Fire Your Sales People

For most small businesses, who is the best sales person on the payroll? You the founder of the company. No one knows your business better, no one has the passion like you do, no one can close better than you can. But in effort to grow your company, you add a few sales people.

Like most small businesses, successfully hiring good sales people is a struggle and you have to kiss alot of frogs before you find one who is really good or is even worth the money you pay them. I have seen this movie before. Hire a sales rep, work with them for 3-6 months, paying them a base or draw and after 3-6 months of their efforts, you still had to help them close the real deals. Frustration sets in on both sides and you are forced to let them go and start all over again. Seem familiar?

Forget it, fire all your sales people, there is a better way.

The reason you hired the sales person in the first place was to free up your time to grow the business. Duplicate you. Hiring a sales person rarely works out because you don’t really have the systems and structure to support what comes as second nature to you. Too many times I see good businessmen try to replicate a process that is too dependent on one person. Many small business tread water for years and cant break through past this cycle. So what is the answer?

Automate your follow up in the sales process.

There is a ton of busy work to be done in marketing and selling your product or service. Studies show that over 81% of customers buy after the 5th touch from your company. The problem is most salespeople focus on the hot and warm leads and very few of them are disciplined enough to systematically follow up enough to nurture and educate buyers past a couple of touches.

The great news is there are complete systems and approaches to fix this problem and automate the sales process. These are systems that include strategy, process, content and technology combined.  These systems today  fix your follow up failure and automate the entire process. Some call these tools automated drip systems or  automated marketing systems. I call them them the small businesses best friend.

The powerful combination of strategy, process, effective content, and the technologies of contact management, customer relationship management ( CRM), email marketing, automated follow up sequence engines and a website that sells for your company truly can automate the sales and marketing process. You cant get away from the necessary steps to your sales process or funnel systems but you certainly can automate.

Timothy Ferris, best selling author of “The 4-Hour Work Week” champions outsourcing all the mundane tasks of your business. While this concept is disruptive and certainly thought provoking, its hard to accomplish for most small business. Since outsourcing your sales process is not a great option, your next best bet is to automate.

Fire your sales people, automate your sales process and make it so easy that anyone can run them. Once you have a system and repeatable process anyone can run, you will be able to grow your business past the 3-6 month revolving door system you have today.

The tools and coaching is available today. Any business can do it from the one person start up to the largest of companies.

Need help? You know where to call me…

Connect with you later.

Who are you connected with?

As an Attention Connection™  Specialist (see reference below) , I use all kinds of processes and technology to stay connected. I admit, I am connection junkie… I network and stay connected through personal meetings, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, email, text messages, voice-mail, automated drip systems, databases, websites… oh my, this is hyper connectivity.

Who am I connected to?  That list is even longer and relevant only to me as  you really don’t care. Clients, friends, classmates, colleagues, advisers, vendors, thought leaders, etc… all types really. But now I ask, through all this connection, are we grounded in our connection with the higher power? Are we connected to our inner being? Our family?

I don’t care what your belief systems is, we all need to keep balance in our lives. Are we connected on a spiritual level? There is a greater power in the universe and we need to connect with it daily.

No matter what new technologies come along to aid us in connecting, we need to revert each day to that quiet place where we can make the most important connection. I am not aware of any technology that will ever aid us in this connection. Each of us needs to make time for this connection.

Some call it prayer (I am in that crowd), others meditate, some ponder, some chant. Regardless of the “low tech” method of connection, we all need to make time for a higher connection. This connection clears your mind and reconnects you with the important things in this life.

I bark and wolf to anyone who will listen about Attention Connection and where our attention lies, does our time and resources. Make sure you MAKE time for important connections that really matter.

What is an Attention Connection™  Specialist?

I define a Attention Connection™  Specialist as a person who has these blended deep skills of; marketing, sales, communication, content, process and strategy consultant, coach, adviser and technologist all rolled into one.

Twitter Music or Just Noise?

Our world is running on information overload. For those living in the middle  of the information society where we are connected to people in the forms of email, text, websites, phone, skype, and social media, its darn near overwhelming.

