Every sales person is a brand: Madlibs with Barbara Giamanco

Every sales person is a brand: Madlibs with Barbara Giamanco:from The Funnelholic by Craig Rosenberg
Social Selling is all the rage. Consultants and experts are coming out of the woodwork. I have done my best to identify and work with the best ones. Barbara Giamanco is one of the best ones. I think she is great. She is truly passionate about social selling and it shows in the way she talks about it. She created one of the first great research studies on social selling you can find on her site. Her Madlibs are below.

1. The b2b buyer is better-informed and more connected and as a result control today’s buying process. Smart sellers get this and have adapted their sales approach. Those sales people who do not accept that times have changed are quickly becoming obsolete.

2. The biggest innovation in sales is how using social media speeds up the sales cycle and increases revenue. Effective use gets you in front of the right prospect with the right message more quickly. What you do when you get there though relies on great listening, communication, presentation and selling skills.

3. The coolest thing happening in b2b sales is the mash up of great offline sales skills with online relationship and referral building. I also LOVE that we can collaborate with other sales folks who compliment what we offer and then we both win by creating more visibility for each other. Madlibs with the Funnelholic is a great example of what I am talking about!

4. My favorite Sales 2.0 technology is Evernote. I love being able to write blog posts, capture clips from the web, do business planning and more from any of my devices. I can capture great ideas using my iPhone, iPad and computer regardless where I am, and it all synchs in the cloud. Even my shopping and errand lists go on Evernote, although I sometimes wonder when I’m at the grocery store if some folks think I’m reading email while shopping.

5. My favorite sales book is The Go-Giver by Bob Burg. If you force me to pick one, then that’s it, because the book embodies what I absolutely have always believed. When you give first from a place of sincerely wanting to help others (and trust me, people can spot the fakes), it always comes back around ten-fold.

6. My favorite social media site is LinkedIn when it comes to business. When it comes to having personal fun, I love Facebook. I’m able to let my creativity shine.

7. Social selling is the process of using social media to network, prospect, research, engage, collaborate, teach and close all with the purpose of attaining quota and increasing revenue.

8. I use Linkedin to network, prospect, create referral relationships and increase my visibility and credibility by participating in groups and sharing relevant content that benefits the folks in my networks. Oh, and I promote the good works of others!

9. Cold calling is sooo yesterday. It isn’t the calling that is dead, because the phone is critically important to selling. Blindly “dialing for dollars” though is wasted effort. Use social intelligence to do your homework and then engage with a relevant message that communicates what’s in it for your prospect.

10. In b2b, the idea of a funnel is important and needs to consider that leads don’t necessarily follow a traditional path anymore. As Jim Keenan puts it, “A lead today can be a complaint on Twitter, a question on LinkedIn or discussion on a Facebook page.” I think companies need to think differently about how they capture these types of leads and integrate them into a process that helps them nurture, qualify, kick over to sales and then measure and track results.

11. The first thing every sales person should do is accept that they are a brand whether they work for someone else or not. Decide what you want to be known for and then be consistent in everything that you communicate.

12. Voicemail is still a great tool and smart sales people will use it to their advantage. Be brief, be articulate and leave a message that communicates value to your prospect. And, yes, leave a message. Calling people, hanging up when they don’t answer and continuing to call back is ridiculous. Can you say caller id? Professionals leave messages that are professional!

13. The biggest mistake sales people make is using social platforms as a megaphone to crank out their sales pitch! When you use social to spam, you create a very poor brand impression and that approach will hurt your sales not help them. Create a sleazy impression as a local event…you might offend a couple of people. Do it online and people have no problem telling thousands in their network to steer clear of you.

14. The biggest myth in sales is that just because you have something to sell; your prospect is ready to buy. Why anyone thinks that meeting someone for the first time will lead to a sale or that sending that spam email to a stranger will net a sales result is beyond me. Add value, be patient and be persistent. One touch isn’t going to cut it. Occasionally you may get lucky, but depending on what you sell, that is pretty rare.

15. My most forgettable sales experience was my very brief time selling radio advertising for an ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Don’t ask. It was one long year of forgettable!

16. The hardest part of selling is realizing that sometimes you just have to walk away from deals. Trying to push the close just to get money in the door can end up being a disastrous decision. I just had to do this recently and though the revenue would have been nice, the risk of a lackluster outcome (or worse) wasn’t worth it. Granted, I may have more liberty because I own my business, and I would still say that companies need to encourage their reps to walk away when the deal will end up costing the company money or become a service nightmare.

17. The next “hot-thing” in sales will be…honestly, I’m skeptical of the next “hot thing”. There are plenty of gimmicky sales approaches being taught. Great sales skills will always be in vogue. The sales people who CARE about helping their prospects and customers improve their businesses instead of worrying about “selling something” will continue to increase in importance. On the tech front, I think that mobile technologies will play an ever increasing role in the sales process, but I also know that technology doesn’t do the selling for you.

18. In 2015, sales will be even more focused on supporting and collaborating with their customers in new ways. I already do this today and by 2015, I hope more sales people catch on. Things like sending your prospects and customers potential business. Connect them to journalists for press or suggest them for podcast interviews. Turn them on to speaking opportunities at association events, conferences or on webinars that give them visibility in their peer community. These things are not hard to do, the opportunities are everywhere and you will create loyalty beyond belief.

19. My favorite sales saying is selling to everyone is selling to no one. At a recent speaking gig, I asked the audience – as I often do – to describe for me their target buyer. One gal actually said, “Anyone with a pulse.” and she wasn’t kidding. If you can’t clearly identify the characteristics of your ideal buyer, your message will be scattered, you won’t be able to determine where they spend time online, you will waste precious time and you certainly won’t stand out from your competitors.

20. Over the next couple years in sales, I can’t wait to see how the process of selling continues to evolve, as well as the advances in technology that will support the process.

21. Madlibs with the Funnelholic is the bomb! This is a great example of how Craig and Paul are “giving to receive” by creating cross marketing and collaboration opportunities for those of us in the field of sales, social media and social selling.

p.s. My most memorable sales experience… Going on sales calls with Bill Gates!
Barbara Giamanco is the co-author of The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media and author of the Harvard Business Review article Tweet Me, Friend Me, Make Me Buy. Known as a Social Selling Rainmaker, she is an experienced sales and social media advisor, speaker and coach.