SELF PROMOTION - DO YOU GET IT ?

For the last two weeks I've spoken a lot about cold calling and almost everyone doing sales for a living wants to talk about doing something besides doing cold calling. Cold calling can be one of the most fruitful ways to promote yourself and increase your sales. A lot of salespeople have a million excuses about why it doesn't work, etc., etc. The debate is over as far as I'm concerned. I will continue to coach the individuals who hire me and they will excel at cold calling. What are the rest of you going to do to promote yourselves ? Yes you ! People buy people first and then they buy your product or service.

So, how are promoting yourself ? Many,many people I talk to believe strongly that Web. 2.0 is the answer to everyone's sales challenges. Just get on Linkedin, twitter, facebook, and 18 others and you will own the world. Web.2.0 can be a good thing I agree. It's another step in a strategy to make people aware of who you are and what you sell. But, it's only one step. What else are you going to do in your campaign to make potential customers aware of you ?

"It's not who you know but who knows you" Those of you who have worked with me, been in my seminars, and enlisted my coaching services know that I beat that axiom to death. But, it's true !

Your awesome challenge as a sales professional who wants to make more sales is to develop a campaign that includes specific steps that promote you and what you do for a living to potential customers ( and existing customers as well - just because they bought once or twice doesn't mean they will buy again ). You should be doing something different every two or three weeks to keep your name and your product / service in front of every lead, target, opportunity in your data base without fail.

Do you really want to make a lot more money ??? That's a question I ask every coaching client I have on a regular basis. If you do, you will do the things that are required to achieve that goal and stop whining about it. Here's the gist of a conversation I have everyday ( at least once ) with somebody. If you were a professional athlete ( quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys ) and I was your Coach. My salary and continued career is based upon bringing the owners a winning season and beyond every year. How much patience do you think I will have with your lack of coachability and follow through when we are paying you $20M a year ? And this is when a few say, but I don't make $20M per year.
What's the money got to do with you being a professional ? Are you one or not ?


Thanks for taking the time to read this week's Perspective. Good Luck and Good Selling !