by MIMO Solutions | communication skills, sales, social media, Social Networking
The art of sales is about communication. Those who can communicate the most effectively will be the most successful.
Those skills that help you to be a good salesperson – most sales training students have discovered that they become better managers, friends, parents and spouses as well. Listening, questioning, and helping people discover what is in their own best interests are valuable skills in life and social media.
If you like most people who never want to be considered a salesperson, and you certainly don’t want to be trained to act like one, READ THIS STORY:
I recently received the following testimonial from a student and want to share it with you. This is verbatim from a real client. Those of you who have received sales training through Sandler Training will recognize the questioning process:
“I am writing to inform you of an event that happened yesterday that speaks volumes of the curriculum that you teach. Standing in the upper level of one of my job sites I received a startling message. To begin with I am a true single father of two beautiful children whose mother abandoned them about a year ago; with that said here is what transpired.The startling message was from my children’s mother saying she was going to end her life. This message, of course, was returned by a phone call from me. She answered in tears stating that she had lost her children, lost her lover and was done with life. My initial response without forethought was, ‘[name omitted], what do you mean, tell me more, please.’ She responded saying her life was over. I then said, ‘Please tell me what you mean and how long has it been that you have been in this mindset.’She told me that ever since she had left me she had been addicted to prescription narcotics and in an abusive relationship. By this time I am in my vehicle racing to south Kansas City to her home. I asked her ‘since this realization’ what has she tried to do to get help or leave. She responded saying she had tried to stop using and tried to leave her lover many times. I told her clearly this has failed to work and she agreed. She then told me that this has cost her her family, children and life. With a lump in my throat I asked her what she was feeling coming to this realization.When I arrived at her house, I found a beaten woman who was in the process of ending her life. I pulled my wallet out and showed her a picture of my beautiful 6-year-old son and my amazing 13-year-old daughter and asked her, “Are you going to give up on them, and are you done fighting?’ She dropped what she had in her hands and allowed me to call for help. Less than 24 hours later, she was on a plane to Colorado to a treatment center for addiction and spiritual healing.The skills you teach in this program far surpass sales.You teach how to meet people where they are and to get the root of issues and pain. I thank you, I fully believe that without the skills you have instilled in me, I would not have had the clarity of getting through to her or a guideline to do so, and as a consequence, my children’s mother may have ended her life.”
No one can tell me they don’t sell. If you’ve ever applied for a job, asked someone on a date or raised teenagers, you’ve been in sales.
Sales skills are life skills. All of the attitudes, behaviors and techniques are directly applicable. It’s short-sighted to think they don’t relate to you. And those elements, when perfected, create better relationships. Isn’t that, after all, what we’re looking for?
Learn how to be successful in sales, and you learn how to be successful in life.
by MIMO Solutions | marketing, sales, social media, social media marketing, Social Networking, tips
Whether you’re an experienced social networker or just a newbie, here are 10 secrets to growing your target market network online:
1. Create an up-to-date profile and/or fan page
Before you begin a “friending” (i.e. request to become another’s friend), be sure that your profile is up-to-date with an accurate description of what you do, your interests, and your contact info. Make sure you include your website addresses. If you have multiple businesses invite people in your appropriate target market to become fans of your niche-specific fan page.
2. Follow the favorites
Follow leaders in your field/industry and “friend” them. This includes popular products, TV shows, or other specific interests of your target market. Anytime you make a friend request, include a personal note, as that will improve the likelihood that they will accept your request. Say something like, “I’m a big fan and I’d love to have you in my network on Facebook.” Once they have accepted your invitation, make comments about their status updates to help you get on the radar and in front of their thousands of friends.
3. Friends of friends
Take a look at the people in the network of your industry leaders, as they are probably part of your target market as well. Send friend requests to those of interest to you. When you friend someone that you only know by association, send a personal note as well, like “I discovered your profile in <name here>’s network and would like to get to know you better by adding you to my network.”
4. Use groups
Look for groups that may contain your target market. In your search for groups, use keywords that describe your niche, industry, geographic area, interests, or whatever other terms you might use to find members of your target market. Join and begin to participate in the group so that they begin to get to know you. Then pursue the member lists for good prospects, start with the members you’ve connected with or have commented on similar posts.
5. Invite your existing email lists and address books
You can use your existing email database to add people from your clients, prospects, and other current contacts if they fall within your target market definition. Add a note to the invitation and make sure you are clear and professional about your motivation.
