E-Advice: E-mail Know-How

We use e-mail every day, but how many of us really know how to write a good e-mail? You'll lose a lot in translation if you aren't careful. The new book Send is the Elements of Style for e-mail. Here are some tips to keep your e-mail communication accurate.

1. Subject lines
Don't leave them blank, and don't let them be ambiguous. A subject line is like a headline, and should act as a summary to the body of the e-mail. If the subject of the e-mail changes, update the subject line accordingly. This will help the recipient determine whether the e-mail needs immediate attention.

2. Attachments
No one likes opening an attachment when they have ten other things on their agenda. When possible, paste the information to the body of the e-mail instead.

3. Urgent
Tagging your e-mail as urgent is a nuisance to the sender. The importance of your e-mail should be made clear without such tags. Save the "high importance" tags for very rare occasions. You don't want to cry wolf.

4. Introductions
When addressing e-mails to people you don't know, use Mr. and Ms. (never Mrs.). But don't include their first name, as it comes off as awkward and forced. This way you stay professional and avoid offending anyone. If they use their first name in their replies, you can then switch to a more informal greeting.

5. Mirror:
Write back in the style of the sender. If someone sends you a formal e-mail that ends with a question, it's best not to reply with "cool, that works for me." E-mails should be brief but make sure you cover all the information the sender is asking for.

6. Style
Don't annoy your recipient with an e-mail in all caps or he may think you are yelling or are angry. Also make sure you e-mails always look professional and avoid crazy fonts.

From the E-Business Newsletter

By Rebecca Aronauer

Want an Appointment? Just Ask

One of the biggest challenges in sales is getting that first appointment. Many a rep has lamented, “If I could just get in to see the guy, I can make the sale!” As a result, reps spend a lot of time trying to craft that perfect, compelling message that will get total strangers to agree to spend some time with them. Yet all they really need to do, says one expert, is just ask for the appointment.

“The reason prospects agree to talk to our clients is we ask them to,” says Mike Scher, president of Frontline Selling, a company that helps reps improve their pipeline through training and as an outsourced service provider (www.frontlineselling.com). “We ask them to meet with us a number of times in a number of ways.” There’s no pitch, no stop-‘em-in-their-tracks insights, just a simple request for an appointment.

Here’s an example. Say you’re calling a prospect for the first time and, not surprisingly, you get his voice mail. Instead of trying to wow the person by telling him how you can solve his problems, just say something like this: “Hi Joe. This is John Allen from ABC Corp. I was hoping to get 20 to 30 minutes of your time on April 3rd or 4th to talk about how we can help you become more efficient at building your pipeline. Please let me know or have Becky, your assistant, call me at 123-456-7890.” A few days later you would follow that up with an email that reads basically the same: “Hi Joe. Per my voice mail, I was hoping to get 20 to 30 minutes of your time….” Later, you might send a fax to the same effect. Continue pursuing your request until you get a yes or a no – and don’t mistake a non-answer for a no, as many reps do.

There are two reasons this approach works. First, by simply asking for an appointment, you separate prospecting from selling. Prospecting is about getting the appointment, says Scher; selling is what you do once you’re there. Yet many reps mix the two by trying to sell their way into the appointment and that’s a big turn-off to prospective buyers.

Second, by asking for the appointment multiple times in multiple ways, you plant a seed in the same way that effective advertising plants a seed: at some level, even if subconsciously, the prospect is aware of you and considering your request. When he finally agrees to a meeting, it’s not a split-second decision he might later regret, which can happen when you secure an appointment on an initial cold call. Instead, it’s a “well considered decision” which sets the stage for meaningful dialogue, says Scher. That’s an important distinction, he adds, because the way in which your prospect decides to meet with you – on impulse in response to a cold call versus considering it over time – has enormous implications for the outcome of the sale.

Sure, the switch from selling your way into an appointment to just asking for an appointment sounds awfully simple. It is. And that’s one of the biggest reasons reps are wary of this strategy, says Scher. But it’s like taking a golf lesson after you’ve been playing golf for a long time: When the pro changes your grip, it will at first feel uncomfortable. However, the more you use that grip, the more you’ll realize it’s not only more comfortable, it’s also more effective.

So the next time you pick up the phone to call a new prospect, take the pressure off yourself. Don’t sweat about finding the magic combination of words to get him to meet with you; just ask him to meet with you. Take it one step at a time, concludes Scher. Your initial communication should be focused on trying to get the appointment. Once you’ve got it, then you can focus on the sale.


By Heather Baldwin

Better Sales Lead Generation

Building lasting business relationships and effectively marketing your brand is important to maintaining a loyal client base. But with so many new communication media out there, your company will never reach its full growth potential if you rely on a single lead-generation technique. That's why most of today's fastest growing b-to-b companies have a complete arsenal of tools at their fingertips to use at any given time.

Here are eight proven b-to-b lead-generation techniques gleaned from the strategies of more than 170 successful companies:

1. Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing underlies all the "sales-lead-generation-success" methods. It specifically refers to cultivating a personal, sales-winning relationship with your prospects. By creating a personalized relationship with your clients from the onset, you can develop long-term relationships rather than individual transactions. Make sure to always keep in touch with your prospects via a series of ongoing communications throughout your prospective customers' consideration process. It will help you win sales on the first try—and you'll also pick up the leads the competition dropped on the table.

