Salesconx Weblog

Traditional hiring methods aren’t best for salespeople – both full time and independent sales professionals. Studies show over half of salespeople are poorly matched to their work environment.

Job Boards are both ineffective and insufficient tools of sales recruiting, as the best candidates usually aren’t looking for new positions—they are too busy driving sales. These desirable “passive” candidates are often open to new opportunities…if they can be found.

We will take your opportunity to our network to recruit sales professionals interested in working for your company on a pay for performance basis. This is a 90 day program. During this time Salesconx will help build you a team and limit the risk and your time spent recruiting. We will get the team on our CRM to track their pipeline and progress. After 90 days you have an up and running sales team complete with pipeline. You then decide whether to (a) keep going with the virtual sales team or (b) retain (FT or Independent) those sales team members that are actually performing.

We believe that by partnering with organizations that are quickly securing new customers, gaining market share and disrupting competitors, we can provide clients and candidates the matches they need to achieve their goals. The best sales professionals (and those interested in commission only) usually aren’t looking for new positions, but these candidates are often open to new opportunities. However, these people need to be found. This is where Salesconx comes in with a rapidly growing network we find you the best in the industry. Our objective is to find top notch sales professionals with experience and an impressive rolodex. These are the people who are going to get you into your target companies and help drive revenue for your business.

Contact Us if you would like to learn more or discuss how we can help build a team and drive revenue for your business!

“I love it when a plan comes together” (Hannibal Smith, A-Team). While it might sound a bit corny, it is truly exciting to witness the execution of one’s planning and strategy. We started building sales team at the beginning of 2009 in parallel to our successful introduction marketplace. Our teams are now taking a life of their own as our Vertical Leaders are delivering pipeline and revenue for our clients and commissions and fees for themselves. From small business financing, to a sales team for one of the best toner companies in the industry (and publicly held) and leading edge enterprise social media SaaS platforms – our vertical leaders are driving sales far faster than we projected.

Our small business finance team has 6 Vertical Leaders around the US managing nearly 100 sales professionals. The team is now handling 4 unique products in the financing space that these folks are introducing to their contacts on a daily basis. Not bad for a team launched at the end of 2009.

Looking for a business to get involved in – try imaging and toner. As the title of my weekly online seminar goes, “Every Business Prints”. This $30b industry is dripping with opportunity and our client is the BEST in the business. Let me know if you are interested.

I welcome the opportunity to speak with you regarding your experience and requirements and how Salesconx could be leveraged to drive revenue for you.

Please email me at Evan@salesconx.com

PS – Please join our LinkedIn Group for more frequent updates and the latest opportunities.

The virtual (OnDemand) sales teams provided by Salesconx are the ideal solution for many businesses and organizations. Here are the Top Ten reasons for using a Salesconx virtual sales team.

1. Best in Class– Most companies simply don’t have access to the top sales people. Our network of top-quality sales professionals could be selling for you.

2. Focused sales effort –There is no company politics, or office chit-chat to distract them.

3. Flexibility – With a Salesconx Virtual Sales Team you can quickly ramp a team to target a new product launch or focus on a specific territory or vertical.

4. Scalability – Sudden increases in activity are no problem in the ‘virtual model’.

5. Easy Budgeting – You’ll know the cost up front and can budget accordingly.

6. No Advertising or Recruitment Fees – hiring sales people is both time consuming and rather expensive.

7. Minimizes Risk – with a virtual sales person, performance is accountable.

8. No Administration – with in-house sales comes a host of employment issues that need looking after

9. No Overhead – virtual sales people won’t be sitting in your offices, using your phone and computer.

10. It’s becoming a big business trend – From small start-up companies to huge multi-national organizations, they are seeing the benefit of outsourcing all, or some, of their sales effort.

New article by Karl Goldfield

When Jimi Hendrix ripped down his guitar and sent a flurry of tones into the air, few people thought about the theory that made it so enjoyable. Even Jimi himself did this on instinct, not on review and analysis. He was an innovator and paved the way for new exploration into music.

Fifty years later, the music that achieves recognition and is enjoyed by the masses is structured and built on that same theory. The difference is that it is now dissected and delivered by people who have studied. This is the world we live in, and much like in music, in sales we have to accept that the days of lighting the world on fire with radical new ideas is more or less gone.

