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Presentation Skills: Be More Productive Using a Facilitator Mode
There are many definitions for presentations. When you present there are also many different modes you can focus on. Are you a facilitator or an educator? The mode of facilitator is often misused in the corporate world and interchanged with words like trainer and educator. Facilitation is an exceptional skill, once you learn this skill you can boost your productivity and it can make you a better presenter.A true facilitator is all about creating an environment where people feel safe and able to share their ideas freely. I believe the facilitator’s role is to act as a conduit. The first process a facilitator will undertake is to create operating agreements with their audience. It is the facilitator's role to remove any blockages and co

at do you suggest?"

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

Thanks for writing in Rob. Selling this way IS depressing. I suspect that you are losing your deals very early on. By this I mean that you are expending too much energy on deals that you'll never win.

The decision to send out a proposal should be an important one. Only well qualified prospects that you KNOW you have a high likelihood of winning, merit the effort of creating a proposal.

This is contrary to what many of us learn in sales, whi

Computer Science Career - Where It's Cool to be a Computer Geek!
The tide has turned and the lines have all but faded. These are the days when all the Geeks are cool, and even the burnouts or jocks are actually computer geeks themselves. In fact many will go on to pursue a Computer Science Career and be not only cool, but probably wealthy as well.So, how did this shift happen? I guess no matter who we blame, no matter how rich Bill Gates is, and no matter how much we snicker when those Star Trek Conventions come around, we can blame the shift of Computer Science into the main stream, on the fact that computers are everywhere.Computer Systems are everywhere, from our home, to our jobs, to the grocery store. Even the machines at the Laundromats are computer driven these days.Ev

Occasionally EGOPOWER readers send me questions or topic suggestions that I feel would be of interest to you. In this issue I give some tips to improve your sales closing ratio in response to a question Rob Smith wrote me from the UK:

"I sell IT equipment to schools in the UK over the phone. I seem to always hold a massive prospect list that's constantly changing but I'm struggling to get my deals closed. The following is how 85% of my potential deals go:

First Contact:

I find a prospective customer
Find out what they have at the moment and what they want (where they want to be with I.T. in the future)
I find out when they are looking to buy
And ask who is involved in the decision making

Next Action:

I put together a proposal and post/email/fax it to my contact

Second Contact:

I call him/her to discuss the proposal with them, make sure it's what they wanted and make a few extra suggestions.
I'll try and have a laugh with them to get some rapport going.
I'll try & confirm a decision date again.
Say something like - "is this something that we can go ahead with now?" it never is….
"I'll call you in ? days to see if you have come to a decision"

Third Contact:

(before date I promised to follow-up on)

"Just calling to make sure everything is OK and to see if you have gathered all the other quotes yet?"
"how do we compare" - normal response is pretty good
"is there anything I can do before you have your meeting tomorrow that would help you in making a decision?" - usual response is "No"

Fourth Contact:

(day of decision)

Won't put me through

Fifth Contact:

(day after decision):

Secretary says he's not there

Sixth Contact:

Secretary speaks to him and then tells me he's selected a competitor.

"It's quite depressing really and I do put the effort in, I'm sure it's just down to my sales skills. What do you suggest?"

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

The decision to send out a proposal should be an important one. Only well qualified prospects that you KNOW you have a high likelihood of winning, merit the effort of creating a proposal.

This is contrary to what many of us learn in sales, whic

How To Raise Your Fees
There is a delicate balance between the fee you need to charge for your products and services, and the fee that people are willing to pay for them. But with gasoline, heating, shipping, health care, and other costs rising, there comes a time when you must raise your rates in order to remain profitable.Most people see their own costs going up, and won’t be surprised that you’re raising your fees, too. With proper communication about it, you should be able to raise your fees effortlessly.Here are some tips on how to go about it:1. Don’t let fear and limiting beliefs stop you from raising your fees. If you hear yourself making excuses that you don’t know are true, it’s probably your fears and limiting beliefs raising their

customer

Find out what they have at the moment and what they want (where they want to be with I.T. in the future)

I find out when they are looking to buy

And ask who is involved in the decision making

Next Action:

I put together a proposal and post/email/fax it to my contact

Second Contact:

I call him/her to discuss the proposal with them, make sure it's what they wanted and make a few extra suggestions.
I'll try and have a laugh with them to get some rapport going.
I'll try & confirm a decision date again.
Say something like - "is this something that we can go ahead with now?" it never is….
"I'll call you in ? days to see if you have come to a decision"

Third Contact:

(before date I promised to follow-up on)

"Just calling to make sure everything is OK and to see if you have gathered all the other quotes yet?"
"how do we compare" - normal response is pretty good
"is there anything I can do before you have your meeting tomorrow that would help you in making a decision?" - usual response is "No"

Fourth Contact:

(day of decision)

Won't put me through

Fifth Contact:

(day after decision):

Secretary says he's not there

Sixth Contact:

Secretary speaks to him and then tells me he's selected a competitor.

"It's quite depressing really and I do put the effort in, I'm sure it's just down to my sales skills. What do you suggest?"

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

The decision to send out a proposal should be an important one. Only well qualified prospects that you KNOW you have a high likelihood of winning, merit the effort of creating a proposal.