2. Complementary Partner Referrals
Seek out non-competing companies who interact with the same target clients and join forces with them. Teaming up with complementary partners will instantly increase your lead-generation pool with the best qualified leads, meaning your team won't be wasting time and effort on disinterested prospects. Of all the lead-generation programs available to you, complementary partner referral programs can generate the highest qualified b-to-b sales leads.

3. Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Strategies
Business buyers are more sophisticated and harder to reach than ever. In addition to, or perhaps instead of, launching print or radio campaigns, consider the Web for your marketing efforts. Studies show that about 90 percent of business buyers prefer to find solutions for their service and product needs on the Web. Therefore it's critical to have a well-tuned lead-generation program that includes search engine optimization (SEO) and Internet marketing strategies to attract prospects at the beginning of their buying cycle. The sooner they see your company's presence in the market, the more likely they'll be to remember you.

4. Telemarketing
Although many people despise the thought of telemarketing, it can be a very effective lead-generation tool—when executed properly. Telemarketing is a very personal marketing technique that is not only cost-effective, but efficient, especially when compared to field selling. When you use field sales, you can reach about four or five decision-makers a day. By including telemarketing in your lead-generation plan, you can reach up to 30 decision-makers a day.

5. E-mail Publications
The best way to establish your company as an industry leader and legitimize your professional expertise is to create your own company e-mail newsletter. By sending industry news and tips to prospects in your market, you will be on their minds more often than your competition, especially if you ensure the material in the newsletters is actually objective and useful. Eventually this added exposure will be key to transforming leads into sales.

6. Direct Mail
While there is an entire industry of people who are dedicated to b-to-b selling through direct marketing, most sales and business professionals do not know how to effectively and efficiently use this technique. To avoid a common complaint—that salespeople receive very little response after spending thousands on full-color marketing materials—do a little tweaking to make a big difference. The best place to start revamping your direct response marketing is by determining who your best customers are and then targeting your efforts at companies and individuals who are similar in nature.

7. Print Advertising
Print is far from dead—in fact it can be a highly effective lead generation medium. The key is to remember that you need to focus your message on the benefits and applications of your products or services. Make sure the layout and design of your ads enhance your company's image effectively, and be selective when it comes to choosing the publications that deliver directly to your target audience.

8. Event Marketing
Whether you do it live, through the telephone or via the Web, seminars and workshops are a great marketing tool. The majority of people who attend your seminar will already have an interest in the information you are presenting, and there's a good percentage that are in need of your product or service. It's the perfect way to demonstrate your company's knowledge and expertise as well as market to a highly targeted group of individuals.


M. H. "Mac" McIntosh is a leading business-to-business marketing consultant with more than 20 years of advertising, marketing and sales experience. Get his "Free Sales Lead Report" newsletter at www.sales-lead-experts.com.

How to Tell an Employee He Smells

As a business owner, you're going to have to deliver bad news every once in a while. Here's how to approach sensitive subjects without offending people.

What's so great about good news? Simple--everyone likes it. Employers don't dread telling a worker they've done a great job. They don't fret over finding a tactful way to tell an employee that everyone in the office enjoys working with them.

But we all know the news isn't always good. Perhaps you have an employee who wears clothes that are too tight, one who constantly discusses a sensitive medical condition that makes other employees feel uncomfortable, or one who simply smells bad.

Upsetting employees can set in motion a negative cycle. They may begin to feel bad about themselves, question their ability to do the job or resent the person who delivered the news. Hearing bad news can also cause defensiveness that protects the recipient, yet prevents him or her from truly hearing the gist of the message. Feeling bad and not focusing on the point prevents them from turning something they don't want to hear into a positive outcome.

So how can you frame the news so that it’s at least partially positive and therefore easier to hear and accept? First, determine whether the issue is one you could address without having to approach the offending employee directly. For instance, in the case of someone wearing clothes that are too tight or revealing, an e-mail to everyone in the company may suffice. You could say, "With summer approaching and everyone wanting to wear cooler clothes, I want to go over the company's dress policy." In the case of the smelly worker you could first send an e-mail that says, "We have some employees with very sensitive allergies. Please refrain from wearing perfume or scented lotion and try to keep your smell as neutral as possible." Maybe the culprit is some very unfortunate cologne.

If you do have to approach an employee individually, start with positive feedback before moving onto the negative comments and the request for change. This method should be brief and to the point.

For example, let’s say that a worker comes to a team meeting unprepared and you want to say something about the situation. Beginning with a positive statement, you could say, “Juan, I really appreciate the work that you've been doing on this committee.” Then state the negative: “This week I noticed you didn't seem as prepared as usual.” End with a change statement: “I want to make sure you're fully prepared with data for the next meeting." Even offer to help create the solution: “Are you overwhelmed right now? Is there anything I can do to help you get ready for the next meeting?” This could also help you get to the root of the problem.

In more sensitive situations--like the one involving the smelly employee--be sure to stress that you're addressing the problem because you truly care. Start by saying you've noticed the person sometimes doesn't smell quite right. Quickly explain you're saying something because you want to help them find a solution--and help their career. Ask if everything is OK and if there's anything you can do to help. Maybe the person is a busy, newly single father and sometimes sacrifices showering, but didn't think other people noticed the smell. Or maybe the person has halitosis, but didn't realize there was medication he could be taking for it.

