Traditional client appreciation events often are inexpensive banquets at best and poorly masqueraded sales seminars at worst. Either one can serve a useful business purpose, but consider hosting a slightly different client event – a event based upon “purpose.”

Recently I visited with a financial advisor in the mid-south who takes a novel approach to client events. This advisor sponsored a golf tournament; nothing unique about that. What made it unique was it was a charity event tied to a major national charity – The V Foundation. From the Foundation website: “It has been just 17 years since The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded by ESPN and Jim Valvano. And what significant work has been accomplished during that time! Since 1993, The V Foundation has raised more than $90 million and awarded cancer research grants in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Researchers have developed their laboratories and taken their science from the labs to the clinics with the help of funds raised by The V Foundation.”

The event was replete with unique gifts from national sports celebrities, creative hole sponsorships, and appearances by regional sport icons. Clients loved it, and the event drew a huge number of affluent prospects. In addition, considerable publicity mentioning the advisor’s name offered significant favorable exposure.

This advisor used this event for a good purpose. A wonderful charity received tens of thousands of dollars, and the advisor is viewed as someone who puts something back into his community and society. Consider this type of client event next time you decide to host another boring chicken dinner.

What does it take to be successful in sales?

Some say the most important thing is Enthusiasm.

en·thu·si·asm n.

1. Great excitement for or interest in a subject or cause.
2. A source or cause of great excitement or interest.
3. Archaic

• Ecstasy arising from supposed possession by a god.
• Religious fanaticism.

While you need to have a passion for what you do and what you sell, it takes more than enthusiasm to be successful.

Selling is not just “telling.” Successful selling takes more than just spewing facts about products and services. It is relationship development, prospecting, making the approach, interviewing, presenting, answering objections, asking for the order, and keeping promises. Selling requires enthusiasm, product knowledge (yours and your competitors), and confidence.

con·fi·dence n.

1. Trust or faith in a person or thing.
2. A feeling of assurance, especially of self-assurance.
3. A trusting relationship: I took them into my confidence.
4. The state or quality of being certain: I have every confidence in your ability to succeed.

Expertise breeds confidence. Confidence results from knowing you are prepared, and that you can deliver and keep promises. Confidence forms the basis for enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a choice. But still you don’t want to run around screaming about your product. Unbridled enthusiasm results in a lack of focus. It takes more to truly succeed in sales.

pro·fes·sion·al·ism n.

1. Professional status, methods, character, or standards.
2. The use of professional performers, as in athletics or in the arts.

Professionalism takes all of the factors listed above to a higher level. It helps you form a cogent story, run your business like a business, build and work a plan in an organized, focused manner.

So what is the most important factor?

There is no one most important key to success in sales; they are all important! Your success is a product of how well you execute on the activities and behaviors listed above, and the attitude that you bring to these tasks.  Successful salespeople are confident in their abilities, enthusiastic about their solutions, and professional in their execution.

Good selling!

LinkedIn® provides professional services marketing and sales people with a wonderful tool for building and expanding relationships and growing business. Consider the following tips for maximizing the use – and profitability – of one the top business building tools on the Internet.

This daily game plan has 8 steps and takes 15 – 20 minutes.

1. Comment on Comments – Show your connections you are paying attention.
2. Make recommendations – If you have not made a recommendation for a connection, DO SO if at all possible. Please make sincere recommendations; remember, your name is on the line. If you cannot recommend someone in good faith, don’t do it.
3. Make your profile publicly available – While you can set the information which is publicly available to non-members/contacts, be careful with blocking too much information as this will also be unavailable to the search engines. As a minimum, consider providing enough information for the search engines to index your profile and cache the external links you have listed! In terms of optimizing your profile, the main goals are normally to rank for your own name, company name and possibly industry keywords related to this.
4. Comment on Profile Updates – Congratulate others on promotions and awards, inquire about other changes, and always offer assistance.
5. Check your Inbox – Respond to requests and messages in a timely manner.
6. Look in the “People You May Know Section” – Find new connections and leads.
7. Check Your Groups – Look for new discussions, answer questions, and look for other items of interest. Ask questions to gather information and open new relationships.
8. Use LinkedIn® Answers – This can help to build up your reputation within a field. For SEO it also builds the number of internal links pointing to your profile from within LinkedIn, therefore helping to strengthen your profile in the search engines!

A word of warning: LinkedIn® is a tool, not a religion. Relationships are still made person-to-person, not digitally. You can receive an introduction or introduce yourself on the web, but true relationship building comes from personal interaction. LinkedIn® and other social media sites help maintain and grow relationships. In a busy world, that is truly priceless!

Marketing is serious business, and you should always be serious about serious business. Yeah, right…

Logan Crawford portrays a comical news anchor in a series of TV commercials for AT&T’s the Backflip, from Motorola. Crawford is seen “reporting the news that’s important to you…” with impeccable sources such as Facebook and Twitter. The key feature of the Motorola Backflip is advertised as “Facebook, Twitter, text and more, streaming on a single screen.”

The commercial spoofs the common absurdity of social media posts with lines like, “This just in via text message and wall post: “The search is on for cute boots.” Another line reads, “This just in on Twitter and Facebook: A local bachelor has just enrolled in Karate.”

Here’s the paradox; so many social media posts are trivial dribble – and AT&T is using that fact to SELL. We buy from companies that get us to laugh at ourselves. The question is simple; do you take yourself a little too seriously in your marketing and sales presentations. The work of an advisor is serious business, but too often advisors treat every recommendation as if they are a doctor telling a patient they have terminal cancer. As a professional it is perfectly acceptable lighten up, use a little humor, and let your clients see you are real, even when you are making important recommendations. Don’t try to be a comedian, just relax and be yourself.

