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LinkedIn Groups are Valuable Sales Tools – When Used Appropriately (Article & Sales Team Meeting Idea)

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

LinkedIn has become a very valuable tool for me.  I enjoy partnering with my connections for referrals, business opportunities, learning experiences and awareness of our industry and business climate.  In the few years I’ve been using LinkedIn I’ve reconnected with former colleagues, exchanged valuable referrals, developed deeper relationships with clients, kept track of clients when they’ve switched companies, connected employers and employees, created great peer networks and, not lastly, increased sales.  My point?  LinkedIn is a powerful tool in my business. 

In the past year, I have gotten more active on LinkedIn Groups.    I wanted to share my experience and some of my best pratices for using these groups to build business acumen, share and gather best practices and grow as a sales professional. 

  1. First of all, you need to find a group that is well-managed.  This means that the group manager is actively involved in the discussions and ensures that spam or selling is not tolerated.  The groups that add value are made up of a community of peers that value sharing ideas and best practices for the benefit of the group – and ultimately the customers they serve.  Here are three groups I am active in and would highly recommend:  Sales Blogcast, Sales Gravy, Sales Playbook  (If you know of other good groups, please post a comment and share them with our readers.)  Visit one or more of these groups and request to join.
  2. Once you are a member, you should share your ideas and opinions on discussion questions already posted. 
  3. If you are facing a sales challenge such as getting a prospect to take your call, overcoming a price objection or dealing with customer service issues, you can post your dilemma for the group.  These groups are made up of professionals from the sales industry and are great about sharing their experiences, ideas and suggestions.  You will have a great list of perspectives to consider as you decide how to tackle your sales challenge.
  4. Be respectful of your network.  You can disagree -it is actually interesting and valuable to get differing opinions.  Just do it politely and with respect.
  5. Make an effort to share news that might be useful to the group.  Most groups have a place to post news.   If you find something helpful, share it with the group. 
  6. Follow up on discussions you post.  Thank group members for their input and continue to facilitate the discussion until it runs its course.
  7. Be abundant.  In the The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, Dr. Stephen Covey defined this abundance mentality as “a paradigm that there is plenty out there for everyone.”    The Abundance Mentality is in contrast to the Scarcity Mentality.  (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen R. Covey)
  8. Invite colleagues to join and participate in groups you find useful. 
  9. Stay positive.  The groups I’ve recommended manage to stay realistic and positive. They are solution oriented no matter the challenge.
  10. Remember the Golden Rule always.

These groups are a great enhancement to your life and career when you participate appropriately.  Please feel free to share your own best practices by leaving a comment for our readers.

Get active in LinkedIn Groups and reap the benefits immediately.

Sales Team Meeting Idea:

Ask your sales team to

  • all join the same group or
  • each join a different group.

At your sales team meetings, bring one of the discussion questions from your LI group to your own team.  Share the LinkedIn Group’s responses and then build on those.

Or, determine a sales challenge that exists on your team and post it to the group(s) you belong to. The next time you get together, share the answers from the LinkedIn group(s).  Be sure to let your LinkedIn Group(s) know how they helped your team by leaving a comment in the discussion thread, also.

(Meeting to Win offers subscribers sales team meeting agendas every week.  Join us by subscribing at https://www.meetingtowin.com/subscribe.)

Posted in agenda ideas, best practice, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, maximize tools, new managers, performance, sales activity, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meetings, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, selling tools, team meeting, tips for meetings | No Comments »

M2W Sales Performance Book Club Discussion Guide – Let’s Get Real

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Each quarter Meeting to Win leads our subscribers through a business book in the Sales Performance Book Club.  Each week’s reading assignment and Discussion Guide are included in the weekly sales team meeting agenda newsletter.  To subscribe, visit us at our website www.meetingtowin.com.  Enter the promo code Q4PUSH and get weekly agendas free for all of Q4 2009.  First payment isn’t due until Jan 2010.  Learn more here.

Grab the following book, read a chapter per week as a team and use the Discussion Guide during weekly sales team meetings.  Your team will be motivated and inspired by the new ideas and practical advice.  Happy Selling from Meeting to Win.

Sales Performance Book Club

Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play

by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig

LetsGetReal

 

Chapter 1

  • Chapter 1 lists 5 premises or key beliefs. Do disagree with any of those? 
  • Which of the key beliefs made you think about your client relationships differently? Why?

 Chapter 2

  • Each participant should share if and how they will take one of the “No Guessing” challenges.

Chapter 3

  • What is different about the way the authors suggest you qualify an opportunity vs. the way you do it today?
  • What will you try from this chapter?

Chapter 4

Discussion questions:

  • Share thoughts around qualifying the resources of time and people. Does the team do this today? What are the benefits?