Concluding with a concrete suggestion of a change provides the recipient with a thought, action or attitude that can help him or her turn a negative situation into a positive one. In some situations, it's nearly impossible to avoid hurting someone's feelings. But once the person has time to reflect on the discussion and make a positive change, he may come to appreciate and respect your concern, honesty and tact.

David G. Javitch, Ph.D., is Entrepreneur.com's "Employee Management" columnist and an organizational psychologist and president of Javitch Associates, an organizational consulting firm in Newton, Massachusetts. With more than 20 years of experience working with executives in various industries, he's an internationally recognized author, keynote speaker and consultant on key management and leadership issues.

The World's Greatest Salesforce

By Bryan Neale

On the eve of March 1st, it suddenly dawned on me that the world’s greatest sales force is once again in full force in their mission to dominate their market. Oreo’s sales people-take not. Archway sales support-time to step up. Keebler-all elves on deck………THE GIRLSCOUTS ARE HERE.

I believe the world’s greatest, most efficient sales force doesn’t use Salesforce.com, never makes PowerPoint presentations and can’t even find the power switch on a Blackberry. No, the Girl Scout’s do it the old fashioned way. They hit the street, use pure and honest techniques, find our pain and sweetly barter thousands of calories in exchange for even more thousands of dollars.

So what can we mature, seasoned, professional sales people learn from these Punky Brewster clones. More than you probably think:

1-Be Real, Don’t Fake It: I’ve yet to have a Girl Scout ask me transparent, contrived and often hokey rapport building questions. They never come to the door and say, “Hi Mr. Neale, how are the wife and kids?” when really all they want is a sale to meet their quota. No, they get right down to business. “I’m with the Girl Scout’s and we’re holding our annual cookie drive. Would you like to look at purchasing some to help us raise money for our programs?” The answer is irresistibly YES.

2-Know Your Mission: The Girl Scouts do a terrific job of communicating what it is they do. They sell cookies to raise money for their programs. They give me the opportunity to participate in their learning/programs and get some of the world’s best cookies to go along.

3-USE leverage: Leverage is one of the most important concepts for a professional sales person to understand. It simply means making multiple sales contacts in one sitting. The Girl Scouts do this by placing themselves strategically in front of all entrances and exits in most metropolitan grocery stores. Hence one sales call puts them on front of thousands of shoppers who are already in the mood to spend money.

4-Referral Sources can make it Easy on You: Girl Scouts inevitably rely on their mom’s and dad’s work friends to propel their annual sales efforts. How many times have you received an e-mail at work…..”Just to let everyone know, my daughter Cutie Pie, is selling Girl Scout Cookies…..no pressure, but let me know if you’re interested.” What a brilliant strategy employed by these youngsters. I wonder what would happen if we were that pro-active soliciting referrals from our network.

I could go on, but you likely get the picture. So this spring, buy some cookies and pay attention to the sales process. You just might learn something. At worst, you pick up some killer cookies.

Getting the Subject Line Right

5 tips for writing e-mail subject lines that'll get recipients to read on

One of the most important elements of your e-mail communications is the subject line. Next to the "from" address--which should be a recognizable company name--the subject line will determine whether your e-mail gets opened.

Writing a great subject line is no small challenge. You only have a few words to make it compelling, urgent and specific--without sounding too sales-like or misleading your readers. Here are some tips for writing subject lines that'll get great results.

1. Keep it short and sweet. Do your best to keep your subject lines under 50 characters, including spaces, as most e-mail clients display 50 characters or less. A recent study done by e-mail monitoring company Return Path showed that subject lines with 49 or fewer characters had open rates 12.5 percent higher than those with 50 or more characters. The study also found that click-through rates for subject lines with 49 or fewer characters were 75 percent higher than for those with 50 or more characters. Want to increase your open and click-through rates? Keep your subject line short and sweet.

2. Be specific. A vague subject line is a waste of prime real estate. A great example of this that I see often is monthly newsletters with subject lines like "The Green Thumb Newsletter: June 2007." This tells the receiver nothing about what they'll find when they open the e-mail and gives them very little reason to do so. A better approach for a newsletter like this is, "The Green Thumb: 3 Tips for Summer Gardening."

3. Write it last. Many e-mail marketing services (including Constant Contact) prompt you to write your subject line first as you're building your e-mail. I encourage you to come back to it when you're done with your e-mail content. It's important to determine all the elements of your e-mail first, then look for the most compelling topic to highlight in the subject line. When you're done with the body of your e-mail, read it over and pick the nugget that'll entice your readers to learn more by opening your message.

4. Take some time. Don't just dash off your subject lines. Considering how important they are, take some time to think about them and write several--at least three or four--before choosing which one to use. Once you have a few subject lines you like, run them by a friend or colleague and see which one they think is most compelling.

5. Test it. When you have two strong yet different subject lines, test them. Split your list in half and use a different subject line for each group. After a number of tests like this, you'll have a very good idea of what works for the people on your list. And the better you know your audience, the more effectively you can communicate with them.