Does this mean there is no more room for creativity? Absolutely not! It means that to have the freedom to use this creativity we must first build a strong platform on which to perform. This is the topic of the 12th episode of Sales Evangelist TV (http://tv.salesevangelist.com) that aired last week, and I will share one of the secrets in this article.

What we will touch upon is the way to analyze a quota and break it down into the right mix of sales, opportunities, and leads. This exercise will empower us to spend the right amount of time working towards overachievement.

For the sake of this example we are going to begin with some assumptions. The first is that we are responsible for sourcing and cultivating our own leads. Some of this process can be circumvented if a marketing team delivers leads. The second assumption we are making is for the ease of the math. We are going to work from a $1m annual quota. If this quota is low or high, just adjust it as needed. The third assumption is that there are 2080 hours in a work year. This is the math used by recruitment agencies and it makes it easier if we are all thinking the same way. It equates to 52, 40 hour weeks. Yes we are ignoring vacation and PTO for the sake of this exercise. Yes we are ignoring the 60 hour work weeks we put in at the end of each quarter to make the number.

We are going to break down our quota in two ways. The first is to determine how much revenue we must generate for each month, week, day, and hour we spend working. This is as follows:

$1m/12 months = $83,333

$1m/52 weeks = $19,230

$1m/260 days = $3846

$1m/2080 hours = $481

When we break down our quota in this manner, what becomes apparent is the value of our time. A wasted hour means a loss in almost $500in revenue generation, a lost day is $1000s. This realization can be frightening and should really solidify why being at our most effective is absolute for sales success.

The next breakdown is an analysis of the ratio of big to medium to small sales we make annually and how this fits into our goals. If last year we closed 2 $100k deals, 10 $50k deals, and 30 $10k deals, then we know that we need 5 times as many medium and 15 times as many small deals as we do large deals. What this breakdown really does is help us uncover where to spend our time sourcing and cultivating leads.

If you look at this mix, we have to spend half of our time on the midsized deals. With ten deals in this mix, we can see that we can spend up to 104 hours on every $50k deal:

1040 hours (half of 2080)/10 = 104 hours per midsized deal

We will spend 20% of our time on the two big deals:

416 hours/2 = 208 hours per large deal

And the remaining 30% on smaller deals

624 hours/30 = 21 hours per small deal

This way of looking at things should bring some perspective to how to spend our time. With less than 3 days of effort allowed to close smaller deals, we have to become wary of chasing opportunities that do not carry a worthy price tag. 21 hours is not a lot of time, and unless we make it up somewhere else, meaning get a medium or large deal through the sales process faster, we have to stay aware of how much time is spent on these small deals. How often does a $50k+ deal just fly through the pipeline and onto the commission sheet?

The last piece of the puzzle and one that people tend to forget when doing this type of analysis is how to build the right lead mix to get the right mix of opportunities in the pipeline. We are going to make another assumption, but when we employ this exercise it is important that we do some research and plug in our own numbers.

The assumption we will make is that for every ten leads, no matter deal size, we get a sale. This would mean that we need to source:

20 large opportunity leads to make 2 sales

100 medium opportunity leads to make 10 sales and

300 small opportunity leads to make 30 sales

420 leads to make a $1m quota. This is the secret. This is what makes for true effectiveness. This is what empowers great reps to overachieve. It is proper lead sourcing and defining who we want to reach out to via research and strategy. If we can put together the right concept of who we want to contact, then it is necessary to contact far fewer potential clients. This is also when personal introductions to prequalified leads help greatly.

Try putting the efforts into the early stages of the sales cycle through analysis and research. This, along with finding creative new ways to source pre qualified leads, will save precious time later in the process.

New article by Sales Guru Jeff Goldberg (http://www.jgsalespro.com) :

Let’s face it…we salespeople LOVE to talk. In fact, many of us think we get paid to talk but I don’t believe that’s true. While presenting is part of our job, and the part we seem to like best (Closing is almost like the icing on the cake compared to presenting for most salespeople) if you really want to make more money in sales you need to speak less and listen more. In fact, I firmly believe that if you ask the right questions and listen carefully to the responses you get, your prospects will tell you everything you need to know in order to help them choose to do business with you. That’s right, I just told you your prospects will help you sell them if you just shut up and listen!

