Tag Archives: presentation

Creativity, Irreverence, Presentation, Winning

Best OUT OF OFFICE Message EVER!

So, I’m emailing the Demand Gen Specialist at Vidyard – great company – and I get this message back. Wow! I wish more people in business would feel free to show their real personality.

It may be business, but we are doing business with people here, after all!

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

This OOO made my day! Thanks to Wes Bush, he gave me permission to share:

Wes’s Subject Line: You like automated messages right? RE: Your message

Thank you for your message, %%first_name%%. I am currently lost somewhere below with limited access to internet.

How to get in contact (in order of preference)?

  1. Yell at the top of your lungs… 😉
  2. Email my co-worker & demand gen guru, Kim, for anything immediate
  3. Put URGENT in the title if you need me to take care of anything ASAP and I’ll review it when I find internet

Best, 

-Wes Bush

P.S. If you don’t hear back from my EOD by Sept 7th, consider me a goner. 

The good news is that I did hear back from Wes! Phew!

Have a little fun with your peeps and don’t forget to…

Love ‘em UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

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Fill the Funnel, Performance, Presentation, Prospecting, The Art of Selling

Four Cold Calls Called Me Back!

How fun is that?

Maybe you’re way better than I am, but I find that it’s pretty tricky to get people to call you back from leaving a cold voice mail. Right?

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Now! That does NOT mean that voice messages aren’t important. They are!

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Voice messages are an opportunity to share your style. Your voice. Make a connection. Demonstrate who you are and that you care.

As Anthony Iannarino says, calling on a person and hanging up if they don’t answer is a bit like ringing someone’s doorbell and running away. Why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to give them a flavor of who you are – so that they remember you when you email them or get them on the phone?

At any rate, I was curious about this success.  What was new? What worked so well?

Continue reading Four Cold Calls Called Me Back! →

Appearance, Authenticity, Loving Life, Presentation

TBT – Sometimes What You Love Hurts You

Since dogs and sales stories are so much fun, I thought I’d pull this one back out. Plus, it’s super embarrassing, which seems to be entertaining.

Happy Throw Back Thursday – from 2012

This is a personal post.

Today, I was playing with my puppy. He has this lovely way to wake me up. (He is a 65-pound Labrador Retriever). Here’s what he does. He jumps on the bed and lays COMPLETELY on top of me and puts his nose in my face. I love it!

Today, we were wrestling around…and his back feet fell off the bed. He scrambled to secure himself…(you can picture it, right?) Front claws flying he dug in to anything that was solid…which included my left eye socket. WHOA!

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Right away, I knew something was wrong. Yet, I had NO IDEA how wrong it might be.

I was bleeding. From my eye!

Tom took me to the ER. (I love him). I was a mess. I wasn’t a mess because of what had ACTUALLY happened. I was a mess because of what COULD HAVE HAPPENED!

Turns out, I didn’t even need stitches. They super-glued my eyelid to heal.

But, here’s what I had to deal with:

  1. I value my looks and wonder if I could be successful as a de-formed woman – how deep is my commitment? What if he’d ripped my eyeball out?
  2. I love my dog – this isn’t his fault. Sometimes the people we work with are just finding their own way and they hurt you, but they are not to be punished for it.
  3. I am vain. I am judgemental. I look at the outside to determine if I want to be involved.
  4. Tom was AMAZING with me, even though the entire hospital staff must have been looking at him like, “What did you do to her?”

How does this apply to sales or success? It doesn’t. Yet, it reminds me that I MUST DO SOMETHING NOW that is important. Risk it all. What we “think” we have, we don’t have. It can all turn on a dime!

Let’s go get WIGGY on what is important to us. Let’s remember WHO WE ACTUALLY are…in the face of anything.

Today, I was a scared, anxiety-ridden person — over scratches. I saw that I think my looks make me who I am! HA!

Now, I have to deal with that! This week, I am going to present to a Fortune 500 company…and I will do it, and I will be great. AND, I will warn them that I look a little crazy.

Toooooo many lessons in this post. My favorite is…PUSH THE DOG TO THE FLOOR WHEN HE IS SCRAMBLING! Then, take THEM to the vet if need be. LOL.

Love your luck UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

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Dignity, Irreverence, Presentation, Winning

#TBT – If you want to make sure your prospect is listening…

rsz_communication-1015376This short, but sweet, and truly powerful post ran in March of 2014. It’s so good I had to share again.

“If you want to make sure you have your prospect’s 100% attention, let THEM talk!”

~ Alice Heiman

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Brilliant!

Love ’em UP and let THEM talk!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

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Performance, Presentation, The Art of Selling, Winning

How The Dog Collar Mechanism Makes You Better in Sales

dog-987936Most of you probably already know that I LOVE dogs!

I’ve learned a lot about life and love from my own dogs – as many of us have.

A couple of years ago, though, I also learned an incredibly successful sales tool from my dogs. If you’ve ever been around ‘em yourself, I bet you’ll see what I mean.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

So, I’m training my 12-week-old lab. Well, actually, my trainer is training ME to get him to cooperate. Which is a little bit crazy with a goofy, needle-sharp teeth, highly distractible, getting-stronger-by-the-day puppy.

She laid a nugget of wisdom on me. She told me about the dog-collar-mechanism. Which, in its most fundamental form, says – “If you pull on your dog’s collar – the dog will immediately pull in the opposite direction”. Huh!