The next time you're tempted to rush through the process of writing a subject line, think about the number of e-mails you get every day. After the effort you've put into composing your e-mail, don't you want to ensure people open and read it?

Getting the Subject Line Right

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Gail F. Goodman is the"E-Mail Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and is CEO ofConstant Contact, a web-based e-mail marketing service for small businesses. She's also a recognized small-business expert and speaker.

Battle drills for sales leaders

The battle drill is a tool that soldiers use to practice fundamental skills for their trade. The one that comes to mind immediately is Battle Drill #6 for the Military Police. I think of this one because I had to do this a hundred times (at least) in my military career.

Battle drill 6 was the act of dismounting a MK 19 grenade launcher from a turret and placing it on a tripod away from the vehicle. Sounds easy enough but when the MK19 weighs in at 72 lbs, it can be a challenge after the 12th evolution and you are being timed to standard.

But we did this drill time and time again for the shear fact that when on the battlefield you needed to know how to do this quickly, safely, and correct to complete your mission.

Drills like these were rehearsed with most of our free time to keep us sharp and on top of our game. The same should be done in business.

Sales leaders should develop their own drills that are specific to their industries. For example I work in a hosted application space for a company called NetSuite that competes with SalesForce.com (CRM) (Who I can say is not supportive of hiring ex-soldiers turned to professionals based on their last failed recruiting attempt.) One of the drills I put together was one focused on calling on every contact I had that was either currently evaluating both our products or had indicated they were current users of SalesForce.com and looking for reasons to switch. It was simple to construct and all that was needed was for SalesForce.com to go down for a length of time long enough for me to complete the drill. Which actually isn't very difficult either since they have gone down a couple times in the past few months for several minutes or more.

1. Generate a list of accounts that fit the criteria and have it saved for future reference.
2. Rank them on status
3. Start at the top and aggressively call on all of them pointing out the fact that SalesForce.com was down and NetSuite was a solution they could count on.
4. If their systems came up before I could complete the list it didn't matter because the damage was done and I could just tailor the conversation on an event that just took place.
5. After the calls were completed a skillfully crafted email explaining the downtime and NetSuites guarantee on a 99.5% uptime was better than anything in the industry would be sent to the contacts and usually hammered the point home.

That's it, 5 steps and a Battle drill was designed that can be executed on command.

There are many situations that can be crafted into these drills for a sales group. What do you have?

Avoid Getting Your E-mails Deleted

Avoid Getting Your E-mails Deleted

From the E-Business Newsletter

It's easy to fall into bad e-mailing habits because the whole format can begin to feel casual. By now everyone knows to avoid writing in all caps and using emoticons, but people often make the mistake of shooting off overly chummy professional e-mails and forming a devil-may-care disregard for grammar and punctuation. Simple rule of thumb: treat e-mail the same way you'd treat phoning someone. Get to the point, but be polite about it. Here is a look at some of the subtler nuances of the written word to help get your message across with style and grace:

1) Do An Introduction
Launching right into your request is the same as bursting into someone's office and making demands. "Please send me this report" is a cold opener, and it may lead someone to brush it off until they're good and ready to help. "Good morning, I hope you had a nice weekend" will ease your reader into a much more cooperative state.

2) Conduct a Read-Through
The software world has yet to invent a "Does This Sound Curt and Snippy?" check. This means your spelling and grammar may be perfect, but your tone may not be. An easy fix is to pretend you’re the receiver and read through the e-mail before sending it. You'll notice if a phrase rubs you the wrong way or seems surly.

3) Make the Subject Line Short and Snappy
Thinking up a subject line that will pull the receiver in and still fit in a small space is tough work. Don't make your subject line too vague or your reader may think its spam. Squeeze in too much information, and it will just confuse. Think of it as more of a reminder line, and write something that will help your reader easily pick it out of their inbox.

4) Avoid Long URLS
Ever get an e-mail that has a link to a Web site that goes on for 30 characters and gives no clue where it will take you? Be a better Web guide in your own e-mails by snipping a long URL down to a bite-sized one. Check out SnipURL.com, a free site where you paste in a long URL, give it a nickname, and click a button to generate a short, clear link. Your reader will appreciate it—and maybe even click through.

Be CRM Savvy

Missing the target with your customer relationship management strategy? Follow these five steps to success

By Julia Chang

In his work in CRM consulting, Yacov Wrocherinsky has seen some disasters. One of the most recent was a large manufacturing company that spent millions on a high-end CRM system, only to realize two years later that it wasn't providing accurate forecasts. "In the old days, people used to select a system based on a decision by the higher-ups, invest millions, and if the project didn't meet expectations, they would write it off," says Wrocherinsky, founder and CEO of Infinity Info Systems, a New York–based sales technology consulting firm. "Today, expectations are different."

That's because companies now are much smarter about CRM. They want faster implementation that produces value more quickly. And vendors have done a good job of mastering the basic features and making their offerings available at price points for companies of all sizes. But that doesn't make the process of implementing a CRM strategy any easier—especially since CRM is now expected to be part of broader business strategy.

