Archive for January, 2010

30
Jan
10

Day 3: The Perfect Greeting

Day three of the Father’s Conference is just coming to an end.  One of the topics covered today related directly to sales success so here it is – the Perfect Greeting.  I’ve said in many of my workshops, you have about six seconds to grab someone’s attention.  If you don’t succeed, you’ll spend the next thirty minutes trying to get back to something interesting.  But there’s more…

People sense what you are thinking when you greet them.  That initial first six seconds needs to be more than interesting, it has to be “interested”.  The speaker related this “interested comment” to wives; stop being interesting and start being interested…if you’re married you can see the connection.  How about your clients?  Are you trying harder to be interesting or interested?  When you meet people they can tell if you are genuinely interested in meeting them, or if you are just showing up for the meeting.  Are you looking down on them, thinking they’re not the decision maker, or critical of them in some way?  People sense this, and if you’re caught, you’re out.

Try this.  When you meet with someone, consider sales people who are not getting the meeting.  Every meeting has potential to either meet a decision maker or gather important information in preparation for an executive meeting (granted, some of these should be done by phone).  Whether this person will introduce you higher into the organization or not, be grateful for the meeting and make the most of it.  It is a waste of time not to.

After today, I believe I have even more great information to share with you about success factors in the 2010 Teleseminar Series, so if you missed the sign-up and you’re reading this on February 1, I’ll let you sign up with the January discount just this one day (Feb 1, 2010).  This is the last chance, so make sure you join us today at www.stelzl.us .  We have a great group – I’m looking forward to passing on great information that will help round out your 2010 business development strategy.

29
Jan
10

A different kind of conference

Most weeks I am attending a sales conference, partner summit, or training event for high-tech sales people…this week I am with 300 fathers working on establishing a successful home – today is day two.  A couple of key points from last night’s kick off.  First, if you are a father (or a mother), you can’t achieve the same level of success if your home life is dragging you down.  Many have reached new levels of success in business only to look back and realize they’ve lost their family in the process.  Here are three top stress areas (out of 15 we reviewed last night) that drag people down:

1. Lack of an exciting and fulfilling purpose – if you don’t have a mission you believe in, you’ll be second guessing what you do every day!  This has to be bigger than work – but carry over to work.

2. Believing the lies – everyone carries with them some level of messaging that is playing over and over in their mind.  What’s yours?  If it’s negative, it will drag you down – “I’m ugly”, “I’m not as important as the executive I am meeting with”, etc.  Whatever it is, if it’s negative it will hinder success.

3. Painful memories from wrong decisions…this is a big one.  We’ve all made mistakes.  Some with business decisions, others with spouses, children, finances (investments in 2000), etc. How often do you recall painful memories in a non-constructive way?

Imagine 15 more of these…well I won’t go on, but just fixing these three will dramatically affect what you do today!  Give it some thought and let me know if you want to know more.

27
Jan
10

Raising entrepreneurs

Watch as I explain to two entrepreneurs how selling works in a bad economy!

© David Stelzl 2010

25
Jan
10

Building the Value Proposition in Boston

Working on the Value Proposition

Last week’s trip to Boston – we worked on messaging, presentation skills, and strategies for reaching higher into the organization where security really matters.  I had the privilate of spending the day with the Courion sales team, Gartner’s first choice in Access Assurance software, working through the concepts of Making Money with Security.   It was great seeing some snow given we’re at 50 degrees here in Charlotte.

© David Stelzl, 2010

19
Jan
10

The Morning Wake Up Call – No. 4

What does your business model look like?  Does it fit the profile of Warren Buffet’s investments?  Listen to this podcast and see.  Also, don’t forget to sign up for the 2010 Teleseminar Series this month…I’ll give you much greater detail on how to grow your sales in the coming months!


18
Jan
10

become a hacker – order now!