Most salespeople believe that the two skills you need to be great at, in order to be successful in sales, are presenting and closing. While it’s true that being a good presenter and knowing how to properly close a sale are good skills to have, in my 35 years of studying selling the best salespeople are always three things:

1) The best interviewers (question askers)

2) The best listeners

3) The best storytellers

It turns out that the key to selling isn’t really in the presentation or the close; it lies in the questions you ask. Selling is all about asking the questions that help you uncover what makes sense to your prospect. Prospects, just like you and me, do everything we do because it makes sense to do so. For example…you’re reading this article right now because it makes sense to you read it. You dressed a certain way today, ate breakfast or didn’t, spoke with people or didn’t, etc… all because it made sense to you to do those things. Same thing with your prospects including buying. Your prospects invest in certain products and services because it makes sense to them. As sales professionals, we need to ask our prospects lots of questions about what they’re doing now with regards to what we offer because what they’re doing now makes sense to them. For example, I sell sales training and keynote speeches. When talking with the V.P. of Sales at a company regarding the possibility of using my services, I’m going to ask him or her questions like:

“How do you train your people now?”

“When someone new joins your team how do you handle the initial training?” “How do you train your average performers to increase their skills and effectiveness?”

“Have you ever used an outside consultant like me to train your team?”

Of course I ask many more but the answers to those questions help me to understand what makes sense to the person I’m trying to sell. If what they were doing now didn’t make sense to them, they’d be doing something else!

You should notice that what I’m doing is engaging in a conversation with my prospect that’s focuses on them. (The only thing they really care about – themselves) After I ask a question I do the hardest thing I can possibly do…Shut Up. I do that, even though it’s difficult, because when I shut up it gives my prospect the opportunity to talk and answer my questions. And when they answer my questions I discover what makes sense to them! I listen carefully, I look them in the eye, I nod my head and encourage them to tell me more and I take notes so they know that I consider what they’re saying to me important and because it helps me to remember what was said when I get back to my office and think about putting together a proposal.

It’s the questions I ask, as well as my careful listening to the answers, which allows me to put together a great presentation for my prospect. I base my presentation on what they’ve told me they’re doing now and after reviewing that with them I share ideas on how I can help them do it better. I’m always certain to include a V.P.S. (Verbal Proof Story) that tells them about a customer of mine who had a situation similar to theirs and how, by using my services, they lived “happily ever after.” The V.P.S. is a strong presentation tool and helps the prospect get past the fact that you’re a salesperson trying to sell them something. When you use a third party story it’s almost as if the third party is endorsing you and doing the selling for you. After making my presentation I simply ask for their business and, once again, shut up and listen carefully to their response. Sometimes you have to wait until the sweat is dripping down your armpits before they’ll talk, but let it drip! By asking the right questions and being silent you provide the space for your prospect to “open up” to you.

Practice shutting up and listening. You and your prospects will enjoy the sales process more. And, of yeah, you’ll make more money too.

Make It Happen!

We have learned a lot since launching last year.  For one, we have different types of clients at Salesconx; those with simple offerings (‘lowering your telephone charges’) and those more complex (‘seeking heads of IT implementing disaster recovery solutions’).  We have seen business list up on our site and selling experts without any intervention drive high quality introductions within 48 hours and others that go unnoticed.

We have found a more effective way to source leads and introductions for our clients.  We call it Crowd Selling.  Salesconx will build for you an independent sales team sourcing sales experts from our 7,000+ users and from our 50+ partners and affiliates.  It may take a few days to get enough sellers involved in your opportunity.  Once we reach the minimum team size (based on your desired introductions per month) we will begin to host a weekly sales team call.

We are building On Demand virtual sales teams today for a number of our clients and they the results have been excellent – on all sides.  What company wouldn’t want an additional 10-20 independent sales representatives spreading the word about their product/service?  Our selling experts like it as the value that they could bring to both parties is greatly enhanced through direct relationships with the Salesconx clients – not to mention the increased fees they could earn.