One thing's for sure: CRM is at the top of managers' minds. In a survey of S&MM readers conducted by consulting firm The Alexander Group, 35 percent of sales leaders say they will work to improve CRM in 2007, making it the third most important operational priority for the new year. Not sure if you're going about it the right way? Follow these five steps to make your CRM strategy stays on point:

1. Set Clear Business Goals
By far, the biggest mistake companies make when it comes to CRM implementation is "not thinking through what customer-facing business outcomes they want to achieve," says William Band, principal analyst for IT research firm Forrester Research, based in Cambridge, Mass. "You don't want to start using the technology without thinking about if you want to improve your cross-sell, up-sell, or call-center [capabilities]. You have to think through what business metrics you are trying to improve." Otherwise, how else will you measure success?

When Toshiba America Medical Systems (TAMS), a diagnostic imaging company based in Tustin, Calif., began a new CRM strategy, it first identified its business need: How to overcome flat growth. In the late 1990s, TAMS was losing customers as fast as it was gaining them, while the industry as a whole was growing about 10 percent.

After extensive customer surveys, TAMS realized the problem lay in its support and service. "We just didn't have a good understanding of what customers really valued and what they wanted us to do," says Cathy Wolfe, director of marketing services.

In order to improve service, the CRM system had to let reps know when a service problem was rearing so they could nip it in the bud. Now, TAMS surveys customers at the start and midway through their relationship with the company. The results are fed into a database managed by its Cognos CRM system, which uses the data to send e-mail alerts through Lotus Notes to managers when a customer is showing signs of dissatisfaction. "It's an early warning indicator," Wolfe says. "If you don't know about it, then you don't have the chance to address it. [Otherwise] you could have a customer mad for a period of time, bad-mouthing you, and you'd never know it."

The result of the CRM implementation? Since 2001, the company has enjoyed about a 25 percent year-over-year growth rate and has seen its name rise to the top in several independent customer-service rankings.

2. Assemble a Crack Team
If it involves the customer, it doesn't involve just sales—marketing, customer service, the call center, accounting and even back-office operations merit consideration when forming CRM strategy. Although the stakeholders can vary by company, most experts suggest representatives for Team CRM come from the following: sales, to provide end-user input; marketing; IT; an executive who can translate the CRM to bigger business strategy; accounting or finance; and dedicated administrative or sales support, if any.

It also helps, Wrocherinsky says, if the group includes a champion who has the respect of his peers and can spread the CRM gospel. It can be someone who is tech-savvy, but it can also be a "difficult or skeptical candidate," he says, "who once you convert, helps other people see the light."

Picking the right people as part of the team is essential, since these folks will be responsible for making sure budget, timing, and cost expectations are realistic, and will spend the most time with the vendors in the setup process. And make sure someone on the team has some decision-making authority, or the project could get stonewalled or mired in bureaucracy.

3. Do an IT Audit
For Bob Ritter, there's one simple rule to the tech side of implementing CRM software: Meet or exceed the requirements. The CRM vendor will tell you what the parameters are for the operating system, network, hardware, software, infrastructure, etc., but there are other hidden IT roadblocks. "Maybe someone hasn't rebooted their workstation in six weeks and their resources are a mess, or the drive is up to the gills with garbage from the Internet," says Bob Ritter, president of 1stdirect.com, a CRM reseller and consulting firm in East Fishkill, N.Y. "When you're putting a mission-critical application out to everybody, you have to make sure the foundation of the infrastructure it is running on is healthy."

When it comes to choosing the actual software, there's always a basic checklist to mind, before you even get to customization. Is the software easy to use? Will it link to mission-critical applications, such as e-mail, back-office functions or accounting software? (This is especially important to consider with hosted CRM.) Is it scalable? Make sure your cost analysis includes such areas as licensing, maintenance, configuration, training and data migration, Ritter says. And it doesn't hurt to do a little detective work on your vendor's business model, because you want to make sure it'll be around for the long haul.

When it comes to security, the biggest concern used to be whether hosted software was vulnerable to hackers. Since that fear has largely been assuaged, the security concern these days is securing data on the road, says Richard Smith, vice president of CRM strategy for Green Beacon Solutions, a CRM consulting firm for mid-market companies based in Watertown, Mass. Part of CRM's value is the convenience it provides when integrated into mobile devices. But laptops and BlackBerrys get stolen and lost, so the cost of securing data on the road should figure into your tech investment.

4. Fine-Tune the Features
Determining exactly what features should figure into your software will probably be the hardest and longest part of implementation, but one of the good things about this step is that it forces a company to face how it does business and uncovers needed changes. "It's an excellent time to revisit the business process," Ritter says. "Are there ways to break up your data more efficiently? Are territories properly balanced? What communications do you want to merge or manage? Are you trying to fulfill a virtual request more efficiently?"

Running a pilot project helps avoid future pitfalls. When Johnson Controls, an environmental controls company based in Milwaukee, acquired HVAC supplier York International in 2005, one of its first priorities was integrating the new company into its Saratoga CRM system, which is used by about 2,200 employees. York's service organization was integrated relatively easily; it was mostly a matter of eliminating duplicate accounts, merging databases and training the York service folks.

But York's systems installation unit was another story. "Their business was different enough from our installation business that we didn't believe the same CRM screens and business flow could work for them," says Bill Hable, director of market planning, research and systems for Johnson Controls. "They are different in how they go to market, who their primary contact is, and they go through different routes [to prospect]." A CRM pilot ran in the spring in three district offices so they could tweak the views and fields that this particular unit needed. The new system is set to roll out the first six months of this year. "I didn't want to hear first impressions," Hable says. "They used it for three or four months so we could get a good idea about how they do business and what had to be changed."

