Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income Selected for the Forbes Book Club

I am very pleased and proud to announce that my bestselling book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals has been selected to be included in the prestigious Forbes Magazine Book Club.  Only the third major book on referral selling ever selected for inclusion in the club, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income has already become the club’s current bestselling referral book. 

The Forbes Book Club features only the best business and general interest books on the market.  Selection is based on the book’s importance and potential appeal to the executive audience members of the club. 

 Of course, if you’re not a member of the Forbes Book Club, you may join at www.forbes.com, or simply purchase the book anywhere.  It’s available from Amazon; Barnes and Noble; WalMart; Powells; Borders; Books a Million; and most all other internet and brick and mortar shops throughout the US, Canada and the UK, as well numerous shops in mainland Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. 

 Or, better yet, you can get a free copy by visiting Landslide Sales Workstyle Management and taking their 20-minute live demonstration of their sales pipeline management system.  For a very small fraction of what an assistant would cost, you can get a system, including a virtual assistant, to help manage your prospects and clients.  You don’t have to purchase anything to qualify for the book.  Simply follow this link to Landslide, register for the demo, and once you’ve completed the demo, Landslide will order a copy of the book for you from Amazon, who will mail the book directly to you. 

 

 

 

Get a Free Copy of Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income

I’ve made arrangements for Landslide Sales Workstyle Management to give you a free copy of my bestselling book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals if you take their free 20 minute product demo.

The book is quickly becoming the authoritative work on referral selling.  It shows in-detail how the true million dollars a year income sales superstars generate their huge volume of referral business.  It has received great reviews and praise from SellingPower Magazine’s Sales Management Newsletter, CRM Magazine, AllBook Reviews, Dave Lakhani, Dave Anderson, Wendy Weiss, Frank Rumbauskas, Joe Vitale and many, many others.

If you are to the point where you need help managing your pipeline don’t need an assistant or can’t afford an assistant, take a look at Landslides product.  They can help you get your pipeline managed for just a very small fraction of what an assistant would cost.

Simply follow this link Landslide Free Book Offer to take their demo and get your free copy of the book.  In order to qualify for the book, you must enter their site through the link.

FREE One Hour Referral Seminar–Wednesday, March 28

Register for a FREE One Hour Referral Tele-Seminar

Wednesday, March 28  2:00 PM Central Time

Register at:
www.powerreferralselling.com/html/free_tele-seminar.html

Limited Seating–so register early

 A quickie course in the techniques and strategies the true million dollar a year income sales superstars use to generate their huge volume of high quality referrals.

 Topics include:

•   Why simply asking for referrals doesn’t work
•   The four pillars of a successful referral
•   How to avoid the two most costly mistakes salespeople make
•   The PWWR (pronounced POWER) Referral Generation System
•   How to get referrals even if your client doesn’t have any for you

If you have already read Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals, you’ll have a leg up, but if you haven’t, that’s OK, come learn how the superstars generate their business.  The superstars don’t do business the way other do–find out how they produce four to ten times the volume of business of everyone else without spending 50, 60, 70 or 80% of their time prospecting.

Always Retain Control of the Referral Process

I received this email from Bobby regarding a referral issue that comes up on occasion:

“Paul

I just started trying out your methods for my business. I am a small business consultant for the self-employed and I just came across my first hiccup on getting referrals. I left the clients house with them understanding that I would come back out to get my referrals from them and they seemed like they understood this. The problem was that when I called to set up an appointment for my referrals they said that they have been giving out my business cards to other people and that they didn’t have anyone for me but they did give my cards out. So what I know I did wrong was leaving four business cards behind and they just started to distribute them out for me. So my question is how often will this happen and how do I make them understand that I need referrals from them? Is this a sometime thing or is their something I need to do better to make sure they will give me referrals?”

The issue here is that Bobby lost control of the situation. There is nothing inherently wrong with leaving business cards for the client to hand out–except your appointment and closing ratio go way down.

His client may well be giving cards to the people they would have referred anyway, but there is a big difference between having a client hand someone a card and say “here, call this guy,” and having the opportunity to discuss in detail with the client what the client’s relationship with the prospect is and then deciding how best to contact the prospect.

