"It doesn't really matter what I sell" - oh really?

Throughout my career, I've interviewed hundreds of sales candidates.  My interviewing approach has changed dramatically over the years, and I now find myself spending more time talking to candidates about their motivations, why they do what they do.  While it is relatively easy to identify people who are passionate about selling, I find it fascinating that a small subset of people don't really care what it is that they are actually selling.

These folks fall into a "true believer" status.  They are convinced that they are so good at sales, they can sell anything they want (cars, toilet paper, software . . .  you name it).  While I get the concept that if you can build relationships, understand the goals/needs of your customer, and approach things with integrity - you will be successful - but, what about the passion?

I believe we are better at selling things we are passionate about (and not as good at selling things that don't interest us).  I often find myself in an interview with a sales candidate thinking, "This candidate has had five positions in 20 years all in a specific industry, selling the same thing, and now they want to sell something completely different.  Why is that?"  When I inquire, sometimes I get a surprising response:  "It doesn't really matter what I sell."  Hmm.  I think it does.  And if it does, as a sales manager, I only want to hire those candidates who can be passionate about what WE sell.  It should matter what you sell.  This falls under the concept of sales "belief."  You must believe in your product or service.  Not only do you have to believe in it, but the more passionate you really are, the more successful you are likely to be.

Think about this one when you face a potential career change.  What would I LOVE to sell.  What am I really passionate about.  Go sell that!

Happy selling.

Forecasting Sales - Science or Fiction?

In over 20 years of Sales Management, I am still puzzled by the inability for Salespeople or Sales Management to determine an effective method of Sales Forecasting.

Sure, the default methodology is using a combination of actual sales pipeline data (opportunities associated with confidence/probability) and something referred to as "run rate," (a psychic prediction of deals that are really not in the pipeline, but likely to appear before the end forecast period).  Don't you find it unusual that these methods still permeate the very core of sales forecasting?

Lately, I've seen an influx of sophisticated tools that are advertised to make the forecasting task easier by using macros, predictions and big data.  I've investigated these tools only to find that they are simply more sophisticated methods of the same process described above.  With the huge investments organizations are making in CRM software (i.e. Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, etc.), one might question why sales forecasting is still a manual process for even the largest organizations.  While not "naming names," I know of a $6B organization that holds weekly forecast calls with their sales managers (who use manual spreadsheets and "psychic abilities" to predict sales), even though they have heavily invested in these massive CRM solutions.

The answer to the problem is relatively simple:  salespeople alone are the key to accurate forecasting.

While Sales Management can supersede the probability of a deal closing, all of us know an well known axiom of selling:  the actual salesperson has the best, first-hand knowledge of whether or not a deal is going to close in a particular period of time.  The missing ingredient is one that has perplexed Sales Managers for decades.  Here's the ULTIMATE PROBLEM:  "Do I ask my salespeople to give up valuable sales time by documenting accurate sales forecasting information in a CRM, or do I want them out in front of customers?"  The answer is always the same:  We want both!

Unfortunately, you can't have both.  Typically, the top 10% of salespeople are poor at administrative responsibilities.  These are the folks we need the information from the most.  It's a Catch-22, and it's plagued the industry from the dawn of time.

While there's no great solution for the problem, we'll continue on trying to use probability calculations, stages in the sales cycle, and other factors to predict the future.  Everyone understands the unspoken truth:  If your sales team has a great month, it's very unlikely that Sr. Management will deliver much grief on how well you forecasted.  Let's face it.  Sales teams and salespeople who kick ass and deliver results are rarely "called on the carpet" for their failure to predict upcoming sales.

Here's my solution:  We all do the best we can.  We try to update our forecasting tools with best-practices and hope for the best.  Run rates are a powerful tool, and unt
il every salesperson in the world invests heavily on updating the latest information everyday, we will all be subject to the roller-coaster world of sales forecasting!

No happy ending here.  Sorry.

Happy Selling!

Personalized Learning for K-12 in 2014

Students in Elementary, Middle and High Schools across the United States are back from their winter vacations.  While celebrating the holidays, enjoying lazy afternoons, frying their brains on first-person shooter video games, and sleeping until noon, it's back to the business of learning.  For most of these students, however, getting back into the daily routine of "one-way" learning at school will be more difficult than ever.  As each year passes, and schools throughout the nation fail to change how students are engaged and taught, we face a learning crisis that is more damaging than we dare to imagine.

