Today's post is from Josiane Feigon, author of the bestselling book Smart Selling on the Phone and Online, the sourcebook for inside sales. Her Cubicle Chronicles blog is voted among the top 25 sales blogs. She is founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications, a 20-year veteran and thought leader of the industry, Josiane is recognized as one of the world's leading experts on inside sales team and manager talent, providing consulting, coaching, and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies. Visit Josiane's website: www.tele-smart.com to read her blog, purchase her book, and download her latest e-books and white papers.
Sales 2.0 sounds different. Gone are the ringing phones that sales managers used to listen for when they wanted to measure success. Gone is the time prospects once had for in-person, face-to-face meetings. When Customer 2.0 walks in, they ask us to kindly back-off from our traditional prospecting efforts. These folks are highly independent, like to self-educate online, are on the go, and don't want to be held in a headlock with fluff or slowly bored to death by PowerPoint. Most important: they view phone calls as a rude interruption.
Sales 2.0 sounds different. Gone are the ringing phones that sales managers used to listen for when they wanted to measure success. Gone is the time prospects once had for in-person, face-to-face meetings. When Customer 2.0 walks in, they ask us to kindly back-off from our traditional prospecting efforts. These folks are highly independent, like to self-educate online, are on the go, and don't want to be held in a headlock with fluff or slowly bored to death by PowerPoint. Most important: they view phone calls as a rude interruption. So if you can't hear the phone ring or visit them on-site, what DO you tune into? Stop, look, and listen for sales reps who have these cutting-edge online sales skills and technologies and aren't afraid to use them!
1. Keep your calendar alive. You can't just wing it any more -- thinking and planning is a daily must-do. Take out your calendar and schedule your outreach campaigns, your email drip marketing blasts, your online meetings with Outlook integration, your announcement tweets, your blog posts.
2. Know your tools and use them. Sales success is measured by a good working knowledge of tools -- a good phone voice alone just doesn't cut it anymore. Build a solid tool kit to help you throughout the sales cycle: from lead management, sales analytics, performance dashboards, and sales intelligence to online collaboration tools, such as Web conferencing, data integration, and social media.
3. Write it right. There's no way around it, content -- be it email or social networking -- is king. And effective, authentic content must come from you, not from marketing or the cut-and-paste world. Organize strong email templates and presentations and strategize on target list building and messaging to prospects at least once a week.
4. Join in the conversation. Become part of the conversation economy. Jump on the TweetDeck, participate in LinkedIn discussion groups, and join the Fanpage on Facebook. Engage in an online meeting on the fly when you have your prospect's attention.
5. Understand measured response. Salespeople need to measure response from their outreach efforts. Understand how unique views can catapult your sales efforts. Learn to react quickly to trigger events by observing and listening to your response.
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