The potential referrals the client could have given Bobby are now damaged goods.  The client has done his part as far as he is concerned and has no interest in discussing these people with Bobby.

Bobby may yet be able to regain control with the client. If he can research the organizations and former employers of the client, he might be able to come up with people he wants to be referred to who the client might know. Once he gets his list together, he simply calls the client and asks for a brief meeting to get their input. This way he can salvage referrals to people he knows he wants to meet and at the same time educate his client on the process for the future.

Traditional training says to give clients extra cards so they can pass them out. This method destroys your potential referrals, just as it did for Bobby. Just like any other part of the sales process, you want to retain control of your referral process also.

It’s a Question of Trust

I’ve received a number of emails asking why clients seem hesitant to give referrals when asked. Although there are a number of factors that go into answering this question fully, there is one overriding theme that is so crucial to getting high quality referrals, that it’s worth discussing this one factor separately.

In order to get quality referrals from clients, customers and prospects, you must have built a strong bond of trust with your client. When you ask a client for a referral, you’re not asking the client to simply give you the name and phone number of someone they think might be able to use your product or service. You’re asking that client to vouch for your trustworthiness, your professionalism, and your competence.

To you, you’re simply asking for the opportunity to find an easier sale. To your client, you’re asking them to risk their reputation with someone they know—and hopefully respect.

What appears to be a simple request to you, is a serious request to your client. You are asking your client to, in essence, say to the prospect: “Joe, trust my judgment. I’ve researched this area and (you) and (your company) are the best I’ve found. You can trust them to take care of your needs—I stand behind them.”

This is a tough statement for a client to make because they assume that whomever they refer you to will be more demanding and less forgiving than they. Consequently, in order to make that endorsement, they must trust that you will not embarrass them or let them down.

If you find your clients and customers are reluctant to give referrals, or if you find the quality of referral is poor, take a look at yourself and your relationship with your client. If there is any doubt about your fairness, truthfulness, integrity and competence in your client’s mind, you’ll have some serious repair work to do before you can expect to get quality referrals from that client.

HOW IS YOUR SELLING PROCESS?: PART 4 ; The Strategic Element: Finding Prospects

Having spent some time dealing with the Psychological element of  your sales process, we need to move into the Strategic element.
 
For those who may have missed previous issues of the newsletter, the four elements of your sales process are:
 
Psychological: The psychological component is the foundation of  your sales career. It is the mental and emotional basis for all that you do as a salesperson. It addresses your beliefs about yourself, your occupation, your product and company, and your career. It sets the stage for whether or not you believe–and ultimately, whether your prospects believe–in who you are, what you are doing and what you can accomplish.
 
Strategic: The strategic component is the big picture of selling.  This component consists of what is most often thought of as the selling process–your ability to locate prospects and turn them into clients. That is, your ability to perform the pure prospecting and selling activities. Unless you have a strong grounding in the tools, techniques and strategies of prospecting and selling, you will flounder.
 
Tactical: The tactical, or focused, component is your specialized product and service knowledge required to present and sell your product or service, as well as how to integrate what you sell with your general sales skills.
 
Managerial: The managerial process involves your systems and organization to service and manage your clients, both during their purchase and after.
 
Most companies spend their training time and money on the Tactical element. Their concern is getting you thoroughly grounded in their products and services and helping you understand how to “sell” those products and/or services. Most unfortunately, assume you already have a solid background in the Strategic element.
 
This faith in the training background of much of their sales force is misplaced. There are, of course, some companies that do an excellent job of training in the Strategic area, others that do a fair job, and still others that at least try to touch on it. But most simply ignore it or just pay lip-service to the topic.
 
The fact of the matter is, you must be well grounded in all four areas of the sales process if you want to become a top producer.  More than likely, you will have to take charge of your own career and develop your skills and abilities by finding your own training outside your company. Even those salespeople, who are lucky enough to work for companies that take all aspects of sales training seriously, will have to supplement their company training if they want to maintain a cutting edge knowledge of sales techniques and strategies.
 