• The #1 gift in the 2013 holiday season to children in the U.S. was a mobile device (Amazon.com).  Whether an iPad (still the top leader in tablets in 2013), a Kindle, a Chrome-book, or just a SmartPhone, kids spent their time off during winter break drenched in the electronic world of mobility.
• These same students went back to school without these devices only to sit in a classroom where learning occurs in a force-fed, one-way, traditional environment.  Students sit, teachers talk, test scores drop.  How many published, scientific studies on learning must be presented to our local school administrators before they get it?  
• In 2013, the situation was so bad, that many states and the federal government took action.  Obama introduced legislation on providing broadband internet to students.  State regulators got involved to demand learning reform.  Many school districts began a long (and expensive) journey to determine how best to meet the challenging demands of better student engagement and new ways of teaching/learning.
• In 2014, doing nothing will simply not be an option for K-12.  The evidence is in:  kids learn better in non-traditional environments.  These new learning methodologies go by many names:  Personalized Learning, 21st Century Classroom, Flipped-Classrooms, Blended Learning, and others.  Tools being utilized to enable these new learning methods have one thing in common:  mobility.  The objective is simple:  get rid of the traditional obstacles to learning by introducing new processes.
• Personalized Learning means changing how students learn at a fundamental level.  While many models are showing dramatic improvements in teaching, a few methods are floating to the top:
• 1:1 or Mobile Enablement.  Allowing students to interact electronically, wirelessly to a device (rather than a textbook or workbook), instantly changes everything.  Content can be modified on-the-fly, teachers can see (in real time) whether a student is absorbing the lesson, student engagement soars and the applications available to provide feedback to improve learning is growing.
• Flipped Classroom.  Let the kids learn lessons via multimedia sessions at home, and then help teach each other the next day.  Teachers facilitate learning.  Understanding is performed through collaboration - not lecturing.
• Blended Learning.  Turn the classroom into a "collaboration-room."  Let the students rotate in smaller groups, tackling learning together via curriculum built specifically for this purpose.

Once our schools realize they must change, the next steps are complex.  It's important to collaborate at a Superintendent /  Curriculum level with other schools.  Engage learning consultants.  Develop the technical infrastructure and a pervasive wireless environment - no matter what technology is chosen.

Let's make 2014 the last year of sending our children home with a five-pound textbook, a photocopied workbook from 1993, and expect them to memorize a list of facts without the assistance of multimedia.  What will that take?  Who will lead the vision?  What can you do to help?

The solution lies with all of us:  Educators, Administrators, Parents, Community-Members, and Personalized Learning organizations.

Mid-Year Planning - YES, It's time to do that!

Holly crap - it's the end of June 2013.  The year is half over.  It's almost unbelievable how fast the first half of any year goes, compared to the last six months (I wonder why that is).

Right about now, all salespeople on a calendar fiscal year are thinking one of three things:  
1)  "I am kicking ass and am either at or above my 6-month target/quota!"
2)  "I am in it deep.  If I don't get my crap together soon, there's no way in hell I'm going to hit my goal!"
3)  "What are you talking about?  What month is it?"

Actually, #1 or #2 are good things for you to be thinking.  The third one, however, is a real problem - and worst part about it, is that if you can't make a mental-shift to 1 or 2, you're in for a world of hurt.  Let's talk about five important things all salespeople should be doing at the half-way point in the year:

