A few gentle reminders below on best practices for these calls:

-Please sign in to the webinar using your name

-Please enter the audio pin number that shows up on the webinar shared screen login

-Please put your phone on mute using your phone’s mute button

-If possible, do not have phone on speaker mode (can cause echoing); headsets are a better alternative if solo on the call

-Please do not put calls on hold, especially if you have hold music as this will play on the call

We will do our best to manually mute all lines for these webinars as well, if you have entered the audio pin number provided on the webinar login. Please utilize the message box to ask questions and we will answer these questions at the end of the session.

Please Mute Your Phones…

Best Practices: Business Development Process

Smart Targeting & Research

Best Practices: Smart Targeting

How to turn the classroom…

….into the closers’ room!

“Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling”

• Impossible sales goals are only impossible if you continue to sell the same old way.

• It’s more than hitting the numbers.

•Provide clients a valued product or service that solves a real problem…•…do that and the money will follow.

Credit for presentation content to author Sam Richter

Sales is More Than Webster’s Definition•Webster’s: “The act of selling, specifically: the transfer of ownership of and title to property from one person to another for a price.”

•Those passionate about providing benefits to clients and receiving the resulting rewards, believe selling is so much more.

Sales Intelligence Wins

•Sales Intelligence: an effective tool for improving sales effectiveness.

• Understand the prospect, company, issues, competitors, and personal details about the prospect.

•Salesperson will ensure relevancy, conduct a meaningful warm call. •Results = crush the competition.

CSO Insights

Warm Calling• My goal: Learn as much as I can about my prospect and

company. That equals a warm call.

• Warm calls position yourself and your company as credible.• Captures prospect’s interest allowing pertinent questions

because you understand their world.

• A Cold Call leaves you cold at the finish.

• A Warm Call defrosts the doorway, turning practical research into an enticing opportunity.

Solve the Client’s problems & get the sale!In his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie states:

Thousands of salespeople are pounding the pavement today, tired, discouraged and underpaid. Why? Because they are always thinking of what they want. They don’t realize that neither you nor I want to buy anything. If we did, we would go out and buy it. But both of us are eternally interested in solving our problems. And if salespeople can show us how their services or merchandise will help us solve our problems, they won’t need to sell us. We’ll buy. And customers like to believe that they are buying, not being sold.

Don’t Do this

Standard cold call: “Hi…I’m Joe from meLove Media Corporation. How are you doing today? I was hoping you had a few minutes to talk to me about IMGRT radio and the meLove extravaganza we are hosting in Sheboygan. I saw your ad on TV and think that meLove provides a much better advertising solution for you.”

Do This!Value Based Warm Call: Hi Joe, this is Amy Leimbach from Alpha Media, a broadcast media and event marketing company. I read that your CEO said Volkswagen is committed to rebranding and getting involved with consumers in the community to show consumer responsibility. I imagine as Regional Marketing Manager, you are charged with finding opportunities to meet those objectives? I have some great case studies and ideas I could share, showing how Alpha Media helped companies with similar goals. Our goal is to customize sales driving promotions to increase your bottom line. Do you have a few minutes to chat right now, or is there a better time that we could schedule for a call?

Finding Information Online, i.e. “Blueprinting”• Boolean Terms: When you use the + sign between words you tell search

engine that all words must be included.

• Put your words in quotation marks, telling the search engine that the results must be in the exact order that you typed.

• Combine boolean terms with words in quotation marks, get better results. i.e. “vice president” + sales + “Uhaul”

• Word order matters: the first word will have a higher priority

• When searching for lists of names or companies, type in “library of lists” “database” “membership links” in the event that someone has already created the list.

• Can’t find it? Advanced Search automatically create boolean terms.

Blueprinting Search Tips

• Google Filetype Search: Find a competitor’s sales proposal, an association’s membership list, or a high-end research report online. – Enter the information you want and/or the

company name (use quotations around phrases).– Enter filetype: and then choose a filetype extension

for example: • pptx or ppt = PowerPoint document

Blueprinting Search Tips Example• “automotive industry" + trends + PDF will

locate reports and/or articles related to trends or issues in the automotive industry.