We have information just pouring on us and most are desperately trying to keep from drowning. So as I am treading water in the sea of information, what do I do, I activate a Twitter.  I must admit, it was like tossing me a 200 pound brick, it nearly sank me.

In our near real time world, Twitter is an effective took to connect with people and communities but the problem is we have limited attention. I always argue that attention is more valuable than time because where we focus our attention dictates how we spend our time. Without proper management of Twitter, you can just overload your reticular activator in the brain and you become numb.

I must admit, I first configured my Twitter account to send notifications to me from everyone I was following and being followed by. All that did was light my blackberry up like a slot machine, I was getting over 500 text messages a day, most of it completely irrelevant to my world. Interesting, yes, relevant possibly, distracting for certain.

Twitter can just be noise and not music if you dont manage it properly. So here is what I did to slow down the information overload.

1. I turned off all the device notifications to my blackberry.
2. I then slected the five most relevent tweets and turned them on.
3. I then scheduled 20 minutes per day, to review the tweets from those I am following and sift through the avalanch of information.

Twitter is now playing music and keeping me abreast of the things that are important, not just more noise in my day.

There are too many things to focus on, so focus on the best.

Does your website need a haircut?

Many times I hear people say, I need a new look, how about a new haircut?

Does Your Website Look Like This?

I recently followed the thundering heard of male pattern baldness men (isn’t there a group on Facebook for that?) and shaved my head. Yeah, hard to face the fact that male pattern baldness had taken it’s toll on me and I had very limited choices as to a new look. So out came the razor and bamb! Now I am sporting a new hairless hairdo.

My change in hairdos got me thinking about many clients and their dated websites; Is it time your website got a haircut? Seriously, is your website active and working for you to put visitors in your sales funnel or sales process?

A friend of mine was recently stuck in a hotel for a couple days on the Texas plains waiting out a spring blizzard which closed the roads, so he could drive a company vehicle back to Denver. He said he was so bored in the hotel room surfing the Internet that he reached the end of the Internet!  Reaching the end of the Internet seems like an impossible task but since the majority of websites are not using their internet presence to capture the visitor’s attention, create a connection and maintain a conversation, most website traffic just bounces from the page and the browser remains just that, a browser… not a buyer.

So is your website in need of a haircut? Most of the time the answer is yes. Before we get out the clippers, lets take a look.

Hit your website. Ok, now ask yourself, is this site a “me” focused website or a “them” focused website? The me being your organization, the “them” being your customers and partners. Remember them, they are the ones who pay the bills!

Does your website just tell people about you rather than invite them into a conversation? Does your website make it easy for customers to learn how to buy from you rather than try and sell them? In three easy steps or less, can a customer be engaged in a conversation about how to buy your products or services? Are you using video, audio effective content and social media to educate your customers?

What about your technology? do you have static web pages that make it so you have to call a developer and send money each time you need a sentence changed? Do the forms from your website kick off automated workflows and content delivery to the website user as part of the buying conversation?

I recently engaged with a company that has franchises across the United States.  Great company, good momentum, great services, promising future but their website looked like my high school senior pictures… feathered hair!   The only  thing worse was if it had been an frizzy Afro of a website.

The company had fallen into the trap of overwhelming the consumer with information of how cool their services are (me focused) , was laced with technical jargon(me focused) and it was so “me” focused that as a potential customer, I got lost, my ADD took over and I bounced off the page and tried to make the next hop to the end of the internet.

Sound familiar?

The effective website of today needs to teach the buyer how to buy, how easy it would be to have the  product and service and because all internet users are ADD, it better not be more than 3 clicks away. The term browser is not just for software and our society has become very short attention minded. You want buyers, not browsers.

The websites that are effective are the ones who exchange content for contact information so you as a organization can establish a conversation and help stay connected to the buyer through their buying cycle. Key thing to remember is that buyers buy when they want to, not when you want them to, so your website better be able to grab the user’s attention, make a connection and provide you the tools to maintain the connection of the customer.