1. Did you plan your success (or failure) over the past 6 months?  Successful people (in any profession or with any goal), plan for their success.  They know what things needs to be done to achieve a specific result.  OK, I know I'm over-simplifying the complex reality of selling in the real world; however, I will argue with anyone, that if you evaluate your sales activity, pipeline, closing ratios and bookings, you should be able to modify your behavior and adjust accordingly.
2. Mid-Year is NOTHING!  Salespeople can push half a year's worth of work into 6-months.  Don't freak out.  Even if you've sold $0 so far this year, you can still kill it.  This is a mental game and you control your own destiny.  Today is the day for you to get more organized, become more efficient, be more productive, and change everything.
3. Every step in the right direction moves you closer to goal.  Do you have a $1M target?  Book that $5K deal and be loud and proud.  Sales is a funny little business.  When you book nothing, it gets you down.  When you book anything (even a small dollar amount), things look brighter and cheerier.  Get a deal, any deal and use that momentum to spiral you forward.
4. You need to work harder.  Sheer perspiration and perseverance goes a long way in sales.  If you haven't figured out the subtle nature of increased efficiency, tools and how to work smarter, it's time to simply ramp it up!  There's way more than eight hours in a day.  Get your ass up at 6AM, plan your day, and work until 10PM at night.  Do whatever you need to do.
5. It's not too late!  It's almost never too late (with some exceptions - if you've blown it for a year, it's unlikely your company will "restart" the engine with you).  If it's not too late for you - get it together.  Most companies will be patient as long as they see appointments, pipeline growth and (eventually) some bookings.  

Let's get busy.  It's only July.  Happy Selling.

Tips 11-20 for Sales Managers on LinkedIn Impact!

Thanks to my good friend Kurt Shaver for posting the Top ten tips for Sales Managers regarding leveraging LinkedIn for sales success .  I couldn't help but publish another ten tips (11-20) for Sales Managers to motivate and stimulate Account Managers (salespeople) to utilize the "gold" that is inside of LinkedIn.  Below, please find my tips 11-20 on how Sales Managers can leverage LinkedIn to dramatically improve their team's sales results.

• 11 - Updating LinkedIn is about scheduling time.  Salespeople are busy.  There are a thousand things to do:  prospecting, proposals, demos, dealing with issues, project managing, troubleshooting problems, and on, and on, and on.  Unfortunately, few of these topics trump developing your online presence, garnering recommendations and creating a way for you to be found on the internet.  LinkedIn provides this opportunity.  Short of creating your own website, domain and social networking presence, LinkedIn is the #1 way of promoting yourself and using the tools to create a difference between you and your competitors.  With this said, every salesperson must create time in their busy life to "put in the effort" of advancing their online presence.  For me, this means posting activity 3x/day, blogging every day, and responding to LinkedIn InMails.  Today, right now, schedule time in your calendar to work on LinkedIn.  Get 3 new connections.  Post three activities.  Ask for one recommendation.  Invest in yourself!
• 12 - Are you a long-term strategist or a short-term tactical salesperson?  LinkedIn can help with both!  If your priority is creating a long-term presence on the social-web, your responsibility is to work on your profile, recommendations, groups, certifications, education, etc.  This goes a long-way in terms of presenting yourself to a potential customer.  If, on the other hand, your priority is to get appointments and make an impact in 30-60 days, you've got a different situation on your hands.  In this case, your job is to connect with as many connections in an account as possible, and push for warm introductions through InMail or Introductions in LinkedIn.  This can happen quickly.
• 13 - Salespeople Need to Help Each Other.  Individually, we can all work on our LinkedIn profiles and use our instincts for success.  Together, however (as a team), we can leverage each other's progress and succeed together as a bigger part of a whole.  Sections of our profiles can be leveraged between team-members.  We can share positive experiences together.  As a team, we gain significant advantages over independent work.  
• 14 - Group Time succeeds more than Independent Time.  To make #13 work even harder for you, schedule group time in which team members can share ideas and success stories with each other.  There are two ideas here:  1) Set a team goal for the week, and then share successes via collaboration meetings as a whole.  2) Setup individual criteria and work the "competitive angle" with members of the team.  Create a contest.  Establish a benchmark.  Reward success.  Encourage constructive criticism.
• 15 - Recommendations Rule.  While LinkedIn offers the more liberal "endorsements," nothing substitutes for a real recommendation.  Recommendations require effort on the part of the recommender, and it is this factor which provides the real power of the recommendation.  A real effort should be made of every salesperson to obtain real recommendations that relate to specific roles they have played in both the current job and previous roles.
• 16 - "It's the small things that make or break the deal." This is a direct quote from my father 15 years ago.  My dad was a life insurance agent for 50 years.  In all the sales advice he gave me, this is the one item that has always "stuck" with me.  Whether it's in a conversation with a customer, or a proposal, or in your LinkedIn profile - it's always the little things that matter.  Create awards, comment on your education, publish honors and awards, use every character you can in every job description and Summary statement.  The more verbose, the better.  This is about being found.  The more words and key phrases that are used, the more likely you'll be found on LinkedIn.
• 17 - Connections Are Everything.  Don't have 500+ connections yet?  That is your first priority!  Use the "People You May Know" feature to scour every few days.  Don't connect with just anyone.  Follow the LinkedIn guidelines and only connect with people you really know.  Instead of clicking the "Connect" button, choose the button that looks like a track-pad, which let's you customize the message.  Connect with customers, business leaders, C-level roles and more.  Of course your should connect with all of your employee associates, but that's not the sales advantage of LinkedIn.  Connect with customers and search to find their roles.
• 18 - Create Saved Searches.  Invest 45 minutes to manually enter all of your prospects and existing customers into the search criteria.  Save this search.  LinkedIn will automatically notify you once a week as to new people who met the criteria search.  This way, you'll see new members who have associated with these companies.  Are you a territory rep?  Do the same thing, but instead of listing customers, use a geography or zip code.
• 19 - Use every freakin' InMail you have!  InMails are like gold.  They are guaranteed.  They roll-over month-to-month and are like a bat-phone to your most valued customer contacts.  To do this properly, I'd suggest the following scheduled use:  1) Send at least FIVE InMails every week -without fail.  These should be to your customers or prospects (or serious networking folks).  Schedule it in your calendar so you don't miss a week.  2)  For every InMail you get back, start communicating via regular email.  This way, you can re-use your valuable InMails for people that will not use regular email.  3)  Try to go OVER your limit.  By taking this philosophy, you'll never leave a valuable InMail wasted.
• 20 - Use Mobile LinkedIn.  It doesn't matter whether you have an iPhone or an Android.  Using LinkedIn Mobile allows you to stay one step ahead of your regular process of checking up on what's happening.  Statistics show that people are more likely to check LinkedIn Mobile than regular web-based Linked-In.  You step out for a break, or are waiting for an event and you are on your Smartphone.  Chances are, you are very likely to check LinkedIn.  Post items, accept invitations and use your time wisely.