Common file types that can be found using the filetype: search:

xlsx = Excel Spreadsheetpptx = PowerPoint Documentpdfx = Adobe PDF Filedocs = Word Documenttxtx = Text Filertfx = Rich Text Fileswfx – Adobe Flash File (animation)aspx = Active Server Page (dynamic)

*If you’re using an older version of Office, there will be no x on the end of the file type.

More Blueprinting Search Tips…

• LinkedIn.com: Build a network then use LinkedIn’s advanced search to start searching for people by name, company, job title and more.

• ZoomInfo.com: ZoomInfo uses Web search tools to find information on people, and then automatically creates an online profile using different info sources. Just enter a person’s name in the ZoomInfo search engine. If it’s a common name, add their company name.

More Blueprinting Search Tips…

• Your Local Library: Most libraries subscribe to free premium databases. – Dun and Bradstreet ReferenceUSA to research companies,

their competitors, executive biographies, etc. – See if a prospect company you’re visiting has ever been

quoted in a local newspaper or cited as an expert in an industry trade journal.

– Find out which library databases you can access from your computer.

• TONS of info available online!!

Finding people on LinkedIn

1. Go to www.linkedin.com2. Click the Advanced Search link located near the main search form3. Use the various options to focus your search4. In the “Job Title” area make sure to use Boolean, e.g. “vice

president” OR VP OR CEO OR “chief executive”.5. To narrow your search, in the “keywords” field, enter terms

related to the person you want to find.6. Limit your search to a geographic region by choosing the

“location” pull down menu, choosing a radius, and entering a zip code.

7. For a broader search, leave “All Industries” check or focus your search by selecting specific industries.

8. In the “Sort By” pull down menu, select “Relationship” so that those with the closest connections to you appear in the results.

Bypass the Premium LinkedIn member subscription

• Conduct a LinkedIn search.• No connection to you? Only see a job title with a company name. For

people with whom you have a 3rd level connection, you will only see their first name, last initial, and title. – In either case, you will not be able to view their profile.

• Highlight the full job title, then right-mouse click and choose “copy”.• Go to www.google.com• Past the title into the form. Make sure to surround it with quotation

marks. If you know the person’s first name, enter it. Hit “search.”– Your results will most likely include the person’s name.

• If the person has a public profile, you can view it by clicking on the result.• If the profile is private, go to LinkedIn, enter the person’s name in the

People search field along with the company (e.g. “joe smith” 3m”)• Now you will have access to the person’s full profile.

Blueprinting Example Using LinkedIn

•Called local store, no information•Research shows they are owned by franchisees with a few owners

Black Rock Coffee Bar Example

•Website zero contact info…

•Daniel Brand’s profile no info

•LinkedIn “Owner” search finds two

Prospecting

Blueprinting Example Using LinkedInWe hit jackpot with the second Owner, Ryan!

Prospecting

Want to become a Warm-calling guru?• Make the time. Keep yourself organized

with Warm Calling as a daily priority.

• Spend the time to learn about your prospects and do a “Warm Call” not a cold call. Your closing ratio will go up.

• Follow the tips outlined today!

• Want more? Read the book “Take the Cold out of Cold Calling. Web Search Secrets” which takes this presentation to another level!

Best Practices: Research Brief

Research Brief

1. Taking 10-15 minutes to prepare a Research Brief will allow you to make some assumptions so you can have a deeper conversation with a prospect

2. Following the Template will speed up the overall Business Development process and allow you to move quicker post-meeting.

3. Does not take place of listening to what a client has to say.

Best Practices: Research Brief

Research Brief Sample TemplateBrand Name:

Website:

Contact:

Overview of the Business:

Target:

Objective:

Differentiation:

Marketing Messages/Mottos:

Current Creative/Media:

Social (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp):

PR/Current News:

Cost Per Lead/Lifetime Value of a Customer:

Best Practices: Research Brief

Research Brief Sample

Best Practices: Research Brief

Research Brief Sample

Best Practices: Research Brief

Let’s do one together.

Next Week: Critical CNA Questions + Post-Meeting Marketing Brief

Best Practices: Research Brief

Questions?