How to Get Your Sales Team to Buy Into Your CRM System Do you have a great new CRM system? Does it provide answers to all - or most - of the challenges that your sales team is currently working through? Then why aren’t they using it? Selling your sales team on a new system might be one of the hardest sales you have to make. Sales teams can be stubborn in their ways and slow to accepting change. But, chances are, your problem isn’t really with the sales team. The problem is with how you’re selling them. More Than the Sales Team Sure, a CRM system is most likely to be used by a sales team. If you work in a small company, then you know perfectly well that the sales team doesn’t account for the only users of CRM software. Upper management and the marketing department are just two of the groups that might dabble in the CRM system from time to time. Focus on selling to the senior management of your company before selling to the sales team. When senior management is doing it, your sales team is going to be more likely to want to do it, too. (Also, give special attention to the new hires at your target company. New hires are less set in their ways, and more open to change.) Present a Need & Drive Pain Points In B2B sales, pain points are everything. It turns out that pain points go a long way in getting your employees to buy-in, too. If you’re struggling to sell your CRM system, it might be because you aren’t demonstrating the need to your sales team very well. Present the sales team with real problems in the company, and ask how they’re currently addressing those issues. Then, tell them how the new CRM system would help them more effectively address those issues. For example: "How do you remember the lead channels through which your major, long-time accounts were secured?" "We’ve integrated our lead tracking software with the new CRM system so that our clients’ lead information is automatically attached to their profiles in the CRM system. No more forgetfulness!" Offer a Solution The bottom line is this: your CRM system should offer a solution to specific problems that are currently not addressed. Even if the sales team you’re pitching to is change-resistant, you will have a breakthrough when you offer a truly innovative solution. When you offer solutions, get specific. If you know that your sales team has a propensity for losing valuable information, demonstrate how your CRM system can capture and retain that information. Show how effortless and easy it is. Then, attach dollar figures to what your solution means for each salesperson in gained commissions.

Training your team to be the best they can be is neither cheap nor easy. However, the ROI of a successful training program makes it all worth it in the end. In fact, with the proper training methods and materials, your company’s employees can give your bottom line a tremendous boost. But once the work of training is done, how can you measure its success? Business training pioneer Donald Kirkpatrick was famous for being one of the first people to critically evaluate the success of training programs. Kirkpatrick developed a four-step model that everyone in the training industry knows. The basic Kirkpatrick evaluation method asks four things: What was the participant’s reaction to the training? This is often judged on a scale of 1-10 by asking the participant about impressions and general feelings about the training program. What did the participant learn? This can be measured through evaluation tests. How did the participant transfer learning back to the workplace? This can be more difficult to determine, but is analyzed with further surveys and observation. What overall results did the training have on the business? Again, measuring the direct ROI of the training in terms of sales, revenues, and customer satisfaction can be challenging. However, through formulas and analytical models, fairly accurate dollar amount values can be applied to individuals’ training experiences. Measuring Your Company’s Training Success You can measure the success of a training program within your company yourself or with the help of a professional training firm. Depending on the complexity of the training program and the scale on which it’s implemented, you might choose to do it yourself or hire an outside performance improvement firm. Have more questions about how to evaluate training success in your company? Leave them in the comments section where we see them and respond.

If you have spent more than a few weeks in sales, then you have hopefully learned two valuable lessons about business relationships and networking: There’s no correlation between your sales figures and the number of business cards you hand out. Similarly, there’s no connection between your sales figures and the number of contacts on your LinkedIn profile. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with business cards or LinkedIn. Both can be great tools to help you expand your professional network. However, building better relationships in business is all about cultivation. While training and consulting sales teams and executive leaders, it’s all too often that we run into business professionals who put a focus on contacts, not on relationships. Truly successful businesspeople don’t have a mountain of contacts whose names they barely know. Rather, they have a carefully developed and cultivated portfolio of relationships. How to Develop Better Relationships   Are you interested in developing better business relationships? Listen to people and probe them with questions. Don’t do all of the talking, and definitely don’t tune out the person who’s talking to you. Be honest and forthright with new contacts. Don’t misrepresent yourself or your business just to make a new contact. Relationships built on lies go nowhere - fast! Give more than you receive. Business relationships aren’t a 50/50 deal. Each party should be willing to give more in order to hit the payoff. Be personal in your business relationships. Sure, ultimately you’re trying to make the sale. But people are people - even in business (or especially in business). Why Build These Relationships? No matter what industry you’re in, you’ll probably find this maxim to be true: People want to do business with the people they like and know. It’s a basic fact of life. An unknown company’s small discount or slightly better product is rarely going to take a client away from you if you have a strong business relationship with your client. Also, good business relationships make for a richer, more enjoyable career for you and the people on your team. So what are you waiting for? What will you do to build better business relationships?