Large companies often require a lot of CRM customization, but even small firms should tweak solutions to their needs. Donna Keller, senior vice president for Financial Advisory Consultants, based in Naples, Fla., worked with 1stdirect.com to install GoldMine CRM software. Keller says she tried out about six versions before finalizing the solution that her company will roll out early this year. Keller's firm has about 10 employees, but nonetheless needed a more uniform process to qualify prospects, move them through the sales cycle, and communicate with them the way they preferred. "Our [old CRM system] did it in a more manual way, but I was looking for something more automated so each client got the exact same experience," Keller says. "There are a lot of moving parts that go into the process, and we needed to be able to handle all the intricacies."

5. Encourage—or Enforce—Usage
Now that you've laid out your business goals, picked internal champions and designed the software of your dreams, here comes the hard part: Getting your staffers to use the system. Managers can take a carrot or a stick approach, Smith says, but the key is "reinforcing that there is one version of the truth: The report that gets driven out of CRM. If managers start letting the best sales reps submit numbers in Excel, it breaks the model."

The carrot approach is to show salespeople the value of using a system, and your CRM evangelists are essential to this. Sometimes this takes more patient training or one-on-one coaching to prove the system's benefits to your reps. But don't be afraid to enforce a hard deadline by which data must be in, call out folks who aren't following the rules and recognize big wins that get plugged into the system. "People don't want to be shamed, and if they know they've closed a big deal and the forecast always goes out noon on Friday" they'll be more inclined to become CRM converts, Smith says.

And then there's always the biggest stick: No CRM use, no commission. "Everybody suddenly gets clear on things when there is only one way to get data into the accounting system," Hable says. "I've seen guys who hate computers, but if [using CRM software] is how they get their commission check, they are experts in two weeks."



Sidebar: What Customers Want

According to the Forrester Research survey "How to Select a CRM Software Vendor" of 19 large North American and European organizations, the following CRM software criteria are considered the most important:

1. Companies expect CRM software to make its users more productive. High usability encourages adoption.

2. Analytics tools are needed to better understand customer behavior and inform decisions based on customer data.

3. The ability to support a centralized customer master data management system is critical to getting a 360-degree view of the customer.

4. Many companies reported they had started working to improve their contact center, but then moved on to focus on sales and marketing. They have stated that "CRM is never done," and work continuously on ways to improve customer interactions.

5. Companies wanted software with applications that encourage strong and flexible workflow capabilities.

6. Technologies that can be easily adapted and customized to the business environment achieve results more quickly.

7. Any software must accommodate large numbers of users and support global business.

8. Vendors without industry-relevant capabilities likely won't make it to many companies' shortlists for consideration.

Turning Sales Into Science

A friend passed this article along to me knowing that I stay on top of these types of stories. Little did I know that they mentioned NetSuite as a pioneer of the Sales 2.0 era. Thanks Jake!

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It's a question almost as old as commerce itself: Is selling an art or a science? For years, technology companies have been trying to transform the former into the latter. And for years, the results have largely been disappointing.

Think of those days as Sales 1.0. We're now in the era of Sales 2.0. Your bottom line may never be the same.

Remember the bad old days of sales-oriented technology? Customer relationship management systems that cost a fortune to install and crashed easily. Downloadable lists of sales leads filled with old or bogus data. E-mail marketing tools that targeted the wrong consumers. And on and on.

Fortunately, software firms that target small companies with sales tools have been getting smarter and smarter. Following pioneers such as Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) and NetSuite, a new generation of companies is offering easy-to-use, cheap (indeed, often free) technology that can supercharge the performance of your sales force--with minimal training and virtually none of the heavy-duty installation associated with the CRM systems of the past. With lead-generation and networking services, e-mail marketing products, relationship managing tools, and other bells and whistles, it's now possible to turn a sales operation into a gleaming high-tech machine. Here's a quick tutorial on some of the new tools and a nine-step guide to launching your sales force into the future.

1. Build a bigger Rolodex

The Products
Jigsaw, Ziggs, ZoomInfo, Spoke

How They Work
It's said that a salesperson is only as good as his or her Rolodex. Fortunately, it's now easy to have a much, much bigger Rolodex. There are a number of websites that invite businesspeople to upload and share their contacts with one another. The most popular is probably Jigsaw, which boasts 4.3 million contacts from professionals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Subscribers can pay $25 per month to download 25 new contacts; you also can upload contacts from your own Rolodex in exchange for Jigsaw points, which can be accumulated and used for more downloads. Once you're signed up, most contacts come with direct phone lines and e-mail addresses; if a contact turns out to have bad information, Jigsaw awards points to users who report the problem and docks the user who uploaded the info. Two other online services, Ziggs and ZoomInfo, allow users to pay to download contacts or add their own profile. ZoomInfo also provides sales data and listings of competitors within industries, a neat tool.