Although the Strategic element has several segments, lead generation is typically one of the most difficult for salespeople to master. Of course, finding new clients and keeping the pipeline
full is the lifeblood for every salesperson and every company.  And, that first step in any sale of finding that prospect is the downfall of about 85% of salespeople.
 
Studies indicate that about 40% of all salespeople will fail and be out the industry within two years. An additional 45% will never progress beyond being average in their industry–or just slightly above average. Only about 15% of all salespeople ever develop their business to a superior level.
 
The obstacle for the 85% of who either never make it or just become the average run of the mill salesperson in their industry isn’t lack of knowledge, it isn’t lack of experience, and it isn’t an
inability to manage their client’s purchase. The stumbling block is finding qualified prospects and then turning those prospects into clients.
 
Generating leads begins with one simple question. Who is your ideal client or customer?  If you cannot succinctly define who your ideal client is, how can you ever figure out how to find them?  But a surprisingly large number of salespeople can’t or won’t take the time to define their ideal client.
 
Ask some salespeople and you’ll get answers that range from “anyone and everyone,” to “everybody needs my product or service,” or “anyone who is looking for (whatever they sell).” But that really
isn’t true. A statement like that is, at most, a copout, at worst, indicative of someone too lazy to think.
 
Take a car salesperson.  If they sell Hondas, is everyone looking to purchase a car really their prospect? Is the guy looking for a world class sports car? Is the guy looking for a status symbol?  Is the guy who only buys American?  Or, who only buys German cars?  Of course not.
 
What if they work for a dealer that sells Hondas, Volvos, Buicks, and GMC trucks? Well, that guy who only buys American might be a prospect now, but the others still aren’t.
 
In order to be able to find his true prospects, this salesperson must figure out who buys Hondas and why. And if they work for the dealer who sells multiple brands, they may find themselves in a position where they have several different ideal prospects.
 
Understanding who your ideal prospect is will help lead you to where you’ll find them. And once you figure out where to find them, you can begin trying to figure out how to get them.
 
Understanding and selecting your marketing channels–that is, how you’re going to get to those targeted ideal prospects, is crucial to becoming a top producer.
 
You will probably have more than one marketing channel available to you and you may well choose to market to more than one channel.  But as a salesperson with limited time–and probably a limited
budget–you’ll realistically only be able to market to three, probably five at most, channels.  In addition, each ideal client could have more than a single channel to reach them.
 
Let’s take a couple of examples. If you’re a home loan officer, who might be your ideal clients?  People looking to purchase or refinance a home, of course. But what group?  Are you looking for first time homebuyers?  Maybe those purchasing in the million dollar range? How about those downsizing after their kids move out? Condo purchasers?
 
So, you’ve decided you’re going to concentrate on people moving up from their starter home into something in the $175,000-300,000 range.
 
But where do you find them?  You now know who.  Now, you have to figure out where. What are some possible places to find the homebuyers you’re looking for?  You could network through various
organizations.You could target homeowners in starter home neighborhoods close to your target neighborhoods.  You could target REALTORS® who market in those neighborhoods. You can target
semi-custom homebuilders who build in those neighborhoods.  And there are many, many other potential places to find them.
 
Let’s assume you’ve decided to target homeowners in starter home neighborhoods close to your target neighborhoods.  You have figureda place to find them, but now how are you going to get to them?
Again, you have a ton of possibilities.  You can use direct mail.  You could use door hangers.  You can run ads in local media.  You could even cold call them. Maybe an email campaign to them.  Try to get referred into them.  The choices are almost unlimited.
 
Your problem is how to get to these people in a such a way that you have a positive influence on those who may be moving up within a reasonable period of time.  Moreover, your method must be cost
effective, remember you don’t have a large marketing budget.  And, time effective.  And, produce results.
 
You’ve selected a channel into which to market–in this case, direct to consumer.  Now, you must put life into that channel by determining one or more methods to reach those consumers.
 
But before making any decisions about marketing methods, you need to take a serious look at your past production.
·  Where has your business come from in the past?
·  What marketing channels and methods have you used that worked
well?
·  Which have not worked?
·  What channels or methods do others in your company or industry
use that work well?
·  What are you good at–are you good at cold calling?  Are you relationship oriented?  Do you have the funds to mount an ad campaign through a local publication?  Who do you know or what past customers do you have in your target market?
 
