What can one do in 4 minutes? That seems to be the magic request these days for a demo, presentation, sound byte, first impression, song, rant, words of love, saving the world or even eating an entire meal. As statistics continue to prove that fewer meetings are being granted for field and inside sales teams and even demo and webinar requests are being denied when asking for 60 minutes. It’s actually a negative request- to ask 60 minutes of one’s time.

I’m excited about a new product out there called GoldMail - it’s the latest in messaging.  These guys have it going on. It’s super easy, you can create, deliver and track high-impact messages using PowerPoint, text and voiceover. I’ve been feeling my eblasts are getting stale, the response rate isn’t where it should be and everyone’s inbox has too much content in there. This is the next step from content as it includes sound and fun visuals.  I tried recording it and I wanted to get it to 2 minutes but it’s about 4 minutes. It’s my first pass at this.

That brings me back to the 4 minute rule- and how much can really be accomplished in 4 minutes. I’m giving you a choice: You can either listen to my GoldMail 4-minute compelling introduction and overview or to Madonna and Timberlake’s video titled “4 Minutes.”

I was born in Italy and lived there for 12 years.  I still speak my Italian but more like a 12 year old adolescent who wants attention. My first language is French, which I speak fluently. Next week I will be in Germany delivering training and certifying a team of trainers on my customized program. Somehow, I feel at home in Europe; its a home I left many years ago that I’ve returned to visit.

It is so gratifying to be in a place in my professional life where I can travel to Europe and train.  The cultural differences are manageable and there is a familiarity that is sensible and inviting. I train in English and after the teams are certified on my program, they usually translate it for their countries.

The entire week, it’s about all the countries coming together to learn the material. And yet each country holds the program in a unique and necessary way. The Germans provide the analysis and detail while the Spaniards are proud and have a sense of humor. The French are classy and great skeptics while the Italians are charming and have a easy going sense of timing, the Scandinavians don’t waste any time and when they speak, it’s important. The Brits bring their dry humor and level of excellence while the Italians bring their charm and their messaging. The Israelis are determined and pragmatic and the American choreographs this dance.

As I stir this cultural melting pot, I must maintain a keen sense of awareness and learn how to separate skill deficiencies from cultural deficiencies. So when a participant says, “we could never do that in our country” I must understand their culture or their resistance to the new skill which is hiding.

I don’t believe cold calling is dead and although social networking is hot and hardly anyone answers their phones anymore, I am not convinced. Today, I ventured out into the prospecting realm as it’s been awhile since I really worked the phones. I felt out of shape, sluggish, and lacked good articulation. My prospecting muscle had atrophied and I could tell my list of reasons not to prospect were getting longer and longer until I realized it was an excuse to keep me off the phones.

I opened up my tools and started gathering names and calling. I spent about 3 hours just navigating into one company, collecting names and sending email introductions out. A few people answered their phones and gave me 2 minutes on the call to explain what I do and a few others wouldn’t talk but wanted info first. I talked with nice executive assitants who gave me more names and even a brilliant receptionist by the name of Sally who remembered everyone in the company and could update 6-8 names for me in one call.

I got a real work-out today but I feel I’m just getting warmed up. I like this part of selling the most which is why I’ve created a business on this. I just read Bill Caskey’s blog on Occam’s Razor and he suggests cold calling only to referral sources and I tend to believe that is the lazy salesperson route as I like to be authentic and intuitive in my prospecting efforts.

This blog is dedicated to the champions who pound the phones each day creating new sales opportunities. The ones who call up to 30-40 people per day and spread the sales talk. Keep up the good work.

It’s been 18 months and 388 blog posts since I first ventured into the blogsphere. Today, my writing life is full and my blog is my business partner, my confidante, my inspiration and my mirror. 

Why do I blog? Mainly because I love to write and communicate my thoughts, ideas and values to the world.  I like to get up close and personal with inside sales people as well as field sales, service and support teams.

Sometimes I think I’m moving very slow on a highway that is racing. Other times, I feel I’m speeding in a 25 miles per hour zone. Today I am going at exactly the right pace.

I want to dedicate this blog posting to YOU. Thanks for stopping by and reading a post or two, thanks for the time you take to read and comment, thanks for your kind words of support and most of all, thanks for being my inspiration. 