Happy Selling everyone.

From Salesperson to Sales Manager - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

As salespeople, we've all heard the expression, "great salespeople do not always make great sales managers."  When you ponder over this commonly uttered phrase, it seems pretty straightforward.  Of course the statement is true because the two jobs are very different.  Nonetheless, it's still a common practice across the world to promote great salespeople into management.  Sometimes is works out, and other times the plan doesn't go so well.

With a bit of analysis, let's explore the top five relevant issues in regards to this practice:

1. Salespeople have a wide variety of personalities, habits and methods.  Some are more social.  Others are more analytical.  Some salespeople flourish in very strategic selling environments, while others bloom in a more transactional world.  Some are great communicators.  Others, not so much.  It is a combination of theses traits (and more) that lead salespeople to be successful.  There is no one-way of becoming successful at sales.  There are methodologies, common sense, and experience; however, I've witnessed success a hundred different ways with different people that have combinations of different traits.  Identifying these traits is the first clue as to whether a great salesperson may make a great manager.
2. Successful Trait #1:  Much of sales management is removing sales obstacles from your salespeople.  This empowers them to sell more and builds trust in the relationship.  Sales management is not about micromanaging salespeople.  Great salespeople that must be in control at all times, usually make poor sales managers.  Salespeople don't want to be controlled.  They want to be empowered.
3. Successful Trait #2:  Careful listening and collaborative decision-making.  Sales management requires listening to many different sides of a conflict.  Socratic methodologies and collaborating with others creates trust and is at the heart of leadership.  Salespeople who succeed by pushing their way past others, involve as few people as possible in their deals, and sell things to customers by persuasion rather than through real consultation/collaboration, usually make poor sales managers.  
4. Successful Trait #3:  Sales management is also about inheriting the problems, joys, challenges and situations of eight or more people (rather than just worrying about your own issues).  This trait is about  a scientific concept called "non-reciprocal altruism."  The concept stipulates that people do things for other people without necessarily expecting anything in return.  Great sales managers need to practice this trait with their successful and rookie salespeople.  Note: For under-performing salespeople, the great sales manager shifts to a "give/get" strategy.  In other words, the sales manager cannot want the rep to be more successful than the rep themselves wants to be.  This leads to either a behavioral shift or the termination of the salesperson.
5. Successful Trait #4:  Sales Managers typically make less money than great salespeople.  This may seem like a funny or obscure statement, but it is usually true.  With this said, great sales managers must have at least an equal level of motivation to advance their career (and/or) help others, as they do for earnings.  In a perfect world, if the whole team excels, the sales manager is fairly compensated, but it is almost never equalized.  The sales manager gets a much smaller portion of the deal than the salesperson.  Therefore, if money is the primary motivator over almost everything else, this typically sets up a Sales Manager to fail.