In our increasingly globalized world, many businesses that used to be 100% local are outsourcing their needs to foreign firms and agencies. You probably have at least one or two suppliers, distributors, or customers overseas for whom English is not a first language. Then again, you could be negotiating with someone in your own city that doesn’t speak English as a first language.  Getting Past Language Barriers If clear communication is a challenge for you and one of your business contacts, here are a few words of advice to help you get on track with your language… Avoid euphemisms and idioms. "The cat’s out of the bag" can be a very confusing way of letting a business contact know that one of your secrets has been made public knowledge. Avoid phrases like these when communicating with someone of a different cultural or ethnic background. In Basic English, there are 850 words, only 18 of which are verbs. Don’t use big or impressive words - especially if they’re not particularly relevant to the line of work you and your business contact are in. Keep your written and oral communication brief and to the point - even at the risk of overstating/oversimplifying.   The Negotiation Phase Once you’re comfortable with communicating clearly, you can turn your attention to negotiating with the contact of a different background. In negotiating, body language goes a long way. Different cultures use body language in different ways. Understanding how your culture and how another person’s culture uses body language can eliminate the risk of offense and achieve results.   Here are a few examples of how body language varies from culture to culture: In Asia, it’s common to avoid eye contact, as looking down is a sign of respect. In Middle Eastern cultures, people of the same gender are likely to stand quite close to one another. Crossing your legs while negotiating with someone of Islamic culture can be perceived as offensive. Handshaking and touching is common in North America, France, and Italy, but these practices are much less common in Asia and northern Europe.  We can’t highlight all of the body language differences between cultures in this post. Rather, the point is to give you some insight into a few types of body language you might not be aware of. Before negotiating with someone of a different culture or ethnic background, you should always do some preliminary research on body language. As for the negotiation part, don’t be afraid of making your needs and desires known. However, express yourself with sensitivity to the other person’s cultural background. A little bit of willingness to learn about someone else can take you a long way!

Training Magazine has just released their annual "Salary Survey," and the figures are a little disheartening for the training industry. According to the report, "Total 2012 U.S. training expenditures - including payroll and spending on external products and services - fell 6.5 percent to $55.8 billion." The report also mentions that 65% of organizations either decreased their training budget or kept 2011’s budget. While the current trend is going against training, many business owners are coming to realize the impressive ROI of professional training services. If you are one of the companies in that 65%, consider these affordable options:   "Learning Teams" Donna Flagg, writing for the Huffington Post, advises that employers encourage "Learning Teams" in the workplace. A "Learning Team" can take on the form of a business book club or an arranged weekly lunch. Essentially, diverse groups of employees in your organization get together to discuss an idea or share experiences. This is a great way to supplement your current training curriculum. We believe that this strategy works best in a mature organization that employs leaders who are willing to take charge in discussion. Otherwise, these "Learning Teams" can turn out to be nothing but wasted man-hours. If you choose to start "Learning Teams" within your organization, encourage younger employees to share new strategies with top leadership, in addition to having top leadership share about their experiences.   Formal Mentoring Opportunities Mary K. Pratt, a Verizon employee writing for Computer World, suggests that employers set up in-house mentoring programs. Pratt cites an example in which a Prudential executive selected 10 of her best leaders and 10 of her best new employees, and paired them together for nine months. The process was entirely voluntary (a huge factor in its success), and took place off-site, outside of office hours. The mentored employees were encouraged to share their goals and objectives, while senior leadership provided guidance and made suggestions. This is a great way for the senior leadership on your team to share formal training experience with newer, younger members.   Online Training & Blended Solutions Even if your budget is down, that doesn’t mean you can’t afford professional training. Many companies (SNI included) offer blended training solutions with strong online components. If you want your employees to have the best training experience possible, without breaking the bank, consider exploring one of these blended training options. Training your employees doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. All it takes is a little bit of creativity and strategy! Have training ideas of your own? Share them in the comments section below.

In our last blog post, we shared some information from the latest Training Magazine, which reported that 65% of organizations had decreased their budget or experienced no budget change in 2012 from the year before. Of course, the converse of that fact is that 35% of organizations increased their training budgets in 2012. Let’s take a look at how small companies (100-999 employees) increased their training budgets this year. According to the Training Magazine report, small companies grew their training budgets in the following ways: Growth of more than 25%: 17% Growth of 16% to 25%: 13% Growth of 6% to 15%: 37% Growth of 1% to 5%: 33% The majority of training budget growth in 2012 was small, but even a 6% to 17% growth is significant in the world of training. A survey of all size businesses reveals that the vast majority of budgetary growth was in: Increasing Scope of Training (56%) Increasing Numbers of Learners Served (52%) Adding Training Staff (49%)  Below, you’ll find some effective ways that your small company can grow in 2013… Increase the scope of your training to get ahead of your competitors in 2013. Training may be stagnant for some industries in 2013. So, while your competitors are cutting corners, know that now is the time for you to push your employees ahead. Look into online training options if your company doesn’t have the time or resources for weekend seminars or month-long courses. Increase the number of learners served by bringing in a professional training group to deliver a series of brown bag lunch seminars. In order to maximize the effectiveness of these seminars, require employees to get into breakout groups to discuss the topic in terms of their own roles in the company. Lastly, increase your training budget in 2013. Reduced training budgets may save money in 2013, but will hurt companies in the long run. Without training, employees fall behind in their skill sets, which results in overall depreciation of a company. How will you train your employees in 2013? Are you increasing your budget or decreasing it?