Is your website educational? Is it linked to social networks? Does it keep your customer’s attention…

The Attention Connection… its so important today.

As for technology, is  your site built in static HTML?  Does it take a developer to make changes? If so, you need to migrate to the new content management systems that can be self administered.

Ok, put down the scissors, turn off the clippers. Don’t lash out and act like my daughter when she was 2 and whack off her hair.

You need to look at 4 things when it comes to your website as a tool to fill your sales funnel.

1. Strategy
2. Process
3. Content
4. Technology

The good news is it only takes a few days to give your website a new look and turn it into a tool that creates and maintains the Attention Connection.

Let me know if you need a bit of coaching? A bad website is worse than a bad hair cut.

Please send me a text… more data

I am getting to the age where my older cousins are starting to retire. Ugh, am I that old? No, they are but I am getting closer each day.

I recently received an email from my cousin that she and her husband were retiring to Washington State and in her new retirement home they would not have a land line, so she closed out her note by saying “please send me a text”.

The use of text messaging

I wrote previously about the use of text messaging in business and if you are my age (early forties) or older, you probably still feel that text messaging is something kids do but the facts are eye opening.

A recently released report from the CTIA, the mobile phone trade association, that should awaken us to some changes we all may want to make in our customer marketing, especially at the small business level. According to Nielsen Mobile, an arm of the familiar Nielsen survey folks, cell phone calls have remained at a fairly constant level each month for the past two years. The CTIA reports, that Americans are now sending more texts than phone calls each month–by 150%, 357 text messages versus 204 phone calls! (Please don’t let my teenage daughters read this…)

Text is the New Talk

• In the first half of 2008 (Jan. 1 – June 30), more than 384 billion text messages were reported by carriers. That is 22 billion more than were reported in all of 2007.
• The 384 billion text messages reported for the first half of 2008 (Jan. 1 – June 30) is equal to more than 2 billion text messages a day, and reported text messages are basically doubling every year.
• More than 75 billion text messages were reported for June 2008 alone, an increase of 160% since June 2007, and more than six thousand times the number of messages reported in June 2000 (when there were just 12 million text messages reported in the United States).

Everyone reads their text messages. They are short bursts of information, limited to 160 characters. They are perceived to be personal, you are not on a cc or bcc list so you are not just spammed (yet).

So how do you effectively use text in your small business?  Simple, it must be a tool used to communicate and be a touch point in your sales process or customer retention strategy.

I highly recommend your firm, regardless of size use automated follow up marketing systems. You cant hire someone to sit and text each day, although my 14 year old daughter thinks that might be the “perfect job”.

In the small to medium sized business market, there is one company that stands head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to automated followup systems, Infusionsoft. Their system is easy to deploy as its a software as a service and they have done the hard part and integrated text messaging.  Now when it’s time to remind the customer of an appointment, send them a text coupon, notify them of a special offer, wish them a happy birthday or anniversary, at 1/5th of a cent in cost, you can stay in contact with the customers you care about.

In the large company market, there are several choices for systems but the integration effort remains. There are options for SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Salesforce.com just to name a few.

If you need guidance on what path to take and what solutions work best for your organization… “please send me a text” to 303-619-6679.

Handheld Devices as Access Tools for Focal Points

We have all seen these people. Walking through an airport, at the grocery store, driving their cars, at a soccer kids soccer game,  at a church or school function, just about everywhere, with their eyes glued to and many times talking on their hand held devices.  Some people love these little devices that they have other small devices in their ears with either wireless or cord connections to their handhelds so they can listen to music and talk hands free. The handhelds range in price and features all the way from complete computers with intenert, music players cameras (still and motion), recording capabilities, databases, organizers and almost any type of software from games to spread sheets loaded on to them to the simple ones where you can JUST, talk, text and take pictures. For many people, these handheld devices are almost status symbols. men who might in preivious generations have gathered and boasted about cars, now compare features of their latest device. The devices come in all shapes and sizes and have peculiar names, Blackberry, iphone, palm, curve, slider, chocolate, storm, etc. but in the end, they are micro computers with one thing in common, they captivate our attention as people try to stay connected to their business and private lives.

