Scotts Sales Knowhow Q3 2010 by Annex Business Media

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BACK TO SCHOOL Aptitude INSIDE:

6 Keys to Becoming SuperCompetent The

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2 Sales KnowHow

Q3 2010

! y a d o T r Registe

Q3-2010 5

Publisher’s Letter

Features

Keep Your Display Simple; Really Simple – Barry Siskind

Measure the Intensity of Your Exhibit Traffic – Barry Siskind

Grab your visitor’s interest quickly.

Add this excellent tool to your show planning arsenal.

What is Your Sales Process? – Bill Sayers

Selling at the Speed of Silence – Tibor Shanto

Making the Most of Today’s Marketing Media – Christine Stangenberg

Thinking Outside the Box – Eric Gilboord

SuperCompetent – Laura Stack

Why is it so important to know?

For the salesperson with a plan, Silence is golden.

Soon your customers will be talking, typing and Tweeting about you!

Take a fresh approach to your problems & opportunities.

Part 2: the 3rd and 4th Keys

Q3 2010

Sales KnowHow

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Scott’s Directories Corporate Masthead

By Scott’s Directories

Group Publisher Paul Stuckey pstuckey@scottsdirectories.com

National Sales Manager Lindsay Rodgers lrodgers@scottsdirectories.com

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4 Sales KnowHow

Q3 2010

Publisher’s Letter

Stay Literate –

Let Scott’s Sales KnowHow Take You Back To School

fter a busy summer, parents everywhere embrace a cies and effectiveness as a professional sales person; you’ll new school season as a welcomed return to normalcy. learn ways to market & sell better and continually earn But as all those kids embark on the next rung on their scho- more for your efforts. lastic career how many of their Moms & Dads contemplate So let our expert contributors provide a refresher course their own continued learning? How many of the working on getting more from your efforts this season. Let their adults out there proactively take the opportunity to ad- articles be a quick and easy way to take yourself “back vance their own careers by periodically learning something to school” for an edge over your competition. And by all new to keep their skill set sharp? As a percentage, I would means, click through to the websites of each author for imagine the unfortunate answer is – “very few” and “if they more information you can capitalize on including webinars do, it’s not very often”. and other events. It’s no secret that the need to perpetually learn actionable lessons is entirely applicable to professional sales... Highlights in this issue of Scott’s Sales KnowHow include: especially if you want to survive – and thrive. It’s a challenging marketplace these days – the overall economy has • The next 2 Keys from Laura Stack – The Productivity remained weak and prospects and customers are avoiding Pro. Her 6-keys to Super Competence continues here expenditures they consider unnecessary. It’s a new real- with Keys 3 & 4. If you’re not familiar with the first 2 ity, and professional sales peokeys, I encourage you to refer ple cannot rely on the old way back to our Q2 issue for those. “The illiterate of the of doing business – times have • As another busy trade show changed and that calls for new season gets underway, Barry 21st century will not be approaches, new ways of tackling Siskind is back with more exthose who cannot read and the challenges ahead. pert advice on getting the most So with the start of a new from your trade show activity write, but those who cannot school season now upon us, conand is offering several webilearn, unlearn, and relearn.” sider this to be a perfect time to nars this fall to help you get the sharpen YOUR own axe as you edge you need. Alvin Toffler aim to maximize YOUR results for • We’re very pleased to inthe remainder of the year. Any troduce Christine Stangenberg edge you can give yourself is vital to your success. as a new contributor. Christine is a creative director and And by the way, for anyone doubting the singular impor- marketing pro with an impressive roster of clients. Her tance of continued learning well into adulthood, consider insights will help our readers stand out in the crowd by what the deep-thinking futurist Alvin Toffler wrote just a seeing opportunity for their own marketing and branding. few years ago in the Foreword to the book Rethinking the Future. Mr. Toffler is well-known for his works discussing From everyone here at Scott’s Directories, here’s wishing the digital revolution and how individuals and corporations you the very best in your endeavors this autumn. must adapt to survive in this new face-paced world. His statement is simply this – “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” It is with Toffler’s bold prognostication that I invite you Paul Stuckey, Group Publisher to “stay literate”, to devour this and every issue of Sales pstuckey@scottsdirectories.com KnowHow with an appetite for knowledge you can use imFor More Articles by Paul Stuckey Click Here mediately. You‘ll find great tips on improving your efficienQ3 2010

