Six Sigma Blogs

Unraveling DNA for successful hiring Smart business, at its core, is all about Return On Investment. A sales team that gets results is the most important asset for any company. Since nothing happens without a sale, recruitment and hiring a high-performance sales team should be at the top of a business leader’s priority list. Filling a sales position is frustrating and mistakes are costly: Business owners throw away thousands of dollars in recruiting and training under-performing salespeople, not to mention lost sales and customer defections. (Some estimates place the cost of a bad hire at $100,000 to $250,000.) While there are many different steps one should follow when hiring new sales people, I believe that the most important step is identifying a candidate with the correct DNA.

According to a University of Michigan study, interviews lead to almost 90% of hiring decisions but are only 14% accurate in predicting success. Why? Using resumes and interviews to hire is a little like buying a suit off the rack - it will never fit just right. That’s why it is so important to learn exactly what you need and then buy a suit - a salesperson - with a custom fit. It is a surprising fact that too many business owners hire salespeople without taking the time to analyze what the DNA of a great salesperson would look like in their industry and culture. When hiring criteria is framed in general terms, as it is when relying on resumes and interviews alone, the odds of a good hire drop significantly. So, defining the specific sales DNA for your sales organization is a critical first step.

Defining the requirements of your ideal salesperson: The task of sequencing your ideal salesperson’s DNA breaks down into four components. Here are some examples of areas where you need clarity prior to beginning the search: Profile of your market and industry.

Profile of your market and industry. * How sophisticated are your Ideal Target Clients? * What level in an organization do they need to sell? * What are the technical requirements of the products and services you sell? How large is a typical order?

Requirements of the position. * How much prospecting do you expect from your salesperson? * Will they work on the phone, and do they present to groups? * Is customer service a priority? * How defined is your sales process?

* How do I know if the CRM program I chose is working for my business? A good CRM application will have the ability to compile reports on customer relations, satisfaction, and interaction with your sales staff. Analytics are a crucial part of sales and marketing; this information gives you a comprehensive overview of how your system is performing and whether or not it’s working for you.

* Do I need to get an IT department for my CRM? It depends on whether you choose an on-site CRM or an on-demand (cloud) CRM. Choosing an on-premise option for your CRM solutions means that you will probably need an IT department to do your service and maintenance. This can be a budgetary burden because of the need for extra staff in addition to the cost of the program itself and any appropriate updates and equipment.

By contrast, a cloud CRM application is handled remotely by a host company. The monthly fee therefore includes maintenance, updates, and servicing, which can make a cloud CRM the more economical of the two options.

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Negotiate Are you dying with envy when you see other ad people come up with a better offer? Yeah, you pay full price and think you did OK until they show up with the same thing, only they paid several hundred dollars less. What’s their secret? They’re not afraid to ask for an extra discount.

Next time your advertising rep pops over, do not in any instance sell yourself short or underestimate your capabilities! Even if you’re already getting a discount, ask for a bigger one. Ask, ask, ask, and if we may repeat it again, ASK!

Keep It Simple, Silly! Less is more. In the world of advertising, nothing can be farther from the truth - short and punchy ads are generally more successful than large, elaborate ones. In fact, if you trim down the size of your ads, you are also cutting costs while at the same time having a good chance of good results!

The Best Things In Advertising Are Free What’s the difference between advertising and publicity? It’s a matter of who sells who. Advertising is basically selling yourself. Publicity, on the other hand, is when somebody else is selling you, and if handled properly, can make you a rock star in the world of business if you know how to take advantage of what’s handed to you.

Think about it, my friend - you could be bigger than the Beatles in business terms if you can take advantage of what comes free to you. Got hot news? Go for a press release. Write a “how to” article of 500 words or so with a short byline (VERY important) and submit them to article directories, ezines, blog sites and the like. You can even promote your non-competitor as they promote your product. You help each other out, and again, everybody wins!

That’s right, amigo, if you play your cards right, free advertisement can aid your business in many ways. Naturally you’ll have to rely on other forms of advertising for a price, but come on, if it’s free and can benefit you, why pass it up?

Improve Your Offer Is your deal too good to pass up? If you don’t, then work on it. Don’t get me wrong - I didn’t say knock down the prices even lower, because the bottom line is still important. Sweetening the deal is all about adding value to the product by enhancing what consumers already know and teaching them more about the product without having to pay much.