We’ve seen it time and time again: a sales team that’s overly careful not to be seen as "sharks" fails to close the deal. The excuses go on and on, but usually sound something like this: "We didn’t want to pressure the client." "We thought we would leave the ball in their court for a week." "They said they needed time to think about it." "The client loves their current provider." At the end of the day, it boils down to the fact that a sale has been lost. If your team is losing sales, then it might be time to step in with some negotiation tactics. Here are some strong approaches you can employ to get your sales team closing deals again. 4 Assertive Sales-Closing Techniques Geoffrey James of MoneyWatch wrote an interesting piece for CBS News a couple years ago, titled How to Close a Sale in 6 Easy Steps. The title leads you to believe it’s too good to be true (it is). The steps to closing a sale are never easy. However, James does start off with a strong first piece of advice: "Ignore the ABC Strategy." You probably know this strategy: Always Be Closing. The fact is, the sales game doesn’t work that way, but your salespeople may not know it yet. Let them know that they don’t have to Always Be Closing. Instead, encourage them to focus on developing relationships and setting your company apart from the competition. It’s all in the little details… which later lead to assertive sales-closing! Ray Silverstein, writing for Entrepreneur.com, hits the nail on the head when it comes to picking up on details. Silverstein suggests that when you go into a sales call, you think about what the person you’re pitching to wants. This may sound like standard sales advice, but it’s not. Focus on unique emotional wants, advises Silverstein. He draws upon the example of an entrepreneur, whom he believes doesn’t want to make big profits. Rather, "Entrepreneurs are in business for themselves because they want to call the shots. Their true wants including being the boss, ensuring the company’s security and perhaps passing the company along to a successor." Have your sales team think about how they will meet these unique emotional wants. At least 8 of the 12 Commandments for Closing a Sale by Grant Cardone involve body language and communication. If your sales team isn’t practiced in clear communication and effective body language, then a little bit of sales training can go a long way in affecting your bottom line. Eye contact and a smile is just the beginning. Lastly, how well does your sales team know your product? Jay Delahousay, writing for the Small Business Chronicle, believes that sales teams who are comfortable with their product can be much more assertive and effective in closing sales. He also makes a great closing point: being assertive is different from being aggressive. Where do you see ‘assertive’ sales crossing over into ‘aggressive’ sales territory? 

We recently wrote a blog post about building and developing strong business relationships. We covered some strategies for reaching out to people, and turning ‘contacts’ into ‘relationships’. Now, as we step into 2013, let’s take a closer look at some strategies for maintaining those business relationships. 5 Tips for Maintaining Relationships in 2013 Do yourself a huge favor. Write down the name of every business relationship you want to maintain in 2013. We can guarantee you that if you don’t write down names, you’ll get to the end of 2013 and have completely forgotten several people on the list. Be a listener. In November, we covered the importance of listening to other people. It turns out that it’s a great way to maintain business relationships, too. Entrepreneur.com recommends listening as a key strategy to maintaining business relationships. When you listen, you know the right questions to ask a person, which everyone appreciates. Create an ‘Editorial Calendar’ for sending out emails, making phone calls, and touching base with the contacts on your list. When you plan out time for calling a business contact, it’s much more likely to happen. Also, you’ll avoid that awkward feeling of calling up for a favor when you haven’t even spoken to the person in 11 months. Though the editorial calendar is important, you don’t want to be robotic (which won’t happen anyways if you’re following the tip about listening). Make your correspondence unique. It’s fine to send out a monthly newsletter - just don’t assume that it takes the place of maintaining a relationship. When it comes to relationships with the customers and colleagues that are important to you, form letters and mass emails won’t cut it. Reach out on a personal level to the people on your list this year. Lastly, don’t be objective-oriented. If you’re always thinking, "What am I getting out of this relationship?" then you’ll give up on half of them before the year is out. You might invest yourself in a relationship for 8 months - or years - before it’s of any practical "business use" to you. Don’t give up. The payoff will come with time - often in the most unexpected way. And, if not? Well… sometimes a relationship is its own reward! What do you plan on doing to maintain your business relationships in 2013?

  No matter what field your business is in, there’s no such thing as a one-time customer. Even if you’re in the business of selling caskets, you know that a one-time client can become a repeat client with the right amount of work. What exactly is "the right amount of work" you need to get repeat clients? It all starts with high client satisfaction rates. As a performance improvement firm, we’re in the business of helping our clients make the most of their clients and employees. We’ve come to the conclusion that the old business adage is true: 80% of your revenues come from just 20% of your clients (the Pareto Principle). While you obviously want to satisfy every single client that your business serves, it’s especially important that you satisfy that top 20%. Achieving Perfect Client Satisfaction… … is virtually impossible. And that’s okay. Over the years we have worked with some incredible business leaders and business models. Despite impeccable customer service, even the very best businesses were unable to make 100% of their clients happy 100% of the time. In some instances, a good business leader will make the decision to cut loose those clients that can never be satisfied. There’s no sense in wasting energy on those clients who will not be satisfied despite your best efforts. So what can you do to improve client satisfaction where it is possible?   Respond to dissatisfied customers in real-time. There are numerous reputation management software programs and systems that can alert you immediately about dissatisfied customers. Let the client know that you understand their issue by repeating it back to them. Use a personal tone to deal with clients who are dissatisfied. Never make a promise that can’t be kept - even when you feel under pressure to recover a bad situation. Go over and above what you deem "satisfactory" in resolving a customer’s bad experience. Keep a regularly updated database of your client’s satisfaction history. Good or bad, you need to know how a client has felt about your company’s treatment of them in the past. Remember, you can’t please everyone. But, of the clients you can please, anything you can do to keep the account is worth it. Good "client satisfaction practices" don’t just keep the client you’re dealing with. They also bring in additional clients through referrals and recommendations! How important is client satisfaction to your business? What strategies do you use to satisfy your clients?    

