New Book Provides A Solution to Developing More Successful Business Partnerships
Jan 26, 2011 All About Selling
*Do you find that your business partners have differing views on the business, the relationship and more?
*Does the thought of having a conversation with your partner leave you uneasy and frustrated -or do you avoid them altogether?
*Do disagreements between you and your partners leave your staff or customers unsure of decisions?
*Have you heard that most partnerships aren’t successful so you’re hesitant about getting into one?
You are not alone. Millions of smart and talented people suffer in their partnerships. Sometimes the business isn’t successful and it negatively impacts the relationship. Other times the individual needs of the partners change and they no longer align with the needs of the business. Whatever the causes, more than 50% of all business partnerships fail. And in those that don’t, partners often feel like their only option is to “grin and bear it.”
Finding the Fork in the Road is about partnerships: how to create one, how to build one and how to manage one when it goes off track. It’s chock full of checklists, assessments and other tools to use to determine partnership ‘fit’, establish compatibility, foster trust and measure progress.
Finding The Fork In The Road will help you, whether you are considering a partnership, are struggling in an existing one or are simply looking for ways to strengthen and improve your partner relationship.
Finding The Fork In The Road will reveal:
• When the problem is communication and what to do about it.
• Secrets to successful partnerships and what that means to you.
• How to determine the partnership fit if you are considering a partnership
• The realities of family businesses and how it affects the business and partnership
• And so much more….
Click here to learn more about Finding The Fork In The Road.
P.S. If you buy your copy of Finding the Fork in the Road today by clicking the “Buy It Now” button, you’ll also receive a free audio from Linda Finkle titled Stop Treating Symptoms as well as a host of wonderful bonus gifts from leaders in the fields of marketing, communication, leadership development, women, goal setting, motivation and more!
My New eBook, Coach Up! Now Available For Download – My Holiday Gift to You
Dec 9, 2010 All About Selling, Books, Books by Keith Rosen, Career Advice, career coaching, coaching for managers, coaching tips, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Sales Coaching
“Is it acceptable to tell your boss what you really want and need from them?” Yes! If your manager has not yet come to you to establish certain boundaries, expectations around your position or relationship with them (especially as it relates to coaching) or approached you regarding a recurring problem that needs to be addressed, it is only in your best interest to be the one to take the initiative. The question is, how do you approach your boss?
The good news is, you can coach up! Rather than waiting around for your manager, you can enroll your manager in a way that would open them up to want to listen to you. You can safely bring up how you want to be coached, managed, communicated to and supported. How effective you are in conveying this to your manager is dependent upon your ability to craft your message in a way that creates a new possibility you may not even be aware of, rather than a confrontation.
Discover how to leverage the power you have to create the positive results you never thought possible and strengthen the relationship you have with your boss. This book will explain how to Coach Up, while addressing and removing any reluctance to doing so. You will also find several templates and specific examples of what you can say to your boss when coaching up around some of the common situations you find yourself in that will foster an open dialogue so that you and your boss can both win.
Price: $8.95
Special Offer: This holiday season, I’m giving you a copy, my gift to you. Download this for FREE for a limited time!
(All we ask is to please respect the intellectual property rights in the book.)
Here’s the link to the download page.
Tags: Books, career coaching, coach up, coaching up, coaching your boss, coaching your manager, Communication, manage up, management, managing up, managing your boss
Book Recommendation: Smart Calling by Art Sobczak
Mar 31, 2010 All About Selling
Would you like to eliminate fear and rejection from your prospecting? And get a win on every call?
You can with Art Sobczak’s Smart Calling method. Art works with thousands of sales reps each year helping them get more business by phone. In his new book, Smart Calling – Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling, Art gives you the field-tested, practical information you need to make your calls work.
Packed with hundreds of real-world examples, Smart Calling shows you how to:
*Grab your prospect’s interest in the critical first 20 seconds
*Use “social engineering” to get the inside scoop on prospects
*Turn around buyer resistance
*Have screeners, gatekeepers, and assistants working for you
*Get stalled prospects to take action
*Stay motivated and avoid morale-killing rejection!
Most of the time, cold calls don’t work and end up wasting everyone’s time. Smart Calling gives you a new and better way to approach prospects and win sales. Order Art’s book today and start Smart Calling.
Get exclusive bonus gifts, e-books, and recordings from authors and experts like Zig Ziglar, Jill Konrath, Bob Burg, me, and many others when you order Art’s new book today.
Go here right now and get details about purchasing the book and receiving your special free gifts.
Landslide Video: Respect Sales! A Day On The Links With a Prospect
Nov 12, 2009 All About Selling, Clients are fun. Case Studies in Sales and Leaders..., Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Training, Videos
Landslide.com recently recorded a video for a series with the theme: “Respect sales.” The idea is to show how sometimes people think salespeople have it easy – they get to travel, play golf, go on dinner outings etc. but the reality is far different.