 Exercise:

  • Each participant should practice the “three-part response” (pg. 85) out loud for the group.

 Discussion:

  • How comfortable is each member of the sales team with executing the “three-part response”?
  • What, if anything, will each participant do differently when qualifying resources, time, people and money, moving forward?
  • When will each participant expect to have a chance to practice qualifying resources and using the “three-part response”?

Chapter 5

Discussion questions:

  • Each participant should share one “take-away” from Chapter 5.
  • Are there benefits to understanding the Decision Process as outlined in Chapter 5? Why or why not?

 Exercise:

  • Take two live deals in the team’s pipeline and fill in the blanks on the Decision Grid on page 98. (There will probably be blanks since this is not in practice yet.)
  • What gaps exist in the salesperson’s knowledge of the decision process for each deal?
  • How can those salespeople fill in those gaps?
  • Each salesperson on the two deals should share specific next steps to complete the Decision Grids for those opportunities.

Chapter 6

Discussion:

  • What differences exist between the way each participant prepares and executes the final presentation vs. the way the authors suggest sales professionals should do it?
  • How does the authors’ advice apply to the team’s sales process? What would work?
  • What specifically will each participant do differently, if anything, after studying this chapter?

 Exercise:

  • As practice, choose one person with an upcoming presentation to prepare and share their presentation for the team prior to sharing it with the prospective client.

Chapter 7

Discussion:

  • For each participant, what opportunities are you currently pursuing? What has been the approach so far? 
  • After reading this chapter, what will be each participant’s specific next steps in pursuit of the top opportunities?

 Exercise:

  • Three volunteers should practice for the group an “opening statement” (pg. 195) for an upcoming meeting with a new prospect.
  • Group should share feedback and reaction.

Last Words

Discussion:

  • Upon completing the book, what does each participant want to do differently after reading Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Playby Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig?

 

Exercise:

  • Please complete the SPI.
  • Each person should share their SPI (Sales Progression Index) score. 
  • Based on the SPI score, each participant should share their next steps on that live deal.
  • Did the SPI reveal any surprises for the sales rep?
  • Is the SPI exercise a valuable exercise to use to advance deals?
  • How can you use it moving forward?

 

Helping Clients Succeed sales training is based on Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Playby Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig. To learn more and follow their blog, visit ninety five 5 at http://www.nf5.com/default.aspx.

Meeting to Win leads a new Sales Performance Book Club every quarter.  These are included on weekly sales team meeting agenda newsletters.  To learn more and subscribe, visit Meeting to Win at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.

Posted in Uncategorized, agenda ideas, blog, free sales team meeting topics, management tips, meetings, performance, sales meetings, sales team meeting agenda, team meeting | No Comments »

The Q4 Push – Are You In? The Time to Act on 2010 is NOW!

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

j0433410This has been a tough year for many.  It’s Q4 and salespeople could be feeling tired and ready to “write this one off” and take another shot at it in 2010.   Here’s the problem with that.  Momentum is a very cool thing and it’s great when it’s working for you and horrible when it’s working against you.  So, even if 2009 is a lost cause in terms of goal achievement, there is no better time (well, a month ago would have been better, but…) to get momentum going for 2010.

To gain more and more momentum as you close in on 2010, try these strategies:

The first five on the list come from the advice my friend Alvin of Tactivity shared in a LinkedIn discussion. I’ve added (and repeated) a few ideas that have helped me, also.

  1. If you’re on pace to the President’s Club in your organization, then increase your activity.
  2. If what you are doing hasn’t been working, then complete a thorough cleansing of the pipeline/funnel: Is it real? Is it good business? Can you win?
  3. Prioritize your activities around the health of your newly cleaned funnel
  4. Brainstorm a list of possible actions for your top opportunities; then choose only the 3-5 activities that will really advance them towards closure
  5. Go get it done!
  6. Conduct business reviews with existing clients to secure relationships, identify risks and uncover new ways to help them.
  7. Examine your territory for new opportunities a tough economy has turned up.
  8. Increase your sales activity.  Oh, did we already mention that one?  Action creates action, energy creates energy.  Make more calls!
  9. Solidify referral partners.  Decide to gain 20 referral partners and stay in touch with them, ask for referrals, be accessible and be someone they would be proud to refer (hint: send them referrals, also).
  10. Stay “on the grid” with prospects and existing customers.  Share useful information to help them run their business more effectively.  Don’t be out of sight or you know where you’ll be…. Out of mind.  Many of their sales reps have “gone dark” lately as companies do lay-offs and reorganizations.  Just being there may differentiate you!
  11. Have a team meeting every week to celebrate successes, share ideas, collaborate on hot deals and challenge each other.  This team accountability and celebration is fuel for your sales engine.  (You know we couldn’t leave this one out!)
  12. BONUS:  Increase sales activity.  In my experience, there is NO substitute.  Commit to accelerated sales activity in Q4 if you do nothing else.  Yeah, it’s worth mentioning 3 times. 