Ron Shapiro, co-founder and Chairman of Shapiro Negotiations Institute (SNI), was recently featured as one of the Sports Business Journal’s 2013 class of The Champions: Pioneers & Innovators in Sports Business. The article details Shapiro’s accomplishments, experience, and expertise in both the sports and corporate world.   To read the full article, click the link below. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/02/04/Champions/Ron-Shapiro.aspx   Along with the article above, the Sports Business Journal also featured the story of his first contract with Brooks Robinson. The story can be found here: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/02/04/Champions/Shapiro-contract.aspx?hl=Champions&sc=0. Some of the valuable lessons he learned from this contract are still applicable in teaching training sessions today.

Think that social media isn’t for B2B companies like yours? Think again. IBM did it. In fact, IBM reports "one-third of its B2B buyers were already using social media of various kinds." Sure, the 54-year-old executive that you negotiate with might not be using Twitter, but the 37-year-old one level below him (who has significant influencing power) is on Twitter… Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, too. The Lesson? Start Getting Social It’s time to start getting social. Here’s what that doesn’t mean: creating a Facebook, Twitter, and other social media profiles just for the sake of having them. When we say, "get social," we want to encourage you to learn more about the power of social media in terms of sales. According to a 2012 study by the Aberdeen Group, 56% of sales representatives that used sales intelligence were able to meet or surpass their quotas. Compare that to the mere 26% of sales reps who did the same, but without using sales intelligence. The sales people using intelligence aren’t necessarily working harder; they’re working smarter. Of course, we don’t want to confuse "sales intelligence" with "social media" because they’re certainly not one and the same. However, as social media platforms continue to grow, the wealth of information available on these networks is becoming a bigger piece of the "sales intelligence" pie. Here’s one last impressive fact before we cover how you can get started with social selling: According to another commentary on the Aberdeen Group study, sales reps that use social selling "are 79% more likely to attain their quota than ones who don’t." How Your Sales Team Can Be More Social Here are a few ideas for encouraging social selling that are - at the very least - worth experimenting with: Ask employees to perform "social research" on the buyers and decision-makers they’re targeting. Offer interested employees the chance to spend the first 15-20 minutes of their day building their own professional social network and reaching out to prospective clients through social media channels. Encourage company leaders and employees at all levels to contribute to a company blog. This is a great way to demonstrate thought leadership and have something to share with your online professional community. Is your sales team using any "social selling" techniques?

Recession, depression, or economic boom… it doesn’t matter. Creating a winning sales team isn’t just important. It’s possible no matter what economic conditions your business or industry might be facing. Winning sales teams aren’t "winners" because of any one, single thing that they do. Management alone or a great CRM system isn’t enough to push your team beyond the competition. Then again, there’s no "magic formula," but we do have some tips and tricks from our own experience for creating a dynamic sales team… #1 Powerful Lead Tools We have found that successful sales teams have powerful lead generation and lead tracking tools at their disposal. If you want your sales team to really hit their stride, then you need to give them the appropriate tools to do it. On any given day, we all have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of clients that are riding the fence. Having the ability to know where each one of those clients sits is key. Start tagging leads (#7 on this list) with essential information. #2 Unified Front Furthermore, those powerful tools need to be housed in software programs that are used across the board. Mobile technology and high speed internet have made it possible to do business from just about anywhere. Chances are, you have people working outside of your main office(s). It’s more important now than ever before to keep a unified front. One effective way to do this is by making sure all of your sales team is using the same CRM software in the sales process. This also makes things easier for you when you have to transfer accounts to new team members. #3 Vital Signs = Vital Competition Doctors are able to make effective decisions only when they know the patient’s vital signs. In the same way, your sales team must have a grip on its own vital signs: How many leads convert? Where are our leads coming from? What’s the protocol for engaging a customer we haven’t heard from in 6 weeks? These are a few of the countless questions that your sales team needs answers to. Hopefully, your CRM system will help provide those answers. Once you have those vital signs available, leverage them to foster a competitive atmosphere, which is also vital to your team’s success. For example, if you know what your average conversion rate is, then you can incentivize individuals on the sales team to attain higher personal conversion rates. #4 Grow or Get Out of the Way Lastly, members of a winning sales team are growing individuals. Be intentional about inner-promotion and increasing responsibilities. Sales people are especially focused on growth, numbers, and promotion. If members of your sales team aren’t growing and improving, it’s time they step aside, and move out of the way. What makes a winning sales team in your opinion?

