Social Media POV for Mortgage Companies

The following blog post started out as a POV for a potential client. I thought it made a better blog post and believe that you can substitute just about any type of business in place of “mortgage company”.

Understanding the Business Challenge

The online marketing landscape for mortgage companies has become increasingly difficult over the past several years and most of them are struggling with similar issues.  Traditionally, mortgage companies are excellent direct marketers.  The use of cable television, radio, direct mail, lead aggregators, affiliate marketing and even search engine marketing, have been effective marketing channels due to their action oriented nature and the ability to measure and quantify results.  However, due to the abundance of mortgage companies and the success of these channels, the competition has drastically increased thus leading to a congested and confusing marketplace.  As a result, volume has diminished and differentiation is an enormous challenge.

Adding to this challenge is the uprising of social media which has put the power to publish in the hands of the consumer.  Influence has moved from the brand to the consumer and now mortgage companies are not only dealing with lower lead volumes but also with a reputation management issue.

Mortgage companies have done extremely well with paid search marketing but as the competition increases, so does the cost for clicks.  This puts significant pressure on the performance of the web site to raise conversion rates in order to produce a reasonable cost per acquisition (CPA).  The natural response is an attempt to better utilize natural search results which will drive greater volumes of traffic to the web site without the costly per click charges.  However, achieving success in natural search is not easy.  The game has changed drastically in the last two years and the tactics used in the past for SEO are not nearly as effective.  Compounding this problem is the lack of quality content on the web sites of most mortgage companies.  The creation of quality content has become the new SEO and the infiltration of social media sites in the search results page has made it harder for companies to become listed among their competitors.  This has created a “perfect storm” for marketing departments within most companies and in particular mortgage companies.

Solving the Problem

This business challenge is now a trend and mortgage companies are asking the same questions:

1. How do I get better results in natural search?
2. How do I manage my brand’s reputation?
3. How do I produce more leads?
4. How do I differentiate in this crowded marketplace?

It is my opinion that the answer to these questions lie within the same marketing effort; social media.

Marketers should not think of social media as the destinations such as FaceBook and Twitter but instead as the human behavior that has a part of society for decades.  That behavior is the sharing of opinions, experiences, preferences and loyalties within a personal network.  A recent Forrester Research study indicated that 83% of those surveyed indicated that an opinion of a friend or acquaintance that used a product or service was viewed as the most trusted source or information in making a purchase decision.

The use of social media has also become a preferred method of disseminating information to the marketplace whereby a consumer can share that information with their networks.  Social media provides marketers with a vehicle to drastically increase the consumption and exposure of this content. In addition, due to the text nature of this medium, search engines find it easier to index this content and as a result of its keyword richness, social media sites are dominating search results for relevant keywords.

For brands suffering from service issues, this presents a significant reputation management problem.  In an attempt to solve this problem, brands avoid participation in social media thinking that the problem will go away if they don’t participate.  That is the most incorrect stance a brand can take.  Instead, participation in social media with the creation of quality content will meet this problem head on and give the consumers a way to interact with the brand on a positive basis.

Quality content should be defined as valuable information for the benefit of the consumer.  This could include client testimonials, educational materials, POV’s on the industry, and even goodwill information about the organization.  If mortgage companies were to commit to the production of quality content, they will find that their happy customers will interact, engage and share the content with their networks. Participation in a social platform will cultivate the positive sharing of information. Without it, the unhappy customers will be the only voice.

Having a steady flow of quality content in social destinations will have impact on the following:

• A positive consumer voice to offset negativity
• A display of concern for the well-being of their customers by the brand
• Protection of the brand name
• A wealth of text based content located off the brand’s sites with links inbound to the main site
• Improved rankings in natural search due to the inbound links
• Additional listings within the Google search results for more click through options
• The ability to differentiate from competition
• An opportunity for satisfied customers to share their experience with their networks
• Improved effectiveness of all other marketing channels as prospective customers enter the marketing funnel after engaging with content referred by a friend
• A steady flow of new content which will over ride and suppress negativity in a similar fashion to the Facebook news feed
• The elevation of a brand’s status as a member of the community and a thought leader
• The development of a loyal customer base and the creation of brand ambassadors

Summary

Whether you like it or not, social media is happening to your brand.  Choosing to participate provides a marketing vehicle unique to the digital marketing era.  This is the preferred method of communication for consumers the only marketing channel that has such significant impact on the rest of the marketing funnel.  When done correctly, social media will improve a brand’s visibility, increase customer loyalty, enhance a brand’s reputation and provide distinct market differentiation.