By examining your past history with these and many similar questions and examining your historical production and marketing numbers, you can build a profile of your past history that will reveal your strengths and weaknesses. When deciding on what methods to use, you want to concentrate on those methods that you are good at using, that play to your strengths, and that you know work.
 
This selection process is not as easy as simply saying that you don’t like cold calling so you’ll use door hangers. There is a difference between selecting marketing methods because you’re good at them and they play to your strengths and selecting a method because it is easy and allows you to avoid hard work.
 
I’ve known salespeople who hated cold calling; yet, they were surprisingly good at it. And, they recognized that despite their dislike for the method, they had found a prospecting method that
was very successful for them and they made the conscious decision to do the hard work they disliked in order to make the superior living they wanted.
 
I’ve known a few–very few–others who had a magical touch with direct mail. One in particular just had an incredible ability to design pieces that really produced results. She exploited that talent to the fullest. She certainly didn’t rely only on her direct mail prospecting, but it was one of her primary tools. Others in her office couldn’t get any response from direct mail, but it was Darrin’s forte.
 
Frankly, most salespeople fail to become strong prospectors simply because they make a decision to not do the work necessary to build their business. They seek the easy way out, spend time with meaningless busy work, and then fool themselves into believing they are working hard. For most of us, prospecting in any form is our least favorite part of selling. Nevertheless, it is the foundation of everything that comes afterward. Without a prospect, there isn’t an opportunity to earn a commission.
 
Some Excellent Lead Generation Resources:
 
Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, Brian Carroll
 
Cold Calling for Women, Wendy Weiss (not just for women)
 
Selling to Big Companies, Jill Konrath
 
Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success
through Client Referrals, Paul McCord (referral selling)
 
Never Cold Call Again, Frank Rumbauskas
 
Getting to VITO, Anthony Parinello
 
Missed the previous parts of this series? You’ll find them at
http://www.powerreferralselling.com/html/articles.html
 
Next Issue: Part 5: Selecting Prospecting Methods
 

Do You Know How to Ask?

A question I often receive is “what is the one major thing I can do to get more referrals?”

The implication of this question is actually that the salesperson doesn’t really want to learn the techniques and strategies that really work to generate a large number of very high quality referrals, but rather they simply want a quick fix.

The unfortunate truth of the matter is that if you want to build your business on referrals, there isn’t a quick fix. Most salespeople get relatively few quality referrals. They may well get a few names and phone numbers, but most are not what would be considered a real referral. A referral is an introduction to someone who has a want or need for your product or service (they may not know they have a want or need, you may have to help them discover that) AND has the financial resources to acquire your product or service. Anything other than that isn’t a referral–it’s nothing more than a useless name and phone number. Most of the “referrals” salespeople get fall into that “name and phone number” category.

Nevertheless, on occasion, not too often, but sometimes, those names and phone numbers are actually referrals. To get fewer names and phone numbers, you must learn the techniques and strategies that will generate the real referrals.

But, that being said, there is way to increase the number of names and phone numbers you get, increasing the chances that a few more will be actual referrals. It’s as close to quick fix as there is:

Statistics show that 55% of customers and clients who were surveyed indicated they had never been asked by the salesperson for referrals. More than half! In addition, this survey was directed at clients salespeople had identified as customers and clients they had specifically requested referrals from!

So, what does this mean? What can we learn from a survey of customers and clients that were asked for referrals where 55% of them said they were never asked?

We learn that most salespeople are not asking for referrals in a way that the client recognize as a request.

How do we know that? Because over half of the remaining 45% indicated that their salesperson’s request for a referral wasn’t a request at all–it was a suggestion.

Typical requests were:

“Joe, if you happen to run into anyone who could use my service, would you please give them one of my cards?”

“Debbie, if you think of anyone that I could help, I’d love to hear about them.”

“David, here are a few of my cards, would you mind giving one to anyone who I might be of service to?”

“Linda, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know of anyone you know that could use my service.”