If you are interested in have Salesconx build you an On Demand pay-for-performance sales team or you are interested in joining one as a selling expert please contact me at evan@salesconx.com.

Interesting piece by Sales Coach Jeff Goldberg (www.jgsalespro.com).

We salespeople are optimists! I like being optimistic and having that quality is one of the things that allows us to do our jobs well. Let’s face it, typically more prospects say, “No,” to our offering than say, “Yes.” Unless you have a better than 50% closing ratio you hear the word “No” far more often than “Yes.” If we weren’t optimists, believing that everything will work out fine, we couldn’t do our jobs very long in the face of the massive rejection most of us salespeople face each day. That’s where the problem lies. The same optimism that makes us believe that “Yes” is right around the corner often blinds us to when people are saying “No” and we end up chasing every prospect equally. In a perfect world (one without clocks) that would be fine but in this world we have a limited amount of time. Unfortunately most salespeople act as if time is unlimited.

Since it’s a given that we only have so many hours each day and each week that we can do what we do (sell) we need to find a way to make the most of every minute and highly respect the fact that we can only work with so many prospects at any given time. We also need to figure out how to decide which prospects are worth pursuing and which aren’t. We need to know when “No” means “No” and when it means, “I need some more reasons to buy and then I might become a customer.” One of the things that makes this difficult is that we salespeople are generally very likeable and people don’t like to say “No” to us. They’ll use different words and methods for saying “No” so that they don’t offend us but we salespeople take those words to mean “Yes.”

The first thing you should understand is that “No” is a gift. When a prospect tells you they’re not buying, and they really mean it, they’ve given you the gift of time. If they really aren’t buying you can shake their hand, tell them you’ve enjoyed meeting them and would love to do business with them anytime they’re ready and you can move on to another prospect that might actually buy from you. In other words they give you time to go find a fish that might bite. I love when I get a real “No” from a prospect. I don’t like it as much as I like “Yes” but “No” is a very close second. What I don’t like, and try my best to avoid, is anything other than “Yes” or “No.” Things like, “I need to think it over,” or “I need to speak with my partner.” (My accountant, the committee, etc.) These are the things that steal your time and your attitude and often mean you’re not getting the sale but the prospect just doesn’t want to use the word “No.”

It’s the same whether your selling your product or setting (selling) the appointment. You want to look for the fish that are biting. If you saw the movie, “The Perfect Storm,” you’ll remember that the fisherman on the Andrea Gale weren’t having much luck. Their captain decides they should head someplace else. Why? Because he knew that it was foolish to fish where the fish weren’t biting and it was far smarter to fish where they were biting. (of course it’s a good idea to avoid being in the middle of three storms colliding while you’re fishing but that’s another story) It sounds so simple but take a look at the prospects in your current pipeline. How long have you been “chasing” them? What’s your typical sales cycle? How far past your typical sales cycle are you? (the likelihood of closing a deal decreases dramatically the further you exceed your typical sales cycle) Are they returning your phone calls? Are they stalling you? (“Call me next week, month, quarter, century) If you’re chasing the fish that aren’t biting and devoting the same amount of time and attention to them as the fish that are biting (returning your calls, setting next action steps with you) you’re not investing your valuable time wisely.

Not closing enough business? Perhaps you’re spending too much time working with fish that aren’t biting. Try another vertical. See if previous clients are ready to buy again. (previous or existing clients are generally far easier to see than someone who hasn’t done business with you before) Fill your pipeline with new prospects while keeping your eyes and ears attuned to the signals that mean “No” and be sure to fish where the fish are biting!

As the economy slows, business after business is forced to downsize or close its doors.  In these tough times, innovative, aggressive sales strategies separate the successful from the rest of the pack.

Are your traditional strategies really getting you all the business you want or need? If yes, great! For the rest of us, the time has come to adopt undemanding, new ways to hit our numbers and grow our businesses.

Salesconx.com is here to help our clients improve their ROI while generating more leads without increasing the work load of their existing sales force. Our pay-per-performance model insures that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

If you are interested in learning new ways to drive revenue for your business, please register for my free webinar on January 15^th at 1 p.m. EST.