Dirty Little Secrets of Search: What you should know!

The NY Times published a very interesting article today about J.C. Penny’s rankings in the organic listings on Google.  The retailer has been able to secure the top listing in Google’s organic SERP (search engine results page) for a wide range of very generic keywords.  Here is the leading section of the article to set the details up for this blog post:

“Someone types the word “dresses” and hits enter. What will be the very first result?

There are, of course, a lot of possibilities. Macy’s comes to mind. Maybe a specialty chain, like J. Crew or the Gap. Perhaps a Wikipedia entry on the history of hemlines.

O.K., how about the word “bedding”? Bed Bath & Beyond seems a candidate. Or Wal-Mart, or perhaps the bedding section of Amazon.com.

“Area rugs”? Crate & Barrel is a possibility. Home Depot, too, and Sears, Pier 1 or any of those Web sites with “area rug” in the name, like arearugs.com.

You could imagine a dozen contenders for each of these searches. But in the last several months, one name turned up, with uncanny regularity, in the No. 1 spot for each and every term:

J. C. Penney.

The company bested millions of sites — and not just in searches for dresses, bedding and area rugs. For months, it was consistently at or near the top in searches for “skinny jeans,” “home decor,” “comforter sets,” “furniture” and dozens of other words and phrases, from the blandly generic (“tablecloths”) to the strangely specific (“grommet top curtains”).

This striking performance lasted for months, most crucially through the holiday season, when there is a huge spike in online shopping. J. C. Penney even beat out the sites of manufacturers in searches for the products of those manufacturers. Type in “Samsonite carry on luggage,” for instance, and Penney for months was first on the list, ahead of Samsonite.com.”

Here is a link to the rest of the article.   NY Times Article

As I read this article (from the actual newspaper, a very deliberate Sunday morning ritual which represents a change of pace from my extremely digital lifestyle) while sipping my morning coffee, the first thing that came to mind is that lots of markers may come away with the wrong conclusions about search, organic listings and even a possible conspiracy theory from Google.  So let’s dive into it a bit and gain some clarity.

The first of several key takeaways one should glean from the article is the power of link building.  J.C. Penny was able to reach the #1 ranking in Google by obtaining a high quantity of inbound links to their site from very wide range of other websites.  I have often expressed an opinion that of all the factors in the Google search algorithm, link building was the most significant individual influencing factor.  However, J.C. Penny obtained their links by paying for them as opposed to earning them with quality content.  While these paid links were able to produce results, it is clear from the article and Google’s position that this is only a short term win.  A win that has proven to be very costly to the retailer.  J.C. Penny has risked being “black listed” by Google, an offense that carries a the very strict penalty of never appearing in the SERP again.  Google is in the process of adjusting the algorithm and removing those links which has significantly pushed the retailer’s listing lower and even off the first page.  This will have an enormous impact in online sales at jcpenny.com.  Mess with the bull and you get the horns.

The next key take away is the power of search.  Google’s dominance among search engines has made them the “go to” site when people need to find information or make a purchase.  The web plays a role in just about every buying decision we make today and when people need information, they turn to Google.  It doesn’t matter what business you are in, if you don’t have a presence on the web and if your presence is not listed in Google, you are missing out on opportunities.

For the conspiracy theorists, if you read the article you can’t help but wonder if Google played a role in helping J.C. Penny reaching #1 by ignoring the black hat techniques.  After all, the retailer spends $2.46 million a month on paid ads in Google.  So did this advertising revenue play a role in Google not penalizing the retailer?  I’m going to defend the search engine on this one. I believe that Google has regularly demonstrated a big picture view point and has done a nice job of separating the two business units.  The power of Google has long been their objectivity within their natural listings.  It is the #1 search engine partly because users trust the listings.  Allowing natural listings to be influenced by the amount of money a business spends in paid search would severely damage that trust.  Also, consider that J.C. Penny will now have to pay for listings in the sponsored section of Google as a result of significantly dropping from visibility on this very important and highly searched keywords.  Google will actually make more money as a result of the retailers blunder.