So, what actually happens when a salesperson takes a prospect out on the golf course? Any good salesperson knows that deals just don’t fall out of the sky. Follow Landslide’s sales guy as he puts up with his difficult prospect and tries to close the deal. Click play on the video below.
If the video does not load, here is a link to the video.
Tags: funny, prospecting, sales, Sales Training, selling, video
Before You Qualify Prospects Using Better Questions, First Make the Questions Fit For You
Jun 26, 2009 All About Selling, Career Advice, career coaching, cold calling, How to Manage Your Team, Insights in Business, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, sales articles, Sales Coaching, Sales Training
While being interviewed by Geoffrey James for an article he was writing for Selling Power magazine on what managers need to do to effectively coach their sales team when cold calling, a question regarding how effectively salespeople are qualifying their prospects surfaced during our conversation. (Geoffrey is also the author of seven books and the columnist for BNET, Business 2.0, CIO, The New York Times as well as many other publications.)
You can find Geoffrey’s blog here, which lists some of the deeper qualifying questions that salespeople must learn to ask.
To go beyond these questions for a moment, what I actually found to be intriguing were the comments that readers had posted after reading his blog. Now, I’m all for and certainly encourage feedback and comments, all in the spirit of mutual collaboration, growth and stimulating a valuable dialogue. And I applaud anyone who’s willing to take the time and post their thoughts and comments, good or bad, as I am always open to a healthy debate with those who may not always agree with my point of view or share a different perspective on the subject matter at hand.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: challenge assumptions, excuses, sales advice, Sales Training, selling tips, why salespeople fail
My Blog Voted Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills
Jun 26, 2009 All About Selling, Business Tools, sales articles
Just got this email and thought I’d share it with you. Looks like a good resource.
____________________________________
Hi Keith!
We just posted an article, “Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills.” I thought I’d bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting.
I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list.
Thanks for your time!
Tags: awards, best blogs, best sales blogs, recognition, win
When and How to Ask for Referrals
Jun 25, 2009 All About Selling, Marketing, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, sales articles, Sales Coaching, sales tools, Sales Training, tele-sales
To complement my last blog where I shared some valuable tips on how to generate more referrals that were provided by my colleague Dr. Tony Alessandra, I felt we needed to get even more tactical by revisiting the positioning, language and the dialogue you need to be mindful of when actually asking for a referral, as well as the proper time and place to do so. Below is a strategy that has helped many salespeople and non selling professionals build their pipeline and their practice by knowing when and how to ask for referrals. What follows is a dialogue you can use that honors the permission based selling model that I’ve written about in my cold calling book.
________________________________________________
What exactly classifies as a referral? If we were to create some parameters that define what a referral is, this is what it would look like.
Synonymous with “recommendation” and “testimonial,” a referral is a potential prospect that is directed or given to you by someone you know or someone you don’t know who feels that you are the best source for help or information regarding a specific, subject, product, or service.
What makes a referral so incredibly attractive and desirable is that it is, for the most part, a warm lead. That is, when you approach a referral, there is less of a need to convince or sell them. A certain degree of interest, credibility, and comfort has already been established. Chances are, there’s already a need present. All you have to do then, is turn that need into a want or a desire for your product using the questions in your needs analysis.
Typically, your clients are going to be the top source for referral business simply because they are the ones who actually utilize your product, making them the most effective testimonial you can find to endorse your product.
The following dialogue illustrates how you can establish a referral agreement with your clients. This way, you will be able to identify the clients who are willing to become a referral source for you and the most appropriate time to ask them for referrals. This is a great example of how to set up your strategy to increase the amount of referral business you currently generate.
You: “Mrs. Client, may I take a moment to share with you how I build my business?”
Client: “Sure.”
You: “Well, what I enjoy most about what I do and where my time is best served is working with my clients. I want to spend as much time as possible serving my clients and exceeding your expectations. In order for me to spend more time with my clients and less time marketing or prospecting for new business I really need the help of my satisfied clients.
Please understand, I’m certainly not asking for any referrals from you now. Personally, I feel that would be incredibly presumptuous to ask you to introduce me to other potential clients before you even have a chance to truly utilize and benefit from my services. After all, we just started working together!
However, in a couple of months or even weeks, when you are clearly realizing the benefits of my services and have gotten even more value than you expected, would you be comfortable sharing the results you have experienced with others and introduce me to those people who might also benefit from my services?”
Client: “Sure, I don’t see why not.
You: “That sounds great. Thanks in advance for this consideration. Just so I know what it will take to make you a raving fan, what can I do to make you comfortable enough to actually want to refer business to me?”
The most effective way to earn referrals is to over- deliver on the value your clients expect so that you actually exceed their expectations. Once you confirm this to be true, it now becomes a great time to ask for testimonials or a reference from a happy client.
If you find that you are having difficulty asking for referrals, then question how strong your belief is in your product, your commitment to serving your clients, and the value proposition you can deliver.
