What and how do you use your information and content in your profession? Let’s take a look. There four ways information can be used:

1. Market your business
2. Educate potential clients
3. Build your expert status
4. Create residual incomes

What kind of content do you need to create?

• Informational
• Educational
• Incoming building
• Expert status -

Quite a few sales professionals are just starting out with social media. What you want to do initially is to concentrate on getting yourself, your business, product or service known, and start educating potential clients.

Becoming the expert in your field doesn’t always reap the benefits, meaning it doesn’t always bring in the revenue you anticipated. You might be famous, have many followers on the different social media platforms, but your bottom line isn’t growing.

Social Media isn’t always about being seen as the sales expert or sales guru, Your first concern when engaging in social media is your career, business, product or service and to make sure it’s stable and profitable.

Develop your credibility with good content, content that is helpful and content that teaches your client or potential client something. Create content that helps them solve their problem. Learn how to share your content in a quid pro quo selling style and you will soon see how impressed people will be with your credibility.

One thing we stress in our Quid Pro Quo Sales training courses is credibility and being seen as a trusted advisor. Use your content correctly to build influence, credibility and visibility.

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Key words: Bob Beck, quid pro quo sales training, sales trainer, customized sales training, solution selling, executive selling, strategic selling, lead generation, sales prospecting, sales force training, sales training program.

Our concept helps you focus on a proven formula that everyone can apply. That formula is:

Activity (times) Time (equals) Results

It works for everyone, athletes, non-athletes and of course sales professionals. It’s universal.

How does this work:

Think of it this way,  there are only so many hours in a day that we can pursue an activity. How much time you invest on the activity governs your results. The basic foundation is that the activities you choose to pursue and the time you spend on that activity will, in the end, determine the results you obtain.

How Much Time Can You Spend?

You have 256 working days to reach your goals. We have 365 actual days in a year. Next we minus 104 days for weekends, and then at a minimum 5 days for vacation. This gives us 256 days to plan our work to reach our outcome.

If your goal is to acquire new customers, you need to Plan Your Work and then Work Your Plan

Our Quid Pro Quo Sales training workshops will help you to Plan Your Work so you can Work Your Plan. You know you just can’t hang around hoping someone is going to come to you.

Working your plan helps you become proactive in pursuing more opportunities for yourself.

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Other keywords: quid pro quo sales training, sales trainer, customized sales training, solution selling, executive selling, strategic selling, lead generation, sales prospecting, sales force training, sales training program.

Well, there isn’t a perfect solution to stop this type of behavior.

Remember what Quid Pro Quo Sales Training is teaching you. It’s teaching you how to build relationships and not that we ever want to second guess why the competitor is acting in such an unprofessional manner, we might suspect they just don’t know how to develop meaningful business relationships and they keep on missing opportunities.  Their only “offense” is to bad mouth you.

It’s difficult to reach out to competitors who act like this.

During Quid Pro Quo Sales Training we discuss the importance of building relationship not only with your clients or prospects but with competitors. Yes, your competitors.  Even you are a competitor to someone and everyone needs to develop strong business relationships with clients or prospect and at the same time maintain a working relationship with a competitor. It means taking the time to invest in yourself.

Competitors who fail to develop relationships with their competitors really make themselves look bad.  It might not be today, or tomorrow but eventually they will look bad.  Just remember you always want to leave your client or prospect with a good feeling about you, your product, or service.

Never speak badly about your competitors no matter how bad they speak of you.

While we talk about a lot of different areas, one of the discussions with my clients I often have is about being willing to take risks.

As a sales expert, it is vital that you get very comfortable moving out of your comfort zone. You need to be able to understand that whatever happened in the past is over and you need to move on. Taking risks is an important component of being successful. Here are a few tips to help you step out of your comfort zone and take a few risks along the way.

• Leave the past behind
• Keep moving ahead on your ideas
• Think outside the box
• Express your feelings
• Do not be afraid to fail

Take the big step to get out of your comfort zone will help you to take emotional risks. This is the only way you will grow and realize your full potential. Yes, of course you might make a mistake- but learning from these mistakes will teach you how to better celebrate your achievements.

To be successful is to change. Every day we hear something has changed in the economy, good and bad. If you are not using your old habits and take a risk to change, you can not complain that things are difficult. You will not know until you try, but if you do not try you never know.