6. Recommended friends
Most of the popular social networking sites will have a suggestion list for people you might know. These recommendations are pretty solid, because they are based on similar work history, mutual friends and interests. Take them up on their recommendation and add these to your network.
7. Add by interest or industry
Do a people search by job title, industry, geographic location, or interest. People with those terms in their profile will show up in your search, and you can request to add them based on common interests.
8. Build the relationship
Once you friend someone, you need to begin to get to know them and start building trust so that you become their top-of-mind expert in a particular area. Begin building the relationship by posting a quick “thank you” note on their wall, as well as a comment about something on their profile that interests you or in which you have in common. Watch for their status updates, as well, and comment on these when appropriate.
9. Create a group
Once you’ve got about 500 followers, create a group for your target market. Provide the group with useful content and ask questions to stimulate discussion and get the members to return to participate in the group. You can post articles, links to blog posts, or videos you have created. Invite group members to any free virtual or face-to-face events you’re hosting. This is where you really establish your expert status and credibility.
10. Integrate your marketing strategy
Once you have a good list of friends and credibility on the site, you can begin mixing in your marketing messages. Social networking sites are designed to be casual and personal, so don’t just copy an advertisement or sales messages. All you want to do is keep what you do and who you are on the top of your prospects minds. You can casually mention what you’re working on in your status, announce events, and make comments offering to help people with your product or service. Remember, people can remove or block you as easily as they added you in the first place.
No marketing strategy works unless you consistently implement it over time. As a newbie to Facebook, you might want to spend as much as 60 minutes per day researching friends and participating in groups. As your network grows, you may spend only 15 minutes 3 times per week on Facebook. The key to success is to put this strategy on your calendar and make it a routine part of your ongoing Internet marketing tasks.
Many of these social networking sites are strict and very particular about how its participants contact each other. Many sites limit the number of new invitations allowed in a given day or week. If you exceed this amount you can get penalized or removed for spamming. If you stick with about 50 per day, you should stay within most limits. If you ever receive a warning, you should stop immediately for that day and reduce your efforts moving forward.
While social networking is an inexpensive marketing tool, it can be effective in helping you grow your business. You should maintain your other marketing strategies, and simply add this strategy to your marketing mix. A well-rounded internet marketing plan includes social networking, and it could mean that your prospect well will never run dry.
by MIMO Solutions | communication skills, marketing, sales, social media, tips
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| Generate Social Media Engagement |
I just read an email tip about how to use social media for marketing your business and the gave 7 easy steps to follow. Sounds good doesn’t it?
Step number 4 caught my eye though… Generate engagement. Sounds even better on paper! I will just get thousands of follower and then I will get them engaged in a living discussion about my business and they will have to buy something… They won’t have a choice!
If you can’t tell, I am being sarcastic here. If it were as easy as crossing “generate engagement” of the checklist then everyone would be successful already, and we would all be on permanent vacation. This is why, I have started this blog, “Following The Like.” I have read dozens of books, articles and emails about how to attract followers, but very little about what happens after the “like.”
So you can communicate will thousands or millions of people with a simple status update…
- How does that make you money?
- What do you say?
- How exactly do you generate engagement following the like?
I have an answer for you, but you are not going to like it… You have to work hard and you have to be able to sell. These days, it seems like everyone wants to take the easy way out. They want the quick buck, the magic words, the social media bullet that destroys your old sales records and shoots you into early retirement. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist.
Communication skills, sales skills, and the ability to engage a person in a meaningful discussion are learned and perfected over time. They don’t just happen, and they don’t happen quickly. Sure some people are born with the gift of gab, but that doesn’t mean anyone will buy from them, and more often than not they over-talk people and end up failing to listen. Great communicators and salespeople are trained craftsman. They study communications, psychology and motivation, and they practice and perfect their delivery.
Over time, on this blog, I will attempt to help you do the same. I will share thoughts, tips and stories to help you perfect the art of communication in order to motivate and mobilize your social media followers into fans and buyers.
Here is teaser of my step one:
Stop what you are doing and listen! Think about it for a second. We have a social media world larger than the population of the US online posting about themselves. People are starved for attention, and they are dying for a person who listens and who cares. People love great listeners, people love people they can relate to, people love to belong, and they love to be heard.
I will share more later, but for now just listen and be real. People are bombarded with thousands of sales messages a day; adding your two cents will most likely not be heard anyway. So many companies are out there pushing products, it is impossible to pay attention to them all. So what is a business to do? Listen. How many companies can you name that are listening and following your updates? How many are responding with thoughtful, emotionally real comments without a sales message? That crowd is a lot smaller.