Sales KnowHow

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Q3 2010

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Exhibiting By Barry Siskind

Keep Your Display Simple; Really Simple

dilemma many exhibitors face is how much information to include in their trade show display. For small exhibitors with one or two product offerings the answer can be difficult. For larger exhibitors with a multitude of products and services which might also include several departments, the answer can become a nightmare. There is often so much to tell and the exhibitor wants to make sure the visitors get the right message. The solution starts by taking a step back and looking at the display from the visitor’s perspective. Show visitors begin with the best of intentions. They have walked the show and seen dozens of exhibitors displaying a myriad of products. If there is a technical program at the conference or event, they will have also sat through a number of seminars and workshops. These visitors are only human. There is only so much information the human mind can absorb. So, the lesson to be learned is that creating a display that tells too much is self-defeating. The last thing these attendees want is more information. Another consideration is that in many cases, visitors already know the details about your product or service. They learned about it on the internet. They visited your web-site, read reviews in trade magazines and heard from their community through social media. Once again a display that attempts to tell peo-

ple what they already know is futile. The solution is to ensure that the attraction efficiency is maximized when you are creating your display. This means that a good display will grab your visitor’s interest quickly without adding to the confusion they may already be experiencing. This simple lesson may be easier stated than implemented. The trick is to look at the world of marketing. We are inundated with marketing messages everywhere: billboards, radio, television, newspapers, magazines, the back of ticket stubs, across the outside (and sometimes inside) of subways and buses, elevator doors, the computer you are using at this very moment, sidewalks, movie theatres, you name it. It seems that there isn’t a blank space that hasn’t been touched by a marketer. Your visitors have experienced the same. Marketing clutter is unavoidable. So, the most productive method of creating an attractive display is through simplicity. It’s not a matter of what more you can say, but how you can say it with less. This starts with a clear focus for your display and two crucial criteria – what is the message and who is it designed for? What is the message? If I were to ask you to identify your brand message in one or two sentences and you hesitated, that should be a clear

clue that homework is needed. Trade show industry guru Bob Dallmeyer says, “If you can’t write your idea on the back of a business card, it’s not an idea.” How true this statement is. What about those exhibitors with multiple products or those who share the costs of the display with their departments. How do you handle the conflicts in messaging? The answer highlights the need to create one overall message rather than trying to broadcast many. Then once you have the attendee’s attention, you can direct them to specific areas in your display where their needs will be met. Who is the message designed for? Assuming that everyone who is attending the event is interested in your message or will buy your product is a fallacy. Albeit there may be some situations in well targeted regional shows where you are looking to reach a very specific market. But in most cases trying to reach the entire audience may not be productive. The solution is to ask, which candidate will respond most favorable to my message (or product offering)? Create a profile ahead of time of who this person is then when you are designing your display keep the profile in mind. Next time you are developing a display let simplicity guide your decisions. You will find your results significantly better.

Barry Siskind is author of Powerful Exhibit marketing. He is also President of International Training and Management Company who offers a number of services to exhibitors including the creation and implementation of a mystery-shopping program. Contact Barry at barry@siskindtraining.com for more information. For More Articles by Barry Siskind Click Here

Q3 2010

Sales KnowHow

Exhibiting

By Barry Siskind

Measure the Intens

-advertising is often measured as a Cost Per Impression (CPI) or Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM). This is not a new technique – traditional marketers have been using something similar for ages. Whether you advertise on television, radio, magazines, newspapers or billboards you will often look to CPI as your justification for the cost. For example if you know that your advertisement will be seen by one million people and you are quoted a CPM of $10 your total advertising cost will be $ 10,000. The CPI then divides this number by 1,000 so that a $10 CPM equates to a $0.01 CPI. At a trade show we have a similar method of measurement called Visitor Intensity (VI). This measures the number of visitors you can expect over the life of the show. The calculation is simple enough, take the number of square feet of your exhibit and multiply it by the number of show hours and divide that by the cost. For example if you took 200 square feet for a trade show that was 18 hours long and your costs were $12,000, your Visitor Intensity ratio would be $3.33. On first glance you might conclude that the intensity cost is higher than the CPI you are used to paying for – this can be explained easily when you look closely at your audience.

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Targeted audience While the audience at an exhibition might be smaller than what you might expect in other marketing forms, the focus of that audience is greater. Exhibitions are highly targeted affairs focused on a theme or an industry. The people who attend have to have a pretty compelling interest before they make the decision to invest a day or two walking the show. Quality of the audience There is some truth to the observation that audiences at exhibitions are smaller than they were years ago. But, the good news is that those who choose to walk the exhibit halls are of higher quality. They directly affect the buying decision, they are prepared to make quicker decisions and they are further along in the selling cycle than the people you meet when you make a cold call. Ability to meet face to face In a face-to-face environment, visitors have a chance to ask questions that relate to your product or service. They also have a chance to assess you and your staff to develop a feeling of comfort in their ultimate decision. There are few additional benefits to using “intensity” to measure. 1. Benchmark Exhibitions are dynamic; attending the same show year after year doing the exact same thing is a mistake. There is a strong need to ensure your exhibition plans are in a constant state of improvement. But, what improvements should you make and how will you measure their impact? The answer is through the establishment of benchmarks. Change is best measured when you have something to measure it against and one of these benchmarks is your Visitor Intensity.