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that closes, we see too late the one that is open.” ~Alexander Graham Bell

Our economy is taking a turn for the better. But do not sit and stare at a closing or closed door. It’s time to look for doors that open and take risks and make the change. Invest in yourself with Quid Pro Quo Sales Training.

Other keywords: sales training, sales trainer, customized sales training, solution selling, executive selling, strategic selling, lead generation, sales prospecting, sales force training, sales training program.

When I am out at one of my Quid Pro Quo Sales Training classes I am always reminding salespeople that you were born with two ears and one mouth for a reason.  Ask good, open-ended questions and let your client or prospect do the talking. Develop good listening skills.

Too many reps lose great opportunities by forgetting the very simple formula that follows:

FORMULA FOR HANDLING PEOPLE
By
General George C. Marshall
(Solider, Statesmen, and Noble Prize winner)

Listen to the other person’s story.
Listen to the other person’s story full story.
Listen to the other person’s story full story with your heart.

Think of it this way — every time they speak they are giving you valuable information that will help you sell to them.  You learn more about them and this is how you start developing your relationship with them as a trusted advisor.

THE LISTENING LADDER

The six steps to becoming a better listener form a ladder.

L: Look at the person speaking to you.
A: Ask questions.
D: Don’t interrupt.
D: Don’t change the subject.
E: Empathize.
R: Respond verbally and nonverbally.

It’s a mistake to think you listen only with your ears. It’s much more important to listen with the mind, the eyes, the body, and the heart. Unless you truly want to understand the other person, you’ll never be able to listen.  ~Mark Herndon, Writer

The operative words in that saying above are … you truly want to understand the other person. If you are sincere and understand the value of trying to help people solve issues, your selling will take on a life of it own and become second nature for you — you truly become the trusted advisor.

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keywords: Bob Beck, trusted advisor, sales expert, sales training, sales trainer, solution selling, executive selling, strategic selling, lead generation, sales prospecting, sales force training, sales training program.

]]> http://bobbeck.squidtop.com/2010/10/18/trusted-advisor-people-prefer-talking-to-listening/feed/ 0 http://bobbeck.squidtop.com/2010/09/18/do-you-need-quid-pro-quo-sales-training/ http://bobbeck.squidtop.com/2010/09/18/do-you-need-quid-pro-quo-sales-training/#comments Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:42:56 +0000 bobbeck http://bobbeck.squidtop.com/?p=473 Why am I asking “Do You Need Quid Pro Quo Sales Training?”

I ask because an acquaintance came to me and asked if he should encourage his wife to take the Quid Pro Quo Sales training.

Now his wife, we will call her Beth, has a small professional service business and has recently taken on a client as a result of a referral.  Yes, referrals are a great source of new business.

Beth is the type of person who flips head-over-heals for her clients and they are all pleased with her efforts.  However, jumping head-over-heals with this new client is something completely different for Beth.  Why, there is no mutual respect.  The new client is demanding all of Beth’s time and doesn’t take too kindly to being told to “wait in line.”

Here’s what I told Beth’s husband.  First, I asked him to take a moment and reflect and think about these questions.

• Is Beth controlling the relationship?  If not, who is?
• Is there a two-way street or has Beth been driving down the one-way street and allowing her client ot manipulate and dictate the relationship?
• How often is Beth “jumping” when the client asks her to jump?

You can ask yourself the same questions and if you are not getting a positive response, it is time to consider Quid Pro Quo Sales Training.

Why, because a good relationship with your client cannot be a one-way street.  It has to be a two-way street.  Remember, it’s all about a give-and-take relationship or a Quid Pro Quo sales approach.

When you take this approach, conflict disappears, stress disappears and you develop a true consultative relationship.

Most experts have learned that relationships with any client is built on compromise, balance, and understanding.

The last thing I asked Beth’s spouse to talk to her about was just how valuable this client was given the state of our economy.  If she feels she can develop a relationship based on mutual respect then continue.  But, if she cannot develop the quid pro quo approach, then it just makes more sense to move on.

Why develop the solution selling approach? It accomplishes several things.  (1) you are able to offer a solution to your clients issue and (2) You develop your sales career as your client’s trusted advsior.

You take your product or service and show the real decision maker how it will solve their problems — the solution.  Once you are able to do this several times, the key decision maker will start relying on you more-an-more — their trusted advisor.