2010 can be an amazing year.  Salespeople that build momentum now can get a head start and be rewarded by helping more customers in 2010 than they ever thought possible.  Not to mention, for some 2009 can be a distant memory….  Get started today.  Staring in January 2010 will be TOO LATE.

To help sales teams build momentum during Q4, Meeting to Win is running a Q4 Push Promotion which means…free sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers.  Sales Managers can subscribe for sales team meeting agendas and get all of Q4 for free.  First payment of $10/month won’t be charged until January 2010 (sales managers can unsubscribe any time in Q4 and never be charged).  The agendas are designed to motivate sales teams and accelerate performance while continually gaining and maintaining incredible momentum. 

Read more HERE then join us by subscribing HERE and entering the Promo Code “Q4PUSH”.

Posted in LinkedIn, Uncategorized, agendas, best practice, communication, culture, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, management tips, meetings, new managers, new years resolutions, opportunity, performance, sales activity, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meetings, sales team, sales team meeting ideas, sales tips, tough economy | No Comments »

One Salesperson’s Keys to Success – My Observations

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

For the past 6 months I’ve had the opportunity to witness a salesperson succeeding.  Of course, I know many salespeople succeeding, but this story really intrigued me.  First of all, this salesperson started a consulting business in their field 6 months ago.  They had no brand, about ten thousand competitors and no marketing budget.  Oh, and we were in the downward spiral economically. 

Flash forward 6 months and this salesperson has more business than they can handle and is now considering adding to their team just to keep up.

I am very impressed with how hard this person has been working and really started to think about the actual keys to their success beyond just hard work.  I started making a list of this salesperson’s activities, habits and characteristics and thought it would be fun to share my list in a blog post.

So, here, in no particular order, are my observations or what I am calling “one salesperson’s keys to success”.

  • Creative deal and pricing structures.  This consultant is in an old industry where they’ve always done pricing the same way.  He surprised prospective clients with better deal structures than they’d seen.  Don’t mistake “creative” for lower – these are competitive deal structures that are a win for both parties.
  • This salesperson is not afraid to walk away from deals.  If the deal isn’t in this person’s sweet spot, he actually walks away from it and spends time where he can be more effective – and valuable to his client. 
  • Cold, hard, disciplined sales activity. This salesperson knows what activity leads to sales results and he does that activity EVERY DAY.
  • Manages time effectively.  Plans his work and works his plan – seems so simple. 
  • Does not get slowed down by rejection.  He is able to expect some rejection and take it in stride knowing he is that much closer to a “yes”.
  • Uses technology effectively.  He is very selective about which technology tools to use and which would be “cool”, but just create more work or wasted time. 
  • Frugal.  He is only spending money where there is clear ROI.
  • Networking, networking, networking every day.
  • Chose a niche and sticks with it.  He is turning down business outside his niche.  Since he began doing this his traction in his niche is growing daily and his client list has doubled each month.
  • He sets attitude rules.  For example, if he loses a deal, he only allows himself to “mourn” it for 24 hours.  He uses business development activity to pull him out of mourning which turns into new opportunities before the 24 hours is even up.
  • He takes care of himself – he works out daily, eats right and even took a week vacation.
  • He doesn’t waste time on administration.  He set up a system that is efficient and doesn’t spend too much time on paperwork.
  • This person naturally has no call reluctance.
  • This salesperson has stayed in touch with past clients consistently for 15+ years.
  • He is a master at LinkedIn.  Daily he is on LinkedIn building and sharing his network. 
  • He asks for referrals every day – and gets them.
  • For some reason, Tuesdays were a discouraging day.  This salesperson figured out why (he couldn’t connect with anyone on Mondays and felt no progress) and did something about it.  He created a plan to stay motivated on Tuesdays and recognized that the week always improved.
  • Extremely and appropriately persistent.
  • Knows his ideal customer and pursues ONLY that.
  • Faces reality and addresses concerns during deal pursuits.  He recognizes when a deal may go south and addresses it with the client before he spends too much time.
  • Works a tactical plan.  This salesperson knows his strategic goals and then carves out time to create a detailed tactical activity plan.  When he gets to his office he “doesn’t have to think”, he just executes his plan. 
  • He really enjoys his business and his clients.  Making them happy and solving business needs genuinely motivates him.

These are just my observations of one successful salesperson.  If you are struggling currently, grab some ideas from this list.  Duplicate his success using his habits.  Happy Selling.