Brand marketers, if you read the article, you are aware that J.C. Penny claims that these links were acquired by their SEO agency without their knowledge of the tactic.  Assuming you believe that, I hope you learn that there are no shortcuts to long term success.  Acquiring inbound links should be an earned marketing effort.  Providing valuable content to your audience (the human audience as well as the Google spider) will lead to a higher quality inbound link and greater long term results.  With the enormous popularity of social media today, there are plenty of ways to build link equity without turning to black hat techniques.  My advice to you, make sure you know what your agency or team is doing and be leery of promises in reaching #1 ranking.

Are a lack of resources standing in the way of your Social Media?

“Social media was once seen by some marketers as a quick and easy way to reach consumers at their newest channel of choice. Advertising on the sites was relatively cheap, and marketing on the sites by creating a brand page or profile was free—it only cost internal time and resources.

But those resources can prove to be substantial, as many marketing professionals seem to have learned, based on a November 2010 survey by social media marketing solutions firm R2integrated.”

e-Marketer Full Article Link

With marketers showing a rapidly growing interest in social media, the team at Drive Action Digital are meeting with clients to discuss how they too can get in the game.  Among the most common concerns from our clients is their ability to properly allocate resources to this channel.  A major factor leading to the concern is the unknown ROI that will emerge from the effort.  Some of our clients are operating with a lean staff and just don’t have the bandwidth to dedicate time to social media.  Others are still standing on the sideline with a fear of starting something they just can’t follow through on.  This scenario reminds me of my experiences in 2002 and 2003 when companies were debating on whether or not to jump into search engine marketing.

While these are very valid concerns, I find myself empathizing with my clients and then carefully pointing out a few simple observations to ease their concerns.  The first of which is that the behavior we are seeing is social media is no different than what occurs in the offline world.  Every marketer knows that nothing sells a product or service better than a happy customer.  Social media has taken this long standing business fact and amplified it enormously.  By participating in social media using some simple tactics, marketers can give their customers an opportunity to more deeply engage with the brand and share their interactions with their networks.

The second piece of guidance I provide is that this behavior is happening already whether they participate or not.  By jumping in and getting involved, brands can increase the interactions from both a quantity and quality perspective.  Society is displaying an overwhelming desire to share.  The sheer number of active FaceBook users, over 500 million and 200 million who log in daily, should be evidence enough.  But if you are still not a believer, just participate in the experience and you will see for yourself that people share almost everything.

Here are a couple simple suggestions for getting started:

1. Consider asking your CRM staff to move some of their efforts to social media.  I’ve gone on record to say that I believe the email newsletter will be dead in the near future.  Rather than sending out a monthly newsletter to a few hundred subscribers, consider putting that content on your brand’s FaceBook page.  This will provide your audience with an opportunity to share this quality content with their networks thus expanding your reach significantly.
2. I also recommend sharing more about your company than you do today.  While it may seem trivial, let your fans know more about your organization.  What you do for fun; how you train your staff; what are your values; how you give back to the community.  These help personalize the organization and will give your customers a greater sense of pride that they have chosen to do business with you.  After all, if they can share details about what they ate for breakfast or what they did over the weekend, then you can share a little as well.
3. Don’t try and calculate and ROI right out of the gate.  Do social media because you know it’s right.  Do it because you care about your customers.  Do it to strengthen the relationships you have worked hard to acquire. Believe in this and the ROI will appear.
4. And finally, find the proper ratios.  Please don’t make every message you send a sales pitch!  This is not about raising the top line.  It is about giving back to your customers who have given so much to you.  Make sure to maintain at least a 5 to 1 ratio of quality content to better the lives of your customers to sales messages.

I hope you find value in these tips.  More to come.

Great Clients: Born or Made?

Having spent more than a decade providing services in the agency and digital marketplace, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing clients.  Of course, there wouldn’t be great clients without some bad ones along the way. Agencies often joke about how bad clients can be.  As you’d suspect, there are even some funny videos on YouTube about the trials and tribulations of the agency-client relationship.

It is all too easy to become frustrated by clients when you are in the agency space. But as time goes by and the tread wears a bit on the old tires, I think it’s healthy to look at the relationship from a different perspective.

The recent acquisition of a new client motivated this article.  I consider myself fortunate to have won the confidence of this new client and would definitely put them in the “Amazing” category. They are fair, open when sharing information, conduct themselves as true professionals, and most of all, they take pride in their culture as the best in their industry.

