Cash is King: 7 Ways to Play Your Hand

Posted in Uncategorized | March 6th, 2010 | Mike Krause |

Cash is King: 7 Ways to Play Your Hand

by Mike Krause

In his book Small Business Management, author Michael Ames points out that insufficient capital or cash flow is one of the top reasons for failure. But like all things in business, there is strategy to managing your cash. For a small to mid-sized business a smart cash strategy will often mean the difference between growth or collapse.

Poorly managed cash flow is an internal weakness. Here are seven things you can do to acknowledge that weakness, improve your cash flow, and ultimately put the king in your hand:

• Ask for money before you need the money. Let’s say you just made a $20,000 deposit. This is the time to be proactive about applying for a loan or credit. You can keep the funds as a cash reserve for the moment when you really need it and will need it now.

• Manage your payments. Ask your suppliers if there are discounts for early payments. If yes, take advantage of them. Conversely, make sure you are avoiding costly late payment fees. Organize your payment schedule around these discounts and penalties.

• Manage your inventory more responsibly so you can convert your products into cash.

• Ask your suppliers for longer payment options. If you’re a regular client of a supplier they may be willing to extend your payment terms. Ask for this option, and then continue to pay on time. The longer term will give you a cushion should you ever need it.

• Bill your clients regularly. Businesses can be so focused on securing new clients that they become negligent on billing the ones they have.

• Reward timely customers. Offer a small discount for early bird payments from your clients.

• Accept credit card payments. Yes, you will have to pay a small fee for the service but by offering payment through credit you simultaneously make it easier for your client to pay and you pass the burden of collections to the credit card company.

The Takeaway
Don’t neglect the necessity of cash flow and capital in your strategic growth plan. Simple monitoring and key changes will keep you prepared for the inevitable rough spots.

Mike Krause is the Chief Sales Architect and owner of Sales Sense Solutions where he helps business owners stay four steps ahead of the competition with stellar sales and high performance sales assessments and strategies.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

From the Street: A True Tale of Internal Capabilities and Resources

Posted in Uncategorized | February 26th, 2010 | Mike Krause |

From the Street: A True Tale of Internal Capabilities and Resources

By Mike Krause

Can you describe your internal capabilities and resources? Are you absolutely sure? I cannot emphasize enough how critical this information is to your organization’s ability to sustain a competitive advantage and thrive.

Do any of these describe you?
• You’re starting a new business.
• Your company is developing or launching a new product line.
• Your business or division is offering a new service.
• You’re facing direct competition.
• You’re not satisfied with your current levels of growth.

If you answered yes to any of these, please read this true story.

A number of years ago a business opened its doors to service the golf population. The enterprise wanted to provide an indoor environment where golfers could practice and perfect their swing anytime of the year. Golfers would be assessed digitally and receive personalized instruction and feedback on how to improve their stroke.

It was a strong idea. The enterprise was located in a city that claims the highest density of country clubs and golf courses in the U.S. The targeted demographic was comprised of people who have the desire and income to purchase ancillary activities related to their game. The business is located in a city with long winters that shut the courses down. Golfers look for alternative places to play and this business filled that need.

Three years later they shut their doors. What happened? They failed to acknowledge their internal capabilities and strengths.

This upstart faced a franchised competitor with a strong national presence, established marketing campaign, and sales process. What the competitor lacked was the connection to the local community.

Instead of capitalizing on the competitor’s weakness, our upstart company tried to beat them at the same game. What they did wrong:
1. The upstart’s owners were absent which weakened the infrastructure.
2. They had no outbound sales process that would maximize their local presence to a community which welcomed and supported local businesses.
3. They chose a golf pro to be a spokesperson for their company whose personality offended the local community.
4. They selected a geographic location too close to the established franchise.

If they had leveraged their internal capabilities and resources their strategy would have looked much different. Here’s what they could have done right:

1. Maximize their local story and appealed to the community’s desire to support local business.
2. Establish a revenue-sharing referral program to local country clubs.
3. Use local but highly-visible events and golfing celebrities to establish rapport with the local golfing community.
4. Develop a personalized sales-process that emphasizes multiple touch points and follow-through for customers and prospects.

Lessons Learned
You need to develop an awareness of what you don’t have and don’t know. To do this you have two options: 1) invest in hiring an outsourced analyst who has the capacity to give you the knowledge and information you need to avoid making on-going costly mistakes or 2) do it yourself. Which one do you think is most qualified to provide the objective, hard-hitting advice your business needs to make an educated, strategic plan? Choose carefully…your future income is on the line.