Good selling!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE AT&T COMMERCIAL

One of the factors that differentiate things that we succeed at, and things that we fail at, is focus. In the workplace, if you manage or even work with others, you know how critical an ability it is for a team to focus.
Focus is critical for client meetings as well. Ever come out of a client meeting and say, I forgot to…!” Consider using a Client Meeting Agenda. Nothing formal is required, but a little additional planning prior to your meeting makes certain you don’t forget anything. Take a look at the following question headings and items that you might include on such an agenda:

• Items to cover today
• Areas of Need
• Additional Products/Services To Recommend
• Introductions Requested
• To-Do Items As A Result Of This Meeting

Using a short form – even if you write in the details – makes certain nothing is left to chance and nothing is forgotten.

Good selling!

Last evening I had the privilege and pleasure to be in the audience for the National Speakers Association – Minnesota Chapter meeting. Professional speaker Phillip Van Hooser, CSP, CPAE spoke on building a business and serving clients. He spoke from the heart, and has demonstrated every single principle contained in his presentation.

Phillip Van Hooser, CSP, CPAE

Phil spoke of his basic philosophies that guide his life and his business. He discussed career evolution, re-thinking, re-positioning, and re-tooling a business. And in spite of the fact that he is President of the National Speakers Association, he stated unequivocally, “I am not a speaker; speaking is what I do.” Phillip Van Hooser stands upon faith and family as the bedrock for his business and his life.

I cannot fathom hearing a message more relevant and effective than what I heard last night. Any business or organization will do well to hire Phillip if they want to transform the way they lead their employees and serve their customers. Check out Phil at www.vanhooser.com.

Well done, my friend. You are my hero.

Many firms have a “packaged” proposal system. While proposals are all over the map in terms of structure, most contain huge amounts of information, with numerous charts and graphs, volumes of copy, and endless disclosures. Whether you present financial plans or individual product presentations, proposals generally contain enough information for a doctoral dissertation. It’s all about disclosure and dictated by the compliance department.

Some clients want the bottom line. Other clients look for detail. And after all, isn’t the presentation about the client? How do you build a presentation and presentation strategy that always provides you with the tools you need to deliver whatever information your client needs to make an intelligent buying decision?

Consider making a summary of recommendations for your presentations. Take the detailed analysis and spreadsheets, and put them in an appendix.

If your client channels Jack Webb and wants the facts – just the facts, or if the client is an actuary with graduate degrees in statistical analysis and engineering, you will be prepared to provide the information needed to fulfill your obligations to communicate in a manner best suited to your client and provide appropriate and complete information. Provide the summary, and give the clients as much detail as they need. Your closing ratio will go up because you are adapting your communication techniques to your clients needs.

Good selling!

As a professional speaker, marketing consultant, business coach, and high level-sales trainer, I meet with a wide variety of salespeople and consultative advisors. This week one of my engagements was to the mutual clients of a retirement plan distributor and a third-party retirement plan administrator, or TPA. One of the points that was discussed of the flaw of SBS© or “Selling By Spreadsheet©.

Too many so-called advisors feel they are providing value by selling cheapest as best.  Advising is really telling a client what is the best solution to their problem. Sometimes price comes into play, but if you are selling a service, usually the main selling point is the quality of service, not price. When you sell price your biggest risk is someone else can do it even cheaper, and if you look hard you can always find it cheaper!

A recent commercial by Office Depot says it well. The commercial depicts a barber shop best by a cheaper competitor, and how they address the challenge. When faced with a shop across the street offering $6 haircuts, they counter with a sign that says, “We Fix $6 Haircuts.”

So what’s your story? Build a defining statement that truly demonstrates your value as an advisor, and quit positioning yourself as the cheapest alternative. Position yourself as the best alternative.

Good selling!

To see the Office Depot Commercial, click HERE.

Financial services professionals constantly look for ways to stand out among their competitors. Consider the following idea this Valentine’s Day to reach out to your clients. Some of your best clients are widows and widowers. What do these people not get anymore? Flowers and candy on Valentine’s Day. Make an impact – and do something really nice – this Valentine’s Day. Send something to these clients and show them someone cares. Will you get business or referrals from this? Maybe or maybe not, but do it anyway; it’s the right thing to do.

Good selling!

Last night at the University of Minnesota Men’s Basketball game, Coach Tubby Smith presented senior guard Lawrence Westbrook with a commemorative basketball in honor of Westbrook joining the “1,000 Point Club.” This occurred at center court prior to the game with much applause and many photos. I commented to my wife that, “He will cherish that ball and the photograph for the rest of his life.”

Westbrook earned the ball not for anything he did yesterday, but for what happened over the last three and a half years. The photograph merely captured a moment of glory, which represented many hours of hard work leading up to the resulting achievement and subsequent honor. However, that photo becomes a touchstone for Westbrook that will always remind him of his achievement, and the dedication, choices, and actions that led to this moment in time.

Consider this question:

“Will you cherish the photograph of what you did today for the rest of your life?””

The things we do are a reflection of what we think about. So what did you think about today, and what did you do about it? Some additional questions are in order:

• “Did I work for the best interest of my clients?”
• “Did I treat them with respect, while seeking to help them make good decisions?”
• “Did I treat my colleagues and staff with respect and did I help them serve our clients while bettering themselves?”
• “Did I tell my story to new relationships to allow them the benefit of my services?”
• “Did I do these things without sacrificing my integrity or my family values?

Make certain that the photograph this day of your life includes you with a smile upon your face, for you did the things you needed to do today to serve those who depend upon you.

To Lawrence Westbrook: Never forget that night, not because of the destination, but because of the journey that led you there. The lessons you learned will help you continue to achieve, no matter what dreams and goals you pursue.

To You: What do YOU choose to do TODAY?

Good selling!