This post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win, LLC.  Get weekly sales team meeting agendas and create momentum on your sales team!  Visit us at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.

Posted in Uncategorized, best practice, down economy, efficient, management tips, performance, recession, sales activity, sales management, sales tips, tough economy | No Comments »

Kick-Off to Great Sales Team Meetings – FREE Workshop Download Available

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Sales Managers, do your sales team meetings have “snooze” as the main agenda topic?  It’s not as easy as it looks to plan and execute interesting, interactive sales team meetings.  At Meeting to Win, we believe these meetings should equip your team to compete and win.  If yours aren’t doing that, continue reading….

(At the end of this post, Sales Managers can download a FREE  ”Kick-Off to Great Sales Team Meetings” Workshop Guide.  The guide will help you lead your team through the planning of great sales team meetings as outlined in this article.  Take “SNOOZE” off your agenda!)

sleeping in meeting

To begin having GREAT weekly sales team meetings, don’t try to do it all yourself.  Involve your bright team in the planning and executing.  After all, when done correctly, aren’t they the ones who are supposed to benefit from this time?  If so, they need to own responsibility, also. 

Let’s get started.  Carve out some time to work on your sales team meeting plan WITH your team.  We suggest doing this during your…. you guessed it, weekly sales team meeting.

Before this meeting, consult with some of your team’s natural leaders.  Ask them about the current sales team meetings and how they would improve them.  Let them know you plan to consult with the team on the topic and ask them to take leadership roles in that meeting.  The outcome should be a plan to have more effective sales team meetings that the entire team builds and then executes consistently.

During the meeting, welcome the team and thank them for their time.  Review your plan for the meeting and share the reasons you want to put appropriate effort into improving sales team meetings.  Ask your leaders you consulted with in advance to share their thoughts, also.

Now, it’s time to get to work.

Set a goal for this meeting.  As a team, what do you hope to gain from spending time on this topic?  At the end of the meeting, determine if you achieved that outcome.

For fun, ask each meeting participant to share their best and worst sales team meeting experiences.  Ask them what made those experiences the best and worst.  You’ll have a good starting point on how to move forward.

A very important next step is to set some meeting ground rules.  As a team, create a list of rules everyone should abide by.  We’ve seen the ground rules include (1) be on time, (2) no agenda hi-jacking, (3) everyone problem needs to be introduced with possible solutions and so on.  It is important that this list of ground rules be created and agreed upon by the team, not just the manager.

Now, what should you talk about? Content is critically important for a great sales team meeting.  The content you choose will determine how effective the meeting will meet the objective of equipping the team to compete and win.  Ask the team to share a list of topics they’d like to cover.  Now, figure out where to find information on these topics – guest speakers, books, product specialists, company sales trainer, industry magazines, websites, etc.  These topics will be what you use to build your weekly sales team meeting agendas.  (Meeting to Win provides Sales Managers with new topics and agendas every week!  To subscribe, visit us at Meeting to Win or visit our store at M2W Store.)

Next, as a team, create your next 4 agendas.  Ask different team members to gather topic information and lead sections of the meetings.  Everyone owns parts of the meeting which distributes the work and makes for much more interesting meetings.

Finally, set your team up for a bright sales team meeting future.  It takes effort and its worth it.  As a team, determine how the group will commit to executing productive sales team meetings moving forward.  You’ve done the hard part and planned it. Now, you need to execute.  Maybe each team member can own one month of the year or you can create a sales team meeting task force. Whatever works for your team, plan it and commit to it before you close this topic.

You have the blueprint for moving forward with GREAT sales team meetings.  Get the FREE  ”Kick-Off to Great Sales Team Meetings” Workshop Guide and get started NOW!

 

Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Founder of Meeting to Win.  Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting resources such as topics, agendas, e-books and consulting.

Posted in agenda ideas, agendas, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, performance, sales management, sales meetings, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tips for meetings | No Comments »

Maintain a "performance culture" in a recession

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Right now Sales Managers must set the tone for their sales teams. The news is gloomy and Sales Managers have a lot of power to deal with the economy realistically while not allowing their teams to become “victims”. Let’s spend some time on this topic this week.

We sent out a press release regarding maintaining a performance culture during a recession. http://www.ibtimes.com/prnews/20081119/sales-teams-can-maintain-a-performance-culture-during-a-recession.htm

In the next post, we’ll list out several ways beyond what the article shares to create and maintain a performance culture during tough times. We may also create a list of how to do the opposite! It seems some Sales Leaders are masters at this.

Feel free to share a comment about how you, as a Sales Manager, are keeping your teams focused, pumped up, realistic and strategic. We’ll share our findings soon. Check back in….

Posted in What They Are Saying About Meeting to Win, culture, performance, recession, sales managers | No Comments »

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