These are NOT referral requests. At most, they are suggestions, as worst, they are nothing but throwaway sentences that the client will have forgotten within a few minutes.

These questions and statements aren’t designed to get referrals; they are designed to “ask” for referrals in a manner where the salesperson can’t face rejection because they haven’t asked for anything. And they seldom produce results.

By simply asking a direct question of your client, you will increase the number of names and phone numbers you get. The vast majority still won’t be referrals as defined above, but you’ll have more names and numbers, meaning more will actually be referrals.

In addition, asking more than once can greatly increase the number of names and numbers you get. Studies show that those salespeople who asked only once averaged getting slightly over one name and phone number from each client. Those who asked twice averaged slightly less than 2 1/2 names and numbers.

There isn’t a quick fix. But if you ask a direct question that requires a direct response and then ask more than once, you’ll immediately increase the number of names and phone numbers you receive from clients.

The best solution is to take the time and effort to learn how to really generate referrals. However, if you’re not willing to do that, at least learn to ask for referrals in a way that requires your customer or client to respond and ask multiple times over the course of the sale.
sk for referrals in a way that requries your customer or client to respond and ask multiple times over the course of the sale.

How is Your Selling Process?: Part 3 Changing Your Belief System

Your beliefs—both conscious and unconscious–rule your life—both what you do and what you fail to do. Your thoughts will dictate your ability to succeed or your destiny to fail. Once a belief has become rooted in your mind, it is very difficult to change it—but it can be done. What you believe can be changed because you have a brain and willpower. You can reason; you can analyze and think; you can determine to make the changes you must make to become successful, and your brain can be reprogrammed with new thoughts, goals, and beliefs. But, unfortunately, these changes won’t be overnight. It takes time and considerable effort.

What Needs to Be Changed?
Negative, self-defeating, and self-doubting beliefs must be changed if you want to be able to grow to your full potential. Going back to the over-achiever example, the over-achiever’s primary strength is his or her belief that they can, no matter the obstacle, reach their goal. Their belief isn’t illogical. They recognize their shortcomings, whatever those may be. They simply have determined that despite their shortcomings, they will find a way to correct or work around their shortcomings and accomplish their goals.

Look back at the list of questions from the last newsletter. Which of those questions did you find relevant to yourself? Is it that you don’t find your occupation honorable? Maybe you don’t have the confidence in your knowledge of what your are doing? Maybe you feel inferior because you have only been in your position a short period of time? Or, maybe you don’t believe you deserve to succeed? Maybe you have trained yourself to expect to fail? Worse, maybe you simply don’t have the desire and commitment to succeed.

If you are typical, you may find several of the questions ring a bell. All must be dealt with—and changed. And rooting out and eliminating self-defeating limiting beliefs is a lifetime task, as we all have them and they have a terrible habit of continually finding their way into our thinking. The limiting belief may change—or reoccur time after time, but there isn’t anyone who is immune from the fight.

The toughest to deal with are the desire for success and commitment to succeed.

Desire is the want—the burning passion to be successful. A desire so strong that it feels almost all consuming. But desire alone isn’t nearly enough. Desire must be combined with commitment to be effective. Many desire success but are unwilling to pay the price in time, energy and hard work. And sales is a particularly difficult profession if you lack commitment. We all face far more rejection than success. Without the commitment to overcome whatever comes your way, the rejection will quickly sap the desire right out of you.

Change to What?
So, you have to change your negative and self-limiting beliefs. But to what? Are starry-eyed “positive” thoughts and beliefs enough? If they are, mental institutions must be full of people with incredible sales potential.

Again, changing your internalized beliefs doesn’t mean that you don’t recognize your personal limitations, but it does mean that you don’t allow those limitations to rule your life. Once you have recognized a limitation, you find a solution to work around or eliminate the limitation. You find the training and mentoring needed to build your skills to deal with your limitations.

But your overarching belief system about what you are capable of doing, what you deserve, and what you value, want and aspire to is a much more difficult thing to change. Those beliefs are the ones that take real work to overcome. Those overarching, life affecting beliefs are the ones you must address in more unique ways. To recognize that you lack sufficient skill in a particular area is easy to deal with—you get the training and mentoring you need. To recognize that you have unconsciously believed you were incapable of performing a skill or incapable of performing above a certain level or simply do not deserve to succeed is more difficult to address.