Yes, China and Google are dominating the news with filtered searching and email break-ins.  This is bad for cloud computing as noted in my Saturday post.  Keep your eyes on this as you talk with clients about cloud computing options.  The fact is, you can’t trust your data with someone else at this point and the big clouds are the big targets…it will always be that way.

On the tech page of USToday I found this article on do-it-yourself hacking kits.  This is pretty cool; for only seven or eight hundred dollars you can purchase the software along with instructions (probably better instructions than those provided with the software I buy), to hack into just about anything.  That means that disgruntled customers can attack providers they use for just about anything when they feel they’ve been ripped off.  The key tools are bots downloaded to systems through links passed on through email.  The topics could be anything of interest – we’re closing in on tax season, so expect this to be at the top of the list.

Experience needed?  All you need is the ability to download music or video to a computer.  In other words, hackers have commoditized the industry, making it available to just about anyone.  Helping companys with this is an opportunity, especially in the SMB market where security defense continues to be very week.  Also in the regional banks, I expect this to increase attacks on online banking, and these smaller banks are not well equipped to defeat this type of attack.  Check out the article and pass it on to your clients…

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2010-01-17-internet-scams-phishing_N.htm

16
Jan
10

scary stuff in the cloud

I’ve commented before on computing- how secure is it?  Well, it turns out that the provider of cloud service you’re using is not the only security consideration; what about the internet service provider?  Check this out…two woman on Facebook reported being redirected to other peoples pages while trying to access their own.  No passwords other than their own were required, and their access completely unintentional.

Of course this is not a hack; however, what if someone is redirected to something highly sensitive including your personal finances, intellectual capital, or military secrets?  And  what if that person thinks it’s funny and posts it on the web or is connected with something harmful such as a terrorist organization?  This could have major effects on a business brand, homeland security or personal reputation!  Once again, I hear IT calling out, “We’ve got it covered”.  You can read the details in the FOX link below:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/16/network-flaw-causes-scary-web-error/

14
Jan
10

Accelerating Sales in a “Still” dismal economy

13
Jan
10

They have no idea when we’ll recover

USAToday reported (today) – tech spending will recover in 2010!  Great news, but who knows if they’re right?  Reports call for pent-up demand to drive new technology sales in the coming months, giving us some growth over 2009, but less than 2008.  My favorite line, “Now that the recession is over…”.  Read more here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-01-12-tech-forecast_N.htm.  How do they know – Wall Street reported the recession to be over about 6 months ago…I was dumb enough to believe them.  Now I’m confused.

Now don’t get me wrong.  It’s not that I have a bad attitude here – if anyone if feeling optimistic, it’s me.  But relying on recovery for profitability this year would be a mistake.  There’s more competition, more tech companies hurting, and more hungry sales people out there than ever before.  Don’t expect business to just role in because Windows has a new version out (by the way, I am loving my MacBook Pro at this point).  The bottom line:  value – what value do  you bring to your clients to help their businesses recover regardless of recession reports?  If you haven’t done so, I recommend getting a plan together for CYQ1 – figure out who you’re calling on, what they really need, and find a way to  help them get it.

08
Jan
10

mastering boardroom presentations

Have you ever been to a showcase?  Showcases are where speakers go to present their best to an audience of speakers, meeting planners, and other buyers of speaker services to show off their stuff.  Motivational speakers, humorists, trainers, and the like get just a few minutes to give it their best shot.  I attended one of these today…not as a speaker, but simply to observe.  Speaking is hard work!  Whether you’re in front of an audience of several hundred, or simply sharing your company value with a few executives; hopefully with buyer status.  Speaking is a profession to many, including myself, but needs to be more of a profession for sales people; this is where the deal often dies.

With this in mind, my latest workshop addresses this problem – Mastering Boardroom Presentations.  After six years of leading sales workshops on messaging, I am convinced that the presentation is the weak link.  Learn to speak – first get some great instruction and coaching so you know what to do, then join a club like Toastmasters to perfect it.  Read more on my site at:

http://www.stelzl.us/sales_development_present.asp




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