12 Ways to Keep Your Business Relationships Alive | RainToday

"Every businessperson leads a busy life. There are marketing meetings to attend, RFPs to reply to, and client projects to finish. With so much work demanding so much attention, many of us never make the time to keep our business relationships alive, and wish we did: 'What does he do again?' 'Does she still work there?' 'Didn't I know someone at that company?'

Rather than regretting not staying connected, pick some of the twelve ideas below and use them to start conversations with people you've met before and want to speak with again."

You might want to also check out the RainToday series on LinkedIn 101. Click the title to read more...

Fitness enhances job performance | Small Business Times

"As an executive running a small boutique financial services firm, Dan Detlaff sometimes finds it hard to step away from work and go to the gym.

However, for the 43-year-old president of Dettlaff & Company Inc. in Brookfield, once he’s finished with hismid-day regimen that consists of swimming, weight training and running, he finds that he is able to approach work-related issues with a different outlook.

“I find I have a clearer and sharper mind in handling both day-to-day tasks, as well as those that require more mental ‘work’ or thought,” said Dettlaff, who describes himself as a financial adviser and relationship manager. “It becomes much easier to work with others, handle stress and be more efficient. Once you pull yourself away, regardless of all the fires that need to be put out and the people and items that require your attention, you’ll be so much better off when you return.”" Amen. I just lost 50lbs through diet, exercise, and lifestyle change and it's true! Click the title to read more...

Hard Work - The Most Desired Quality Of Sales Professional | Ezine Articles

"Whenever qualities of Sales Persons are discussed qualities like good communications skills, good interpersonal relationship, knowledge about own products vis a vis competitors' and Market Scenario are mostly talked about. Hard work either do not appear in list or given the last priority in the list. I am mentioning the hard word as the most desired requirement for this profession because hard work overrules all other qualifications. Hard Work is not only important in selling but it plays very significant role in all other professions also.The profession could be sales, operation or anything else. I would rather say that hard work plays very important role in one's personal life also. The first and foremost requirement which anybody should possess to succeed in any part of life is hard work. But the problem is that every body thinks that who hardly works is hard working." Click the title to read more...

Value For Time: 10 Keys To Having Worthwhile Conversations | RainToday

"Recently, I was trying to organize a conference call between the chairman of a large professional services firm and another executive. I said to the chairman, 'Let's just get a 20-minute call organized with William.'

He took a deep breath and replied, 'Andrew, you need to realize that I have about 50 people lined up here, and each one just wants 'just' 20 minutes with me!'

The point is that every senior executive I know could easily fill each day twice over. For every request, they are asking, 'Does this align with my most critical priorities? Can someone else handle this? Can it wait a few weeks?' They invest their time in relationships only where there is tangible value for them." Click the title to read more...

The Top 3 Questions Sales Managers Should Ask | First Border

"In the spirit of time is money, time flies and so much to do… then the shorter you can keep your sales reviews the happier everyone is going to be. Therefore, here are the only 3 questions that you need to ask…" Of course, it gets easier to use only three questions if you have the right system and process combined with the right Customer Relationship Management tool. Click the title to read more...

Those idiots in marketing just don’t get it | Duct Tape Marketing Blog

"I’m presenting a workshop this week titled - How to get sales and marketing on the same page.

The point of the discussion is to help the audience, made up of marketers and the sales people for those marketers, understand that while they may indeed perform unique and necessary functions, they have shared objectives.

So, while, as the title of this post suggests, the gap between what sales does and what marketing does in support may seem vast (and perhaps even at odds) there is an absolute need to strike a balance between their independent and interdependent selves." Click the title to read more...

How About Some Great PR to Go With Your Sales Efforts? | Sales Coach

"When it comes to building traction for your products and services, one needs more than sales efforts..... they need great marketing and PR. PR Guru Nancy Juetten has taught me so much in getting publicity - she walks her talk as an in-demand speaker nationally, and has crafted some fantastic ways for people to get to know her and her clients." Click the title to read more...

Some thoughts on better contact management...

I recently came across this post from my Internet buddy Brandon Henak and I've been thinking about it all week. It was about using Plaxo for unified contact management and it went like this...

"The people in your network and the relationships you develop with them are some of your most valuable assets as a young professional. You look to them first for advice, job opportunities or just to discuss the latest events in your life. How you keep track of all the contact information you have collected in your personal and professional life is crucial to your success.

Contacts Everywhere!