Yet, these overarching beliefs are the beliefs that will more directly determine your level of success and personal satisfaction than the mere skills required to do your job. Turing your negative and self-doubting beliefs into confidence, determination and a belief that you are not only capable of succeeding but will find a way to succeed—along with the commitment to do so requires you to reprogram you brain.

How to Change Your Belief System:
Below you’ll find a number of resources that deal with various aspects of becoming mentally and emotionally prepared—to change how you view yourself and what you think and believe about yourself. These resources come from a variety of philosophical positions—some, such as Nepoleon Hill are of older vintage and come from a time when psychology and psychoanalysis was becoming in vogue, others are quite modern and evolve out of modern psychology and New Age theory. Some I think are right on, others I question. But since there are a variety of personalities and philosophies reading this, I’ve chosen to give a fairly broad spectrum of resources.

But one thing they all have in common—you must be proactive in changing yourself to reach your goals.

Here are some techniques that I have found to be effective:

Visualization:
The whole concept of limiting beliefs stems from a belief that we are or become what we believe about ourselves. That our brain controls our actions and abilities to the extent that it drives us to become exactly what we believe we are. From that we can take a further step to we become what we spend our time thinking about. If that is true, and since we are naturally capable of visualizing what we are thinking about, visualizing ourselves performing at the level and gaining the accompanying rewards seems to be an effective method of reprogramming our thinking process.

Positive Self-talk:
We all carry on a constant conversation with ourselves. Whether our conversation is about work, play, family, or any number of other subjects, we are constantly communicating with ourselves.

These conversations are, of course, often translated into visuals. We see ourselves telling our boss off or winning the downhill at the Olympics. Much of our self-talk tends to be negative. We beat ourselves up after a poor presentation; we kick ourselves after losing a sale because we failed to return a call; we are down on ourselves because we didn’t know the answer to a prospect’s question that we should have known; or we browbeat ourselves because we didn’t think of the perfect answer to an objection until we’re in our car driving back to the office.

Rather than being a positive analysis of our skills that allows us to grow and learn, for many of us this negative self-talk is the primary communication we have with ourselves about ourselves. Eventually, we are convinced that those negative thoughts accurately reflect who we are.

Changing our conversations from the negative to the positive can and will have the same effect—they will change our view of who we are.

Put it in Writing:
Putting your goals and beliefs in writing tends to make them more real. Reading them every morning and every evening—and thinking about them during the day—etches them on our brains. Simply a variation on self-talk, writing gives both verbal reinforcement as you hear the words as your read them and visual as you see your goals and beliefs on paper.

Confide in Someone:
Like putting your goals and beliefs on paper, confiding them in someone also tends to make them more real in your mind. They have ceased to be your secret and have become public knowledge. You’ve voiced them to someone who now knows what you are aiming for—and will know whether or not you reach your goal. You have committed yourself more fully to your proposed change since it is no longer yours alone.

Resources:
Of course, there are other, more sophisticated methods, as you’ll find in the resources below. The above is simply a short list of methods that certainly seem to work–over time.

Changing your belief system is the major task you will probably face in moving from the realm of the average or slightly above average to superstar producer. This short newsletter is simply a broad overview of the sales process and isn’t intended to address any of the subjects fully. So, I encourage you to take a look at these (they are in no particular order):

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

The Inner Game of Selling, Ron Willingham

The Quest for Authentic Power: Getting Past Manipulation, Control, and Self Limiting Beliefs, G. Ross Lawford

The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer

Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible, Brian Tracy

Making the Impossible Possible: Think It! Act It! Become It!, Jason Borcyke

Life’s Missing Instruction Manual: The Guidebook You Should Have Been Given at Birth, Joe Vitale

The Power of an Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour a Week, Dave Lakhani

Copyright 2007, Paul McCord

Reproduction with full and proper attribution and notification only. Please notify pmccord@mccordandassociates.com when reproducing in any form.