Build your Business with Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of Mouth Marketing is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to build your business. Whether you are a Sales Rep or run a small business, what customers and prospects say about you determines the kind of success you have.

Word of Mouth Marketing or WOMM is what your customers and prospects say about you when you are not around. In other words, WOMM is your reputation in your industry and the area in which you serve customers.

(It’s your reputation!).

The best part of this is that you can control how WOMM is used in relation to your business.

How do you harness the power of WOMM?

The first thing I would do is to provide value through my product or service to all of my customers. By providing value through your product or service you can earn the right to ask for testimonials and referrals from your customers. I have done this. Prospects will believe what your customers’ say about you more than anything you say. Your customers could provide LinkedIn recommendations or video testimonials. These testimonials could be shared on your website and on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

These testimonials can also be produced per a prospects request. I called on prospects who requested a list of three current customers they could call before they would give me any business. (Make sure to get the customers permission before using their name!).

By doing everything that I suggested above, you are in the driver seat and can get positive word of mouth marketing to promote your business. If you provide poor service and no value to your customers, word of mouth marketing will destroy your business. You get to choose what customers say about your business.

Another way to provide value to your customers and to improve your online word of mouth marketing is to: create an e-zine,  publish a blog and/or online newspapers. I publish several online newspapers on the topics of sales, marketing and advertising just to name a few. I also publish a blog.

Using what I have discussed, will allow you to use WOMM to get and keep customers.

 

Getting to Yes when the Answer has been No:Dealing with Rejection in Sales and Business

Dealing with rejection in sales and business is tough.  I remember my time in outside sales in New York City. I would make a lot of cold calls or try to up-sell or cross-sell products to existing customers. I remember days in the field when the answer I received was some form of no. Sometimes no matter how perfectly we execute the sales process, the answer is going to be no. Even today in the business I am building, I face a lot of rejection.

Many people would think to themselves I can’t take this rejection I should just quit. Well their right at least in the short term. After you have made five or six sales calls with no results, take a short break. Take a walk and do some deep breathing. Try to remember that it is your offering that is being turned down and not you! Unless the prospect says “I hate this guy”.  This happened to me on one occasion.

You should take a short break after being rejected for the following reasons:

1 At this point in your call plan you are probably frustrated and are not thinking clearly. This will ruin any chances of making sales for the rest of the day.

2 Taking a break allows you to vent and refocus.

3 Reflect on past successes you’ve had. Remember, you made sales before and you can do it again!

After you have cooled off, try to think over the last calls that you have made. Reflect on what went well and what did not. Take this information and go on to your next calls with a positive attitude as if nothing has happened. Remember, your prospect does not care about how your day is going.

During my time in outside sales, I would have to call on certain prospects as many as 10 or 12 times before I could make a sale.  In terms of cross-selling and up-selling, you have to build relationships with your customers. It is not going to happen over-night. This is true when you are selling items that require a large investment from your customers or prospects.

Some of my biggest sales successes have come during my last few calls of the day. When you feel spent, take a short break and then keep going. You never know when you are going to get a yes. If you quit then the answer is always no. Remember, always ask for the order.  I was cursed at and thrown out of buildings; if I could keep going so can you!

 

How to Setup Google Analytics on Your Website and Blog

Google Analytics is a great way to monitor your efforts online. It allows you to see how many people are visiting your site, the duration of their visit, what content they are looking at and from what network. You can also see what country they are from. Another thing you could do is to set custom goals to check for certain things. The site allows you to measure the amount of traffic that comes from social networks. To access this, just click under the social tab under traffic sources. Google Analytics also lets you track your Adwords campaigns. I use Google Analytics for my website and tumblr blog.