In the poll we took earlier today we saw an interesting breakdown of contact management solutions, from relying on a cell phone to store contact information to using Microsoft Outlook, Facebook and other online sites. Each one of the solutions have their advantages and disadvantages. I have tried every one of the solutions listed with various degrees of success but, what if you could use each of them where they work the best, Outlook at the office, Mac Address Book at home and Plaxo online, without having to manually update each? I recently found a way to centralize and standardize all my contact and calendar information across all the services I use, automatically!

Sync them up!

Enter Plaxo 3.0 beta with Sync Points. After setting up an account, all I had to do was click on the “Add Sync Point” link for each of the programs I wanted to use (in my case Google, Mac Address Book, Outlook, and AIM) and it walks you through the process of putting in your login information for Google and downloading small add-ins for Outlook and Mac Address Book. Now, all of my sources sync together and I can sync all my contacts to my phone through Address Book. Any addition anywhere flows across the systems and is easily accessible."

This was particularly interesting to me because I'm a Plaxo subscriber, but I've experienced a lot of problems with contact management. So what's the problem?

A little background info...

I've been in marketing, sales, and technology for 25 years now and I have collect over 5,000 vcards and thousands more business cards that aren't documented. I use 7 computers spanning three platforms and I want to access my contacts on all of them.

The answer?

The answer for me, like Brandon, starts with Plaxo for the following reasons:

1. It's platform and browser independent.
2. It offers 'sync points' for the tools I use or have access to; Outlook, Thunderbird, a Treo 700wx running Windows Mobile 5. [Many more are available...]
3. Members can choose to link to give one another the latest contact information as soon as it changes.
4. The duplicate merger/remover is among the best I've used.
5. There is a growing social network component which is a cross between Facebook and LinkedIn.

So if Plaxo is the answer, what's MY problem? In a nutshell, using Plaxo was causing, not eliminating duplicates. Or, better said, using Plaxo with ActiveSync was causing duplicates. When I made the decision to stop using two synchronization tools simultaneously, my problems went away and I got closer to the promised land that Brandon was describing...

More background. I'm currently in the process of moving to Linux; I don't want to pay ransom to Microsoft anymore and although I'm a former Apple account executive, I don't want to pay for Apple's industrial design when I can have the benefits of a Linux based operating system on inexpensive Intel hardware. The answer for me is Linux.

For now, however, my solution set consists of Plaxo, Microsoft Outlook 2003 [I only said I didn't want to pay anymore – I'll still use what I have], Gmail, Google Calendar and a Treo 700wx. I see myself moving off Outlook to Thunderbird/Lightning [Mozilla's answer to contact and calendar management – Mozilla is only going to get better at this!] and off the Treo onto either a Blackberry or the Google Android platform. Thankfully [?], Sprint is forcing me to keep my current phone until September when the outlook on Google's approach to cellphones should be known...

A big part of solving my problem was also to realize [thanks to David Allen] that some contacts are context sensitive, namely, that I don't need to be able to call all 5,000 people from my cellphone – some I only need to be able to access when I'm sitting at a computer. I was actually synchronizing contacts for which I didn't have a telephone number to my phone! Why? Because I was going to send them an email from the phone? Unlikely. In reality, I have found that after careful analysis, I actually need to synchronize less than 200 contacts between my phone and my computer and if I really were honest with myself, there are probably less than a hundred people that I call on a regular basis. So, I copied all my contacts to a folder called 'Master' in Outlook and deleted all contacts that I either hadn't called or didn't anticipate calling this quarter [there's a copy of the deleted contacts in Master, remember?] As a result, I'm only synchronizing what I have to now. This is a HUGE savings of time and energy and silly as it may seem, actually represents a massive epiphany for me. Call me Captain Obvious?

The underlying idea here is getting closer to a world where it doesn't matter what computer or platform you're using – your information is accessible from anywhere! Plaxo can get you a good part of the way there...

By the way, if you're not using Google Desktop, start! It can unify all the computers you're using and allow you to search your Gmail and your computers in the same way you search the internet now...

Deal Qualification | The Entrepreneurial Salesman

An interesting post on the basics of qualification...

"As I have mentioned before… from time to time I answer questions that are posted up on the Q&A section of LinkedIn. I recently responded to a question by Flyn Penoyer the Inside sales Guru. His question was around qualifying deals as part of the critical aspect of selling."

Click the title to read more...

Sales Techniques: How to Leave a Voice Message That Works

Click the title to listen to the audio...

3 Tips For Making Every Website A Lead Generating Machine | RainToday

"As a lead generation tool, your website provides a virtual wonderland of sales and marketing opportunities. It's easily accessible, available 24/7, highly visible, and gives you the ability to present your company and services in your most positive light.