I must admit, I am one of those people.

In my ongoing dialog about “The Attention Connection” I talk frequently about the concept of Focal Points. I define Focal Points as portals to our attention. We a person’s attention lies determines how they spend their time.  So what has all of your attention? Examples of Focal Points are  websites, social media, print and broadcast. One might argue that a handheld device is nothing more than a tool to access content rich Focal Points but I argue that if I am walking around with one in my pocket or hand at all times except for showering and sleep, than darn thing is amy main window to Focal Points.

I wont go on a history of the world tour but I will discuss how technology shifts change our Focal Points of attention. Buckle in and lets go for a ride back about 30 years.

As a youth there were three main Focal Points in my life for connecting to the outside world and the world to me. Print media, radio broadcast and television broadcast. For the most part, these were and still are one way communication mediums or Focal Points. I would read the paper each day, listen to the radio and watch TV. Sometimes there would be two way communication if I wrote a letter to the editor or called a radio station but 99.9% of the time, it remained one way communication. Those funding this content ran ads and sold subscriptions to the content.  In all three of these Focal Points, content was pushed to me, there was no way to gage if I read it or listened and the only true measure was the resulting consumer behavior.

In the early 1980’s along came the first handheld devices, pagers and then cell phones and the isolation and one way communication between me and the Focal Points began its’ crumble. I remember my first cell phone. It looked like a small suitcase with a handset coming out of it. It weight about 8 pounds and I felt more like a radio operator in a World War II battlefield.

The progression came into full stride with the advent of the Internet and text based communications of email and text. Now with the ability to have realtime or near realtime communication it all changed in how companies and people communicated to people and interact with Focal Points. Key word, Interact.

today, as I have mentioned, nearly everyone over 14 has a handheld device. My question to you is are you leveraging this personal one to one communication channel? handhelds are personal, the data comes just to you and only you.

The companies that understand this personal one to one, two way communication of the handheld will do everything in it’s power to connect and stay connected to their clients. Your website, email and text messaging must be amined to effectively communicate to through thwe handheld device.

Are you using text to grow your business?

Can U C me at 8? That was the text message that just buzzed my blackberry. It was a text message

Text Me for Sales?

that came from my 14 year old daughter, the queen of texting in our home. Thank goodness for unlimited text plans as my daughter used 7,400+ text messages last month. If you are the parent of a teenager, God bless you as I am there with you, most of us tend to write off the use of text messaging as something teenagers “do”. I ask my daughter when she has time for school work and dance if she is texting all the time and she just rolls her eyes at me because she is a straight A student, on the honor roll and just got her point shoes in ballet (an accomplishment I don’t yet understand the significance of).

Pay attention. Texting is not just for kids. If your firm is not using text messages to stay connected to your customers, you are missing out.

Progressive companies with automated drip or follow up sequence systems are using text messaging as an effective tool to stay in touch with their customers. Here are a few examples of businesses large and small using text messaging as part of “The Attention Connection” which I write so frequently about. You get attention by paying focused attention.

The dental office that sends out automated appointment reminders 48 and 24 hours prior to a patient appointment  saw cancellation rates drop by 80%.

The fitness center who sends text reminders of group classes and birthday wishes to its membership.

The innovative pizza chain that sends text message coupons to the members of their customer loyalty program members gets a 17% response rate with zero printing costs. The  text message costs 1/5 of a cent.

I can go on and on of examples of text messaging being used as a sales tool. I dare not even go down the whole Twitter path as that is a topic of it’s own. . Staying connected to your customers is more important today than at anytime in history. Its a juxtaposed situation because even though we are all connected via technology through Focal PointsTM ( websites, social media, hand-held devices like blackberry, iphones, cell phones, broadcast and print media), we are insulated because we communicate more through technology and less in person and are overwhelmed with the information overload.

Ok, so how do you do it, how do you implement text messaging into your business to maintain attain and maintain their attention?  Its easy. Strategy, process, content and technology.

Strategy

First make the decision that text is appropriate for your business and will be effective. I cant see a funeral home texting people for casket specials, that just might not fly from a taste perspective.