2. Show selection When it comes to selection you need to ensure that your criteria are based in rationality. Choosing a show because everyone is there or you are concerned about your absence being conspicuous, may be based in some truth but needs to be rationalized. One of the methods of selecting the shows you want to attend is to use Visitor Intensity as your barometer. 3. Setting performance standards Once you have some history with Visitor Intensity, you will have a good scale for which to base your exhibition expectations. Your goals for new shows should ensure that you are constantly meeting these standards. This is also helpful for your booth staff as well as it empowers them to proactively look for methods of helping your exhibit meet or surpass its goals. Think of Visitor Intensity as an excellent tool to add to your show planning arsenal. When you compare Visitor Intensity to cost per impression just make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

Measuring the Value of Your Trade Show Program Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET Turn Your Tradeshow Booth into an Experiential Environment Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET Develop Powerful Booth Staff Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET Get ROI From Your Trade Show Giveaway Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET In addition the webinars below are also available to download now so that exhibitors can listen at anytime and not wait for the scheduled webinar. Turn Your Tradeshow Booth into an Experiential Environment Get ROI From Your Trade Show Giveaway Turn Tradeshow Leads Into Sales Develop Powerful Booth Staff Turn Tradeshow Leads Into Sales Select the Right Trade Show The fees are the same for each.

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Q3 2010

upcoming webinars

sity of Your Exhibit Traffic

Sales KnowHow

Sales

What is Your Sales Process? What is the process you need to take customers through to produce a sale? What steps do you need to take and does your client know what these steps are and why they go through this process? Knowing this,

By Bill Sayers

both as a sales rep and as a customer, can be critical to your success.

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What is your sales process? Take out a piece of paper and write down all the steps you must take a customer through in order to complete a sale for your product or service. What are all the steps? Why do you need to take each step and what does this mean to the customer? What happens if you miss or skip a step? How do you communicate this to your clients? More and more I am getting asked to help my clients understand their sales process. We create a process map and outline from the time a customer or prospect calls them until they invoice them; what are all the steps and who is responsible for each step’s completion. This exercise is an eye opener for many. Too often organizations don’t know their process, don’t know who is responsible for each step and then wonder why the sales team spend so much time managing their business through the organization. If no one knows the process then how does the customer trust that you will deliver what you said you would deliver? How does the sales rep trust that things will get done as promised? How does the organization know what the customer wants and trusts that the sales team has provided the appropriate information and detail? Sounds like no one trusts anyone without knowing what the sales process is! There is teamwork required here. It does not matter how big or small your company is, there needs to be a documented process and who is doing what. My experience is that once everyone in your organization is clear on the process, then people begin trusting that orders will be fulfilled and managed as promised to the customer.

What about your customers? Have you ever bought something personally or in business and you weren’t sure when you were going to get your product? And then when you don’t receive it have a customer experience that is frustrating and infuriating. Customers are expecting that you deliver what you promise on. If there is a problem, they expect that you will resolve the issue with little or no inconvenience to them. If there is an inconvenience, they are treated appropriately and compensated appropriately. And yet how often does this actually happen for customers? For most sales people – referrals are how they grow and maintain their business. If you have a broken process, you spend more time managing customer expectations and your office than is worth the effort. You lose valuable selling time and are frustrated more than need be. What makes a process successful? First have one. Make sure it is documented and shared with the entire organization. It is no good if only sales know about the process. Sales is not a solo sport. Everyone must know the process, know their role, be held accountable and have ability to make things happen – or not. They have to be able to stop production because something is wrong. They have to know what they need to do to correct an issue and know that they make a difference and have an important role to play. How are you communicating this process to your customers? Make sure they know there is a process. Make sure they know why each step is important and what it means if they skip or miss a step. If they know your process then it allows

them to trust that the process will deliver to them what they ordered and that if there is an issue it will be resolved. The process needs to be monitored and there needs to be an overall owner of the process. It may be the VP of Sales, it may be a manager, and it may be a Project Manager. There must be someone who can police, manage and make the appropriate changes as needed. If there is no owner then the process will be manipulated and managed by who ever yells the loudest. Now that you have your sales process in place – what are you going to do with that extra time!?! Sayers Says……… Write down all the steps in your sales process! Who owns the process? What role does each of your teammates play and what is their responsibility? Do your customers know the process and why it is important to their delivery and order fulfillment? What is your sales process……... Bill Sayers is an inspirational speaker and a visionary business leader. He has spent the past 29 years in the "Sales" arena. He started his career as an inside sales rep and worked his way up the corporate ladder to the level of VP of Sales at an IBM company. During that time he worked for Revelstoke Lumber, King Products, Linotype, Ryder Transportation, GE Capital IT Solutions and IBM. Bill is able to communicate powerful concepts in a manner, which enables practical application in the business world and drives profitable results for his clients. His goal is to help sales people ignite their passion for the game of sales. Passion - Process - Performance www.thesayersgroup.com For More Articles by Bill Sayers Click Here

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Sales KnowHow 11

Sales

Selling at the Speed of Silence Sometimes watching sales people in action is like watching a tennis match; the prospect asks something and we lob back an answer right away. Other times the prospect will make a comment, and we slam back an answer, at times with more top spin than one would ever need. While there are a number of good lessons in sports for sales people, a meeting should not look like the final match at a Grand Slam event.

here are a couple of reasons this happens and a larger number of factors that contribute to it, all of which can be controlled by the seller. One reason is we want to convey knowledge and confidence, and by "having the answer" we feel that we demonstrate this; not true. The second is the lack of a specific goal and related plan with respect to where and how we want the meeting to go and end. Many sales people do look at sales as a quiz show, believing that if they have the right answer, they will impress the prospect and demonstrate their knowledge of the industry, product and the company â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the thinking being that "I put all this effort into learning all this stuff, research, years of experience, all the companies I worked at, here is my opportunity to use it." But silence, that is not immediately responding to clients, can help you do that in a much more elegant and convincing way.