Role-play has been a common training method amongst military branches, emergency response groups, and companies where quick decision making is highly valued. So, why not in the world of sales? Over the last few years, we’ve noticed the use of role-play becoming even more common in business training curriculums - and for good reason. Sales teams that continually engage in role-playing are more likely to outperform their non-role-playing competitors.   3 Benefits of Role-Play Here are just a few of the benefits of making role-playing a part of your business training. Build Confidence: When your team role-plays, they’ll have a number of situations thrown at them, from unhappy customers to customers who don’t know what they want to buy. Role-playing provides a safe environment to encounter these scenarios for the first time, which builds confidence in team members that can help them in the field. Develop Listening Skills: Good role-playing requires good listening skills. In addition to understanding the words the other person is saying, it’s important to listen to body language and non-verbal clues (more on that here). Have your team develop those skills while role-playing - not when they’re trying to close a real sale. Creative Problem-Solving: Over the years, we’ve found that no matter how outlandish a situation you create in a controlled environment, something even more bizarre is bound to happen in the real world. Role-playing will at least give your team the chance to get some experience in handling difficult situations and developing creative problem-solving skills.   How to Start Role-Playing While we strongly encourage you to hire a professional facilitator for the most effective role-play, here are a few tips for doing it yourself: Use actual locations. The best role-play is as realistic as possible. Put participants in the physical locations where they would actually experience the scenarios you’re trying to replicate, whether that’s the boardroom, warehouse, or an executive’s office. Imitate sales calls. This is perhaps one of the easiest forms of role-play training to execute yourself. Give the "customers" a personality profile and list of objectives that the salesperson doesn’t know about. The goal isn’t to make the sale, but to determine the "customer’s" objectives. Hire consultants and actors. Getting an authentic role-play experience from your team may be difficult to do on your own. Bring in consultants and professional actors to get the training your team deserves! Have you ever used role-play in training your sales team? How did it go?

Your sales team fights hard for your company, which is probably a big reason why you’ve been successful so far. While a healthy sense of external competition is good for the company, internal competition can work wonders for your sales team.  What is Internal Competition? "Internal competition" describes that sense of competition that the salespeople in your company feel amongst themselves. This kind of competition can increase conversions, drive sales figures, and allow you to promote and grow your team more effectively. Here are seven ways to turn that sense of "internal competition" into an actual internal competition.   The 7 Essentials to Creating a Great Sales Contest  1. Keep it short. You can give out quarterly and annual sales awards, but it’s unlikely that you can sustain the energy of a true sales contest for more than 2-3 weeks. In addition to keeping it short, keep it moving with daily updates and announcements. 2. Create personal prizes. There are few - if any - prizes other than cash that can motivate every single member of your sales team. Therefore, we recommend allowing the individual who wins to pick his or her own prize. Create some parameters, and allow their imagination to run wild. You can even have them pick out their prize before the contest even starts, which is a good way to incentivize. 3. Give everyone the chance to win. The Houston Small Business Chronicle wrote a great article about how to create a sales contest in which everyone can win. While one grand prize is fun for the winner, it won’t encourage everyone to participate. What would you rather have: one person performing at 150% or an entire sales team performing at 100%? 4. Reinforce training. If you’ve been trying to encourage your sales team to use specific elements of their training, make it a requirement that salespeople use those techniques if they want to win. 5. Use a CRM system. Your CRM system probably has the ability to tie-in with a sales contest. Why not start using it? If you track the contest solely through your CRM system, then it’s a great opportunity to get salespeople who aren’t as skilled with the CRM system more accustomed to using the platform. 6. Encourage checkpoints. Prospects don’t go from the receiving end of a cold call to the buying stage without some events taking place in between. Unfortunately, from the upper management perspective, it can be difficult to know exactly what is taking place between the initial pitch and the final decision to buy. Use this contest as a way to encourage your sales team to update the CRM system on more than just the accounts that are buying. 7. Have fun. If your team isn’t having fun with the contest, then you might have more negative long-term effects than positive short-term ones. At the end of the day, your sales team should be a team above all else! Have any tips of your own for creating a great sales contest?

Let’s face it, negotiation has a bad reputation. Often an analogy is drawn between negotiating and swimming with the sharks or entering the lion’s den. You could just label all other bullies, tyrants, and impossible people and lump them together under the title of the Big Bad Wolf. Though I’m no history buff, but I like to rename all impossible people Robespierre, because sometimes dealing with them is like being at the epicenter of the Reign of Terror. So how do we deal with these sharks, lions, big bad wolves, and Robespierre types? Well Thomas Jefferson thinks it’s as easy as counting, "When I am upset, I count to ten. When I’m very upset, I count to one-hundred." That may be easy enough but how many times have your reactions mirrored the attitude towards you? Do you yell when yelled at? When someone challenges you, do you accept?  How do we harness these emotions and keep them in check? How can we become better negotiators to avoid becoming a screaming and yelling Big Bad Wolf? A strategy of intimidation is often the easy way out (the easy and often ineffective way out). To get around this we’ve developed a new approach that answers all of these problematic questions. N.I.C.E. is a philosophy that maps out how to beat them without joining them. N:        Neutralize Emotions I:          Identify a Type C:        Control the Encounter E:         Explore Options This general approach will hopefully calm the boiling blood in your veins. It’s important to remember that emotions trump reason, the better you’re able to neutralize your emotions, the more rational you’ll become. You should know the type of person you’re dealing with also. Identifying their personality on a scale based on their relative difficulty, that will help you hone your approach towards them. Once you have a feel for their personality type you can try to use appropriate techniques to help shape and better determine the outcome of the encounter. Finally, if you find yourself stuck, look for alternative solutions within your strategy.