Today I am going to discuss how to setup Google analytics for your website and blog. The first thing that you will need to get started is a Gmail account. Now with your Gmail account, go to the Google Analytics website. You will need to click the create an account button. Next you will be asked to login to you Gmail account. You will then be asked to create a profile and add the website URL that you want to track. You can also provide your time zone. Once you provide this, the site will provide you with a tracking code. Next, you will need to copy and paste this into the html section of each page of your website or blog. If you have done this correctly, you will see that the tracking code is installed.

You will start to see statistics about your visitors within a few hours. It is important to note that WordPress.com offers Google Analytics as a paid upgrade. WordPress provides users with a set of analytics.

Now you are using Google Analytics.

Updated Info on LinkedIn and Twitter integration. See below.

Dan Galante's avatarSales, Marketing & Social Media Today

Twitter is a great social networking site for people and brands to spread ideas quickly.  Twitter is also a great marketing tool for brands to promote products and services. Twitter has a few hundred million users worldwide. Getting started with Twitter is quick and easy. To get started using Twitter you need to do the following:

1 Click on the join link.

2 Provide your first and last name.

3 Provide a valid email address.

Once you join, you will need to choose a name for your account. I would recommend using your name or your business name. You can also choose a name that relates to what you do. I have two Twitter accounts @DanGalante and @TrendSettingSM. The former is my name and the latter is an abbreviation of my company name Trend Setting Sales and Marketing.

Now that you have an account, you should fill in the bio section. Twitter…

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How to Create a Blog on WordPress and Tumblr

Writing a blog is great way to share your ideas and market your expertise in an area. I began blogging back in November 2011. Blogging had connected me with so many great people around the globe. I began publishing on the WordPress platform. Recently, I began cross publishing my blog on Tumblr. In this post, I am going to discuss how to set up your blog on WordPress and Tumblr.

WordPress

The first thing that you need to do is to register on the site. You will have the option to create either a wordpress.com address or a custom domain name. I suggest that you pick a custom domain name because your blog will come up better in search results. WordPress gives you a choice of web suffixes to choose from, for example .com, .me etc. I chose the address http://dangalante.me. If you decide to change the address after you set up the blog that is ok.  The wordpress.com address will automatically be directed to your new address. It is important to note that you will have to buy the domain name if you want your own. Hosting is inexpensive and should cost about $25 per year at most depending on the name you choose. The investment is well worth it because this will give your blog its own brand identity.

Once you register, you will see WordPress’s default theme. Click on the appearance tab and browse the free and premium themes that are available. You can then choose the one that you would like to install.

Now you are ready to write a post.

To do this, click on the new post tab. A window will pop up. Here you will find tools to write and edit your post. When you are ready to post, just click publish and you are ready to go.

Tumblr

Like WordPress, you will have to register on Tumblr to set up your blog. I have provided the link to the registration page. If you land on the home page, just click on the sign up button.

Once you have signed up, you will be prompted to create a web address. You will notice that the only address you could create is a tumblr.com address. Tumblr does not support or partner with site hosting companies. In other words, you will need to find a third party host on your own. I purchased a domain name from Yola.com . The name I purchased is http://askdangalante.com . Once I secured the name, I had to point the address to the Tumblr servers. (Tumblr provides the specific address and exactly what CNAME or A-Records need to be changed. Here is the link. You will know if this is correct if your address redirects to Tumblr and it say page not found.

You can test your domain address in the box under your Tumblr address in the blog settings. Your address will not link to the site right away. It took 24 hours; although it can take up to 72.

Now you can click on the customized theme and browse through the free and premium themes. Pick a theme and now you are ready to post. To post, click on the text tab which is located underneath the Dashboard tab. You will see a window where you can copy, paste, write and edit your posts. When you are done, just click the publish button.

As you can see, both WordPress and Tumblr is user friendly. All you have to do is start writing! My decision to start writing has been the best decision I have made. I wish I had started earlier!