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By seeming to take a minute and think things through, by using that silence to formulate a clarification question, you go much further than with an instant answer. Formulating a solid clarification question will demonstrate knowledge and experience much better than blurting out a response. The silence between the time the prospect stops and you begin to respond just adds to the drama and the effectiveness of your response. This is not a TV game where the first seller to buzz in gets to answer. Despite the fact that usually there are no other contestants in the room at the time, sellers often buzz in before the prospect has finished their comments or question. I never understood why, there is no upside, and besides risking giving the wrong response because you were in a hurry to impress, you often end up turning off the seller. Turn off both literally and figuratively. Beyond the

basic turn off of being cut off, the seller gets conditioned to not being completely listened to, and eventually doesn't bother responding and at times stops playing altogether. The second reason is the lack of a specific plan to get to a specific point by the end of a given meeting. There is always talk of account plans, meeting plans, all kinds of plans. At times some managers make their people spend more time on the plan than executing it. After all, the real value of a plan is realized in the execution, and it is hard to execute without some form of plan. Many sales people do not have a call plan. I remember working with a consultancy, asking one of their top reps: "How long is the average sale?" "About 3 months" "How many meetings on average"

By Tibor Shanto

LEVERAGE TRIGGER EVENTS TO GROW SALES

"Usually 5 or so, beyond some of the scoping with non-decision makers, but about 5 to drive the sale" "What is your goal for the first meeting?" "To close them!" "What happens in the rest of the meetings?" It was clear that he did not have a plan for the sale, did not have a plan for any given meeting, certainly no next step plan. What's the old saying "if you don't know where you are going, any road will do." In sales, I guess it may be a case of "if you don't have a plan for where you want the meeting to end, any response will do." By having a plan, you can afford to leverage silence and not feel compelled to respond to things instantly. You would need time to consider how the prospect's question or comments may move you closer to where you want to go. The silence while you are thinking about your answer will also give the prospect time to consider what they just said and what specifically they want to hear. Again, you don't have to deliver the exact answer, but you do want it to help the prospect join you on the road to the planned destination. The silence helps accentuate both what came before it and after it - by considering the prospect's statement, giving it time to rise, allowing the prospect to play it over in their mind. In fact one thing you may want to try is not to respond for a few moments, and see how many times a prospect takes the statement back or changes it dramatically after considering it. Instead of having to deal with it, they take it back, but when you jump all over it, they can't. Similarly, with your response, by waiting, you give it more weight and purpose, having had to wait for it the prospect will be more ready for it, and while there is no guarantee that it will satisfy their expectations, it will make the answer and the person delivering it more relevant. As with most things in sales, the key is execution. What’s in Your Pipeline? Tibor Shanto, Principal with Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. Speaker, author, sought after trainer, and all around Sales Geek! A 20-year veteran of the information, content management, and financial sectors, Tibor has developed an insider’s perspective on how information can be used to, shorten sales cycles, increase close ratios, and create double digit growth. Called a brilliant sales tactician, Tibor shows organizations how to execute their strategy by using the right information to create the perfect combination of what are the tactics to apply and when. You can read Tibor’s blog The Pipeline at www.sellbetter.ca/blog. For more information on helping your team sell better, write to: info@sellbetter.ca or call +1 800 661-8760. You can also follow Renbor on Twitter http://twitter.com/renbor. For More Articles by Tiboor Shanto Click Here

“The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.” - Ray Kroc, Founding CEO, McDonalds Timing has always been a fundamental of successful selling – when you get to highly motivated decision makers at EXACTLY the right time: after they experience a `Trigger Event’ BUT before they call your competition. When you have the right timing the sale almost happens by itself - There are few challenges getting to the prospect, understanding their dissatisfaction, presenting a solution, or closing the sale. By luck or sheer numbers you’ve had timing happen before, now it’s time to make it happen again, and again, and again. Knowing that Trigger Events result in highly productive sales cycles and deeply loyal customers, will help you to close sales sooner and take home a much bigger commission check. Once you understand this timing – and it’s easier than you think – you can learn to take the right action based on the decision-maker’s buying mode. You can enjoy a much higher close ratio than you’re experiencing right now, on bigger deals that close much more quickly, so you can move on and start selling to someone else more quickly. Learn how to master these skills and close more sales faster by reading the new book Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects Into Customers. To learn more about the book and related programs click here.