Didja ever notice how that’s true in sales, too?

You make an assertion. And the first thing they do is tell you why you’re wrong.

How do you fix this problem with a sale? Same way you fix the problem with the dog.

Reduce the tension. Make where you want him to go more appealing than where he is now. Have HIM think he came up with the idea of going where you wanted him to go.

With dogs we use cues like treats, or distracting activity, or intriguing noises.

In sales, we use language!

Here are a few of my favorite approaches to working with a prospective client to get his buy-in. Instead of acting like I know everything to solve his problem, I will use phrases like:

“You know your business far better than I do, but it seems to me that….” (Whether they agree with you or they tell you it’s different for them, they are now talking and giving you valuable information!)

OR, I’ll say…

“This probably isn’t true for you, but I find that most of my clients seem to be dealing with this kind of trouble…”(Again, if it is true for them, they are in the same boat with other similar professionals. If it isn’t true, you’ve made them look smart and they will tell you how you can help them solve their unique business need).

OR, I’ll say…

“I doubt this has ever happened in your business, but one of my clients hired me to fix this situation…” (You are probing for information, and you are reducing the tension!)

The hilarious thing about my dogs…I take mine to the beach all the time to chase sticks and balls in the waves. People tell me how well-behaved they are. When, in reality, 99% of the time I am only asking them to do things that I know they are going to want to do anyway!

Remember the dog collar mechanism in your sales conversations and be sure to…

Love ‘em ALL UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl

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Performance, Presentation, The Art of Selling, Winning

One magical question that gives you control of the sales meeting!

rsz_adult-education-572269

I was reading Whale Hunting by the brilliant Dr. Barbara Weaver-Smith and when I ran across this paragraph, I whooped – YES!

I have actually used this idea one time in my career. The meeting was critical to me. The company I was presenting to had already decided to work with my competitor. They had the (unsigned) contract sitting on the decision-maker’s desk.

It was my Hail Mary meeting!

Each person in the room had a different reason to use my product. I’d never met any of them before. They were busy people. And, as I mentioned, they’d already decided to work with someone else. By sheer determination, I had been able to plant enough doubt about their decision in my customer’s mind – so much that they called me in. The whole gang was there.

And I’d better be good!

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Continue reading One magical question that gives you control of the sales meeting! →

Performance, Presentation, Winning

Worried about being aggressive? The opposite is just as bad!

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I was talking with a business owner friend, Bob, the other day. He’d recently made the decision to NOT do business with a company he was considering.

That’s not so uncommon.

What was interesting was the REASON Bob wasn’t going to become a client.

Here’s how it played out:

This company had something Bob needed.

Bob attended a webinar to learn more and kick the tires. He really liked what he saw.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

Next, a salesperson called to follow up and see if he’d gotten value from the webinar. He had!

Then, the salesperson said he would send Bob some more information and if he ever needed anything, he should just call them up!

And, then they hung up.

And, Bob was left hanging…  Continue reading Worried about being aggressive? The opposite is just as bad! →

Buyers, Creativity, Dignity, Irreverence, Performance, Presentation, Winning

The Big Wig is falling ASLEEP?

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I’m in a meeting today at a Fortune 500 company that I’ve been selling to for about 6 months now. My key contacts have asked me in to present to all the Very Important Executives who help make the buying decision.

My contact is GREAT she’s got everyone there – the VP of This, the Head of That, and the Boss of All of Them (BOAT). Sounds like a great set-up, right?

Except my job is to make my contact look like a ROCK STAR, address all of the angles that everyone is looking from, AND keep it on time.

Still, not a problem really, but about 5 minutes in, it is clear that BOAT has other things on his mind, and he’s doing his best to not fall asleep, the dear. Oh, and the Head of That is 40 minutes late but wants to cover everything.

Wondering how to go from 5 to 6 figures in sales? Check out this Free eBook: http://ebook.solidsixblueprint.com/solid-six-ebook/

It was crazy…but I decided to have some fun with it…here’s what I did

I used BOAT’s name from time to time
Instead of pretending that he wasn’t interested, I used BOAT’s name from time to time in the examples I was giving, this kept him awake, and amused, and even interested (you must do this gracefully and appropriately and not single him out.) Pretty soon HE was asking great questions. Once I even CRACKED HIM UP

I asked each person what they wanted to learn from our meeting
That way, I could keep it HIGH LEVEL and on point and everyone knew where we were going.

I graciously welcomed the Head of That when she walked in the room, but kept on point
Once BOAT even started answering her questions.

I respected everyone’s time
I stayed late with Head of That, but made sure that VP of This and BOAT had everything they needed by 5 minutes before the hour, so that they could cut out for their next thing

I made every word count
I did not give an unnecessary stories or expansions on my answers. Straight, to the point and I gave every word energy with an intent to communicate

I was flexible with my presentation
Of course, I have a way that I normally show my product, but I followed their lead. If they asked about something, I went right there and I kept it all on point. (You have to KNOW your product INSIDE OUT to do this)

I loved ’em ALL UP!
I took them all JUST THE WAY THEY WERE and made sure they all won and got to be great.

AND my contact looked like a ROCK STAR. She was so grateful.

So, if you get in a jam, SWING OUT, have some fun and

Love ’em UP!

The Irreverent Sales Girl