Feel free to bring any questions to the discussion.

You can register for this Webinar here:

https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=155c3oa6134qu

The words “insider information” evoke visions of Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas in Wall Street. Insider information is illegal. The SEC carefully and diligently monitors and tracks potential transactions based on insider information. But does the same hold true for business to business (b2b) transactions? Are B2B insider information transactions the most profitable ones and yet completely legal?

In fact, insider information when it comes to B2B sales is sought after information (not that insider stock trade aren’t). We have seen terms like ‘trigger selling’, ‘timed selling’ and other similar expressions to denote knowing the right time to actually sell to a prospect. But, what about when a sales professional at a company has insider information about an upcoming sell. Let’s say you are selling security software or services to a company. You hear that they are sick and tired of their current telephone provider and are looking to switch vendors. Is this insider information? What could you do with this information? If you had a VoIP division you would certainly email someone about this opportunity. This represents an excellent referral opportunity.

If I told you that you could list your clients opportunity on Salesconx and make some extra money, is that something that you might be interested in? (Please note that this should be read with the voice of Bob Ryan of Entourage). And why not? This information is extremely valuable. Think about what a VoIP vendor would have to pay to generate the qualified lead and opportunity that you are now a party too? The PPC for VoIP is around $5. With a 1% conversion rate, that would equal around $500 (3% would be $165). Use an appointment setting firm or telemarketer and it could cost you $250-$1,000 for the appointment. In short, companies are spending $90billion per year to find qualified prospects and drive revenues for their companies (of course we could expect this number to come down but 80% of $90billion is still enough). Armed with the information that a company is indeed “in the market” for a product or service should be worth as much (if not more) than your standard qualified lead.

Now, how about pulling this insider information out of your client? Why not ask your client what other pains they might be having. Don’t think for a moment that an investment banker (the few remaining) isn’t sitting down with the CFO or CEO and asking them where their pains are. Their objective of course is to ascertain where the investment banker could play a role in driving revenues for his company. Most their activities revolve around advice and introductions. Why not become the investment banker for your customer? Find out where are their pain points and help them find solutions to solve those problems. Salesconx ‘connections for sell’ are a great vehicle to leverage and monetize this information and relationship.  Your customer is looking for a new web site?  Post it on our site for $100 introduction and a $500 success fee.  What about a new office cleaning company, a voip provider, health insurance, payroll provider, etc.  All you need to do is ask.

In today’s economic turmoil driving some extra revenue is certainly something WANTED and needed.

(Here is an great article written by Jeff Goldberg – www.jgsalespro.com)

Lately I’ve been both reading and hearing that Cold Calling, as a way to set appointments, is dead. It’s “old school”, the techniques are outdated, and it just plain doesn’t work.

About a week ago I had the pleasure of working with a sales team of young, hip sellers in the advertising industry (who sell a really cool product!) and after we spent two days together one of the managers, a very sharp young man, commented that he felt that the time we spent going over how to cold call should have been cut by 3 or so hours, as cold calling “simply doesn’t work” in his industry. He said that the people they’re trying to get in touch with are incredibly busy and don’t answer their phones. (sound familiar?) He went on to say that the people they’re trying to reach have voice mail boxes that are always full. What he neglected to take into account was that in the single hour his team spent on the phones, applying the techniques they were just taught the day before, several team members set appointments and virtually every rep left several voice mails. So, before you start celebrating in Munchkinland and singing, “Ding dong, the cold calling witch is dead,” you might want to consider that while I speak about, and train people on, many different subjects, cold calling continues to be the one most requested by clients. The reason is simple – cold calling over the telephone, when done right, continues to be the method of filling your pipeline with appointments that is most time and cost effective.

Anyone who knows me, or has been trained by me, knows that I wish it wasn’t true. While most people have a strong dislike of it, I hate cold calling. I hate it more than you do. I hate it more than you and everyone on your sales team hates it. I hate it more than you, everyone on your sales team, and everyone you know hates it. I’ve spent significant amounts of time trying to figure out how to avoid it completely and eventually I’ll write a book titled, “How to Avoid Cold Calling,” but I have yet to find a way to avoid it entirely. If part of your job is developing new business then cold calling should, at the very least, be part of your appointment getting mix.

