Qualifying Prospects & Opportunities

“In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.” 
by Alice MacDougall

The early prospectors were looking for gold. The current prospectors are looking for golden opportunities to win relationships and make sales. The important thing is to make sure you are looking in the right place.

Two important distinctions to make in qualifying.

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  The first distinction is that you need to qualify the prospect by answering the following questions: Are they the right buyer for your product or service? Do they have the ability to make a buying decision? Can they influence a buying decision? Do they have the ability to get you information on how buying decisions are made?

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  The second distinction is that you need to qualify the opportunity. So now that you have found a prospect who is the "ideal buyer" of your product or services, you need to make sure that the opportunity is the right one. What is the prospect's expectations on the outcome? Is the project just right for your company to handle? Is it too large or too small; can the prospect afford your pricing? Is their timing for your type of service a 3-month or a 12-month decision making process?

Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to begin the selling process. It's crucial to make sure you "hear and listen" to all their needs. Spend time learning how they want the relationship to proceed once they have engaged your company, how they want issues to be resolved, and how often they want to communicate on the progress of the project. get a clear understanding of these relationship issues during the qualifying process. Even if your price is higher than the competition, if you structure the delivery of the service as they envisioned it, you will win the sale.

Are you ready to win? If so, register for Sales2Win, an eight-session sales and marketing training course designed to increase your sales by 20% to 30%! Each one-hour telephone session will unlock the mysteries of successful selling and teach you how to differentiate yourself in the marketplace.

Hiring a Winning Team

“…the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” – Mia Hamm, Hall of Fame American Soccer Player

One of the biggest challenges business owners face is hiring employees. It’s essential to get the right people working at the right jobs so that you can move the company forward toward its stated objectives.

Interviewing candidates takes time and effort, but better to invest the effort up front than to deal with someone long-term who is not right for the job. Many of our clients have told us they put off hiring for positions because they just don’t have enough time to wade through stacks of resumes.

Here are some tips to streamline the hiring process and help you find the cream of the crop:

1. Take some time to write a questionnaire about the available position. Include all the skills that the perfect candidate will need to be able to hit the ground running, such as computer software experience, sales experience, managing people. Be specific, and ask for what you need.
2. In the questionnaire, ask the candidate to rate him/herself from 1-10 on each of these specific skills. Be sure to make this questionnaire very comprehensive. You want your candidate to put some thought into the answers.
3. Place an ad for the position in publications or on networking sites where you are likely to get the attention of the candidates you want.
4. This is key – in your ad, ask them to email you to request the questionnaire. If you can attach the questionnaire to the ad via a link, that will save you some time. Instruct them to fill out the questionnaire and fax it back to you along with their resume and cover letter. Provide a deadline for this action to be complete.
5. See who can follow the instructions! We have heard from many clients who have asked candidates to follow simple instructions for submitting resumes. They will receive hundreds of resumes from people who neglect to complete the questionnaire or who don’t fax it back by the deadline. Those people have already de-selected themselves from the process because they didn’t follow instructions. If they aren’t listening to you before the interview, chances are they won’t listen on the job.
6. Only review the resumes of those who correctly followed your instructions in the ad. Of those, select the ones you want to pursue. Read their questionnaires to see where their strengths and weaknesses lie and be sure to discuss those topics in your interview.

When it comes to hiring employees, spending a little time up front will save you headaches later. With all the talent in the marketplace today, be sure that your business is hiring the best of the best. From there you can work with your employees to build the winning team that will help your company win the game of business.

Are you ready to win?

Why Do I Need Sales Training?

"The key is not the 'will to win' - everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important." Bob Knight - Former NCAA Basketball Coach

Our company works with a lot of experienced salespeople who sometimes don’t see the need for additional training. We understand the thinking – why should I do a sales training program if I am already a successful salesperson?

Here’s why – because the game is always changing. There are always new rules, new techniques and new resources. And if you are not willing to spend time every year refining your skills, I guarantee you, your competition is!

Sales is a game where each month you start over with a zero as a score. Therefore, you always need new motivation to generate a new game plan to keep you in the winner’s circle. Just like an athlete who must consistently train in order to compete, business people have to train to stay sharp to effectively play the game of sales.

How you perform in sales is very much related to how the situation occurs to you. Through sales training you have the ability to develop different views or perspectives on how the sales world occurs to you. Those perspectives generate different action plans and when you implement disciplined action plans you will have different results.

Possibilities Unlimited is offering a cutting-edge new sales course called Sales2Win. Beginning October 7th, Sales2Win is an eight-session program open to anyone interested in creating better results. The course is conducted via conference call and webinar, so you don’t have to take time away from your office to attend.

Sales2Win is designed to give you a new view of your sales world. From that view you will see many more possibilities for sales. And when winning business people take advantage of possibilities, they create incredible results.

Interested? Contact us today to learn more about Sales2Win and to register for the course.

Are you ready to win?

Winning Points for Commenting on Blogs

If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score? ~Vince Lombardi

According to Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere, 184 million people in the world have started a blog. With that many people engaging in regular posting, blogs have become a standard way of discussing topics of interest. Regularly commenting on blogs can be a valuable tool for building relationships and gaining SEO links in the major search engines.