Process

Define as to what steps in the sales process can text be used effectively to stay connected. You may come up with two or three effective communication points to maintain the customer’s attention.  How will you collect their cell phone number and also ask permission to send them text communications. You need to give people the chance to opt out. You will also want these to be automated text messages because I doubt you have cycles of current staff to sit and send text messages to your clients. If  you decide on this path, maybe this is a job my daughter should apply for!

Content

Content is king. You only have 160 charachters so you must send compelling content that keeps the customer engaged and in your sales funnel

Technology

First you need a customer database that permists you constaantly communicate to your customers or Customer Relationship Management (CRM).  Second you will need an outbound text software. There are many tools available in the market today to accomplish these tasks.  One I love and recommend to many business owners is Infusionsoft. They are the first company that has brought together all the aspects of CRM systems, automated follow up sequence engines digital broadcast( email and text) in a single system.

Text messaging is here today and can be used to make the cash registers ring, it not just for your teenagers or the 20 something crowd.  Keep in mind there is an entire generation being raised where texting is their communication choice. Capitalize and monetize this.

More to come on the technologies of The Attention Connection.  Stay tuned…

Why Can’t I Get Your Attention?

“Why cant I get your attention?’ I ask my 10 year old son as he ignores me for the 3rd time I ask him to take out the over filled trash can in the kitchen. It nearly takes an eruption of volcanic proportions to get him to react and finally haul the trash can a mere 65 feet from the kitchen to the trash bin in the garage.

Why cant I get your attention?

This may be the most asked question on the planet today.  I ask it of my children, they ask it of me, as does my wife, as do I ask it about my customers. Everyone who owns and operates a business asks of his potential customers “why can’t I get your attention?”

Attention is the most critical aspect of our lives next to time. Both are limited and where your attention lies, determines the use of your time. Our world is overwhelmed with information and content. We have great tools at our disposal to access and manage it, blackberries, iphones, cell phones,organizer software, CRM systems, etc., unfortunately, most of it flies right past us.  Leads that we spend hundreds of dollars on often go untouched after the first cnnetion becase we cant maintain a connection with the customer. So how do we attract and more importantly maintain attention from those we need so we can monetize their attention?

The answer is simple. The Attention Connection™

“You get attention by giving focused attention” is what I like to say.

I have developed the concept of that I call “The Attention Connection”. Its about piercing through the noise, overcoming the haystack of information that is dumped on us and our customers each day and be able to maintain the attention of our customers for the life cycle of our business relationship. For some products and services, this may be one and done, for others this might be a lifetime of customer loyalty.

I wrote in a previous post, “A needle in a Haystack” about the haystack  of information that is dumped upon us each day. Its overwhelming and most of us have become numb to amount of information and have learned to filter it out.

So just like my lack of connection with my 10 year old son, it took me 4 touches to connect to him, (the last being a threat of no soccer) to pierce through the noise in his brain to make him finally react. In our information overloaded world, it may take us in business 6 to 12 touches to finally get a customer to buy.  You can’t create more time or more attention, and if your sales are not what you want them to be,  how do you manage your attention and your clients attention? So let’s break this down,

The Attention Connection has four elements;

1. Strategy
2. Process
3. Content
4. Technology

Each of these elements are chapters in themselves but to introduce the concepts lets take a high level view.

Strategy. If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there. Your organization must develop a strategy and plan to be able to rise up above the noise. Attacking and maintaining the attention of your customers is not an accident and without a plan, you will forever find yourself sifting through the haystack looking for the needle that is your customer. Keep in mind, the customers who need your product or service are also looking for you, the trouble is, most of them have no strategy to find you, so this compounds the problem by a doubling effect.

Once you have a strategy, you will need to document, map out or flow chart the processes that it takes for your customers to buy your products or services. Buy is a key word. The successful companies analyze what information, education  and steps your customer needs to complete their process of acquiring your product or services and map them back to steps and processes you are going to do to keep them in the funnel, keep their attention. Follow up and touches are key.