Other services are taking the kinds of lists traditionally offered by Hoover's and InfoUSA (NASDAQ:IUSA) and putting them on a dose of steroids. Spoke takes big lists from providers like InfoUSA, enhances them by combining these lists with Web search data and user-validated list data, and adds it all together to create better lists. Spoke also makes it easy to slice and dice them by industry, geography, company, or revenue level. Ziggs is free; ZoomInfo is free for basic service, but advanced searches can cost as much as $12,000 a year.

Case In Point
As the director of inside sales at Bay Area e-mail security provider PostX, John Fales has long used the Web to prospect sales leads. But using Google can be time-consuming and cumbersome. And the lists provided by major providers were often filled with incomplete or outdated information. Then Fales heard about Jigsaw. The service made it a cinch to find multiple decision makers inside large companies and organizations. Fales says use of Jigsaw has sliced more than 50 percent off the PostX sales cycle. "We've been able to get into accounts very quickly as well as find a variety of potential players in a position to buy the product through the service," he says. "It's been consistently helpful. It would be very difficult to go back to the old way."

2. Network more efficiently

The Products
LinkedIn, Ryze, BranchIt, CompanyClick

How They Work
The kids have MySpace and Facebook, and it's hard not to be envious. In a matter of hours online, they're building vast networks of connections--the kinds of networks that take businesspeople years of mixers and rubber-chicken dinners to create.

Unless you're selling something like video games or skateboarding gear, you're probably not going to have much luck marketing on MySpace. Fortunately, a number of social networking services geared toward small business have emerged. They promise to change the way we network forever. Palo Alto, California-based LinkedIn, for example, is often described as MySpace for businesspeople. You won't find videos, MP3s, or other flashy media on the site's bare-bones profile pages. What you will find are resumés, people's professional affiliations, special interests--and lots of them. LinkedIn has nearly eight million registered users from more than 100 countries spanning 130 separate industries, including thousands of top executives.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20061201/sales-into-science_pagen_2.html

Using Diversified Selling Strategies

"Start seeing your customers through their eyes instead of having a one-size-fits-all strategy," says Debbie Allen, international professional speaker, author and president of Allen and Associates Consulting. "People like to be treated differently." How do you diversify your selling strategies? Allen provides some tips. Develop a stronger customer focus. What are the buying influences of different genders or age groups? Before you speak with your next customer, do some research. Learn the buying triggers by reading their publications and watching their TV shows. Then listen and pay attention to them. Develop a strong understanding of different genders. What's important to women versus men? "Women want to build trust and a relationship first," says Allen. "Trigger things that touch women's emotions. Make a connection. Take it slow and nurture the sale. Don't go for the close too soon." On the other hand, says Allen, men want to know that you're the expert. "Men want the details so talk about features," says Allen.

"Men are also very mission oriented."

Develop a strong understanding of different generations. "If you are communicating with different generations, you've got to know how they communicate," says Allen. "There's nothing wrong with asking them. For example, doing business with the senior market [born 1922 to 1943] means you need to relate more and not rush the sale. It's more a respect factor. Seniors like communicating in person or via phone calls. Writing personal notes also might work. Some of the senior market is becoming more techno-savvy, but they tend to stick with what has worked over the years. By the way, this generation can give you great testimonial letters.

"The baby boomers [born 1943 to 1960] are a huge, multitasking generation," says Allen. "They like convenience and time-saving ideas. Get to the point with them. They are also very self-aware; talk about them. A way to connect is to recognize and call them by name."

Generation X [born 1960 to 1980] is a smaller generation who grew up with technology. "Don't be high pressure or come on too strong with this group," says Allen. "This generation is much less trusting. Also, use the right amount of technology – not too much hype or flash in your presentations. They've seen it already and it won't impress them." This is a very visual group and it's okay to communicate with them via email.

The bottom line to communicating with diversity: Make changes, challenges and trends work within your ever-changing marketplace. Be aware that every single person is different. Embrace those differences and enjoy the process of connecting with different people.

Email Allen at Debbie@debbieallen.com or visit www.debbieallen.com for more information.

60 Seconds: Make a client list and figure out the generations and genders you are communicating with. Then adjust your style and presentations to fit their styles.
By Renee Houston Zemanski

Ten ways to use LinkedIn

I am a huge fan of LinkedIn as many of my colleagues can tell you. I found this post from another blogger that explains why LinkedIn is such a great tool. I have listed the top 5 reasons. Go to his blog to read the others. The original poster has the largest LinkedIn network known of.

• The average number of LinkedIn connections for people who work at Google is forty-seven.

• The average number for Harvard Business School grads is fifty-eight, so you could skip the MBA, work at Google, and probably get most of the connections you need. Later, you can hire Harvard MBAs to prepare your income taxes.

• People with more than twenty connections are thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.

• All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees.

• According to my inside sources, the person with the most pending LinkedIn invitations is...Guy Kawasaki. (Though I’m not sure if I should be proud or ashamed of this factoid.)

  Most people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” in order to make a sale, form a partnership, or get a job. It works well for this because it is an online network of more than 8.5 million experienced professionals from around the world representing 130 industries. However, it is a tool that is under-utilized, so I’ve compiled a top-ten list of ways to increase the value of LinkedIn.
  
  
  Increase your visibility.

• By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.
  
  Improve your connectability.

• Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.

  You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment.
  
  Improve your Google PageRank.

• LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.

  To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines, use this link in various places on the web> For example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature
  
  Enhance your search engine results.

• In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like “My Website,” “My Company,” etc.

  If you select “Other” you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to “Full View.”
  
  Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.

• LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will find the people who worked at the company during the same time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data.

  Companies will typically check your references before hiring you, but have you ever thought of checking your prospective manager’s references? Most interviewees don’t have the audacity to ask a potential boss for references, but with LinkedIn you have a way to scope her out.

  You can also check up on the company itself by finding the person who used to have the job that you’re interviewing for. Do this by searching for job title and company, but be sure to uncheck “Current titles only.” By contacting people who used to hold the position, you can get the inside scoop on the job, manager and growth potential.

  By the way, if using LinkedIn in these ways becomes a common practice, we’re apt to see more truthful resumes. There’s nothing more amusing than to find out that the candidate who claims to have caused some huge success was a total bozo who was just along for the ride.

• Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn

Warming up to cold calls

Why it's time to rethink one of the most derided marketing tactics.

Most marketing pros would say that Samantha Ettus is going about it all wrong. That's because the CEO of Ettus Media Management, a New York City public relations and branding agency, spends a big chunk of her time working the phones, pitching herself and her clients to people she's never met.

According to the conventional wisdom, that's a big waste of time. Cold calling, the experts agree, is annoying and irritating, an unwanted imposition on busy people. What's more, they say, it's inefficient and doesn't bring in much business. Far better to work through word of mouth, networking, and established customer contacts. It's the mantra of selling: Spend time building relationships and the deals will follow.

Ettus begs to differ. She's been a cold caller ever since she started her business three years ago. Far from being a waste of time, the tactic has helped her six-person firm land some of its biggest clients, including the popular New York City restaurant Ida Mae Kitchen-n-Lounge and the gift and home products catalog Lillian Vernon. Sure, Ettus spends plenty of time networking with current customers and attending events to prospect new ones. But, she says, she wouldn't be where she is today without cold calling. "So many people give up on cold calling because they say it doesn't work," Ettus says. "But it only doesn't work if you are reaching the wrong person."

Cold calling may be the sales tactic that gets no respect. But it really can work -- if you do it right. At a time when people are bombarded by pitches via e-mail, direct mail, and even instant messaging, a phone call is an extremely personal and effective way of making contact. "You need to develop a system and stick to it," says Keith Rosen, CEO of Profit Builders, a New York City sales consultancy that specializes in training people in the art of cold calling.

A good first step, Rosen says, is to stop thinking of such calls as "cold" in the first place. "Lukewarm" would probably be a more accurate description. Ettus, for example, does plenty of legwork before reaching for the phone. "I consider it my job to read everything I can and educate myself on the brands that would be right for our firm," she says. "A bad day for me is one in which I read about an expert or an interesting company that I don't know about." Once Ettus has a potential client in her sights, she hunts down all the information she can find -- career history, memberships and professional affiliations, any awards the person may have won. As soon as she understands who she's dealing with, she crafts, but does not send, a personalized e-mail outlining what her firm has to offer. Then she makes the call. She keeps her pitches as brief and precise as possible -- generally less than a few minutes. Then immediately upon hanging up, she sends the e-mail. "Within minutes of talking to me, the person gets the e-mail," Ettus says.

Obviously, it takes a certain amount of guts to do what Ettus does. And not every call is a success. People sometimes hang up on her. But Ettus doesn't get discouraged. The hang-up is just a sign that she's reached the wrong person and needs to find an alternative contact -- a personal assistant, publicist, parent, or even webmaster (all of whom have helped Ettus connect with an otherwise unreachable prospect).

Fear of rejection is the main reason so many cold callers fail so miserably, says Rosen. A cold call, Rosen argues, is nothing more than a way to introduce yourself and your business to a prospect. Yet even seasoned salespeople are intimidated by the tactic. "You hear things like, 'I don't want to say or do the wrong thing. I don't want to impose. I don't want to be rejected,'" Rosen says. "The essential theme is 'I.' Making the process about yourself is the No. 1 roadblock." Instead, before picking up the phone, salespeople need to ask themselves, "What value can I deliver to the other person?" Rosen says. (Obviously, if you can't answer that question, you probably don't belong in sales in the first place.) You can't ramble. "You have to be very concise with the language you're using -- there is no time for a second impression," says Rosen, who has developed a script for his trainees to follow (see "Handholding for Cold Callers").

During calls, sales reps take notes, looking for anything that can help them refine their pitch.

Still, not everyone is convinced. Anthony Parinello, the bestselling author of Stop Cold Calling Forever, has built a career on the idea that cold calls are a total waste of time -- no matter how much research you do. "People are not just sitting around waiting for you to call them," he says. "They are thinking about other things." It's far better, he says, to spend time improving your relationships with current customers, as they'll likely refer you to others. "My goal is to get my phone to ring as much as I can," Parinello says. "That means I have to stay off the phone as much as I can."

But don't expect Todd Eberhardt, CEO of Comm-works, a Minneapolis-based telecom services firm, to put down his phone. His 85-person company was practically built on cold calling, he says. In 2003, Comm-works got 52 new customers thanks to cold calling; in the first six months of this year, the company added 77 new clients.