Any salesman who has been in the game for any amount of time knows what it’s like to see a decline in sales. A sales forecast is projected in advance using data, experience, and educated guessing. This sets the standard for your business over the next 1-5 years, creating vision and a sound strategy. Business plans give you a point of reference when you or your employees are losing focus. However, considering slumps in sales is an integral part of any strategic business planning, especially with the current unsteady economy. Looking at the bigger picture and thinking ahead is a key to success, and these tools can help you anticipate a decline in sales: 1. Specify the volume of sales. For example, how many 2 liter bottles of soda do you sell? What is the value of each sale? Knowing the volume of your sales and when they tend to fluctuate will increase your ability to predict decline. This is also a great way to be realistic in your goals. You are not simply thinking up a target figure and doing whatever you can to achieve it. Wishful thinking is a common error and most often results in a pitfall. 2. Consult your sales associates. If you are not the one who is spending face-to-face time with those who are doing business with you, consult those who are. They probably have a good idea of what your customers are thinking. Get your sales people to give their opinions on the goals you’ve set. This guarantees a realistic anticipation of sales or lack thereof. 3. Get counsel. The greatest advice you’ll find is that of someone like a senior accountant, who has more experience in the industry and knows the tendencies of the business you’re in. Preparing for sales declines is a part of any seasoned businessman’s plan for sustained success. Sound counsel from the wise is an essential element of preparing for hardship. 4. Get innovative. An ice cream shop owner, for example, could serve crepes and hot chocolate during the winter months when no one is buying ice cream. Creativity is a great gift in preparing for sales declines, and will keep you afloat in times when businesses are sinking. These ways of preparing for sales decline put you in control of your own fate. Times of feasting present an opportunity to prepare for famine. These tools allow you to take responsibility for your company by focusing on the goal.   Are you properly planning for a decline in sales?

Performance improvement for any business requires intense attention to where time and energy are being spent. Time is a resource that you cannot afford to waste. An area where many companies commonly get hooked and expend unnecessary energy is during business negotiations. If an executive does not know the motives and needs of the prospect, discerning the direction of the negotiations can be very challenging. Rarely are consultations quick and easy processes, often leading to a standstill. The following systematic approach to successful negotiating will generate sales while leaving a lasting, positive impression on your client: Ask questions. When met with a reluctant client who wants to end the meeting with, "We need more time," it is essential that you ask questions like, "What’s holding you back?" rather than letting the sale walk out the door with a simple, "When can we contact you?". This puts the client on the spot, forcing them to reveal their true feelings about you and what you are offering. This also allows you to determine their goals and find out how best to proceed. Be timely with facts. Details that are sure to persuade your client need to be disclosed at the right time. When selling points are revealed in a timely manner, it can have a great positive impact on the progress of the negotiations. Make a firm offer. This is an essential key to success. It is best to be honest and reasonable from the beginning. This will often reveal how valuable you truly are in the client’s eyes. Being strong in a fair price will avoid bringing the negotiations to a halt. Leave ego out of the picture. Nothing can halt negotiations like ego. As Christopher Voss said in a recent Forbes interview, "Effective negotiating is more complicated than making an offer, considering the other side’s offer and then trying to basically shove those ideas into alignment." Clients will sense from the get-go if you respect them. Their sense that you want to treat them with respect will make or break a deal. Upon adopting these simple habits and tools of sales execution, you’ll find that you spend less time with the ball out of your court. CEO Kathleen Steffey refers to this negotiating approach as a way to ‘work on the problem, not the symptom.’ These tools can do wonders for the effectiveness of your approach to negotiations.   Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2012/11/19/three-ways-to-negotiate-about-anything/ http://salesjournal.com/2013/03/27/are-you-working-on-the-symptom-or-the-problem/

In the business of negotiating, companies can have a lot on the line. Often assertiveness and ambition can be misconstrued and interpreted as aggression. In order to succeed and bring about the results that both parties are look for, it is important to remember 4 negotiating skills: Keep to the facts. When money is on the line, things can get personal. Professionals, however, are able to see the big picture. They have a knowledge of what is being offered. The facts should be what drive the negotiations, not personal involvement or feelings. This results-oriented tool is sure to bring about the outcome that is most desirable, because it prevents the environment from becoming hostile. There is no "I" in team. Making the client or prospect feel that you are on their side is essential to having success. Using the word "we" and phrases like "let’s do this" can do wonders for a company looking to make a deal. Self-centered sentences that start with the word "I" will often make your prospect feel overpowered. This will often result in a halt and subsequent failure in negotiations. Body language speaks loudly. From the time the prospect walks through the door, your body language is of upmost importance. It is important for any salesman to always be conscious of their body language, as this speaks as loudly as words over the negotiating table. In a Forbes interview, Panorama Software founder and successful negotiator Rony Ross recalls many instances where people in negotiations would lean back in their chairs. This gesture, Ross claims, not only puts a physical distance between themselves and the other side, but an emotional one as well. For negotiators, this unwisely communicates that you are unwilling to find middle ground. Understand the prospect. The final negotiating tip that could perhaps sum up the preceding 3 is to understand the prospect. Prospective clients can sense whether or not they are being respected and understood. It is in your best interest as a negotiator to communicate this effectively. It is important to give the prospect the impression that your intentions are to serve their best interest. However, while giving this type of impression is beneficial, compromising and allowing them to manipulate you will lead to a solution that is less desirable for you. Using this approach to solve common negotiating problems will create a better and more cooperative environment, with great results for all involved. Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/10/08/the-secret-art-of-negotiating-take-your-ego-off-the-table/