Plus, your site gives prospects the ability to find you whenever they need to. All this makes it one of the most powerful lead generators at your disposal.

So... is your website, this powerful lead generating machine, doing all it can to bring new clients to your doorstep?" Click the title to read more...

What Marketing Works? 4 Questions To Ask Your Small Business Clients | RainToday

"I'd like to share with you a conversation I had with a fellow business owner, Dr. Roy Saldanha, on the topic of buying professional services. He runs a moderate sized (35 employee) veterinary hospital in Riverside, California.

I interviewed him to find out what sales and marketing approaches worked best from his perspective. And I encourage you to take the four questions I asked him and pose them to your own small business clients. You might be surprised by what new insights you get." Click the title to read more...

Smile, Laugh, Connect: The Keys to Better Sales | AllBusiness.com

"Often we speak about the 'good chemistry' of a relationship, the 'good chemistry' of a place or the 'good chemistry' of an event." Click the title to read more...

Harmonizing your Sales and Marketing Departments | AllBusiness.com

How To Sell Without Being A Jerk | Marketing - The Bold Approach Method

"I read very few sales authors any more because most of them don't know what it means to sell, they simply regurgitate outdated information.

John Klymshyn is different, he is a real sales guy and a deep observer of the human condition as it relates to sales. He is someone who slugs it out in the trenches just like you and me and knows how to help you sell more. He's also a darn fine writer. His books are the only ones I continue to buy in the genre. His book How to Sell Without Being a Jerk is a must read in my opinion. But, listen to me interview John and decide for yourself.

[Dave Lakani is] interviewing John today, Friday, March 7th at 1:00pm Pacific/4:00pm Eastern. You don't have to sign up or sign in, just dial in here:

Phone: 605-475-8590 - Pin: 5594763" Click the title to read more...

Transform Your Website Into a Sales Powerhouse | Entrepreneur.com

"There's never been a better time to take advantage of the expansive opportunities for online business development and growth that the internet affords. According to a Juniper Research study, the number of U.S. internet shoppers will grow at an average rate of 12 percent per year through 2010, resulting in more than $144 billion in online sales." Click the title to read more...

Top Ten marketing success tips for small businesses | Bytestart

"Definitions of marketing are plentiful. For small business owners, most would agree that marketing is about generating sales opportunities so that your businesses can grow. Concepts such as brand building and customer relationship management may seem slightly more nebulous in terms of immediate impact on revenue, but it is this type of activity that will assist in achieving customer loyalty. Loyal customers generate invaluable Word of Mouth (WoM) referrals and provide repeat business, reducing your cost of sale." Click the title to read more...

Sales and Marketing go Hand in Hand | AllBusiness.com

"What is your go-to-market strategy? This is also known as your marketing strategy. If your company has no go-to-market strategy, anything your salespeople do to generate sales is okay and this includes cutting the price. I can't believe I said that! For those of you who have read this column before you know my position on cutting prices." Click the title to read more...

Salesforce.com Enticement Program: Migrate with Ease | CustomerThink

Another sign of growing customer dissatisfaction with Salesforce.com...

"Salesboom.com™ leading vendor of Software-as-a-Service CRM Software Solutions today announced the implementation of their Salesforce.com Enticement Program which is designed for displeased Salesforce.com customers who are looking to migrate to another CRM provider. Businesses who migrate to Salesboom.com On-Demand CRM Solutions receive a $5,000 check and a guaranteed lower annual rate than that of Salesforce.com, some restrictions apply...

An increasing number of businesses driven by frustration with poor customer service and high license and integration costs are leaving Salesforce.com for Salesboom.com. As described by Rami Hamodah, the President and Co-Founder of Salesboom.com, “The relationship between Salesboom.com and Salesforce.com is a one way street. Salesforce.com customers embark on their journey along this one way street and find themselves at our door. This one way street analogy sums up our relationship with Salesforce.com, we should be thankful to them, after all they are our largest source of new clients!”

Myself, I was a huge fan of Salesforce.com for many years but have moved on to the community version of SugarCRM which has much of the functionality of Salesforce.com but is free and just fine for a smaller sales team. Salesforce.com is doing a lot of stupid things lately from their lame channel program to their ever escalating prices. Think twice before getting invoved with Salesforce.com...

What Clients Want: 4 Keys To Every Working Relationship | RainToday

"Over the years, I've asked my clients variations on the question, 'What do you think makes for an effective consulting relationship?'

As you'd expect, the answers are all over the map, and there's no real science to my approach either. But some key points come up over and over, regardless of industry, project type, or the client's position in the organization. Here are four of those points." Click the title to read more...