Mike Krause is the Chief Sales Architect and owner of Sales Sense Solutions where he helps business owners stay four steps ahead of the competition with stellar sales and high performance sales assessments and strategies.
Webinar:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/609469051

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

4 Telemarketing Questions Every Business Owner Needs to Ask (Do You Know Them?)

Posted in Uncategorized | February 11th, 2010 | Mike Krause |

4 Telemarketing Questions Every Business Owner Needs to Ask (Do You Know Them?)

By Mike Krause

If you’re a business owner, you know the simple truth. When you strip away all the rhetoric and analysis your business is ultimately supported by one thing: sales. Whether you’re running a small home-based business or a multi-million dollar corporation, sustainable sales require sales-related phone calls.

Let’s be honest, sales calls aren’t sexy or fun–they’re a pain. So who handles them? You? Your staff? Maybe you outsource but wince at the bottom-line cost.

Ultimately, the decision is driven by your perceived value. Why perceived? Because telemarketing is an investment and all investments are subjected to a cost-benefit analysis. A cost-benefit analysis only works if it’s comprehensive and this is where most business owners make their biggest mistake. I’m here to help.

Ask yourself these four questions to make sure you’re assessing the true costs and benefits of a telemarketing campaign.

1. Who is making my sales calls right now? If I’m making them, what owner-specific activities am I giving up in order to make these calls? As the owner is this the best use of my time? There are activities that only you, as the owner, can do. Lead generation sales calls aren’t one of them.
2. Do I have the expertise to maximize the effectiveness of a telemarketing campaign? A truly effective campaign requires thorough staff training, experience and a top-notch database. It takes hours of invested time to be able to honestly answer “yes” to this question.
3. Are my sales calls happening consistently with regular follow-through? Anyone who has tried to lose weight will tell you–sporadic, yo-yo dieting doesn’t work. Telemarketing is no different. A surge here an there does not create the momentum you need for consistent, reliable results.
4. How much money am I saving by doing my telemarketing in-house? Let’s say it costs $30,000 to outsource your telemarketing needs. But it only costs $20,000 for a full-time employee to do it in-house. You’re saving money, right? Wrong. Don’t forget to factor the true cost of an in-house employee. You have to spend time hiring, training, and managing. You have employee maintenance costs in their payroll, taxes, benefits and compensations. And don’t forget about turnover costs. I hate to be blunt but it’s time for the adult conversation: if the time it takes you to do all of this is only worth $10,000 then you don’t have enough respect for the value of your time and even less for that of your staff.

No doubt, these are tough questions. The answers make you realize that yes, managing your own lead generation telemarketing is a waste of your time and money. Outsourcing is the smart answer. (For the record, this isn’t a long-winded sales pitch–Sales Sense Solutions can set you up with a qualified telemarketing service but we don’t handle that ourselves). Bottom line: spend your time closing the sales on qualified leads because when you outsource you will have more of them to handle. And that’s what you ultimately want…right?

Mike Krause is the Chief Sales Architect and owner of Sales Sense Solutions where he helps business owners stay four steps ahead of the competition with stellar sales and high performance sales strategies.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

Your 5 Competitive Threats: Are You Digging Deep Enough?

Posted in Uncategorized | February 8th, 2010 | Mike Krause |

Your 5 Competitive Threats: Are You Digging Deep Enough?

by Mike Krause

Assets, strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities–the ability to pinpoint these items are critical factors to your organization’s potential for long-term success. True strategic planning comes from analyzing these factors on the internal and external forces affecting your business.

Competitive threats represent one such force. Yet understanding competitive threats is where most business leaders fall short. Why? They simply don’t dig deep enough. As a result these threats can sneak up on an unsuspecting company and leave the staff wondering what happened as they scramble around trying to contain the issue.

Scrambling. Wondering. Catching-up. These aren’t words you want to use to describe your business. Fortunately, there is a powerful tool at your disposal: The Model of the Five Competitive Forces developed in 1980 by Michael E. Porter.

Porter identified five competitive forces that sculpt every industry and market, including yours. Identifying these forces is not an academic exercise. They directly impact your sales. Here’s what you need to know.

Porter’s Five Forces are:

1. Competitive rivalry within an industry. This is your direct competition and sits at the center of Porter’s model. Most businesses limit their competition by geography. This is a fatal mistake.

Example: Let’s say you own a pizza place. Your competitors are other pizza shops within your geographic vicinity. Right? Dig deeper. Is pizza sold in the local grocery store? What about the online store specializing in quick delivery of frozen pies with the promise of “best in the world?” What about the baker who sells dough for people to make it themselves? Or the cooking school that teaches people how to cook pizza?

