I have some slightly bad news for you regarding the upcoming election in November:

No matter who wins the 2016 presidential election, unless your phone is ringing off the hook or you’re up to your ears in referrals, you are still going to need to be proactive and reach out to prospects by phone or in person.

You can’t control the weather. (See Hurricane Sandy!)

You can’t control the election. (Unless you’re a mega donor!)

You can’t control other companies. (Companies merge and get acquired all the time.)

You can’t control other executives. (Executives change jobs or get fired.)

Mark Cuban said best: “The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort.” Read more

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Just like countless sales professionals, I use my cell phone as my main number to be reached out since I’m mobile and travel quite a bit to see clients and prospects.

On Thursday afternoon, I happened to get a call from Ontario, Canada.

Usually I answer the phone in some sort of variance of, “Good afternoon, this is Ray.”

I had just gotten an email via LinkedIn from a company in Canada and thought it was this company following up by phone so I answered “Hello?”.

He didn’t identify himself but started asking questions so I assumed it was a follow up sales call.

It wasn’t! It was a tech company who came across my website and was interested in my lead generation services.

Ouch!

I tried to explain this to the gentleman but no success and I wasn’t able to get the conversation on track.

2 takeaways:

1.  If you’re not ready to take a call for whatever reason, don’t answer it and let it go to voicemail. It should be obvious to me after doing this for 12 years, but we all make sales mistakes.

2. We all get inundated with calls and sometimes we don’t know if they’re personal or professional. Always err on the side of being friendly professional. This guy who I checked out on LinkedIn was part of a technology company which is in my target audience and I blew it.

There’s an old saying that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. How true!

Please don’t make the mistake I just made. It could literally cost you thousands of dollars in revenue.

Happy Summer everyone!

It’s tough to get a hold of sales prospects. It’s even worse in the summer when people go on vacation.

Here are a 5 reasons to follow up by phone after sending out a sales email:

1. Your sales email might have landed in the sales prospect’s junk mail folder and they never saw it.

2. The sales prospect may no longer work there and the email didn’t bounce back to alert you or it’s being forwarded to their replacement.

3. Whether it’s generational or a preference, some people prefer to communicate by phone over email.

4.  Some people prefer to PROCESS information verbally instead of through written forms.

5. Emails are too easy to delete, a phone call or voicemail stands out.

Hope this helps! Continue having your best summer ever!

I work out at the gym 5 days week. Unfortunately I don’t eat healthy as consistently as I should and it neutralizes my workouts but such is life.

I see this gal in her 40’s who’s married with 2 kids working out quite a bit at the gym. She’s in shape and always seems to have a smile on her face. We exchange short conversations and pleasantries from time to time.

Last week I asked how her family was doing. She said her husband wasn’t doing too good. I asked if she meant physically or emotionally. She said both and told me that her husband was going through chemo treatments. I expressed my condolences and told her I’d be praying for him and the family.

How does this relate to sales and prospecting?

You never know what’s going on in your sales prospect’s lives. Both personally and professionally.

Professionally: Is the company merging with another one (Comcast)? Is the company going out of business (Radio Shack)? Did the prospect’s boss yell at them this morning? Was there a critical client issue that came up that day? Did they just lose a key person? Are they moving offices soon? Did they lose a big account that day?

Personally: Did a family member just pass away? Are they going through a divorce? Did they get in a car wreck recently? Did they wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Did their pet just pass away?

I could go on and on but I hope you catch my drift.

When you reach out to someone on the phone, you don’t know what they’re going through. Don’t take it personally if someone tells you “No” or “No interested” and hang up on you. Move on and try back another time.

Just like the gal from the gym, you never “know”, so don’t take “no” personally.

Happy Monday everyone!

I recently was referred to a VP of Sales for a technology company based in Iowa but had a local presence here in Kansas City.

There have been several clients I’ve never met in person before.

This was different. We chatted by phone, had lunch when he was in town and exchanged several emails and his name and signature were in his emails.

I placed a “K” instead of a “G” in his last name and emailed over the proposal.

He noticed it immediately just like I would if someone misspelled my name. He pointed it out and fairly asked if he should be concerned about my question to detail.

Ironically I’m really good with remembering names and spellings. I blew this time.

I apologized profusely and corrected it and he signed up to become a client.

2 takeaways which I know I’m stating the obvious:

1. Take extra time and proofread and double check every proposal that goes out.

2. When you make a mistake, apologize profusely and immediately.

Thankfully he was gracious enough to point it out and not let my mistake kill the deal.

No matter how long we’ve been in sales, it’s the little things that count and make the difference.