Remember, selling is all about relationships.  In order for all of this to come together there has to be a two way street.  Don’t overlook just how important it is to build your relationships.  The person who takes the time and effort usually has the title of trusted advisor.

Don’t Overlook Quid Pro Quo Sales Training

If you overlook sales training you could be making a big mistake.  Quid Pro Quo Sales Training will teach you the methodology of a give and take relationship with your prospects or clients.

It’s the consultative or solution selling approach that teaches you new techniques to help you find and control future business pospects with the bottom-line of increasing your revenues and your company’s revenues.

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Key words: Bob Beck, sales training, sales trainer, customized sales training, solution selling, executive selling, strategic selling, lead generation, sales prospecting, sales force training, sales training program.

Solution Selling, Quid Pro Quo Sales Training

Over the years what I have discovered about sales professionals who have the passion to become a trusted advisor, they are constantly learning. They learn to learn.  Not only does this learning help them become top in their field, it helps them develop a consultative solution selling approach.  The only approach for a trusted advisor.

If you are struggling and need to breakout and start a new approach to realize your goals, then ask yourself a few questions, now.

• Have you read a recent book on your profession?
• How are you increasing your market knowledge?
• Are you attending conferences or seminars to enhance your understanding of different subjects?
• Are you networking effectively to increase your lead generation?
• Are you exceeding your knowledge of your market niche and becoming a sales expert?
• Do you make it a habit to think outside the box?
• Do you try to learn something new, daily?
• Have made mistakes and learned from them?
• Are you making changes from lessons learned?

The answers to these questions might not come immediately, but you must answer them honestly.  This will help you in almost every area of your career success.  Remember, a trusted advisor listens and learns to learn.

As you answer each question, write your answer down on a piece of paper.  Learn to identify your gaps.

If you have finished reading this blog you have learned something new today.

Be the best you can be and keep on learning and developing your skills and traits to become the a highly regarded trusted advisor in your market niche.

P.S. – If you are still searching for answers try searching with these keywords: sales training, sales trainer, customized sales training, solution selling, executive selling, strategic selling, lead generation, sales prospecting, quid pro quo sales training.

To be successful and to attain your goal there must be balance between your career and personal life.  Otherwise, it just won’t work.

Often times as we strive to meet or exceed our goals we become completely entrenched in our work and actually lose site of our core values.  But in today’s business climate there are new demands and time commitments because of the competitive marketplace and constant change, it becomes easy to lose site our our values.

When you have a passion for your career and you keep it in perspective with your core values, you will find the balance and fulfillment within your professional and personal life.  It’s important to keep the right perspective.

Becoming a trusted advisor is a challenging career goal.  You will know if you are keeping everything balanced if you can answer a simple “yes” to the following questions:

• Do you feel you are making a difference?
• Are your skills and talents in line with your work?
• Does your career providing you with great opportunities that let you serve the needs of others?

As an FYI -  serving the needs of others doesn’t mean you have to be a policeman, doctor, teacher, etc. It means as long as you are engaged in providing a product or service to meet the needs of your clients, you are meeting the needs of others.

Work hard, stay on track to meet the needs of your prospects or clients and make sure you make the time to for your personal, then you’ll be the best trusted advisor out there in your market niche.

But, we all know that along with qualifying a client, prospecting is the single most important step in your sales success.  You must do whatever it takes to find quality prospects and generate new leads for your business.

Many sales professionals who attend Quid Pro Quo Sales Training talk about how lead generation through social media is awkward for them as they feel they are just talking to cyberspace.

What’s happening today is that some of the largest companies are starting to invest in social media.  Now it is time for you to get your presence out there or you might lose opportunities for prospecting and any future lead generation.

No more excuses about social media being a fad.  It’s here to stay and you need to continue to build a strong pipeline through self-marketing.  Selecting the right social networking site is key to your lead generation.  You can do a few things to find out which networking sites are best for you and where your customers are networking.

The easiest methods is to ask them.  “Are you on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.”  What other sites do you use?  Now, can you find a sales expert in your industry using a social media site?

Networking in person or via social networking channels is not only effective it is probably the most effective lead generation activity you can invest in.

If you build the right type of network and use it effectively it stays with you your entire life! When you leave the organization you are with your network goes with you.

The only plan you should follow is your own and to create opportunities for yourself.

Key words: Bob Beck, sales training, sales trainer, customized sales training, solution selling, executive selling, strategic selling, lead generation, sales prospecting, sales force training, sales training program.