This culture is more than just words. It manifests itself in their attitudes and actions. In a recent meeting, they were kind enough to compliment the team on our work ethic, honesty, integrity and our commitment to building a partnership. Naturally, coming from this particular client, I took this as high praise.

Basking in their praise started me thinking about what we did right to earn the compliment. As I evaluate the events that occurred over the past year in our pursuit of this client, I realize that three factors in particular that directly attributed to our now solid relationship.

The first was our patience. Clients don’t want to be pressured for their business. It’s my opinion that this is arguably the most critical aspect of the relationship. I’ve yet to meet a client that really cares about an agency’s sales quota, goals or business objectives. When we let the pressures of our own business influence how we handle prospective clients, it often boomerangs, souring the relationship before it ever gets started. It serves those of us in the agency space to remember that it is about them! We can’t let our own business challenges get in the way of doing the right thing for our clients. Thankfully, in this case, we didn’t.

The second factor was our willingness to share information, ideas and intellectual property. From the very beginning of the sales process we acted as if our prospect was already our client. Everything we did and said was in their best interest.  We were honest and generous with our guidance – even at the risk of losing the business. Because we never just told them what they wanted to hear, they gained insight into who we are, how we think and what it would be like to work with us. In many ways, a good client relationship has to be a love match similar to finding the right person in your life. The client has to love you for who you really are, which includes your faults as well as your strengths.  We’ve seen clients make bad choices in selecting their business partners. But this is never just the client’s fault. There are agencies that don’t represent themselves honestly, who say what the client wants to hear just to win the business. Eventually, however, this approach will backfire on both partners.

Finally, integrity must be at the core of everything you do. This is not as prevalent as it should be in the agency space.  We can’t expect clients to behave with integrity if we don’t first set the example. Promising more than you can deliver or misrepresenting yourself at any point in the relationship will have a negative short- and long-term impact. Why is it so hard for people to openly discuss their shortcomings? Have we forgotten that clients are people just like us who can appreciate the challenges we all face? It is human nature to be sympathetic to those who acknowledge their demons just as long as they see you working toward a better outcome. Whenever I’ve done this with clients, it has always been received positively. In fact, it often prompts clients to share their own shortcomings as well, which in turn can give us more insight and help us do our job better.

So what is the answer to the question posed in the title of this piece? I honestly believe that, by and large, great clients are made and not born. I’m willing to own my responsibility for the bad clients in my past by acknowledging that I have not always followed the principles stated above. But as I move forward in my agency capacity, I vow to put these values at the forefront of my efforts. Doing so may mean I lose a prospective client or two on the way, but I am confident that the ones I win will be great ones.

LinkedIn: Best Kept Secret?

Top 5 Ways to Market Your Business With LinkedIn | Social Media Examiner

“LinkedIn is the most powerful social networking site to help you grow your business. It makes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube seem like social networking sites for kids.
 

If you want to hang with the big players—a place where connections are made, leads are generated, and deals go down—then you need to spend more of your time on LinkedIn.” Written by Lewis Howes

Many clients have asked for my help lately with social media. Each having significantly more questions than answers which is to be expected.  However, it wasn’t until I read this article that I realized just how overlooked LinkedIn is with most if not all of my clients and prospects.  Everyone wants to talk about Twitter and FaceBook but should we be spending more time with LinkedIn?

I have always had a theory that when people come to work in very casual clothing, that they are not as focused on their job.  It kind of feels like working on a Saturday morning…  I know for myself, when I dress in my best I have a different mind set.  Much more intensely focused and determine.  Does that same psychological affect apply when I am networking in LinkedIn vs. FaceBook?  Do I have my business hat on when I am in LinkedIn vs. my social hat in FaceBook?


I’d be very interested to gather opinions on this.  Quite frankly, I’m not sure what my stance is on this yet but I can tell you that I plan on elevating my activity level in LinkedIn.  Thoughts?

Building a Customer Community

I gave a presentation recently to a client on social media when I was confronted by an interesting question. My presentation was designed to educate the group on the concepts, technologies and behaviors that prevail in today’s social web. I wanted to lay a foundation to help us brainstorm ideas on leveraging social media to make an impact in their business. About half way through the presentation, when most of the foundation had been established, I was asked: “So what?”