The Best Places to Market Your Business to Qualified Buyers

For your business to have any success in generating sales, you have to know four things:

1         Who can buy your product or service?

2         Who are the decision makers?

3         Where are these decision makers going to make buying decisions?

4         How do these people make buying decisions?

I covered the first two questions in a previous post.  Let’s focus on questions three and four.  To find out where the decision makers go to make buying decisions you need to do following:

Ask them, how did you decide on buying product XYZ? This will be easier to with your existing customers but prospects will respect you for asking questions that other people don’t. Another place to see where decision makers go to buy your products is trade shows. You could attend as either an exhibitor or an attendee. Try to get a booth at the show. Exhibitors are provided with demographics of who attends the show and have a chance to interact with buyers directly. Does your customer base have a specific incentive to make purchases at a certain time period?  For example, when I was a sales rep in the Dental industry, the IRS allowed dentists to write off capital equipment purchases they made up to a certain amount. If you cannot afford to go as an exhibitor then go as an attendee. This way you can see what goes on first hand.

Now on how these people make buying decisions. This information could be obtained by asking them or it could be obtained by looking for published research. If none exists, conduct a survey and offer a free gift to fill it out. You could even include questions on how they came to a decision to make a purchase. SurveyMonkey is a good way to do this.

Social Media Marketing

Marketing your business using social media is a great way to build your business and reach potential buyers. Before I discuss more about this, I want to ask you some questions?

Do you have a website? If not, why not?  Websites are easy to put together. I put mine together rather quickly. Having a site helps your business come up in searches. When I Google you and your business what comes up? Go ahead and try it now.  If nothing comes up, that’s not good!

Now you’re asking what do I put on my website? I would put basic information that sells who you are and what you do. I would also upload information on your products and services. You should include a resume,  testimonials and a blog. A website is like fashion, it is never finished. You can look at my site as an example. I also write a blog and publish online newspapers. I use my blog to give my followers a value massage.  This blog is published on WordPress and Tumblr. I share the content throughout my social networks.  I will cover how to build a website and a blog in future posts.

The Social Networks that I would have a presence on are the following: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. I also have social sharing buttons on my site and blog.  Pinterest is also a good network; however I have focused on the first four.

I would try to build a following on each these networks. Your best bet on how to do this is to share good content with people. When I started, I shared other people’s articles, and then I wrote my own.  However, I still share others content that I find interesting. You can market your business with these updates. Search for people who are have an interest to what you have to offer. I have provided links to articles I have wrote on how to do this on these networks.

These are the basics on how to market your business to potential buyers.

The Best Day & Time to Execute an Email Campaign

Many people ask, what is the best day and time to execute an email campaign?

Instead of trying to figure out the best day and time to execute an email marketing campaign, I would instead focus on the content. I would ask the following questions:

1)      What message do I want to send?

2)      What action do I want my customers and prospects to take?

3)      Is the content of my message relevant to my customers?

4)      Will customers see my email campaign as a value message or just another solicitation?

For example, I write a blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media. My readers can choose to follow me through my RSS feed, through email, WordPress, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I use my blog to do my email marketing. As you can see, my subscribers see my blog as a value message. In fact, when you enter your email address to subscribe to my blog, you will receive a confirmation email. This is known as an opt-in.

It is important to note that when building an email list; to get the recipients consent through an opt-in. If you are building a list from your website you can use services such as Constant Contact.  When executing an email campaign, make sure to protect the privacy of your customers by blind copying them. When the customer receives the email, it should say sent to undisclosed recipients.

To answer the original question, I would say that any day and time is great to engage consumers through email marketing; especially in today’s digital world. Consumers are on different schedules and have different needs so it is hard to predict which day would be best to send out emails. If you wanted to obtain concrete data on which day would be best to email consumers, you would need to develop and implement a survey that asks consumers what day they opened and received your messages.  Services such as SurveyMonkey can be used to create the surveys. I use a widget on my site to obtain feedback on what content people want to see from me. This information could then be compared with the customer’s date of purchase to see how long it took them act on your message. (The sales cycle)

If at first you get a low response rate to your survey, you may need to offer an incentive like a gift card for each completed survey or a chance to win a gift card in a drawing; this would be dependent on your budget.