Add an expiration date. Yeah, an open ended offer encourages procrastination which leads, yep, nowhere. It leads to Nowheresville, USA, but if you take advantage of the expiration date to entice a customer to buy now or pay more the day after, he or she is going to drop everything, pop over at your shop and make that purchase! Good advertising does not necessarily equal expensive and flashy advertising. To recap, it’s all about good negotiating skills, trimming down your high-falluting ads, asking for bigger discounts and making an offer not even Don Vito himself can refuse - take note of these four steps and your profits have nowhere to go but up!

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It’s important to improve your effectiveness in time management because social media marketing can be time consuming. Moving slowly means you will beat by your competition. The following tips will help you increase productivity and boost your results by saving you time with your social media marketing.

The content you write for your social media marketing campaigns can also be put to use on your blog. One example is using writing you submit to Yahoo Answers and similar sites as initial topics for posts on your blog. This can be a helpful time saver if you often struggle to think up blog post ideas. On the other hand, however, you might also want to save them for forum and discussion board writing so that your marketing efforts are given more weight.

Your primary goal is to offer real value to your niche–whether you do it with this method or another is your choice. What you need to do, though, is use the content you have already created well to make sure that your social media marketing is as strong as possible.

If you want to find inspiration you use in social media, you need to keep a watch on sites like Facebook, Twitter and even Ted.com. These are all locations that can help you find all sorts of great ideas for content production because typically when people visit social media sites, they are going to be looking for things that they haven’t been able to find anywhere else. The response from your target market is going to be better if you focus a lot here. There are lots of great places online that will help you find inspiration for content creation so try to stay alert when you find sites like these.

Schedule some time for creative activities, because after all, you’re a human. When your mind is relaxed, that is when you will have your best ideas. Creative ideas are crucial for keeping up with the ever changing social media. Unless and until you give your mind some respite, it won’t be in the position to help you do so. Good ways to get that mental respite include taking up yoga or spending time at the local museum. The idea is to give your mind freedom to think which can help improve your productivity.

Social media grows and changes with remarkable speed and is adopted by more people every second which means that every second there is more competition for you. Once you figure out how to use social media marketing to your advantage without wasting any time, you’ll see just how effective it can be.

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In my last post, I talked about the importance for managers manage performance in their organizations, not ignoring performance issues. In this post, I want to go into establishing the performance improvement plan and putting someone on a “measured mile.”

With another global multinational, I saw an enormous flow chart and decision tree. First, it took a whole wall in their offices, so it was a convenient tool for sales people. Second, it tried to anticipate every single outcome from each activity, then mapping the next actions based on each outcome. You know what happened with this process. Finally, and this is what I see most often, the organization has adopted the “out of the box” process from it’s CRM vendor or it’s sales training vendor. Can you imagine this-the same process is used for a major multinational bank, a semiconductor start-up, a retail store, a marketing research firm… Something seems wrong here.

More often, managers just tend to push offending performers to the side. Not really addressing the issues, perhaps isolating them, but leaving them on board-serving as a distraction to everyone on the team. Often, these poor performers may not really know they are poor performers or may never know how to improve performance. When the opportunity comes to do a lay off (or the opportunity is created to lay off people), these non performers are quickly given an exit package. They go off, find another job, probably perform marginally, and the cycle repeats itself.

Developing the process is easy and fast, here’s how to do it: - Every top sales professional has a process they use, it may not be conscious. To develop the sales process, the quickest, most effective starting point is to lock a few of your top sales people in a room-people who are in the front lines, calling on customers every day. I also like to add the “laziest sales people, who consistently make their numbers.” They have reduced selling to the essence. These are the people that know how to sell and produce results. They have the knowledge of what works-in developing the sales process, leverage their knowledge, experience, expertise and pragmatism to develop your first draft of the sales process. Let them develop the first draft-give them no more than a day!

- Next, engage your customers. Talk to them about how they buy, ask them how they want to be sold to-believe it or not, customer want to be sold to, they just don’t want their time wasted. They want sales people to help solve their problems in a meaningful, effective manner. It’s in the customer’s best interests that you have a sales process that’s aligned with how they want to buy-that even helps facilitate the way they buy! Make sure your draft sales process is aligned with your customers’ buying processes.

Putting someone on a “measured mile” is difficult. It’s an emotionally charged time, both for the sales person and the manager. It requires time and focus. Ideally, the coaching managers do pre-empt the need to do this, but there are times when a performance improvement plan is necessary.

In my next post, I’ll talk more about the “measured mile.” When the manager and sales person enter into this process, both must be committed to a successful outcome-otherwise both are wasting time.

If you want an effective sales process-it can’t be developed in a dark room, it has to be developed by and in front of sales people and customers. It’s actually much easier, much faster, and produces profound results. If you want more help in developing your sales process, get our Free Sales Process eBook. It also includes a Self Assessment - look at your current process to see how good it is.