2. Future Threats. This summarizes how easily a new competitor can enter your industry.

Example: How easy is it to move into your industry? Your service? Is your customer based easily reached? Can a new competitor easily access your distribution channels? Are your customers loyal to your brand?

3. Determinants of Buying Power. Think of this as a customer’s buying power.

Example: Can you compete with other pizza sellers like BJ’s, Wegmens or Sam’s Club? Is your pizza differentiated? Is choosing a competitor’s pizza easy and not related to any costs of a customer’s time, wallet or effort?

4. Determinants of Suppliers. This is your suppliers’ buying power and refers to everything you need to provide your goods and services.

Example: Are there only a few suppliers to those who make pizza? Is your ability to be different dependent on a supplier’s special product (an imported cheese, fresh tomatoes, etc.)? Can your competitors easily access your supplies? What would happen if one of your suppliers closed their door or started selling to your competitor? Don’t forget your employees as a service supplier. Is finding and retaining reliable help competitive?

5. Threat of Duplication. This threat comes from the availability of alternative products with lower prices or better performance.

Example: How easily can a competitor access your customer base? How easily can a competitor duplicate your pizza and service? How loyal are your customers? Does your pizza reflect the whims of a trend? Or is it a commodity, easily substituted with another pizza?

Bottom line: if you want sales you need a sales process that considers this comprehensive competitive analysis. Without one you’ll discover that one day your business is…you guessed it…scrambling, wondering and catching-up. A sales strategy is about staying four moves ahead and enjoying the income, confidence, and peace-of-mind that comes with it.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

20 Ways to Recognize Your Star Clients

Posted in Uncategorized | January 28th, 2010 | Mike Krause |

20 Ways to Recognize Your Star Clients

By Michael Krause

You know what makes your organization unique. You’ve identified why your customers value your products over the competition. With those fundamental but critical items in place you’re ready to focus on you customers. Are you clear on whom your best ones are? Crystal clear?

As a general rule you want to spend about 80 percent of your time on your clients who are the most profitable and embrace your reason for existence. This usually works out to be the top 20 percent of your customers. These are the people who will give you the largest profit margin for your efforts.

There are other benefits for identifying your top 20 percent. You can confidently implement strategies that:
• eliminate spending too much time on those who give you the least amount of return for your efforts.
• create targeted marketing campaigns for specific customer categories.
• establish incentive programs to move less active customers into your top range.
• develop a relationship package to secure relations with your valued customer groups (such as a bronze, silver, gold or platinum level).

You can also assign specialists to focus on specific aspects of your customer segments. These can include someone dedicated to the large accounts and strategic alliances, a relationship manager responsible for managing current clients and up-selling, and a hunter who looks for new business where no current relationship exists between a customer and your organization.

In order to choose your top 20 percent you have to segment your customers into niche categories. It’s quite possible to have multiple categories each with their own top 20 percent. Here are twenty questions to help you accomplish the task.

1. Where is the revenue coming from?
2. What are your customers passionate about?
3. Who gives you the greatest profit margins?
4. How do they purchase? (Credit, cash, corporate account, checks, PayPal.)
5. Where do they purchase (Brick and mortar, online, catalog.)
6. What do they purchase? (Which services? Which products?)
7. What are their purchasing patterns? (Once a year, many small items, a few larger items.)
8. Where do they live? (In an apartment, condo, city, suburb, development, out-of-state.)
9. Where do they work? (In a home office, downtown, office park, mom & pop store.)
10. What attributes do they possess (Consistent, fickle, committed, particular, loyal.)
11. What types of people, places or things do they like?
12. What do they value?
13. What do they read?
14. When do they read it?
15. Where do they read?
16. What types of meetings, groups, or classes do they attend?
17. What do they value? (Education, money, service, philanthropy.)
18. Who complains the most?
19. What else do they purchase?

And most important,

20. What type of people are you attracting to your business?

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

How to Conquer the Strategic Growth Ghost

Posted in Strategic Planning | January 21st, 2010 | Mike Krause |

How to Conquer the Strategic Growth Ghost

By Mike Krause

If you don’t know exactly what you’re selling and why your customers are buying, strategic growth will remain a ghostly apparition–always elusive and never materializing. And if your organization isn’t growing, it’s dying.

Most businesses, at some point, were able to provide these answers. But over time organization leaders become so immersed in their business they lose perspective and fail to work on it. Eventually, they’re left wondering how the competition incrementally stole the marketshare.

Here’s how to stop it: know your unique selling proposition (USP) and your unique value proposition (UVP).

