It’s the last day of the month and all engines are revved up, you are in chasing mode. You either forecasted some deals you are still trying to bring in or you are holding out and sandbagging until the final hours. Either way, you are chasing and closing. Are you begging though? Discounting is a form of begging because most salespeople really believe if they discount it, it will sell. Yet more and more research indicates customers are not always driven by price when they purchase something. Another form of begging is when we start voice mail stalking our prospects. We leave several voice mails throughout the day and our tone becomes shrill and our pace gets faster. That doesn’t sound like a call you’d like to quickly return does it?

How do you sell when you have to hide the pressure you are under because the phone is super transparent and the customers pick it up. Take a few deep breaths, slow down, regain your confidence, upgrade your attitude, believe in your success and now start dialing.

Ready, set, close!

When we are prospecting and closing business, we must take the approach that our services belong. I know it’s hard when you are calling on busy decision-makers who won’t return your calls and send you emails telling you they are set for the month, quarter, year or century for that matter. But unless we have the drive to believe their organization really needs our services, your messaging won’t sound as though you belong.

It’s important to properly qualify your prospects to know what you want to get from them and how you want your services to belong in their organization.. Remember to spend more time determining what you want instead of reacting to what you don’t have. Salespeople tend to spend time on things they can’t control and that sends them spinning in the wrong direction.

Today is the last day of the month and we jump into a very important new month. March is usually the end of a quarter and becomes the breaking point for Q1 business. As you wrap up your February business, be prepared to start your March strong as though you belong.

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The human element still prevails as I’m the first to always encourage people who are prospecting or navigating into organizations to press the "0" and "#" keys to get more live voices.

A Boston-based blogger, Paul Engligh has put out a Cheat Sheet on how to break through automated interactive voice response systems at a handful of companies and speak to a human being. He named the companies and published their codes that they did not share with the public. It’s very entertaining and includes such things as "want to reach an operator at a certain major bank? Just press 0#0#0#0#0#. want to reach an agent at a big dental insurance company? Press 0000, wait through a message, select language, 4, 0."

 This cheat sheet sent ripples throughout the media and public interest community getting him airtime on TV, radio, etc. He asks, "how can companies listen to their customers if those customers have such a hard time reaching a human being when they call?"

Check out his site, download his ever-expanding cheat sheet that now includes over 400 companies and get some live voices this week.

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Hooked on the Olympics? So are we — because there’s nothing more inspiring than people who are totally dedicated to what they do. Olympic athletes push themselves beyond the limit, and the results are breathtaking.

Just like an athlete, you are engaged in a global competition. To capture the gold in today’s economy, you need to devote Olympic-level attention to your professional development.

How do you rank in the following events?

• Assiduous Preparation: Yes, preparation means doing your homework. But it also means constantly honing your skills to meet new and bigger challenges. How prepared are you?

• Discipline: Just like athletes, salespeople must build muscles so that they’re primed when opportunity knocks. How often do you get a “sales skills” workout?

• Competitive Excellence: The economic space is tight, and you must position yourself to rise above your competitors. Who’s helping you rise above the pack?

• Peak Performance: The Olympics occur once every four years, but for salespeople, it’s almost always show time. Can you perform on every call—today?

• Grace in Defeat: Just like the athlete who studies his loss to refine his technique, you must take a “no” as an opportunity to re-educate your customer and refine your offerings. Can you turn a “no” into a “no problem”?

• Speed: It can be as small as .01 of a second—and it’s the difference between winning and losing. In sales, speed counts, especially when getting your message across. How fast is your messaging?

• Global Fraternization: In this globalized economy, learning to connect with people from different cultures is critical to developing trust and building rapport. Can you align well across cultures?

• Teamwork and Partnerships: Whether you call it “forging strategic alliances” or “partnering,” teaming up in your selling efforts will give you greater mileage and earn more value. Have you created some strategic alliances?

• Keep Performing: Customer loyalty is anything but a given. You must continue to provide quality offerings and distinguish yourself from the competition. Do you ever stop competing?

• Buyers are Judges: Judges are human—low-risk, moody, influenced by others. And so are buyers. You must get to know your prospects–particularly their “hot buttons.” How well do you understand buyer behavior?

• The Thrill of Victory: There’s nothing quite like the medal ceremony—or the “yes” on the end of the line. When you close an important deal, you know you’re a world-class competitor.

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Sales is one of the few professions which taxes your emotional strength and courage. You  have to be pretty thick skinned to succeed in sales because you are also risking rejection on a regular basis. That’s not to say the fact that you may actually create some of the objections you receive but that’s another story and check out my tips on Handling Objections.

I recently send out my prospecting emails and included my leverage points in the opening line. For example, if I know that Bob Smith has power and influence and I need to talk with Jim Jones who has influence but no purchasing power, I will write in my opening email: "Hi Jim, I understand you work closing with Bob Smith and want to introduce my company as an Inside Sales Solution Provider." I may also say that in my voice mail message. This gets attention, it is not dishonest, it is not pushy, it is not intrusive, it works. 