It is a fair question. Let’s face it; we don’t need to know that someone plans to nap during his train ride into the city. There is a lot of zero value information being shared in the social spaces. But what marketers must not ignore is the changing behaviors. We are all sharing much more information, thoughts and opinions with our networks and communities than we ever have before.

While you take this behavior into consideration, think about your own resistance to sales tactics both online and off. Think about how frustrated you get when you hear a sales pitch. Do you really want to hear the salesperson’s opinion whether or not this new TV is the best on the market? Why do you have to buy this car today? Your agent keeps telling you this insurance is a good fit – but how can you be sure? Wouldn’t it be nice to hear a few customer opinions to help you make an informed decision? Not references. Just to hear what a wide range of experienced customers have to say.

My clients often hear me say, “Nothing sells a product better than a happy customer.” If you believe in the quality of your brand or service, then build a customer community and allow your customers to share their experiences. Will there be a range of opinions? Yes, and that is okay. A blend of both positive and negative opinions will give the conversation greater credibility. In addition, your existing and potential customers will become even more loyal to your brand as you show your willingness to accept criticism.

Depending on your product or service, your customers can also serve as a valuable resource to one other. They can share different uses for your products, assist one another with technical questions, and offer opinions and guidance. These are all benefits of building a user community. The Open Network by American Express is a great example of this – and there are many others. By building a community in which people can share their thoughts and opinions about your products and services, you can gather the information you need to take action. Assisting an unhappy customer by using a public forum can, in fact, build enormous brand loyalty.

Another benefit to building a community is the emergence of brand ambassadors. As the community develops, you will find some customers love you even more than you thought. They will want to share their experiences with many more people than you imagined. These brand ambassadors will help your customers solve problems and encourage the undecided buyers to select you. Without realizing it, you have just expanded your sales force.

So what do you need to know before building this customer community? Again, first do remember that this is a conversation. Don’t use this forum as a podium for sales. Make your strategy one of offering assistance by volunteering useful information. Answer questions.

And be transparent. If you make mistakes, admit them. If you do, your customers will feel better about doing business with you.

Finally, if you are a thought leader in your market space, this is a splendid place to showcase your forward thinking. The ideal strategy is to offer thoughts and opinions that encourage a dialogue with your audience.

Social Media vs. Email Marketing

I have often said that eMail newsletters will eventually be replaced by company blogs. While that has not yet happened to the extent I thought it would, I definitely do see the trend moving over to social media in the form of company FaceBook, LinkedIn & Twitter pages.

The reason for this should be clear to anyone who opens their email client on a daily basis. Competition for the inbox is fierce. Because we’re all faced with so much clutter, we are forced to delete or ignore many of these communications. How many times have you said that you’ll come back to read a newsletter when you have more time – and never did so? The messages that once were getting through, loud and clear, are now getting lost in the spam filter or are simply being ignored.

While I am not advocating that you stop sending email newsletters, this strikes me as the perfect time to test the utilization of your company communication in social media. Building a company profile page on FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are quick and easy tasks. Once they are live, all you have to do is post the same content that you would ordinarily have posted to your newsletter.

There are additional benefits to using this medium for company communications. The social media channels are easily indexed by the search engines. Content that was once sent via email and never found by the engines now appear in the organic search listings potentially exposing your thought leadership to a much larger audience. If you begin looking for social media listings in all your search activity you’ll notice a growing presence on page 1 for sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and FaceBook.

Posting your content in the social spaces is significantly more effective if you have an audience. So I highly recommend sending an email to your existing list letting them know where they can find you in the social spaces and encourage them to become a FaceBook fan, a LinkedIn connection, or to follow you on Twitter. It is also sound business practice to include the appropriate icons on your Web site as well as links in your eMail signature. Just remember, social media is about dialogue and is a great venue for sharing your thought leadership. Encourage your audience to participate in the conversation, ask questions, request information and share their thoughts.

By utilizing this marketing channel, not only will you be able to easily keep your clients, prospective clients, vendors, friends, and others updated, but you will also expand your network via exposure to the friends of your fans. Spending a few minutes each day on these tasks will greatly expand your reach beyond the size of your eMail list.