I have compiled my top 50 list of favorite blog post- here is the best of the Life in the Telebusiness Blog:

1. Setting Appointments.

2.  Get More Live Voices

3. Change up your messaging

4. Oops, when you realize you’re in the wrong place

5. When someone goes radio silent on you

6. 5 ways to set your non-negotiable time

7. The Dynamic Duo

8. Keep in shape

9. Clues we lose

10. Telestressed?

11. 8 reasons to test your phone courage

12. Email rejections

13. Changes lead to uncertainty of power

14. Listening for red flags

15. Are any No-Po’s lingering in your forecast?

16. Learning your No-Po lacks power before they do

17. Betrayed by No-Po’s?

18. I just have one more question

19. When a No-Po has to protect their turf

20. Winning coaching qualities

21. Are you avoiding being coached?

22. Sales intuition

23. The cancelled sales appointment

24. Is voice mail in or out?

25. Key words and phrases that lack influence

26. Trend talk

27. Sales training is like going into rehab

28. The first few times it’s tough and then it gets easier

29. Are salespeople happy?

30. Notes on motivation

31. Mr. Unavailable is a No-Po

32. Sales yoga

33. Tuesday conversation with a No-Po

34. You finally get the appointment, now what?

35. Let’s talk about trust

36. Different messages= different titles

37. End of quarter sales stats

38. Watch out- it’s the No-Po entourage

39. You sound busy so I’ll let you go

40. 10 tactics for engaging a gate-keeper

41. Looking for motivation in all the wrong places

42. Unavailable power

43. When was the last time you…..

44. Sales 2.0 prospecting

45. Opt-out of desperate discounting

46. The 3 C’s of social networking

47. Sales 2.0; A Report from the front lines

48. Top 7 responses impatient salespeople hate to hear

49. What’s on your wish list?

50. Why do we can people who have no power?

Ever have days when you just don’t feel like prospecting? How about networking? That’s a lot more fun- it’s filled with curiosity, creativity and casualness. Whether I launch my LinkedIn profile, or spy on my daughter on FaceBook, or think about growing my customer base through SaleSpider or navigate into large companies with Spoke or Jigsaw, I’m ready!

Let’s start with the basics- network responsibly. Don’t just blanket your entire business base of contacts to ask to connect. In our webinar earlier this week on Social Networking, Sherman Hu from LinkedIn mentioned that Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama is putting his profile up on LinkedIn. It’s a bit of a stretch for me if I want to connect with him in terms of helping generate budget for some Fortune 500 company I’m targeting. Keep in mind what your goals and objectives are when networking.

Next, be creative. If you are only targeting people in your space, everyone starts looking the same. The key to networking is to be open to trying new paths. For example, if I’m always targeting Worldwide Training Sales Directors, I may try VP’s of Sales, VP of Sales Operations, Sales Managers. They will always lead you back to where you want to go.

Be curious- Take time to understand everyone’s hot buttons and helping them can help you. Yesterday I took time to speak with a CEO who is building a start-up company and connected him to a few other people. No, I’m not getting any business from him but as Justin says, “what goes around, comes around.”

Be casual- I like networking because you can be yourself and not work with any canned scripts. Any formality will just distance your prospects. Your authentic self is so much more attractive.

Don’t wait to build your social network, take the time to update your profile and the more you put into it the more you will get out of it.

We all know the major email components include tone, word choice, organization and pacing. Tone is communicated in many ways on email and it all started about 25 years ago with emoticons.   A recent New York Times article titled (-: Just Between You and Me;-) highlights how they have moved into the business world. An interesting statistic is over half of people using emoticons are over 30 years old. 

So how many of you are using emoticons in your sales messaging? The article indicated emoticons are used when closing a sale.  Tone is risky on email because it can be easily misunderstood and emoticons run that risk. Although this article introduces some fun new icons such as *\0/* (cheerleader) and //0-0\\ (John Lennon) and B-)(cool), I suggest you play it safe and be deliciate if you use any of these with prospects:

happy

sad

wink

grin

:-/ confused

:-0 surprise

The Friday before a long holiday weekend is always a bit slippery. People seem to cut out early, plan their weekend activities and wish one another a Great Holiday Weekend! Well, I’m doing some of that but I’m also excited about Video Blogging.
As you know, I started my blog last year and as much as I learn about blogging, I am so far from ever really getting there. Sure I have my favorites that I always look to for inspiration because they always blog and provide exceptional content.