Q3 2010

Sales KnowHow 13

Marketing

Making the Most of Today’s Marketing Media

o you remember when Old Spice was something only your grandfather wore? Well, no longer. The recent Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” advertising campaign, featuring Isaiah Mustafa, is being hailed one of the most effective social media marketing strategies to date. The campaign is “in your face”, it’s memorable and it’s current, right to the minute. It’s started millions talking, typing and tweeting. So what about your business? Chances are, you don’t have the supersized marketing budget of a major national brand. Even if you don’t, you can make better use of the media forms available to you and effectively promote your business. With careful strategic planning, you can make a big splash in today’s online marketing world.

1. Get Focused Start with a clear understanding of your target market. Define your niche, in order to better highlight the strengths of your product or service. To clarify your focus, you need to ask the right questions. This process will both initiate your planning process and help define your next steps. Start with the basics: • What is my company’s purpose? • What is it that differentiates me from my competitors? • Why do my clients choose me? • How can I improve my services and provide better value to mwy clients? Or what are my clients looking for? 2. Succeed with Traditional Media Many new forms of marketing are now emerging thanks to technology, but “classic” marketing vehicles are still highly effective. Whether you’re putting your marketing dollars into new media or traditional advertising, it’s essential to start with strong branding and identity: which includes an excellent logo, tag line and overall visual approach. Turn to an experienced graphic

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design firm to ensure that your branding and identity is perfectly in place before you produce any communications materials. Once you’ve established your brand, choose strategically between the many traditional marketing vehicles available to you. For some firms, direct mail is essential…while others will reach their market through wellplaced print ads. Careful analysis of your product and target market will help you design a marketing program that may include brochures, postcards, business cards, point-of-purchase signage…even an annual report. Here are some things to remember, when embarking on a traditional media campaign: • Be consistent. Always use the colours and slogans associated with your brand • Use repetition. I repeat: use repetition to get your core message across • Create high impact. Use a catchy slogan and dynamic, eye-catching images • Keep it simple. Keep your message short and to the point • Be clever, while staying focused on your client’s actual desires (i.e. today’s new Old Spice man)

By Christine Stangenberg

3. Make Your Website a Winner Make sure your site’s content is perfectly aligned with your company’s purpose and your target market’s needs. With the help of a professional design firm, create an attractive and effective website that communicates your message instantly—and inspires visitors to stay awhile and find out more! Your website must be easy to navigate, and it should provide valuable information or tools to your customers, as a reward just for visitors. For example, you can offer a free downloadable e-book in PDF form…a collection of recipes…inspirational quotes…whatever is valuable to your customers and will motivate them to visit again and do more business with you. Website Must-Haves: Clear direction Minimal ads Up-to-date information Instant gratification (don’t make visitors wait) Stand-alone content (easy to share) A personal element such as a blog, or links to social media 4. Stay Connected With Social Media Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media vehicles provide an opportunity for immediate, upto-the-minute communication with your customers.

These tools can take a little getting used to, but when they’re used well, they can deepen your relationship with your existing client base and extend your reach as well. Remember that social media is interactive (be ready for comments!) and should provide genuine value to your customers—not empty, spam-like selfpromotion. Here are some ideas: • On Twitter and Facebook, link to great articles or news items (not about you) your customers would appreciate • On YouTube, demonstrate how to use one of your products • Need a name for something new? Ask your customers to tweet their ideas…and reward them with a great prize • Keep it real! Social media is ultimately about casual, regular communication…so be friendly and natural, and stay in touch It’s never easy to make a big splash in a crowded marketplace. But the good news is, today you have more media tools at your disposal than ever before. If you use them strategically and with confidence, soon your customers will be talking, typing and tweeting about you!

Christine Stangenberg is the owner and creative director for CS-Graphic Design Inc., founded in 1998. She and her team have successfully created sophisticated communications for both print and web for a wide range of organizations such as Ministry of Education, West Park Healthcare Centre, Markham Board of Trade and YMCA of Greater Toronto to name a few. For more information visit cs-graphicdesign.com or call 416-247-3669.

Q3 2010

Sales KnowHow 15

Th in kin g

Box

the ide Outs

Marketing

By Eric Gilboord

www.EricGilboord.com

e live in a world full of buzzwords and new ways to say things. A phrase you may have heard is “thinking outside the box”. What this means is to stop thinking in the normal way - stop using the restrictions that we've all grown up accepting and look at something from a different perspective. One thing that I have taught my children is when they get frustrated trying to do something it's important to take a step back, catch your breath, and look at what you're trying to do from a different angle. If you're frustrated trying to reach a particular prospect and you think you've exhausted all the avenues chances are there is at least one other way that you haven't thought of yet. This column isn't about solving a particular problem it's about how you approach problems and opportunities in the sales and marketing of your business. We live in a very competitive environment and if you are not on your toes constantly thinking ahead, attempting to outpace your competition, they will be nipping at your heels and before you know it winning the race. Your customers’ businesses are changing on a daily basis, as their needs evolve you must strive to provide the best products and service to make them winners. Some small business people dread change others consider the challenge and the brand new opportunities it will bring. If you are the