10 Things a Sales Leader Needs to Do or Have to Be Successful

Deciding to go into sales management is a very big step for a sales person. Recently, I received an offer to serve as a sales trainer or de-facto sales manager; based on my time in field sales and my blog.

What are a VP of Sales, Sales Director and Sales Manager?

Well they are leaders.

The first thing that a sales manager needs to do to be successful is to lead people and serve as an example. During my time in sales, especially during training, I went to these sales leaders when I had questions and needed help. (Before taking the position, you should make sure that you can believe in the product and that you can sell it yourself because when the sales team cannot do it they will look to you for help!)

The second thing that a sales leader needs to have to be successful is a successful track record as a sales person. Did you notice that I said successful and not a rock star? This will take us to the next thing a sales manager needs to have to be successful.

The third thing that a sales manager needs to have is empathy and patience. This comes into play when training new sales people. They may go into the field and get shot down or they might be developing slower than you would like. The easy thing to do would be to say deal with it. Another easy thing to do would be to fire them. This is the wrong thing to do. (At least the in the beginning.) The sales manager needs to support their sales people by debriefing with them and communicating with them. (Think, Babe Ruth was never a manager in baseball even though he was a star; he lacked the patience to do the job.)

The fourth thing that a sales manager needs to do is to go around with their sales people to meet customers. The sales manager needs to do this directly when possible. Delegating this task sends the wrong message to the new person. It says that the sales person is not important. If you must delegate this task, make sure the sales rep goes out with a seasoned sales rep that is successful so they can pick up their positive habits.

The fifth thing a sales manager needs to do is to teach sales people the following: sales planning, how to make a cold call and how to handle sales objections.

The sixth thing that a sales manager needs to do is to make sure that their sales people have knowledge of: the company’s products, how to provide customer service, how to keep customers paying on time, develop relationships with customers, how to up-sell and cross-sell, how to demonstrate value, not selling on price and how to handle difficult customers.

The seventh thing the sales manager needs to do is to make sure that the team knows how to develop and deliver a sales presentation that answers customer’s questions and objections.

The eighth thing that the sales manager needs to do is to let the sales people to know its ok to ask for the order after they make their presentation. The sales manager also needs to teach the sales people the following: to generate leads, to convert these leads into sales, to follow-up on sales, earn referrals and testimonials and to make the quota. Only if the sales team makes their quota will the sales manager make theirs. The sales manager can motivate their team to sell with sales contests. This a great way to promote healthy competition among the sales team. (A side note, touch base with your team on a weekly basis. However, reduce the amount of sales meetings that you have. Especially if your team has to travel long distances to attend. The last thing that you want to do is take money away from yourself and your team by keeping them out of their territories. I would recommend one to two meetings team meetings a month. The rest of the meetings can be handled via conference call, email and co-traveling. Sites such as GoToMeeting can facilitate meetings.

The ninth thing to do is to assess your team’s strengths’ and weaknesses’;  working with the team to correct them.

The tenth and last thing that a sales manager needs to be successful is be able to repeat steps one to nine multiple times as sales people are promoted, fired and leave to go work for another company. When firing someone make sure to meet with them face to face and explain the situation. No one likes to hear this news over the phone or via email. You will need to learn how to interview and recruit people as well.

These are the 10 things that a sales leader needs to do or have to be successful.

What the New York Auto Show Can Teach Us About Trade Show Marketing

Trade show marketing is important for companies to build brand awareness. The purpose for trade shows is to drive sales.  As a Dental Sales Rep, I worked the Greater New York Dental meeting. This is a show where Dental Manufacturers and distributors show off current and new products they have to offer. Today, I am going to discuss how companies can drive sales at trade shows. I am also going to use the New York Auto show to offer examples of best practices for trade show marketing.