Setting up a referral agreement with your clients will remove any reluctance and make you feel much more comfortable when asking them for referrals. Since they now know this is something you will be asking of them, it’s okay to ask.
Tags: ask for referrals, asking for referrals, filling your pipeline, networking, prospecting, referrals, Sales Coaching, Sales Training
My Afternoon with Zig Ziglar
Jun 11, 2009 All About Selling, Insights in Business, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, sales tips, seminars, Videos
Here’s one of the photos that was taken at Ziglar headquarters in Plano, Texas in the studio after my conversation with Zig last week that I’m fortunate to say we captured on video. So, keep your eyes out for those clips which I hope to post soon!
Zig Ziglar and Keith Rosen
Tags: gurus, leaders, Sales Training, Zig Ziglar, Ziglar
PODCAST: Benchmark Best Sales Practices to Achieve Your Sales Goals
Jun 8, 2009 All About Selling, cold calling, Cold Calling Tips, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, sales articles, Sales Coaching, Sales Training
Listen to the full podcast here.
Companies are running so fast in an attempt to catch up on their sales numbers that they aren’t aware of the blinders they’ve developed which are obstructing their view of the fuller picture when it comes to selling and driving the right sales activity, especially the deeper level of questioning and discovery every salesperson needs to engage in today.
Sure, you can ask your prospects the more generic questions about the current products, services, solutions and venders they currently use. But what about the questions that facilitate a buying decision; the tougher questions that help you better understand if this prospect is, in fact, even qualified to buy from you now, in the near future or ever? Delivering a recent seminar to a senior team of sales professionals reinforced how most salespeople, regardless of how experienced or seasoned, are still stepping over the additional questions I’m suggesting we need to ask.
I’m referring to questions that uncover:
Here’s a tip from your coach: Low closing percentages = a misalignment in who you should be presenting to and following up with in the first place.
If you don’t have the answers to these questions, you’re robbing yourself of the opportunity to enjoy the certainty and peace of mind that comes from utilizing a formulaic approach to selling. After all, if you define it, you can then refine it.
So, if you’re ever wondering why you or other salespeople fall into what’s known as a ‘sales slump,’ here’s the main cause of that. They aren’t honoring their sales process by the numbers and as such, those who continue to ‘wing it’ as their overall selling strategy are destined to experience the ups and downs in performance and in their stress level, as well as the waning sense of satisfaction and confidence that’s sure to follow in its wake when this amount of ambiguity and uncertainly is present.
In this podcast, I detail several critical questions you need to answer that will enable you to uncover the gaps in your data pool that in turn, will help refine your overall approach to how you prospect and sell and the measurable effort that’s required for you to do so successfully.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Tags: cold calling, discovery, Executive Coaching, pre qualification, prospecting, qualifying prospects, qualifying questions, sales benchmark, sales benchmarking, Sales Coaching, sales tips
Tom Hopkins Week on CanDoGo.com
May 27, 2009 All About Selling, Sales Training, Videos
This week on CanDoGo is Tom Hopkins week. He will be the featured author all week on CanDoGo.com.
In honor of this amazing thought leader, CanDoGo.com will be featuring classic short video’s including some of Tom’s most memorable messages on sales and sales leadership.
Tap into some of his greatest archives today while they’re still available to you for free. Just visit CanDoGo.com.
(You can also find my content on CanDoGo.com as well here.)
Here are three of Tom’s tips below and some additional videos:
Tom’s Tip #1
Just Say Thank You
By Tom Hopkins
Do you remember sending Thank You Cards after sales calls or meetings? I do. And it wasn’t all that long ago that it created strong relationships and referrals. It’s a lost art, and now more than ever our sales teams need every advantage they can get. Check out Tom Hopkins here on this very thought.
Tom’s Tip #2
What Really Happens When you Close a Sale
By Tom Hopkins
Four Things That Occur at the Close
1. You help clients rationalize a decision they want to make.
2. You help clients head off procrastination.
3. You help clients deal with their fear.
4. You help clients overcome indecision.
Tom’s Tip #3
Work Smarter, Not Harder
By Tom Hopkins
Watch the Video
If you are a salesperson wanting to increase your income, please understand that you don’t have to devote more hours to selling to increase your sales, just increase your selling skills instead. You will be closing more sales in the same amount of time.
You see, if you want to make more money, you have two choices — you can try to sell to more customers, or you can get better at selling. Since there is only so much time in which you can sell, I suggest the latter. Work smarter, not harder. Seeing too many customers will limit your ability to give each and every one of them the good service they deserve.
Since service is the essence of professional sales, isn’t it wise to get better at serving those customers you sell thus building a strong base of good customers?
Here are Some More Related Winning CanDoGo™ Insights by Tom Hopkins
Maintain Control of the Presentation - Tom Hopkins
You can Master the Rapport Rap - Tom Hopkins
The Best Things in Life Close - Tom Hopkins
Tags: Sales Training, video
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