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first to find a new way to do something, not only will your customers continue doing business with you but think about the new prospects you could be attracting. Operating in the same fashion, thinking in the same way, will deliver the same results. If you’re content with the same results then don't change a thing. But remember, everyone around you will be changing. The next time you prepare a mailer or advertisement try something different. You know what kind of results you'll get with marketing materials you are used to, but how do you know you can't do better. If you're a small business, likely you don't want to gamble an entire marketing program on a new idea. Either do a test of the new marketing piece to a small group before you do your main mailing or test this new piece at the same time as you're using your old reliable. Send out 10 or 20 percent of your mailers using the new test piece and the balance using previously proven material. It may be a good practice to always test at least one new idea in a small way with every marketing program that you do. Rules for thinking outside the box. There are no rules. There are lessons to be learned, but no rules. Ask someone you've never asked before for their opinion.

And that's According 2 Eric Eric Gilboord is a specialist in making marketing easy for business owner/operators and any staff with sales or marketing responsibility. He demystifies marketing so they can use it to generate sales today and grow their businesses faster.   Eric is a popular speaker, coach, columnist and author of many articles and books on moving a business up to the next level. The Expert Business Calls for Marketing Advice...That’s Easy to Understand.   For more information please visit: www.EricGilboord.com

Drop by the Scott’s Booth Canadian manufacturing week October 5 - 7, 2010 Toronto congress centre - north hall Toronto, on Booth 9024 www.cmwshow.ca

Salon industriel du quebec Oct 5 – 7, 2010 Centre des foires Quebec city, qc Booth 912 www.promoapageau.com/fr/quebec/liste.php

Grand rendez vous- csst

upcoming trade shows

Talk to the end user not just the purchaser. Could be the person in shipping really needs your service and didn’t know you existed. Your marketing efforts had been directed to the front office and they didn’t think the shipper needed your service. How many lost sales are waiting to be found? Show your new marketing piece to someone who knows nothing about your product or your service. If you can educate them and they see the benefits then you have a chance at actually reaching the target group with your message. Write an ad filled with the reasons why people should not buy your products or service. Who knows, maybe some prospects are thinking the same way. Imagine that your company was an animal. Would it be fast like a Cheetah or strong like an Ox or smart like a Dolphin. Another exercise is to imagine that your company was a vehicle. Is it possible your customers perceive you to be expensive like a Rolls Royce and therefore they only use you when they have to, and not for all their orders? In your mind you’re strong and functional like an new pickup truck. You might want to begin to portray your company in a different way with your marketing materials. Maybe you gave the impression of being an expensive resource because your brochures are six colors printed on expensive paper (they don’t know your brother-in-law is a printer) and you gave out elaborate Christmas gifts to your customers. More likely, small businesses undersell themselves with cheap looking brochures and ads that look out of date and not focused. People only know what they see. As the old expression goes ‘perception is reality’ if they believe you to be something, then in their minds that's what you are. It is your job to plant the correct image in the minds of your customers and your new prospects. Go to the marketplace and ask your existing customers these questions about how they perceive you. Keep an open mind, you might be surprised by some of the answers you get. Talk to prospects that you have not been able to land - you might find that their perception of you has kept them from giving you that first order.

Oct 19 – 20, 2010 Palais des congres de montreal Montreal, qc Booth 1405 www.grandrendez-vous.com/accueil/default_f.asp

Ontario health association – health achieve Nov 8 - 9, 2010 Metro toronto convention centre Toronto, on Booth 1627 www.healthachieve.com

Hrpa 2011 annual conference & trade show Feb 2 – 4, 2011 Metro toronto convention centre Toronto, on Booth 340 www.hrpa.ca/conf2011

For More Articles by Eric Gilboord Click Here

Q3 2010

Sales KnowHow 17

Your Story Your time is at a premium and not all networking events are created equally, so you need to make each opportunity count. Our Story Mad Hatter Speed Networking is the next generation in premium, live, face to face networking. Why We’re Different We’re not like other networking groups, speed or traditional. We offer a unique proven process for identifying your most important need and helping you to get that need satisfied. NO Business Cards NO Brochures NO Selling NO Small Talk (until after the Mad Hatter Speed Networking) It’s about RESULTS, just getting the results you need to grow your business!

Call 416-270-2466 to arrange a FREE DEMO for your group. 18 Sales KnowHow

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How You Get More From Mad Hatter From the networking education to the quality of attendees Mad Hatter is raising the bar on networking. We help you drill down and focus to identify a specific need so you get exactly what you came for to grow your business. Our lean non-intimidating process saves you time and delivers more quality contacts in a few hours than you got in the last 6 months. If you want breakfast go to a restaurant. If you are satisfied with free networking events, we may not be right for you. If you want results and more value come experience the next generation in networking. Who’s Attending Small and medium-sized business owners and operators, entrepreneurs, sales reps, anyone who wants to grow their enterprise, move a project forward or simply learn to network better.