Michael Boylan writes about this in his book, The Power to Get In.  However, on this one email reponse from Jim Jones, he was not happy and felt my tactics were too assumptive and intrusive and asked me to take my business elsewhere. I responded back with a genuine apology and explained my strategy which actually diffused his stance. It was a humbling moment for me but didn’t stop me from contacting more folks. Ready to rebound and move on?

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Everyones talking about it, what is it? A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically — like a what’s new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly — from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.

Blog posts are like instant messages to the web.

Many blogs are personal, "what’s on my mind" type musings. Others are collaborative efforts based on a specific topic or area of mutual interest. Some blogs are for play. Some are for work. Some are both.

Blogs are also excellent team/department/company/family communication tools. They help small groups communicate in a way that is simpler and easier to follow than email or discussion forums. Use a private blog on an intranet to allow team members to post related links, files, quotes, or commentary. Set up a family blog where relatives can share personal news. A blog can help keep everyone in the loop, promote cohesiveness and group culture, and provide an informal "voice" of a project or department to outsiders.

As I continually look for the latest and greatest way to communicate in our medium, I’m on board with blogging and that’s the reason my TeleSmart Blog is born. I’m calling it Life in the Telebusiness Trenches because I’m dedicating this blog to the Champions and TeleManagers who are out there everyday working in this world. I want to create a community of global readers who want to share, sound off, comment on what it’s like selling and serving by phone and on-line.

Lots of smart people in the Blogsphere these days, check out my Blogroll as I’m mentioned a few and also look at the Top 100 Blogs. Welcome to my blog, stay awhile.

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All these songs have been written about Monday’s- why do they carry such a strange stigma? The truth is that the week doesn’t really start on Monday’s anymore, it starts on Sunday morning as people shoot emails out from their laptops while finishing up their pancake breakfast or coming back from the gym. A lot more meetings happen up Mondays and new projects seem to land on your desk on Mondays. So my theory is that nobody seems to like their job on Monday- because it’s always different than the one they signed up for.

So what does that have to do with prospecting- a lot— the decision-makers we are calling are not always happy campers. My theory is that their skills are usually underutilized and yet their responsibilities increase daily. It’s rare for me to talk with someone who says how much they love their job and how it’s exactly what they want to be doing. Instead we are talking with people who are trying to dig their way out slowly to catch some air. Over the weekend, they catch a breath and on Monday it’s back to the reality once again.

There’s this mystery to prospecting. You’ve got to be fearless, intrepid, creative, persistent, determined, aggressive, and organized. The toughest part of prospecting is maintaining the momentum consistently—keeping it going every day. There should be a Viagra for prospecting—how to sustain it and keep it going I can be fearless and have tons of energy for days and then wake up one day and things seem to fall apart and my dialing muscle is stale. Am I a Viagra candidate? No really, I really enjoy prospecting, that’s one of my favorite parts of selling- I’ve even been referred to as “lethal” over the phone. What attracts me to prospecting is probably the same things that attract people to golf. Not that I play golf but some of the best salespeople and VP’s of sales are totally into golf. Why? Because it’s a mind game, it’s a game of skill, patience, precision, and focus. And that’s where prospecting comes in—the focus part. I’m just a curious person and like to talk with a lot of people and learn what’s up in their world and what they need. Sometimes, by calling 20 people who all say the same thing, I gain new insights on my programs and directions and reinvent my direction. So how do I keep my prospecting muscle alive? A heavy reliance on the reward system. Not big rewards,  just small ones. Crunchy food is usually a reward, a chai latte, on-line shopping, a long walk.

I’m not a gambler and get super bored and restless when I’m in Vegas watching others gamble. I went on a cruise years ago and found myself around a craps table. My brother-in-law encouraged me to roll the dice and I was on a long run with it. It seemed like every combination he whispered in my ear, slipped out of my right palm. It was amazing and I was very popular with lots of other people around that craps table that night.

I never played craps again but will always remember the mind game I played with myself that night. Back to prospecting….this morning, I took out a bright orange piece of paper and wrote “Appointments to Make Today” on that paper- again the intention is key here and writing it down helps imprint it. Within the next hour, I proceeded to make calls and set APPOINTMENTS. Okay, the timing was good today, my intentions were clear, my vocal tone was authoritative and I sounded like I belonged on their outlook calendar. It’s a process to find the qualified people to target and it’s an emotional process to believe you belong on their calendar. Why do I feel a sense of belonging today and not on Monday- ahhh, these are the great mysteries of prospecting.

Happy February!

That’s the first sentence on all my outgoing emails today.

I don’t like January- it’s a month that should not be on the calendar. It’s a month when all the resolutions, commitments, promises, for a new year start getting played out. It’s a month that lacks synchronicity because something is lagging behind, it’s not all quite there. A developmental problem perhaps? A learning disability perhaps? It’s just not all that it can be. So I’m glad it’s over and I feel a renewed sense of inspiration and enthusiasm about the year. I don’t have to wish anyone a Happy New Year anymore, I don’t have to ask anyone how were their holidays, I don’t have to see remnants of Christmas trees on street corners. Everyone’s calendar suddenly opens up, they are not in holiday mode nor world-wide kick-off mode, they are ready and open and willing. Yes!