How do comments build relationships?
When you regularly read and comment on the same blog, that blog’s owner is likely to take notice. In many cases, this can establish a relationship between you and the blog owner, almost in the same way that having regular discussions with a coworker might. This connection can be established in as little as a few weeks, and can lead to offline discussions and networking opportunities for each of you. If there is a person you want to make a business connection with, but they are a stranger, seeking out the person’s blog and regularly posting comments is an excellent way to open the door.

How can comments build SEO Links?
The more links you have to your website, the higher your page rank is going to be. Comment on blogs is a great way to increase your link count.

When commenting on blogs, you don’t have to use your real name when you post. Instead, using your name followed by a keyword will help gain some search engine indexing (for example: Bonnie the Web Designer). Most blogs will give you the option of linking back to a web site when you leave a comment. Be sure to take advantage of this option by entering your URL. It even better to link to a specific page in your site that you’re trying to get indexed using the keyword you've chosen.

How do I find blogs to comment on?

• Word of Mouth
• Blog directories
• Following on Twitter
• Using keywords in search engines

Does the topic of the blog matter?
It is going to be considered a more relevant link if the topic of the blog relates to your business. But even blogs that are unrelated give you a link back to your site. So if you've chosen to comment on a blog for your hobby, let's say, still use the strategy of your name + keyword to gain a link back to your site.

Are you ready to win?

Planning Effective Meetings

"Football combines the two worst features of American Life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings." George Will, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist

How many meetings have you attended this week, this month, this year? How many of those meeting added value to your day? How many did you consider to be wasted time?

Meetings are a necessary business function if we want to keep people informed and provide a forum for questions and problem solving. But who hasn’t sat through a meeting that went on too long, was not well-organized, or didn’t pertain to your particular job?

Here are some keys to planning an effective meeting:

· Have a clear purpose, and only invite those who have a vested interest in that purpose
· Choose to cover 3-5 key points.
· Create an agenda and publish it in advance so people are prepared
· Have an intended result with which people can align
· Start and end on time!
· Stay on topic! Save other topics that come up for future meetings.
· Keep minutes of the action items, assignments, and delivery dates. Make sure everyone gets a copy of the minutes.

If you hold regular meetings with a group of managers, rotate the meeting leadership every week. Give everyone a turn to lead and develop the meeting agenda. By rotating leadership, meetings become more cohesive and efficient. People listen differently when they know they have to lead the next meeting. Everyone becomes more invested in the process and respectful of each other’s time.

Ask questions to provoke thought and group involvement. Call on specific people instead of just asking for general questions or input. Lead with enthusiasm for the topic and be committed to a result that works for the group. Give everyone an opportunity to participate in the decision making that arises from the discussion.

Use these tips to shift your next meeting into a powerful, effective experience. Good meetings build good teams, and good teams win the game of business/life.

Are you ready to win?

Strategic Account Management & Planning

"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." - Tom Landry, NFL football coach.

Strategic Account Management and Planning is a concept large corporations use to zero in on decision makers at high-profile companies with whom the organization is interested in doing business. This process of planning and managing key accounts enables companies to build strong, productive ties to their most valuable targets/clients.

Strategic Account Managers: This approach requires a sales team to transform into strategic account managers. Salespeople typically need additional training to acquire the skills they need to successfully manage accounts. Strategic account managers must be visible, have senior level leadership abilities, and be able to direct the company's response to selling or service delivery opportunities. These situations require Strategic Account Managers to sell both internally to these cross-functional teams and externally to senior-level clients.

Senior-level buyers have a different perspective to the buying process than lower level contacts. Your Strategic Account Managers must build credibility and understand executive issues and values to be able to sell to senior-level contacts.

Strategic Account Planning: Questions to consider when determining if an account should be considered a strategic account:

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  What are the keys to getting in the game?


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  What is the potential for doing busienss with this buyer?


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  Are we equipped to handle this level of selling?


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  What will it take to get us there?

Strategic accounts are targeted as follows:

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  Size of company


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  Demand for your type of product across multiple lines of business


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  Large global footprint


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  Financially healthy


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  Executive sponsorship

Each Strategic Account Manager must evaluate each account's long-term revenue potential, as well as strategic importance. This way, you can invest the right level of resources to serve them profitably.

Each account plan requires a significant amount of homework including:

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  Research background and overall strategy


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  Identify key business issues


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  Research overall company direction


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  Build and know the org chart


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  Determine opportunities to make executive-level contacts and touch points at every decision-making level with each department within the buyer's organization for which your products or services are a fit


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  Understand how your value proposition provides a perfect fit for their business


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  Determine high level tasks and activities


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  Track progress – how many opportunities in the pipeline


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  Measure progress against plan goals - how many real sales and in what timeframe

Account Plans contain the overall objectives such as revenue targets, account goals, and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis. Strategic Account Managers must define how they plan to achieve their revenue targets and allocate them appropriately by division/department for each account. Account plans should:

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  Define goals and qualitative objectives for each account


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  Align account goals and compensation with corporate objectives


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  Identify critical success factors for reaching goals


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  Outline the value proposition required to meet the customers’ needs

Strategic Account Management and Planning is not just for the big guys. Even the smallest company will benefit from strategies for finding and servicing key accounts. Take the time to plan for the big game, and you will see your efforts pay off on the bottom line.

Are You Ready to Win?