Focus

What Participants Are Saying About Our Events "Thank you for arranging a powerful evening of networking at the Mad Hatter Speed Networking event. The energy was flowing, people were motivated and the excitement was clearly evident all over the room". Rena B. "What a great event! I had a previous commitment and it took some juggling to stay for the entire event but I am sure glad I did." Gary B. “I learned to drill down and focus on my important needs.” Ted H.

Why Attendees Come Out to Our Events Over and Over Again Sales Rep required help finding templates for producing proposals in his industry. A charity needed golfers for their tournaments. Got golfers, prizes donated by other Mad Hatter attendees and offers for free event promotion. Design firm sought companies with internal graphics departments farming out overflow work. VP HR was seeking prepackaged training modules. Sales Manager needed reps for a new market. We don’t get if we don’t ask. You never know who is in someone else's database.

Results Who’s Hosting Our Events Chambers of Commerce Networking Groups Associations Conferences Company Private Events Mad Hatter Public Events

The Rest is Up to You When results are what you’re looking for, and you don’t have time to waste, come out and experience a Mad Hatter Speed Networking event. Come often and meet new people each time. We promise networking will never be the same for you again.

Introduce Mad Hatter to your group.

Visit our site to register for events and to receive FREE Event Alerts.

www.MadHatterSN.com Contact Info: Mad Hatter Speed Networking (416) 270-2466 eric@madhattersn.com

Q3 2010

Sales KnowHow 19

Productivity

UPERCO In this competitive economy, just being able to do your job is

no longer enough. Competence is simply expected in today’s workplaces. But you can’t be simply competent; you have to be SuperCompetent™ to get an edge. Laura Stack’s new book, SuperCompetent: the Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best (Wiley 2010), gives high potentials proven methods to reach peak performance and achieve breakthrough results. You’ll discover the six keys to unlocking your full potential: Activity, Availability, Attention, Accessibility, Accountability, and Attitude. The Productivity Pro®, Laura Stack, gives you a clear and practical system for achieving Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. By contrasting SuperCompetent™ hero thinking with simply Competent zero thinking, you’ll see that transforming your performance is not about mantras but mindsets. SuperCompetent is available now, just in time for your fall conference or leadership development program. When the rubber hits the road, the difference between merely having ability and being exceptional may be the difference between losing your job and keeping it. The best workers possess a constant, expansive ability to be good at everything they do, no matter how general or specific.

Available NOW 20 Sales KnowHow

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Part 2 of a 3-Part Series

OMPETENT

SUPERCOMPETENT KEY #3: ATTENTION. Simply put, attention is the ability to concentrate and not get distracted.

SuperCompetent workers are always tightly focused: on getting the job done, on their department's success, on their company's success, on the success of their own careers. They home in like a bloodhound on the task at hand, rather than flitting from one thing to another. Distractions are ignored or shunted aside. They avoid negative chat and whining and are proud of what they've accomplished at the end of the day. SuperCompetent people don't have nifty time-stretching devices like the one Hermione uses in the Harry Potter series to cram in extra courses at Hogwarts. Nope, they have the same number of hours and minutes we do, but they use them more efficiently. They know how to pay Attention to their work, and nothing else, when it's necessary—so they can stop paying Attention when they need to devote time to other important parts of their lives. When fine-tuning your ability to pay Attention, it's especially important to avoid an overdependence on business technology. You must school yourself to ignore the Internet, except where it's necessary to do your job. Don't take a few minutes to check your eBay auctions or Facebook page when you should be working, and for heaven's sake, don't let your email rule your life. Modern technology can be a phenomenal productivity tool, but it

will eat your day alive if you let it. So don't. Learn to turn off Outlook, block out those distractions any way you can, and get to work. You don't have to be a social pariah, but don't let your social interactions (online or in real life) take over your workday, either. To achieve a SuperCompetent Attention level, you have to constantly work on these five factors (which also correspond to the chapters in my new book): 1. Stay focused consistently on your work. Don't get distracted. No, do not open Outlook, and turn off all your email alerts. Sure, it may only take a few seconds to check your mail or go for a cup of coffee, but any interruption breaks your concentration, wasting valuable minutes as you refocus on your task. 2. Leave the distractions for your downtime. Most people lack the ability to refuse attractive distractions, and this costs Corporate America billions of dollars per year. When you're supposed to be working, work. Wait for lunch or break time to check YouTube or your social media sites. 3. Limit your multi-tasking in order to maximize your productivity. Despite our technological achievements, it's difficult for the human mind to focus on more than one thing consciously at a time. Rather than achieving more, you end up slowing down because your perceptual channels get jammed. Stop opening 17 browsers. 4. Don't allow socializing to overwhelm your productivity. Human beings are