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When I work with clients to structure incentive-based compensation for their sales and non-sales teams, I see many issues. Where many get trapped is that they start in the middle. What I mean is they focus on the compensation itself instead of their business goals. The right incentives reward professionals for contributing to achieving strategic goals. Don’t blame your reps, blame the plan. Remember that not all business is “good business.” If you want to expand into new markets, grow existing accounts, or capture specific clients, be sure to reward the behavior that is important to your strategic growth. Here are four areas that can help improve your compensation plan.

Build Accountability Tie incentives to individual, group, and company performance. At least 1/2 of the incentives should be tied to individual performance. However, we want to encourage team play. The only way to max-out is if your group meets its goals, the company meets its goals, and you meet your personal goals. This creates good peer pressure for an under-performing team member. It also encourages top performers to help less experienced team members. Having a bonus pool to reward across teams can instill a sense of “what’s good for the company is good for me.” - something that has been lost in many companies.

Credibility comes from respect: the prospect respects your approach, your company, your appearance, and/or your mannerisms. Credibility comes from trust: the prospect trusts what you have to say; trusts your company; trusts you. Credibility comes from delivering wanted results: the prospect believes you can deliver what s/he wants; the prospect sees from your presentation s/he will get desired results; or your past performances suggest you’ll deliver wanted results again. Failure in any one of respect, trust and/or results and you’ll have little to no credibility.

There are degrees of credibility in business. They range from no credibility, to (1) getting a meeting with someone, to (2) getting someone to answer your questions, to (3) getting someone to listen to you, to (4) getting someone to believe you, to (5) getting someone to buy from you, to (6) getting someone to use you as a resource/trusted advisor.

Sell at full price, get 100% recognition. As they introduce discounts, the revenue recognition falls. So, at a 20% discount, they may only get credit for 70% of the revenue. The goal is to ensure that reps battle to preserve margin. Of course, there is no substitute for good negotiating and selling skills. Being the low bidder is not selling.

Credibility does not happen automatically. Most people don’t consciously calculate how to build the respect, the trust and the results necessary to develop credibility up front. They just do their thing. If the prospect/customer doesn’t pick-up on your thing s/he will be skeptical, possibly polite, and blows you off, or never calls back, or do nothing to help move you forward in the sale or with him/her. So let’s take note of what you’ve done, and not done, in life.

You could produce better and more leads. It can evaluate probable leads according to your business merchandise and your customer information and pre-qualify the leads which are more possibly be lucrative. Getting all of your divisions connected to the same system could indicate a better cooperation not just on one particular division but to any other as well. Since everyone has the right to use the data and the information, it could be easily distributed all throughout.

Sales force automation systems are of great advantage to any business who understands what they really wanted to acquire and want to have a great success as well. Such business who takes this into consideration will more probably over benefit from their decisions therefore helping them achieve their aims and objectives.

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It is more common than you think for some people to experience disappointment with goals and locating high quality information. There are few things more aggravating than needing direction and not knowing where to find it. One of the main issues with so many people is a lack of trust - totally understandable when you do not know someone. No person has been immune to this because it is just the nature of the online world, unfortunately. The balance of this article will examine goals in a lot more detail.

As an Internet Marketer you understand the amount of work you actually need to do to get your business to succeed. You don’t only need to make stuff you need to market them and build significant buzz for them. You must also record the e-mail addresses you get, your clients’ information and how many sales you make. There is also work to be done on client relationships, communication that needs to be happening between you and both current and future buyers. In addition to that, you need to work on building your own reputation. At the same time there are only so many hours in your day-how are you supposed to get everything done? Here are some time management tips that you can employ to help yourself be more productive each day.

You need to have short term and long-run pursuits. This means that you need to write a list of everything that you need to do from the amount of money you want to generate next year to the quick e-mail that you forgot to write this morning. Write down everything you want and need to do and then break out that list into types: right now, short term and long term. Do every one of the things that you should do today and then map out a schedule of things that can be done over longer periods of time. Regardless if you are utilizing Unique Article Wizard, SEOPressor as well as any other type of software system such as Se Sniper you need to realize that it is really going to take some time to accomplish your dreams.

Each day requires a to-do list. You can either create it one evening for the next day or in the morning when you are starting to get to work. Write out each of the things that you have to get completed before the end of the day. Then, after those, note down one of the short term plans that you need to put work into and then one of the long term projects that you need to work on. Only let yourself to do these last two things when you have finished your to-do list for the day. If you find that you finish everything-both the “right now” things and the short and long term project work, you can decide either continue working or reward yourself with some time doing something fun!