What’s your USP? What do you sell that separates you from your competitors? This is not an elevator speech. This is a clearly distilled statement about what you do in 8 words or less. You should know it. Your executive staff should know it. Your sales staff should know it. Your clients and prospects should know it. Your receptionist, phone operator, and in-house mail clerk should know it. This statement is one of the single most important selling guides within your organization.

Here’s the other one.

What’s your UVP? Why do your customers do business with you? What is their perception of you? Maybe they see value where you don’t. Perhaps they like the color of your logo or the aura of your company culture. Maybe it’s your location, convenience, expertise, friendliness, reputation, price, knowledge, visibility, coolness rating, or frustration with a competitor–whatever it is you need to know it.

Be open to learn that what you think are reasons your clients are buying may not be their greatest influencers.

Are your ideal customers who you think they are?
Are you channeling your USP resources into a package your customers want?
Are your customers attracted to you because of the uniqueness of what you provide?

Alignment between USP and UVP equates into real strategic growth. The ghosts are gone. But by now you have correctly guessed this alignment requires maintenance. It relies upon paying continuous attention to your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). And to do that you need your USP and UVP.

Wondering where to start?

Try this for USP: at your next staff meeting place a big box next to you. Pass out sheets of paper and pencils then ask attendees to write your organization’s USP. Don’t warn or prompt them. You’re trying to collect a true snapshot of their understanding. Their answers will tell you how much work you need to do in this area.

Try this for UVP: make a list of all your current assets that collect prospect and customer opinion of your organization and then use them to listen to your customers and collect their input.

Is your list a little sparse? Consider:

• Surveys (make sure to provide an open-ended question)
• Social media (yes, another valuable trait of this technology)
• Testimonials
• Case Studies
• Website analytics
• Focus group
• Mixer (a little unconventional but a great way to solicit conversation and thank your customers)

Now you have some tools to get started. Will you use them and conquer the strategic growth ghost or continue on and just hope for the best? It’s your move.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

Strategic Planning Questionnaire: Step One for Strong Growth and Sales

Posted in Strategic Planning | January 14th, 2010 | Mike Krause |

Strategic Planning Questionnaire:

Step One for Strong Growth and Sales

By Mike Krause

Strategic planning. The American Marketing Association defines strategic planning as “the consideration of current decision alternatives in light of their probable consequences over time.” We can all agree this is a critical and necessary part of running a business.

Strategic planning can and should be refined to address two interrelated subjects: growth and sales. In today’s competitive environment, if you aren’t growing you’re dying. How does that work? A failure on your part to grow strategically translates into an opportunity for your competitors.

How can you tell if you have an effective strategic growth plan? If you’re unable to answer the following questions quickly and concisely, your growth plan needs attention.

  • How often are your regularly scheduled meetings with your sales team and/or executives?
  • How are you measuring success?
  • Do you have a spreadsheet that tracks these measurements?
  • Can all your employees describe your sales process?
  • What exactly are you producing for the company? (Everyone should have a tangible answer to this, including the owner.)

How’d you do? Most people stumble around on those questions for one simple reason; they don’t allow themselves to step outside of their business long enough to work on it instead of in it. The next set of questions will give you that outside perspective. The answers will reveal your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).

  • What value are you delivering to your customers?
  • Why are people buying from you and not someone else?
  • What are your customers really buying from you?
  • What is the comprehensive customer experience?

Your strengths are made up of your core competencies and resources. Think in terms of skills and attributes. What is your organization great at doing? In what capacity do you outpace everyone else? Use your answer to describe your value.

Once you can identify your value, you can strategically search for new opportunities. Collectively, these actions determine your capacity for growth (remember, if your organization isn’t growing, it’s dying).

Look in the mirror: identifying the opposite is equally important. If something isn’t a strength, perhaps it’s a weakness? Once you know your weaknesses then you know your threats. Your flaws are your competitors’ advantage and ultimately threaten your growth and sales. Fortunately, it works both ways.

Share these questions with your staff. Your goal is for everyone to have similar, well-articulated, crystallized answers based on an authentic understanding of the organization. And that is your first step towards establishing a true strategic plan.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
Comment: 1

3 Succinct Steps to Get Sales through Social Media: How a Small Business Did It (and so can you).

Posted in Social Media Prospecting | January 6th, 2010 | Mike Krause |

3 Succinct Steps to Get Sales through Social Media: How a Small Business Did It

(and so can you).


These days you can’t escape the social media buzz. You also can’t escape the recession. During a time when most non-essential businesses struggled to survive, one such organization experienced solid, sustained growth. This is a remarkable accomplishment. This is how they did it.