Businessmen are faced with challenges on a daily basis that tend to give rise to stress. Balancing all that their jobs demand from them, as well as fulfilling the role that is needed in the home can prove to be a taxing juggling act. Especially in a lackluster economy, stress seems like an epidemic. "Nearly half of the 500 small-business owners surveyed in the United States reported increased stress because of the sluggish economy, with 35 percent reporting they regularly lose sleep and nearly a quarter saying their health had suffered," says Denver Post reporter Aldo Svaldi. Loss of Economic Security is the Greatest Stressor Loss of economic security is cited by the Washington Post as the greatest stressor. Executives are in a unique position because they are not only worried about their own financial wellbeing, but often are responsible for the security of a multitude of sales people under their leadership. Here are 5 ways to cope with and reduce business stress. Remember the bigger picture. Often we can let our problems get the best of us, even giving them power over us. Focusing on life as a whole and thinking about what is going right can often renew our perspective. Jotting down things that are going right is a good practice and will remind you that your present circumstances are not the whole story. Keep a clean work area. Cluttered desks and unorganized office space can contribute greatly to your anxiety. Taking a few moments in the morning to clear your office of any trash and put documents in places where you will be able to find them will save you time and energy. Exercising this type of control over your environment will boost your morale and give you a sense of power over your life. Practice meditation. Meditation could include slow breathing exercises. Former medical professional at the Washington Post, James Gordon, reports that simple meditative exercises have helped financial advisors, child-care workers, and veterans find an inner place of peace. Breathing deeply and slowly will relax your body as well as refresh your perspective. Focus on helping others. Though it would seem like time spent on doing simple acts of kindness would take away from the work you are trying to tackle, simply helping others will serve you well when stressed. Forbes cites the University of Pennsylvania’s studies that prove this fact. Focusing on service rather than your own issues will help you overcome your issues. Take control of your circumstances. Responsible individuals resist the temptation to procrastinate. When you are proactively solving your problems and fixing what you have control over, you are building within yourself a confidence that you have control over your own life. You’ll see the positive results every time you insist on getting things done. Are you taking control of your stress? Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/siimonreynolds/2013/03/25/6-ways-to-reduce-business-stress/ http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-09-29/news/36867089_1_anxiety-and-depression-stress-relaxation-response http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_22206437/small-business-owners-coping-greater-stress

Communicating messages over email is almost an art form. In email marketing, businesses don’t have the opportunity to present themselves with a smile and a firm handshake, leaving them with the delicate task of trying to capture the targeted individual’s interest with just a few words. Yet, email marketing has proven to be a smart investment for those who are able to execute it properly. In order to master the art of email marketing and keep customers and prospects coming back, businesses must first know what not to do. Email Marketing: What not to do Don’t send a blanket email. More often than not, a blanket email that has a piece of general information is not going to be relevant to your recipient. A solution to this is simply asking each registrar what demographic they belong to and sticking to that. Inc.com uses the example of a retail clothing salesman first pointing a man to the women’s section. Be sure to send relevant information. Make it simple. Though it’s tempting to make it an elaborate and fancy message, the user is much more likely to click on an email that has a simple format. A useful practice is setting one primary option, perhaps including a single, easily clickable link that will require less thought. Asking too much of the reader will guarantee a negative response. Consider the mobile use of the recipient. As NBC’s Suzanne Choney reports, "A striking 87 percent of smartphone owners check the internet or email on their phones, including 68 percent who do so generally every day." The increased use of mobile devices requires attention when building an email. A poorly formatted email on a phone will not only frustrate users and guarantee less clicks, it will make your business look less professional. This can be remedied by following the instructions above and making it clickable and easy to read. Make the subject line appealing. As said before, email marketers have a very small window of opportunity to catch the attention of their targeted audience. If the reader is not immediately interested in what you have to say, you can expect a quick delete. But with an exciting and announcing subject line, you can avoid being deemed as irrelevant. This requires great attention to who exactly your subscribers are, and what exactly they want. Don’t send too many. The final and most important of all not-to-dos when it comes to email marketing is not flooding the inbox of your recipient. We’ve all unsubscribed from email lists for this reason: we’re tired of having to delete so many. Obviously an increase of sales will be the reward if email marketing is done right, but getting carried away and sending too many will reverse your fortune. Are you email marketing effectively? Sources: http://www.inc.com/charlie-graham/email-marketing-mistakes.html http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/25-percent-use-smartphones-not-computers-majority-web-surfing-122259

Ron Shapiro, co-founder and Chairman of Shapiro Negotiations Institute (SNI), was featured in the Sports Business Journal’s 2013 class of Champions: Pioneers & Innovators in Sports Business. Ron, along with the other 5 Champions, was recently honored for his achievements during a special ceremony on April 3 at the IMG World Congress of Sports in Naples, Florida. Ron was unable to accept the honor in person, so his son, David Shapiro, spoke on his behalf. Here is the brief video summarizing Ron’s accomplishments, experience, and expertise in the sports world as well as David’s speech:

According to Sarah Kilborne of the Huffington Post, email marketing enables companies to do three things at once: remind, promote, and boost sales. If done right, email marketing will do all three of these things, while building a stronger loyalty to your company. Quickly becoming embedded in the marketing world, email marketing, along with social media and mobile marketing, will grow to 26% of all advertising by 2016. According to Forrester’s interactive marketing forecast, advertisers will spend $77 billion on these marketing techniques. With numbers like these, executives who want to increase business sales and establish connections cannot afford to not advertise their company over email. But what are the benefits of this vital tool? Advantages of Email Marketing It saves time. When considering marketing techniques like those that involve mail or the telephone, you can see how email marketing carries a significant advantage. Less time and energy spent = more profit. Email marketing is a great improvement because it only takes a few hours to send a mass email to a very large audience. You can personalize emails. After a user registers with you on the web and subscribes to your email list, you can send them emails that have their name in them, outdating the old marketing techniques like phone calls that had a stereotypical salesman tone to them. This causes the targeted individual to feel more a part of your business. It enables you to communicate frequently. Email marketing has revolutionized the way companies stay in touch with their customers. Companies are able to keep their customers informed with less effort. However, flooding user’s inboxes with your emails will likely provoke frustration! It is less costly. Because it doesn’t require a team of marketing professionals, designers, or employees, email marketing has become one of the least costly ways of advertising a business. You can track users. Email marketing provides a usable and precise way to determine what your users are up to. Certain email marketing platforms offer businesses ways to monitor their customer’s interest in the emails, identifying what the company can do to make it more appealing. It is a green way to advertise. An obvious benefit, but one that can be overlooked, is how much better for the environment email marketing is. Email marketing is a smart decision that benefits the planet. This will likely be looked upon favorably by your customers who are trying to be more environmentally friendly. Are you taking advantage of email marketing? Sources: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-s-kilborne/book-email-marketing_b_2502168.html http://www.forrester.com/US+Interactive+Marketing+Forecast+2011+To+2016/fulltext/-/E-RES59379?objectid=RES59379

There is no reason to have the members of your company’s team participate in an online training program if they are not going to implement what they’ve learned. This kind of training means that those who take part will be held accountable for their learning, and in most workplaces, the effectiveness of this accountability must be clearly delineated. The Kirkpatrick Model of Learning Measuring effectiveness of learning can be a somewhat amorphous process, but the most concrete way of actually determining learning effectiveness is by making sure that team members are achieving business objectives that have been set for them. This, however, cam be something of a confusing process. Interestingly enough, the measure is not necessarily about ROI. Because ROI refers largely to a tangible return of input to output, the measure of something like learning is a little fuzzier. The best way to achieve an accurate measure of long-term results, in the end, is probably to distinguish between accountability and effectiveness - objective number crunching versus the individual and overall team usefulness of the training. You’re improving workers - not numbers. The Kirkpatrick Model was created in the 1950s, and remains widely implemented today. The model relies on four well-researched levels of measuring learning. As you go up the ladder, the actual process of measuring becomes a little less concrete. Reaction. This refers to the participants’ thoughts and feelings about the training, which can be difficult to gauge. The best way to "measure" the response to learning is to solicit individual reactions through surveying or feedback sessions. Learning. What actual knowledge was gained? This is about the actual content of the training. Was it straightforward and transparent? Was the material clear and well delivered? In a school setting, results here would be best measured by administering a quantitative exam. In a work setting, this level of learning may be best understood by conducting an interview or observation. Behavior. We’re getting closer to achieving real results. The response to training in changed behavior is all about how the learning has been applied in a practical way. Is behavior different now, and if so, how? Is the change positive? Is the change sustainable? Results. Here we are - the greatest measure of learning effectiveness, and also in some cases the least tangible. How is the training affecting the overall environment and the actual outcomes within the workplace? Learning Effectiveness and Accountability When we talk about learning effectiveness, we’re talking about measuring outcomes, right? Person to person, measuring results is not so difficult. When it comes to implementing change, it is easy to observe what each team member is doing. With regard to the entire organization, the measure of how a process has changed as the result of blended training is a little harder to figure out. By letting these trainings be counted as an expense rather than an investment, business leaders are saved the project of objective measuring, an impossible task that does not necessarily provide concrete answers.

Anyone who works in sales knows that there are a lot of potential pitfalls - and they happen all the time. Avoid huge potential hitches by following these tips. Don’t trust a verbal agreement. While, according to this Forbes article, it’s not always legally required to have a written contract, it definitely serves as insurance. This is because a verbal agreement is completely impossible to prove, which means that it is very, very easy to lose a deal. The worst possible case, here, is if you’ve already communicated that it’s a done deal to the leadership team. Not true - not until you get it clearly in writing. Getting your contract in writing will also avoid dealing with a shady situation if the person who made the verbal agreement on the other end is not qualified to make that call. What if they’re not the decision maker? Get in touch with someone who is, schedule that person in, and make sure the deal is set. Always be prepared when you’re on the phone. Anyone who has worked in sales and had to make cold calls has probably experienced this. If an hour goes by and you have yet to connect with someone, you’re probably hitting the call button over and over without really paying attention to the dial tone. And then - suddenly - someone picks up! Rather than stammering at the speaker and trying to deliver your pitch with no warning, make sure you’re prepared. Know whom you are calling. Know why you are calling them. This means getting your research done beforehand, so that you’re able to start your chat with the reason for the call, and with some knowledge about the company you’ve got on the line. Still caught off guard? Don’t sweat it - just be transparent. If you crack a joke and admit that you were caught off guard, many people on the other end - even high-status executives - will be willing to forgive and forget, and you may even get a laugh out of them. Speaking of research… If you think you are prepared to make the call and you are already halfway through your pitch, avoid being blindsided. The person on the other end will know if you have no idea what their company does, and they will be highly inclined to call you out on it. When you do make the call, the very least you can do is to give the client’s website a quick once-over beforehand. Better yet, keep the webpage open while you are on the phone so you can quickly refer to it in a pinch. Working in sales is a challenging job, but with the right tools on your tool belt, you will be highly prepared to do your best and make sure all your potential clients are impressed.