It takes a very special combination of traits to be an excellent sales manager.  Anyone can compile reports, scream and yell for more sales, and keep the ship from falling apart.  It's interesting to ask a seasoned salesperson who is successful to describe the best sales manager they've ever had.  Most will tell you that they've never experienced a sales manager who really contributed to their success and taught them something.  This is truly unfortunate and a big reason why sales management is such an important role.  If you find a salesperson who can identify a sales manager that truly changed their career - you've found one of the few gems in your industry.  Hang on to that person, follow-them, and learn from them.  A sales manager can either be a bothersome disturbance, or a game-changer.

Happy Selling.

How to Get to Quota . . . And Beyond!

For salespeople, we all have a quota.  It may go by other names where you work (target, goal, "the number"), but regardless of what it is called, it is the single most important measurement of your success as a salesperson.  Yes, your company (or yourself) also looks at attitude, thoroughness, and dozens of other things; however, it you're not contributing revenue (or margin) as a salesperson, your days are numbered.

Some companies go to the extreme when managing salespeople to quota.  It has become an obsession.  For those poor souls who work for these types of companies, we all know the inevitable result:  Micromanagement.  No salesperson likes to be micromanaged.  For that matter, few Sales Managers like to micromanage their salespeople.  It usually happens because of the culture of the company or how the Sales Manager grew up in the industry.  It's really not important why it happens.  What matters is that you hit your quota (monthly, quarterly, annually) and you put yourself in a position of success.

Here's some helpful tips (some are obvious) that can get the "monkey off your back," and hit your quota:

1. Figure out early how to get there.  This one seems pretty straightforward, but for every type of company, there is a typical formula for a salesperson to hit quota.  Your job is to talk to other successful salespeople and get them to reveal the secret.  You may get different answers (which is good).  Sort through the mess, overlay your personality and selling style and come up with the formula.
2. It's hard to get to quota with hundreds of transactions.  It's easier to do it in chunks.  Let's say you have to sell $1M of stuff to hit your quota.  Most successful salespeople will break that $1M down into reasonable, sellable pieces.  For example, one way to get to the number is to sell one big deal (say for $500K), two to three medium deals (say $150K each), and then 15-20 smaller deals.  Believe me, if you don't plan this out and revisit this throughout the year, you can get caught up in the details of selling and before you know it, you missed the target.
3. Work smarter that you are working today.  I say it like this because everyone is at a different place in their career when it comes to efficiency, tools and selling patterns.  Therefore, wherever you are today, figure out a way to do it smarter tomorrow.  Maybe it's leveraging a new tool, writing down goals, changing a small piece of your strategy.  Smarter gets you to quota faster!
4. Pipeline development (or Sales Activity in general) is the raw materials that sales are made of.  If you run out of raw materials, you're screwed.  NEVER run out of raw materials.  This means that you have to feed the pipeline, go out on sales calls, do proposals, meet with customers, perform demos, etc. to feed the never ending raw material engine.  Don't let yourself get caught in a rat-hole on some detail.  Stay big-picture.  Never run out of raw materials.
5. Set your own goals and targets that are GREATER than your quota.  Some companies do this already, but this does not matter.  If you need $1M, set your goals at $1.25M.  Setting the bar higher gives you several advantages:  First, it's a buffer.  Giving yourself a buffer is a good idea.  Second, you will likely be financially rewarded when you over-achieve.

Here's a bonus tip:  When it comes to forecasting - be honest with yourself and your managers.  Don't load-up with pipeline with unqualified deals and don't over-promise bookings that really won't happen.  First, this let's you change your activity behavior if things don't look good.  Second, it helps build rapport with management.

Happy Selling.