When I want to know what is happening, I go to Guys’ blog and when I want to see who is hot in the tech world, I listen to Robert Scoble’s PodTech show. I always laugh with brilliant Scott Adam’s Dibert’s blog- as a matter of fact, if I had 15 minutes with someone amazing, it would be Scott Adams. When I want to know what is happening in the blogging community, the very hip BlogSquad ladies keep me on my toes. These are only a few.

So yesterday, I’m checking out video blogging and I came across a few I want to share with you:

1. Roxanne Darling’s Beach Walks with Roz- I’m super excited about this. Rox takes us on daily walks on the beach in Hawaii. That’s right, here I am in foggy San Francisco with the heater in my office and I get to watch and listen to the very articulate and bright Rox.
2. Since my blog is Life in the Telebusiness Trenches and completely dedicated for inside sales folks, we can relate to the phone. I’m always looking for fun stuff on about phones. Well, check out That Phone Guy- he is hysterical. If you watch very closely, you will realize he is not talking into a cell phone- it’s his wallet!
3. Of course, we can’t forget Amanda Congdon who is prolific in her use of video.

All I have to say is stay tuned for some surprises next week.

We know that very few prospects are answering their office phones these days- although they are at their desks when we call. Many people ask me, why can’t I just try their cell because I know they will answer that? Sure, they may answer it but it’s not recommended that you prospect someone on their cell phones- not a good idea and not professional nor appropriate. I predict this will change within the next few years as more selling channels open up and we gain greater access. But today, it remains a permission-based medium that we shouldn’t violate.

There are a few exceptions however:

1. If you are further along on your sales cycle and the prospect gives you their cell number, you are encouraged to call.
2. If you don’t know you are contacting them on their cell because they have their office number forwarded, that’s okay also.

Remember when talking with someone on their cell, you need to be more sensitive to their distractions and not sound as “salesy” or formal with your approach. It’s a casual and personal medium you are selling into so be respectful.

How many of you are leaving voicemail messages these days? Voicemail may be dying but there is still room for good voicemails. I landed one of my biggest clients last year by leaving one simple voice mail message so keep the faith and don’t give up on voicemail too soon. Check out the article, The Art of the Perfect Voicemail and review the 6 tips for effective voicemails:

1. Be clear about the goal of the message

2. Be authoritative yet upbeat in your tone

3. Find a bridge to the person you’re calling

4. Be brief

5. Be specific in your request

6. Leave your contact information slowly and clearly

Also cast your vote on Caller No 1, 2, or 3. Which call would you return and why?

Ever wish you could know exactly what your prospects do when they receive your emails, eblasts or newsletters? Sure, we track click-through rates and page views, and measure response or no response. But the field of web analytics is getting more sophisticaed and I’m excited about a great tool that Genius has created. It’s called SalesGeniusâ„¢, which is a tool that helps you understand and track the emails you send out.

I’ve been using software for my eblasts that basically tracks the number of times it’s been viewed or forwarded. So when I review my stats, I’m usually interested in contacting someone who has viewed my eblast over 5 times. But I don’t really know when they looked at it, what exactly they looked at, and to whom they forwarded it.

SalesGenius takes it a step further as it tracks or maps the specific web visits and alerts you with a clever-sounding chime when someone is visiting your site. Okay, so check this out: you send out a small blast (small because you want to be “on call” once it’s received) and minutes later, chimes go off to let you know your prospects are checking out your site. You immediately contact them and introduce yourself, and your prospect responds with great surprise at how incredible your timing is. What a perfect first impression–so smooth and yet so calculated.

Sales is all about timing and when we are dealing with distracted and busy decision-makers, maximizing the moment is all we ever have. This tool helps you stay on top of that and, as a result, your leads are stronger because the response is good.

Inside sales people must wear their marketing hats every day and not rely on the department around the corner to do that. The days of separating sales and marketing are over as both are essential when it comes to prospecting and positioning yourself.

If your SFA tool is Salesforce.com, Genius is a perfect complement. Check them out.