There just is no denying about the ability of internet goals to dramatically alter some situations is incredible. It can be difficult to cover all possible scenarios simply because there is so much concerned. We will begin the rest of our discussion right away, but sometimes you have to stop and let issues sink in a little bit. We are highly confident about the ability of what we offer, today, to make a difference. The balance of this article is not to be overlooked because it can make a huge difference.

There are lots of techniques you can use to increase your productivity. The ideal way to make sure that you get enough accomplished each day is to know exactly what it is that you need to do. When you know what needs to get done you’ll be more likely to stick to your list and actually accomplish the things you want to accomplish.

There is a huge amount to know about goals, and that is the reason why we have saved some very juicy info for you. Research is time consuming and hard, but we think we have come across the very best as you will soon discover. It is so simple to find information that is missing in important finer points, we will say, but we do have the full story.

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As an Internet Marketer you already know how much work you actually need to do to get your business to realize success. In addition to making products, you need to market those products and solutions and build buzz for those products.

You have to keep track of the sales you make, the e-mail addresses you attain and client information. You ought to work to maintain client relationships and talk on a regular basis with existing buyers and potential buyers. Not only that nevertheless, you will need to work on developing your reputation. There are only a set amount of amount of hours in the day; how are you supposed to get the whole thing done? Here are a few tips you can use to handle your time better and be more productive during the day.

You need to have quick and lasting objectives. This involves building a list of everything that you want to have transpire from making lots of money to writing the e-mail you’ve been postponing or forgetting for a while. Write out precisely what you want to achieve and then break down your list: things that will take a lot of time, things that will take only a little time and things that you can easily do right now. Do the things that you can do right this moment and then create a schedule of things to do over time. Irrespective if you are using Unique Article Wizard, SEOPressor as well as virtually any other style of software system such as Se Sniper you and your family need to realise that it is going to take some time to hit your goals.

Time to get breaks is essential. Most people believe that the key to productiveness is dependent upon your ability to force yourself to stay at your desk for lots of hours every single day and not ever allow a break for anything but visiting the bathroom. The simple fact is that folks are more successful at when they start working. So let yourself to take a few breaks daily. A great break schedule is a brief morning break, a longer lunch break and a short afternoon break. Some individuals reward themselves with brief breaks as incentives for finishing items on their to-do lists.

Time to get breaks is vital. It is easy to think that productivity is dependent upon your lashing yourself to your desk for many hours a day without ever getting up to do anything beyond using the bathroom. The simple fact is that people are more effective at when they start working. So let yourself to take some breaks everyday. A good break schedule is a quick morning break, a longer lunch break and a short afternoon break. Some people enjoy taking a few minutes just to relax after they finish bigger projects on their to-do lists.

There are plenty of ways that you could use to help yourself get more accomplished each day. The best way to make certain you get enough completed each day is to know what, precisely; it is that you need to do. If you already know what must get done you will be more likely to stay on track and truly get it done!

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With the Holiday Season being full of shopping, house cleaning, attending parties, hosting parties, family needs and more, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. While everyone seems to love the festivities, I’m sure most of us are glad they are over and we can finally breath.

Actually, I think most people feel overwhelmed a good majority of the time, regardless of the time of year. There is so much commanding our attention that it can be extremely difficult to stay focused and get things done.

It’s been said that over 3,000 advertising messages are brought to our attention a day. With all of these messages comes the skill of tuning things out around us, which we have perfected.

We communicate faster than ever. Our inboxes are constantly at full capacity. Our cell phones constantly chirping breaking our focus. You may have said “The check is in the mail,” but not in today’s world! It barely means a thing now. In fact, newer generations might not even know what that means.

Because this this lightening fast lifestyle, you indefinitely have customers, patients or clients who want things done instantly. Not tomorrow or the next day, but this minute. This type of service is expected in this life and it’s also expected that we can provide it.

It’s no wonder we feel like we can’t keep up! We can’t!

Luckily, our clients seem to be in the same boat and can’t get their work load completed on time either. When our clients initially call us, it’s because they are looking for a quick fix to their problems. They want a solution to their marketing woes so they can focus on what’s really important to them, which is whatever is what they do best and that’s not necessarily marketing. They want to be able to pass on the work and have someone else take charge and get it done. Our customers want their marketing strategy to be stress-free, cost effective and easy. They don’t want any worry, hassles or excuses.