By Laura Stack social creatures, so of course you'll need to interact with the people around you—but don't let it get out of hand. This is especially a problem now that it's so easy to go online and lose yourself in social media of all kinds. 5. Don't let your productivity technology take over your life. Realize that your handheld, cell phone, laptop, and other forms of business technology are just tools to help you become more productive— end of story. You need to be able to turn all these things off at the end of the day; how else can you ever be off work? It all boils down to time. Do you really have time to check your social media accounts constantly, especially if they have nothing to do with work? Of course not, but doing so is tempting, particularly when it takes you away from tasks that are boring or onerous. The fact that we can be constantly connected makes it even easier to lose track of what we're doing and waste time enjoying ourselves with our shiny new technology and social interaction. But let's face it. There's a time for work and a time for fun, and most of the time, you can't do both effectively at the same time—and accomplish anything worthwhile. Focus, focus, focus. For the working professional, social media, handheld devices, email, and the like are tools. You need to learn to learn to use these tools for what they're intended, instead of letting their expanded purposes of entertainment get out of hand in the workplace. You shouldn't let their utility trick you into trying to do too much at once, either. Q3 2010

Sales KnowHow 21

Just because it's easy to communicate via email and social media and to get more work through your contacts, don't get sucked into the multi-tasking trap. You're only human; you can only do so much.

SUPERCOMPETENT KEY #4: ACCESSIBILITY. The ability to organize the inputs and outputs in your life.. SuperCompetent people can quickly find the information they need. This key gives you the systems you need to locate data contained in any medium: paper, email, phone calls, contacts, Internet, etc. When I was in college in the mideighties, I attended my first time management course. The instructor told us to write down our schedules for the entire day, including the specific time we would work on each task. I dutifully wrote up-to-the minute agendas, detailing what I would complete: "from 8:00 to 8:30, I'll do this…from 8:30 to 9:10, I'll do this…" Back then, I could pretty much keep up with it, and the day usually went as planned. When something unexpected arose, it was fairly easy to adjust my plan. Then things started to change: technology exploded, voicemail, email, and the Internet entered the scene, and the productivity game was forever altered. If you attempted nowadays to write out every minute of your day, how long would your schedule last? It would probably blow up in the first five minutes. You could probably spend more time revising the plan than simply doing your work! Indeed, it has become harder to be productive, for all these reasons: • We're busier than ever before—since we have more to do, with fewer resources, and less time to do it in. • We're more disorganized than ever before, as we receive information from multiple sources and have more data to track and organize. • We're constantly communicating with more people, more quickly, through more medium, so we have more conversations and history to recall.

Being productive today requires many different competencies—one of which is being organized. If you excel in this competency, you likely have systems, rather than piles of paper and piles of files. If you're organized, you can find what you want when you want it—in thirty seconds or less. Being organized means controlling the paper, email, reading material, and inputs into and out of your office and life. Organization is your ability to sort, filter, and process all types of information effectively. It's how tidy your office (and home) looks, inside and out. It's how in control you look and feel, inside and out. Being organized will give you more control over your life and time. SuperCompetents find the time and the self-control to achieve organization through proper systems. If Accessibility is a Key you have issues with, keep these suggestions in mind as you move forward:

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1. Invest a little time in developing simple systems, so you know where everything is at all times. Despite the popular saying, a clean desk is not a sign of an empty mind. It's a sign of a productive one. Experiment with various ways to become more productive; it's worth the time you'll spend on it. 2. Set up a logical, easy-to-follow scheduling system, and stick to it. Highly productive people always know where they're supposed to be at any particular time, so learn to effectively manage the three distinct scheduling components: 1) Appointments and meetings, 2) Things to do; and 3) Reminders. 3. Don't let yourself get distracted by the technology you use to stay organized. You're the boss, not your PDA or smartphone. If you'll take a little time to handle, organize, and track your files, emails, and other communications as they come in, you're unlikely to be overwhelmed later on. 4. Keep careful track of your contacts and communications. We communi-

cate with more people than ever these days, by means of more media than ever before. Fortunately, there are many effective ways to track contact information, histories, and pending communications—if you're willing to put in the necessary time. 5. Don't waste travel time. A second saved is a second earned; so instead of taking things easy while you're traveling, use the time to get ahead so you'll have more free time later. You can also save plenty of annoyance and time simply by preparing for your trips in advance. How much time do you spend every day trying to track things down— whether it's basic information that should be at your fingertips, that pesky file where you keep your vendor list, or the phone number for that productivity expert you were thinking about asking to address your work group? It's not that these little interruptions take all that much time. The problem is that they force you to relinquish your focus. Once it's gone, it takes a while to get it back—and that's where the real time is wasted. Make it a productive day! (TM) © Copyright 2010 Laura Stack. All rights reserved. © 2010 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations. Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004). Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and DayTimers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M. To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401. Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter. For More Articles by Laura Stack Click Here

E-mail Prospecting The Right Way.

Select from Canadian executives and decision-makers across the most soughtafter industries and marketplaces in our economy. Visit ScottsDirectories.com to learn more.

Sales KnowHow 23

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24 Sales KnowHow

Q3 2010