The FaceBook Phenomenon

It was only last October when I finally got around to creating a facebook profile. My sole intention for doing so was to learn the intricacies of this social networking site for business purposes. As I grew my network of friends, many of them took the opportunity to break my chops about being late to the party. One of my friends even said, “Welcome to 2006.” OK, so I was a bit late to embrace but I am a quick study so I’ll get moving and catch right up.

I started doing searches for friends, colleagues, old classmates, etc and found that many of they were not yet on FB. I wasn’t as far behind as I thought. Well over the last 3 months I have been blown away by the number of people that have just started their profile and are beginning to accumulate friends and build their network. And the demographics are really expanding. This is not just a teen thing like MySpace. Just goes to show that grow ups can play too.

So what’s the phenomenon? In my opinion, the growth numbers are really impressive. According to the statistics found in the FB press room, they have over 150 million active users (defined by logged in within the last 30 days). More than half the users are outside of college and the fastest growing demographic is over the age of 30. The average user has 100 friends and there are over 3 billion minutes spent on FB each day. Here is the stat that surprised me; over 70% of the FB audience is outside the US. That tells me that the growth rate will continue as the US audience gets onboard. So I really wasn’t that late to the party…

While these numbers are pretty amazing, my favorite part of FB is the behavior. I have connected with friends from elementary school, high school, college and of course, my business colleagues. And no matter what our relationship was then, now it is nothing but pleasantries and genuine excitement to connect. Seems like everyone is on their best behavior and why not, it’s all public and we all want to be liked! We are organizing reunions, sharing pictures of our kids, telling old war stories and, here’s the kicker, doing business. Yes, I said it. We are using FB to find business & job opportunities. We are connecting with influential people and using this public domain to ask for help in advancing our careers and businesses.

Don’t believe it? Fine by me but at least I did my part in sharing my opinion. In the words of Judge Smails from Caddy Shack, “The world needs ditch diggers too.”

Companies are going to have to really start embracing FB and its power. I’ll begin sharing some of my thoughts and ideas for business marketing on FB in the weeks to come. As always, comments welcome.

Learning Social Media

I’ve always relied on my marketing experience to help navigate new emerging technologies and hot trends within interactive marketing. But over the last few month I have worked closely with some of the internet’s greatest minds in social media. And for the record, while they don’t always sound brilliant, they are!

The experts in social media today have really grabbed hold of the web and turned it into this powerful social tool that many believe it was designed to be. So much so that I have been inspired to start witting again and this time, I’m going to learn how to do it right!

Why? Simply put, it is powerful marketing.

So where am I going to start? Well I have finally opened a Twitter account and I have started tracking the blogs of people I think are smart. Over the next few weeks I’m going to start looking into apps to help me be more efficient and looking for ways to bring greater visibility to this blog. But even more on point, I am going to solicit the thoughts and ideas of a community that I want to build. After all, isn’t that really the point of this?

More to come…

The Evolution of the Sales Person

Collectively, sales people are often victims of our own behavior. The barrier to entry to become a sales person is often low because companies can place a significant portion of compensation tied to performance. Employers can take a chance on sales people hoping to find that diamond in the rough. As a result, most sales people are either not very good or highly mediocre. In the business community many of the buyers are resistant to sales people. I believe this is a result of the way sales people approach their work. Most fall into 2 categories. There are those who apply the “show up and throw up” method which is an obnoxious way of saying that they show up in your office and talk about their product during the entire meeting. I refer to the second group as the “greeters”. The greeters bring in a subject matter expert (SME) and after handling the introduction, they sit back and hope the SME can make the sale. Neither of the two is very effective.

In my seventeen years of selling experience, I have been both. Success for me, as for many others has come from hard work, determination, persistence and often the ability to just not take “no” for an answer. However, in my quest to avoid being lumped into the general stereo type of all other sales people, I believe I have learned a few things that are well received by the majority of high level decision makers in the business buying community. In fact, I believe that the high level executive buyers are demanding a higher quality sales person. One that doesn’t actually act or feel like a sales person. So how do you take your game to another level? How do you effective sell to high level executives at big brand companies?

Here are several principles that I try to follow myself and teach my team. Hopefully, they will get you closer to being that sales person you desire to be.