Are there other ways to get appointments that work, or at least turn a cold call into a warm call? There sure are, thank goodness! Here are a few that can be helpful.

Referrals are probably my very favorite way to get appointments. Referrals, when properly handled, immediately turn a cold call into a very warm one. Ask EVERYONE for referrals. I’m writing this on a plane taking me home from three days in San Francisco. I’ve already spoken with the gentleman sitting right next to me as well as the woman across the aisle from me asking them what they do for a living. Of course, they both asked me too. After answering them by clearly explaining what I do and the type of people I look to meet I asked both the question, “Who do you know that I should be speaking with?” Both asked for my card and one gave me a referral on the spot. Do I always get referrals every time I ask? Nope. But I always ask because immediately after asking for, and receiving, a referral I then ask if the giver will do me a “little favor.” I ask if they’d be willing to call or e-mail the person they referred me to letting them know to expect my call and that they (the referrer) would appreciate it if they (the prospect) would accept my call. Does everyone who gives me a referral contact the referral for me? Nope. But I always ask and they often will. This becomes an almost certain appointment without the likely rejection of a cold call!

Networking continues to be another of my favorite ways to develop leads that can turn into appointments and again, if done properly, your cold call will become warm. I like it because it’s social often results in referrals. Handle these referrals the same way you do any other by asking the giver to contact the person you’re being referred to. Be cautious to invest your networking time wisely. You can spend all day every day attending networking meetings and functions. Look for networking groups with a professional facilitator and one that actually results in referrals. Too many groups are run by, for example, an insurance agent who also runs a networking group, or a chiropractor or a printer or any one of a hundred of different professions who run a networking group so that THEY can get more leads. A professional facilitator will help YOU get leads. If you’re not getting leads from the groups you belong to find different groups. (If you need help with tips on how to increase the effectiveness of your networking check out my newsletter archives for an article on the subject) Social networking sites like LinkedIn and pay- for-lead networking sites like Salesconx can also be very useful in getting referrals and appointments. I’ll admit I’m not an expert in this area yet but am learning more about them each day and have seen some success. (If you’d like to be connected on LinkedIn either send me an invite or e- mail me at jeff@jgsalespro.com and I’ll be glad to invite you!)

Giving speeches is also high on my list of ways to develop leads that are warm. I’m a member of the National Speaker’s Association and they suggest that of every ten people in your audience when giving a speech, at least one will have an interest in what you have to offer. The trick to giving speeches to develop leads is that the speech can’t be a commercial for your services. However, when you speak on something related to your business you are viewed as an expert and people will approach you. There are MANY groups and organizations that are always on the lookout for speakers for their meetings. Call and offer your services for free. I get paid well for giving keynote speeches and training sessions but I’ll speak with almost any group for 30 or 45 minutes for free, or a small honorarium, in order to get in front of someone who might be able to use my services. Even if nobody in the audience needs what you offer you can bet they know people they can refer you to.

E-mail is often used successfully to set appointments but, in my experience, it’s not as successful as doing so over the phone. The reason should be obvious, over the phone when someone tells you why they won’t meet with you; you have the opportunity to help them change their mind. In e-mail, it’s much more difficult and the attempt to overcome an objection like, “I’m not interested,” usually ends up sounding like a plea or a battle. Still, e-mail can work and should be a part of your appointment setting mix. Same for instant messaging. In both e-mail and IM the key is going to be in your message. You need to get to the point quickly (as is true over the phone) and be sure to include a request for the appointment. Without a call to action your message is simply a poor attempt at marketing.

These aren’t the only ways to avoid cold calling but they’re a few that have worked for me and many others. Develop a strategy that you think will work for you. Apply it and test it. If it’s working, keep on doing it. If not, adjust and try again. It’s my pleasure to help you so feel free to e-mail or call if you’re having trouble getting enough appointments or developing more business in this challenging economy.

Jeff Goldberg is a sales trainer and keynote speaker as well as co-author of the book, “How To Be Your Own Coach.” (www.byourowncoach.com) He can be reached at 516-608-4136 or Jeff@jgsalespro.com. His website is www.jgsalespro.com.