After you have a road map of the process, you then need to analyze the content you are providing your prospective clients. Well written content will draw the customer into a conversation with your firm, both literal and figurative. Once you have the attention through tapping into the reticular activators we all have, you then need to keep them engaged and educated through the buying process and retain them. Bored or uninformed customers fall out of your attention connection funnel.

To attract and maintain attention of your clients, you will need the proper  technology to do so. This is not a manual process. If you are not embracing all the tools of handheld devices, social media, email, text, twitter, drip systems, ebooks, buyers guides, and Customer Relationship Management software, you are toast. Put down your rocks, hammers, direct mail and adapt the technologies.

Keep in mind, if you are not taking the steps to attract and maintain your customer’s attention, someone else is. Its that simple.

Stay tuned, we will break this out in detail.

My old blog….

Rather than move all my old blogs over… if you really care to read, here is the link to my old blog site.

http://analytixman.blogspot.com

A needle in a haystack

Needle In The Haystack

All of us have heard the phrase, “that is like finding a needle in a haystack.” Well truth be told, how many of us have really been on or even near a haystack? I have to admit, I have.

As a youth, my grandfather, Leo Nollett, had a ranch in the northern Sand Hills just outside of Valentine, Nebraska. Our family used to go there all the time to visit my grandparents. The Spring Creek Ranch was a bit of heaven on earth for a city boy like myself. I have all kinds of stories and memories from my time on the ranch. I  was taught many lessons at the side of my grandfather and father as we worked the ranch.

My sister Rita and I often would climb on top of the haystacks in the feed yard. The haystacks were all staged in the feed yard next to the feed lot for proximity sake for feeding the cattle in the winter. From the vantage point of the top of the haystacks, we could survey the area and watch my grandfather operate the tractor as he fed the cattle hay and milo.

I never had a needle with me, but once I did lose a set of keys.  A set of keys is nearly impossible to find in a 10 foot tall haystack. My sister and I searched and searched  in near panic for the keys because we  feared the wrath of my father if we had lost them.

It was a simple mistake on my part as a 8 year old boy, I was not paying attention and let the keys slip out of my pocket and spent hours searching for them. This brings me to my point today of paying attention and being able to find our customers and more importantly having our customers find us.

Not many of us live on or near haystacks anymore but they have been replaced with information haystacks. Each day a couple tons of digital hay is thrown at me and as a business owner or one who is responsible for revenue generation, and just like it was back on the day when I lost a set of keys in a real haystack, I struggle to pay attention through the storm to not only locate but keep the attention of my customers and potential customers.

The trouble is, my customers are faced with the same overwhelming amount of digital hay and this more than doubles the challenge of attention connection between the customer and the company. As much as I am looking to connect with my customers, they too are looking for me. Both parties are lost in the information haystack.  So how do I maintain the attention connection long enough to make a prospect a customer and then maintain them?

The answer is simple, stay connected. You get attention by paying attention.

Our society is more connected (and some may argue over connected) than at anytime in the history of mankind, yet I argue we are even the most disconnected people because of information over load.  Cell phones, blackberries,  ipods, email, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. are all tools to keep us connected but also at the same time contribute to the information overload.

In order to maintain the two way connection with our customers, we must use these technologies combined with the right content, to have meaningful connection and conversation. Its not about selling, its about educating and staying connected.

The companies who stay connected to their prospects and clients will come out on top. If your firm or organization has not implemented a automated drip system or what I have coined as a “Attention Connection System” that utilizes email, text messaging, social media, and blogs, and a smaller foot print of traditional media of print and broadcast, you wont survive. The sheer volume of information and noise created each day will make your communications become lost. Just like the keys I dropped out of my pocket into the haystack on my grandfather’s ranch, you will spend hours searching for your customers and may never find them. the question is, can you stay in business during the search for the lost keys?

Stay tuned over the coming days and post as I walk you through  “Attention Connection Systems”. There is a new  science on how to leverage Internet focal points in the community and turn them into attention connections that result in sales and success. The  “keys in the hay stack” will not be lost if you implement the strategy and technology.