This is something all clients want, even yours. Provide an EASY solution to your clients hurdles. Show your clients how you can save them money, worry, time, stress, blood, sweat and tears with whatever it is you specialize in. We make our clients’ lives EASIER with our Ready2Go Client Contact. We can also provide EXTREME EASE to their marketing with our one-on-one consulting.

Provide your clients, patients and customers with an EASY solution and show them how EASY you are to work with. You will be their business angel in disguise. This will make your life and their life EASIER and HAPPIER.

Kathy Jiamboi has 14+ years expertise in Relationship and Direct Response Marketing and is CEO of Creativedge Marketing and Ready2Go Client Contact, in Cleveland, Ohio. Ready2Go Client Contact, a done for you program allows her customers to smoothly and swiftly build client affinity. She provides FREE expert marketing tips to anyone looking to get more customers.

Besides a satisfied current customer, the next easiest person to sell your products and services to is a referral. Referrals can be an inexpensive source of new revenue. They come to you pre-qualified and pre-sold, will typically spend more money, and will refer others to you since they were referred.

So how do you get them? The best and easiest way to get a referral is to ask for them when the client is most receptive. Most often this time is when they are “basking in the glory” of their purchase. That sounds simple. Yet many businesses don’t take advantage of this untapped “word of mouth” resource.

The best way to gain referrals is to put a multi-step referral process into place within your business.

First, make a list of all of the ways you can communicate to everyone you are in contact with, ie: friends, family, clients, vendors, competitors, groups you are a member of, etc. Then, devise how you will connect with these groups and ask for referrals. If you can establish a few processes of getting referrals, you will receive far more than you are now. Think about how that might effect your business. Also, think about how much time and money you will save from not having to prospect and market to new clients.

Here are a few ideas to get referrals-

Give something for the referral. If you can’t give something away, offer a free service or offer to make a donation to a their favorite charity in their name.

Give your new referral services or products at discount on behalf of the person who referred them.

After your client has provided you with a specific number of referrals, offer them a special deal or discount.

Have your clients agree that if they are 100% satisfied at the end of their transaction that they will provide you with two referrals. But don’t forget to follow up on their promise!

Create a list of business and/or individuals you may want to do business with and see who among your circle can introduce you to them or better yet refer your services to them.

Ask your clients to pass out cards with their name on it to their friends and family highlighting your services. Each time a card is redeemed, your referrer receives a reward or discount towards their future business with you.

Send your client some type of thank you gift to their office. When others see what they have received, they will inquire, leading to referrals.

Offer a stepping-stone referral plan. The more referrals the client provides, the more rewards they receive. This works well because usually if a client refers once, they will refer again.

There’s a chance a lot of your business is already coming from “word of mouth.” With a referral plan implemented, this gives you the opportunity with a inexpensive, easy way to get new business and increase business and profits.

Is your business utilizing a referral program right now? If it’s bringing you success, we’d love to hear about it.

Kathy Jiamboi has 14+ years expertise in Relationship and Direct Response Marketing and is President of Creativedge Marketing and Ready2Go Client Contact, in Cleveland, Ohio. Ready2Go Client Contact, a done for you program, allows her clients to simply and swiftly boost client affinity. She provides FREE expert marketing tips to anyone looking to gain more clients.

Making lists works in various ways. Writers use them for “top 10″ posts, people make lists for grocery shopping, and we all use them for chores lists.

What about business intentions? They can be mapped out using lists as well and on a weekly basis you can track your productivity metrics based on items you completed.

Time is precious and these days there are plenty of distractions jockeying for your priority. Your offline business needs online support or your online business requires growth but where do lists come in?

If you’re going to take the time to make a list of $120 worth of food to keep in your refrigerator then your business warrants similar attention. Prior to sitting down to work online, decide what you’re going to accomplish. It should take you five minutes to figure out what you NEED to do and then jot it down on paper.

A look at what making lists will help you accomplish:

Reduce casual surfing. Focus on high priorities. Boost discipline. Keep you accountable. …make sense to you now?

Take Action

Take out paper and pen and shut off your monitor. Number your sheet 1-through-3 and jot down the top 3 things you need to do to grow your business today. You will still encounter distractions at every turn but this time commit. Frame your mind to block out the distractions until you have all the items checked off your to do list. Realize that you can reward yourself with casual online surfing afterward. Just work your online business first and relax later. You can do it.

Best wishes to you in this technique. Practice it each and every day before you set out about your daily tasks. Then look back at what you’ve accomplished over a couple weeks’ time and compare it to the trailing month!

I enjoy writing articles to educate others and I trust you found this useful. If you want to start a business now that you’ll have your time management tricks to apply, follow the links herein!