NEVER RUN OUT OF RAW MATERIALS.

How Does "Consumerization of IT" Really Work?

If you're in sales, and you sell anything that has to do with technology, you've seen this phrase before.  For some of us, we think about the massive influx of personal electronic devices being introduced into the work-place.  Consumerization of IT is more than this.  In this blog, I'll try to explain what's going on in a few easy steps:

• Until about five years ago, Information Technology (IT) was originating at work.  People used Blackberry devices (remember the blue brick?) because they wanted to access work email.  Laptops were provided by companies and you pretty much were stuck with whatever the business/organization wanted you to have.  Same thing with applications.  You used what was given.  Even cell phones were dictated by the company.
• Everything changed - and some people think Apple was the stimulating factor (I'll leave that one up to historians).  Several factors contributed to this paradigm shift:  1) Technology became smarter and more affordable; 2) Tablets became relevant PC-substitutes and have exploded in growth;  3) Internet applications have become more sophisticated, less expensive and browser-based apps have become common-place;  4) Apple's Macbooks and Google's Chromebooks are real alternatives now to regular PC's.  If you put these factors together, there's been an enormous technology spend by consumers on the compute and applications in their own personal lives.
• Since consumers have all of these devices, options and applications that are quick, easy, affordable and robust, they see no reason why their companies shouldn't adopt the same technologies.  Guess what?  They're right.  Now it's actually the consumer (in the workplace) telling companies what to do. To address these growing concerns, companies are in a frenzy, trying to "catch-up" with expectations.
• This "consumerization" is changing IT departments everywhere.  They're asking questions like:  How do I secure my network with 20 different types of devices trying to access the network?  How do I know if the device should be authorized?  How do I only allow users to access certain applications?  How do I manage a 10x fold increase in wireless devices on a network that's not built for that density?  Should I allow Macbooks or Chromebooks on the company network (if they don't - there will be a revolt!)?  How do I secure those?
• These challenges have pushed IT organizations everywhere to address these challenges.  They are looking at solutions like BYOD (bring your own device), MDM (mobile device management), Virtual Desktops (VxI), and are being forced to evaluate cloud-based applications to keep a competitive edge and decrease operational costs.

Welcome to the Post-Consumerization of IT era.  It will be an interesting ride.

Happy selling.

How Salespeople Manage their Outlook Inbox

Let's face it, when it comes to how salespeople organize, manage and store emails, we all have room for improvement.  In an informal poll about about 25 of the salespeople that work for my organization, I got 25 different ways people handle email, file email, create and manage tasks and store information.  The number one reply was using Flags in outlook to mark important emails for follow-up.  Email use has grown 17% from 2011 to 2012.  As salespeople, we are bombarded by emails and need to constantly improve our use of email if we're going to maintain (or actually improve) efficiency.

Here's 5 great tips that I've learned throughout the years:

1. Try to touch an email ONCE and only once.  This is the rule of "D's."  If it's simply garbage, marketing, spam and you're never going to need it again - DELETE now (yes right now).  If there is required action, but you can DELEGATE the task, forward the email right now over to the person(s) that should take on the task.  Then move the email to a folder specifically for delegation follow-up.  DEAL with the issue immediately.  If it can be responded to quickly and dealt with, do it now, then delete or file the email.  The Inbox is not a filing cabinet.  Delete, Delegate or Deal with the issue.
2. Create a Filing system with Folders outside your Inbox with no more than 7 folders.  Studies have shown that any more than 7 folders decreases productivity because it makes it more difficult to find the email you really need.  It's OK to have sub-folders under this, but with Outlook's advanced search features, many busy salespeople can manage to seven simple folders.
3. Flags are an inefficient way to manage tasks.  Think about it, if you flag an email, then another, then another, over time, you'll have to re-review each of these emails and think about what needs to be done on them over and over and over.  This creates a huge amount of wasted time.  Instead of flags, consider using Outlook's Task feature.  Tasks can be tracked by date due, can be assigned, and separate your task list from your email list (they are two different things).  Create time in your schedule to work on Tasks.
4. Use email from new people to quickly create Outlook contacts.  This is the most efficient way to develop and keep up your Contacts list.  When you get an email from a new person that you're likely to communicate with again, simply right click on their email and add to your contacts.  
5. Don't let your Inbox control your activities.  Pick 2-3 times a day in which you "work" on email and dedicate 30 minutes to each session.  Resist the temptation to read email every-time that pop-up shows or you hear the chime.  (FYI- you can turn both of these off in settings if you can't resist).  Spending quality time in chunks with email has shown to improve your efficiency by up to 15% every day.