When planning for a trade show it is important to decide on the size of your booth. Also you need to decide on your message and theme. Are you going to offer free product demonstrations? How are you going to get customers? How are you going to mobilize your staff? What is the reason you are attending the show. Are you looking to build brand awareness? Are you looking to increase sales? What is your budget for the show? Also how much time do you need to set up your display?

All of these questions should be handled before you can go ahead.  Also it is imperative that you get the word out that you are attending the event. Let your customers’ know what your booth number is and where to find you. You can do this by delivering literature to customers during sales calls. I have done this many times in the past.  Make sure to share postings on social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. Advertise in your industry trade magazine and on industry related web sites. The organizers of the trade show will do this as well but you as companies need to do your part. Make sure your displays’ dazzle your audience. All presentations need to be top-notch!

The Automotive industry really does a great job with trade show marketing. I recently covered the New York Auto show as a member of the press. The show is going on through Sunday, 4/15/12 so I suggest you head down there to check it out. At this show, I saw some amazing unveils of the Chevy Impala, Mercedes, BMW M6’s, Lexus ES350, Nissan Altima and the Dodge Viper which was my personal favorite. I saw a stunt driver burn rubber with the Viper! Ford also had an amazing display as well. The Ford Mustang’s have their own place downstairs away from the main display. The auto show is shared on Facebook, and Twitter. The automotive manufactures also promote the show on their own social media channels. Many of the unveils were broadcast live on social media channels.

What made these unveils so exciting was the showmanship of the executives along with the videos and in the case of the Mercedes display; a live band. You saw the cars on the TV screen then the executives would drive up with the cars. They engaged the audience! Every car had a story and you felt like you wanted to buy it. Every trade show could be enhanced by watching the techniques employed at this show.

On the public days, professional spokespeople present the cars and trucks to the crowds. But don’t take my word for it, go out and see the show. Still not convinced? Here are the pictures!

How to Deal with Difficult Customers

In sales, we all have to deal with difficult customers. Today, I am going discuss how to deal with difficult customers. In a previous post, I discussed how to get customers to pay on time. Before I can discuss how to handle difficult customers, the situation needs to be put in context. In other words, why were the customers being difficult? Were they being difficult because you screwed up their order or service call? Are they just miserable people? Does the customer constantly cancel their orders? What kind of relationship do you have with this customer? How important is your customer to your bottom line or monthly quota.

Now I know that the first thing you want to do with a nasty customer is to tell them off and fire them. My answer is to resist this urge. You need to remain calm in order to figure out what is causing the customers hostility. If the customer is being hostile because you and your company screwed up, take responsibility and fix the situation. I always did this during my time in outside sales.  If you have a customer who constantly wastes your time having you order items only to cancel these orders, I suggest having a discussion with the customer to try and settle the issue at hand. If this goes nowhere then fire the customer! (Provided they do a small amount of business with you.)

Should you have a customer that is nasty who has a long standing relationship with the company, with you and is crucial to you bottom line/ making your sales quota, I suggest that you suck it up and find a way to keep this customer happy. You do not want to cut your nose to spite you face.

Handling collections can also create difficulty between you and your customer. However, this does not have to be the case. Customers will usually not pay an invoice because of the following reasons: the product you sold them did not work, they lost their invoice, they are having cash flow problems, or the sales rep was too lazy to follow up with the customers. If the product you sold them does not work, fix the issue immediately. If the customer lost their invoice, provide them with another copy and follow up. If the customer is having cash flow problems work out a payment plan. If you are the sales rep follow up. If you’re the sales manager, lean on the rep. Remember to be respectful to the customer. It is important to keep in mind that you want to sell this customer items in the future; not just collect a debt. (I discuss getting customers to pay on time in a previous post.)

Many difficult customers can be managed with great customer service and follow through. However, some cannot be dealt with and need to be fired. Firing customers should be a last resort.