simple interface and a decent amount of flexibility.

For those of you who are, like me, stuck on the idea of having a program that will meet GTD standards, this might not be best.  I think, it would show diminishing returns when the number of tasks reaches a certain point – my guess would be around 50 but I’m not sure.

If you are not tied to the concept of every Next-Action becoming a separate task or if you are new to the idea of using a digital todo list, then this is worth looking at.   The visual interface is very easy to follow and adding or moving tasks is completely drag and drop.

I did a short video walk-through of what I’ve learned.   Check it out.

The Three Word Job Description

The following is from an actual job ad.

As the Account Executive, primary responsibilities will include outbound calling and selling, structuring, negotiating, and implementing contracts with eCommerce companies, Internet companies, and other relationships by performing the following duties:

• Generate new leads and sources for leads to expand and grow specific partner programs
• Seek out, research and qualify prospects
• Close sales to attain and exceed quota goals
• Collaborate with marketing department to develop strategies for establishing partnerships and business relationships
• Customize solutions to fit client needs
• Manage relationships and contracts with various prospects, clients, and partners in the eCommerce environment
• Provide input to the management team on new product or service features, quality issues, and customer needs and demands

There’s nothing wrong with that description. It details some specific activities that the salesperson will perform

but does this job description really get to the essence of what the job is all about?

Here is an exercise I learned many years ago. The idea is to take any occupation and describe the primary objective

Never Fear Losing a Sale

Hi. My name is Rick and I am a political junkie. [chorus of “Hi Rick”]

While I certainly have my own views on most issues, my addiction is primarily based on the fact that I find politics more entertaining than The Avengers.  I know this is sad.

Putting aside my personal demons, I heard something about 10 minutes ago on Morning Joe that really struck me.  Not so much from a political point of view but how it relates to sales.

Outside the Box and Ahead of the Curve

One of my favorite sketches from SNL’s  Wayne’s World  was when the guest star (memory eludes me) was a cool kid who was on Wayne’s show to announce what the new, cool word would be for the upcoming school year. That not only struck me as funny, it brought back memories of my own school days when it was very important to use the latest phrase.

The words seemed to evolve out of nowhere.   One day,we were showing approval to something or someone by saying it was “Neat.”  Then without warning we switched to “Groovy,” and then to “Boss,”  “Tough,” “Far-out” and on and on. Nobody really thought about who started it or why we all followed.

Think about it – do you have any idea who was the first person to wear a backwards baseball cap (other than actual baseball catchers – who have a legitimate reason.) 

Sales Pro Central Launch Today: Articles From The Best Sales Blogs

Sales Pro Central, a new site aggregating articles from some of the most read sales blogs launched earlier today. I was excited that Sales Addiction has been included in the charter list of  featured blogs.   Check it out at the link below and subscribe to keep updated on all the latest messaging from around the sales universe.

SALES PRO CENTRAL LAUNCH

Focus.com 2012 Technology Marketers Handbook

There are always great discussions going on at Focus.com. They’ve just released their 2012 Technology Marketers Handbook. Aside from the fact that I’m one of the contributors to the report, it’s a good read. Check it out.

View this document on Scribd

Noob Guide To Online Marketing (Unbounce.com)

I originally saw this on Pinterest. I haven’t read it all yet – but I will. There’s a lot of stuff. From what I’ve read so far, you will find at least some of it will be relevant to your marketing needs.

You’ll have to click it open in order to see the whole thing.

Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform

Sell the Gristle Not the Steak

Stay Right Here because These are The Good Old Days
When I turned 16 and got my driver’s license (yes – there were cars back then), the torch was passed to me  to become the official Grandma driver.  As my sister and brother before me, I now had the job of taking Grandma to the grocery store, where she educated me on how to select the best groceries.

Take frozen items from the back of the case; open the egg carton and make sure there are no cracks; pay close attention to the produce guy as he weighed your tomatoes or green beans.   These were some of the practical things that she taught me.   Other than the now extinct produce guy, I continue to follow Grandma’s rules especially as they relate to business.

Most of them made perfect sense to me — until one fateful day!

The Consequences Of Being Rude Online: 5 Things Not To Do In Online Discussions

Do As I Say, Not As  I Do
One of the mantras of joining the online global community is that what you post on the internet stays there forever and forever. We all have heard this so it always amazes me when I see some of the thing that people post in various types of online communal discussions. We always make sure to let our kids know not to post pictures or comments that they wouldn’t want college admissions folks to see.   Not everyone follows that advice themselves.

There are lots of places to post your thoughts and ideas online, for this article I’m focusing on the behaviors I see in Blog comment threads and Group discussions on forums such as LinkedIn or Focus.

A Double Edged Sword

The internet creates a level field where anyone can pretty much say whatever they like. This is a good thing for the most part. It gives you a chance to exercise your right of free speech. The other side of the sword is to remember that line from the Spiderman saga:  “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Sketiquette – 5 Behaviors To Avoid on Skype

The first time I saw a video phone call was the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing, NY.

It’s come a long way since then.  Real-time video calling is completely unremarkable today. It’s just the norm. For some reason, though, we naturally tend to think of these interactions as telephone calls and not as face-to-face meetings.  If you think about it, it doesn’t  get much more F2F than staring at a screen with the other party’s face all up in your face.

I’ve noticed that sometimes we (this includes me) do things that we oddly would not do in person, but we are very comfortable doing them on a Skype or other video call.  So here are a few things to avoid.

5.   Jammies, stained sweats, strewn about hair, 2-day beards.   I’m not saying you must wear a vested suit or a prom dress, but certainly follow the same rules