Happy Selling.

The Magic of LinkedIn

While many of my colleagues and I have been active on LinkedIn since it went live in May of 2003, I don't think any of us realized its true potential until recently.  Social Media is a funny thing.  One of the things that makes any social website so intriguing is that (like any other technology tool), nobody really knows what's going to happen when it is handed over to the public.

Unlike Facebook, which has been popularized, prodded, commercialized and monetized, LinkedIn is unique.  Mainly controlled by it's users, LinkedIn doesn't suffer from the "molding effect" of its users like Facebook or Instagram.  LinkedIn has a certain "respect level," inspired by its users.  Sure, there are "abusers" and "crazy posts" that I sometimes wish weren't on my daily LinkedIn feed; however, most posts in my growing network of 1,100 connections, are useful, interesting business tid-bits.  I look forward to seeing the posts and have found LinkedIn to be the social business network tool that has not been replicated by any other type of Social Media.

I've seen many lists and best-practices to create a more compelling LinkedIn profile.  My company has actually hired a LinkedIn consultant to teach our entire sales-force how to get the most of LinkedIn.  I thought it only appropriate for me to throw in my own personal tips and hints on using this tool for salespeople.  Here we go:

1. Does your Profile suck?  I've heard it a hundred times.  "I just put something up there and I don't really care if anyone is trying to hire me or not."  That's the #1 problem with LinkedIn.  90% of it's use is NOT for hiring, recruiting, or finding a job.  It's really about networking and making connections.  Think about it - if you could post a few paragraphs about what you did at each of your previous jobs, and one of those words helped somebody to find you (or visa-versa), wouldn't that be important?  Not completing your LinkedIn profile with strategic practices in mind is the biggest problem I've seen.  This is your chance to expand your network.  Isn't network leads the #1 way to find customers (right behind references)?
2. Nobody Ever Responds to Your Posts!  Really?  You're kidding me?  You mean, people aren't sitting there, waiting for you to post something?  This concept is all about reciprocity.  All of the experts in Social Media will tell you that the #1 way of driving traffic, making connections and having online interaction, is YOU!  Want people to respond to your posts?  You need to respond to 20 other posts - and not just a "like" or an "awesome-good point" comment.  Contribute something valuable and people will take notice.  Social Media is an "iterative" process.  One thing depends on the next, and it takes time to create something meaningful.  Here's a tip:  Spend 30 min a day on LinkedIn.  Get 5 new connections.  Post-back to 20 items on your feed.  In a month, things will be different.
3. Still using the "free" version of LinkedIn?  Are you that short-sighted?  Nothing is free.  Quality output takes two things:  time and money.  LinkedIn is very dependent on the way you are connected to other people.  By paying for a premium subscription, you significantly increase your network connections.  Today, LinkedIn has a special subscription for salespeople.  It is the best investment you will make.  Who cares if your company won't let you expense it.  Do this for your career.  Make an investment.
4. Every Little Item Helps.  See the area where you can put your certifications?  How about the area where you can post media, pictures, presentations, etc.?  Don't think this matters?  How about a recent study that showed a 72% increase in time spent on a LinkedIn profile because of these little things.  Get it together and invest in these "add-ons" that really add-up!
5. LinkedIn alone is not enough!  Unfortunately, if you want to create an online presence (and you should want to if you are a salesperson), Linked-In is not enough.  Here's the test:  Google your name (if you have a common name, Google your name, plus something unique about you).  If you don't show up on all ten of the first sites, you're not doing enough to create an online presence.  Here's some ideas:  register your own domain name, create your own web site, create a blog (and post to it often), subscribe to other people's blogs and read/respond to them, and pay attention to what's happening online.  Your customers are Googling you.  You should be Googling your customers.

How's your online presence?  How many connections do you have on LinkedIn?  What does Google say about you if a customer went to look?  Want to be a better salesperson - ask yourself these questions - then do something about it.

Happy Selling!