This is contrary to what many of us learn in sales, whi

Advertising Strategies - Alternatives to Print, Alternatives Within Print
Is print advertising headed for extinction? No way, but I am seeing more and more companies pulling dollars from their print advertising budgets and moving them into other alternatives. The reason? To brand their product or service more effectively by balancing their ad campaigns and reaching their targeted demographic audiences from different angles. And even within the print medium, the playing field appears to be changing. Newspaper and Yellow Pages advertising has suffered a blow from the growth of the internet. Googling, Yahoo-ing and online news sources are pulling from their numbers. With internet research more easily available, more advertisers are targeting their prospective customers with direct mail campaigns which gives them the ab

me rapport going.

I'll try & confirm a decision date again.

Say something like - "is this something that we can go ahead with now?" it never is….

"I'll call you in ? days to see if you have come to a decision"

Third Contact:

(before date I promised to follow-up on)

"Just calling to make sure everything is OK and to see if you have gathered all the other quotes yet?"
"how do we compare" - normal response is pretty good
"is there anything I can do before you have your meeting tomorrow that would help you in making a decision?" - usual response is "No"

Fourth Contact:

(day of decision)

Won't put me through

Fifth Contact:

(day after decision):

Secretary says he's not there

Sixth Contact:

Secretary speaks to him and then tells me he's selected a competitor.

"It's quite depressing really and I do put the effort in, I'm sure it's just down to my sales skills. What do you suggest?"

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

The decision to send out a proposal should be an important one. Only well qualified prospects that you KNOW you have a high likelihood of winning, merit the effort of creating a proposal.

This is contrary to what many of us learn in sales, whi

Success Sucks!
Let's be straight up honest for a moment....success can really suck. Not all success, of course. Just the kind that sneaks up behind and knocks you down. The wading-through-the-swamp-wrestling-alligators kind of success that leaves you panting, breathless, staring deep into the gator's mouth.How does success go so terribly wrong? And could it happen to you? Oh yeah. It's as simple as having a great idea, promoting it, and discovering that you are utterly unprepared for the impact your business idea will have on the world.It started about 18 months ago, when our company was just me and my business partner, two bright guys with what we thought was a great idea to promote. And that's how Article Marketer was born.Word spread

your meeting tomorrow that would help you in making a decision?" - usual response is "No"

Fourth Contact:

(day of decision)

Won't put me through

Fifth Contact:

(day after decision):

Secretary says he's not there

Sixth Contact:

Secretary speaks to him and then tells me he's selected a competitor.

"It's quite depressing really and I do put the effort in, I'm sure it's just down to my sales skills. What do you suggest?"

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

The decision to send out a proposal should be an important one. Only well qualified prospects that you KNOW you have a high likelihood of winning, merit the effort of creating a proposal.

This is contrary to what many of us learn in sales, whi

Press Release Writing - The Basics of Writing a Press release
Press release may be defined as an article that is written to highlight any newsworthy event or happening of the company that is written in journalistic style. Although writing a press release is quite easy, there are some basic rules that are to be followed when a press release is to be written.The first basic rule to write a press release is to decide your story. The theme of the press release should be decided with great caution. Whatever be your story make sure that your press release gives all the answers of why, what, where, who and where.The next basic rule of writing a press release is to write your press release clearly. The language used in the press release should be impressive but simple for the readers to understand.

at do you suggest?"

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

The decision to send out a proposal should be an important one. Only well qualified prospects that you KNOW you have a high likelihood of winning, merit the effort of creating a proposal.

This is contrary to what many of us learn in sales, which is that is a "numbers game". Send out more proposals, and you'll get more sales the thinking goes.

The problem is unless you know with certainty that you are selling to your prospect's most important buying criteria, your proposals have a low chance of success. You can bet that the competitor who wins the deal, knows just what to put into his proposal before he sends it out.

Qualify Better And Close More Sales

You need to get very clear on what is most important to your prospect. You do this by asking the following questions when you first interview the prospect:

- Why are you planning to purchase this new computer network now? - What is most important to you in a new computer network? - Why is this important now?

You also need to know who the likely competition is that is currently being favored (there is almost always someone with the inside track). One way to ascertain this is by inquiring about similar or related purchases made in the past. Find out which vendors they bought from and why they were awarded the contract.

Ask if any of their past vendors are bidding for this deal. Ask why wouldn't they buy from those vendor(s) bidding on this deal if they bought from them in the past.

Ask the following question about each past vendor bidding on the deal separately to determine who is being favored. Don't just ask "why don't you buy from one of those companies?" Instead ask "Why don't you buy from ABC company? They gave you good installation support last time which you said was very important to you".

By asking about preferences for their current/past vendors, you will find out if there is a real opportunity for you or if they just are gathering bids to document that they have performed a competitive evaluation.

>>> Unless you can find a compelling reason why they would switch to a "new" vendor, your odds of closing are going to be very low.

How well do their current vendors meet the "what's most important" to the prospect criteria?

After you've thoroughly discussed the vendo

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In this article I will provide examples of advisors used by well-known clients and examine the outcome in terms of achievement and breakdown. I will also summarize the model the consultancy firm used to get the results.

Happy workers aren't necessarily productive workers. Here's the secret to work teams that are have high morale and high productivity, the kind that make profits soar.

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Suggest You - Improve Your Sales Closing Ratio

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

First Contact:

Next Action:

Second Contact:

Third Contact:

Fourth Contact:

Fifth Contact:

Sixth Contact:

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

Next Action:

Second Contact:

Third Contact:

Fourth Contact:

Fifth Contact:

Sixth Contact:

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

Third Contact:

Fourth Contact:

Fifth Contact:

Sixth Contact:

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

Fourth Contact:

Fifth Contact:

Sixth Contact:

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

Qualify Better And Close More Sales

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