1. Be a subject matter expert. If a sales person is truly an expert at their product or service, the conversation will be filled with quality content and not sales speak. Sales people have a way of phrasing things that make them sound like a sales person. This typically creates a barrier between the sales person and the buyer. If you want to be treated and perceived as a sales person, then act like one. But if you want to be treated like an expert or a trusted advisor, then remove the sales speak from your meeting and focus on the content. This is a great opportunity to express your views and thoughts about the marketplace, your prospect’s business and even share similar experience from other clients. Engaging in such a dialogue will lower barriers and your prospect will share more about his business and challenges. In this conversation is where you will find your hot buttons as opposed to asking the question, “What keeps you up at night?”

2. Bring something to the table. High level executives are busy and often own more responsibility than they can actually get done in one day. Therefore, the hours in the day are too precious to waste on some sales person who doesn’t come to the meeting prepared. This doesn’t have to be a custom presentation or a solution to a problem in your first meeting. I have found that some of my best first meetings have been done with a pen, blank sheet of paper and well thought out questions. Smart business people want to have partners, vendors and suppliers that will make them and their company better. This is also where being a subject matter expert can really help. You should be prepared to share a potential solution to a challenge that your prospect is facing. This will only be effective if you have asked effective questions and exposed a need or challenge. It is difficult to anticipate what the challenges may be, but if you are truly a subject matter expert and stay close to your clients, you will have lots of experience to draw from. This leads me to my next principle.

3. Stay involved with your clients. I realize that many companies try and get the sales person out of the process as quickly as possible. I have never been a fan of this thinking. The motivation for this philosophy is sometimes driven by the desire to not pay commission on recurring sales. In my business, we look to develop a long and fruitful partnership with our clients. The strategy is to build upon a solid relationship forged at the time of sale, then service the client with excellence and add valuable complimentary services. The sales person loses the credibility to sell additional services that solve for business challenges to existing clients when they only show up at contract time.

4. Focus on your clients, not on your commission. This theory often flies in the face of conventional sales thinking. Companies pay on a commission as a method for keeping their sales people hungry for new sales. But clients can smell commission breath a mile away. Great sales people must resist the urge to sell something just because the client will buy it. Ask yourself whether or not you would buy the product or service if your job was on the line for its success. I have had numerous experiences where I have convinced my customer not to buy for the sole reason that I didn’t think it was in their best interest. And while some short term sales may have been lost, there were many more long term gains as a result of developing an alternative. The ability to sell something of greater value became much easier as a result of the credibility I built with the client.

5. Be confident. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Nobody likes an arrogant sales person but people gravitate toward confidence. There are several opportunities to display your confidence. One of my favorites is the silence that you master before your answer a question or after asking one. I can’t even count how many times I have watched sales people ask a great question and proceed to let the person off the hook from answering it by continuing to speak. Yes, this sounds a lot like listening, but it is much more than that. Your posture, ability to maintain eye contact, facial expressions and ability to not be the first to break the silence will help instill confidence. A pause before answering a tough question will have a similar affect. Ask any average sales person a tough question and you will witness several nervous reactions. Fidgeting, looking down and senseless babble are just a few of the signs the person lacks confidence. The most comical reaction is when the sales person turns the question back to the client without giving an answer. The confident sales person makes sure they understand the question, pauses to organize their thoughts, maintains eye contact, develops a smile that says “I have the answer”, but most of all, is confident with the silence that fills the air before delivering a well thought out answer.

6. Have an opinion and don’t be afraid to share it. Most sales people are concerned about expressing thoughts or opinions that might be in conflict with their client or prospect. Some of my healthiest client relationships are with people share their thoughts and expect me to do the same. We don’t have to agree on everything to develop a solid relationship. In fact, a difference of opinion followed by a healthy debate will often result in each person leaving the conversation with a new perspective. I’m not advocating an argument with your client, but instead, deliver your opinion in a professional manner and encourage questions and comments.

7. Be humble. This is an important principle especially if you are going to express your opinion and be confident doing so. A humble sales person is willing to be wrong, willing to be challenged and most of all, willing to learn. Show me a sales person not willing to improve and I’ll show you one that just got beat. Don’t ever let yourself believe that you are the best or that you can’t lose. Those fears will help keep you hungry and driven toward getting better every day.

I truly hope these ideas have helped influence your desire to improve your skills as a sales person. If nothing else, I encourage you to dedicate your self to constantly improving your skills and don’t take your eye off the basics. Happy selling!!!