Madeline’s Catering is a full-service caterer in Rochester, NY. Like many other small and mid-sized organizations Madeline’s Catering found themselves facing the perennial small business challenge-they were so busy providing a high quality service they had neither time nor knowledge on how to sell it.  “I’m a chef not a sales person,” says Madeline Neville, Head Chef and owner.

Madeline’s Catering followed a customized 6-week plan organized around specific, realistic action items. Social media played a key role. Here’s what they did.

  1. Rebranding. Madeline’s Catering built an attractive, new website fully integrated with the traffic driving, social media channels Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In.
  2. Streamlined Maintenance. To accommodate time limitations Neville uses an account on Ping.fm, a social media management site that allows her to upload new content and update all her channels in minutes.
  3. Customer Service. Using scripts for phone calls and letters along with an in-take form Neville has a process for systematic follow-up for phone inquiries. In addition, she sought education for herself and staff to assess and improve phone skills and closing techniques.

The results: In six weeks Madeline’s Catering’s website traffic increased 41 percent and phone inquiries have nearly doubled. Their phone call strategies have increased the number of closed sales. This efficient system has streamlined management and improved employee morale. Madeline’s Catering now stands above the competition with a reputation of excellent customer service. Furthermore, time previously spent finding prospects is now used for researching and improving recipes.

The Takeaway: Social media means real business. As a result of their upfront efforts Madeline’s Catering has a distinct advantage over their competitors that translates into benefits in the eyes of the customer.

You’ve probably figured out that Sales Sense Solutions organized the 6-week strategy. And yes, there were other components involved in that 6-week strategy. We decided to share this dimension of the story with you to demonstrate that social media can be a solid sales-driving tool for you even during an extended recession. If you want to read a full version of the Madeline’s Catering case study please visit www.SalesSenseSolutions.com

Please visit http://www.madelinescatering.com/ for all of your catering needs.

We’re also hosting a social media seminar and invite you to join us and learn. Click here to get more information. https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/850393099

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

How to Connect with a CEO: 12 Easy Social Media Steps Part II

Posted in Social Media Prospecting | December 30th, 2009 | Mike Krause |

How to Connect with a CEO: 12 Easy Social Media Steps

Part II

by Mike Krause

 

Last week we gave you the first 6 steps on how to connect with a CEO using social media.

If you took full advantage of that advice you should have a list with your 5 top prospect companies and their chief staff members. You should also have notes of your common interests as well as the names of professional organizations and groups your prospect belongs to.

In review: steps 1 and 2 directed you to XYZ Company’s website. Steps 3 through 6 took place on LinkedIn.

Time to move to Twitter

  1. Sometimes XYZ Company may have a Twitter account but hasn’t put it on their website.  Go to Twitter.com and do a company search (click search then type in XYZ Company). If they’re listed, follow them.
  2. Visit XYZ’s Company’s profile page on Twitter. Look who they’re following. Review
    XYZ Company’s tweets. This information allows you to assemble what’s important to XYZ Company along with their interests and conversational tone which will help you be prepared to converse.
  3. Now it’s time to shift gears on Twitter and search for your CEO by name (remember, you found her name on LinkedIn). If your CEO prospect is listed, follow her. Repeat what you did for XYZ Company. Look who your prospect is following along with her tweets and conversational tone. You can use this information to search for common interests so you’re prepared to converse. Look at your prospect’s tweets to get a feel for what she thinking and what’s important to her.

Note: Quite often an organization will have a Twitter account while individuals who work with XYZ Company have their own Twitter page. We are asking you to review both.

  1. Get the list of groups you made on Step 6 while you were on LinkedIn. Use Twitter to search for those groups. Look at their tweets and learn more about what they are doing so you can identify a common interest with your prospect CEO. Join the ones that interest you or think might be important to your prospect. Take note: If a group or your prospect likes your Twitter account, they will follow you back.  This is why you should maintain a Twitter account and post regular helpful information on it. And please refrain from sending automated messages; they are not appreciated by the Twitter community.
  2. If your prospect follows you back you will have the ability to send him a direct message. Send a personalized note…now you’ve made your first connection! If he doesn’t follow you back immediately you can still connect to him by making a thoughtful comment on one of his tweets using Twitter’s @ feature. This is another way to make a connection!
  3. Repeat the search for XYZ Company and your prospect’s name on other social media channels (i.e. You Tube, Facebook, or SlideShare). Now that you’ve made the first contact you can extend connections on these channels. Please remember, you’re cultivating a professional relationship so be respectful and polite.

Connecting at this level is valuable because you’ve eliminated the gatekeepers and you’re reaching out not as a sales person but as someone who shares a common, social interest. How you handle your conversation from this point is a topic for another day.

Next week: A case study of a Rochester-based, small business and how they grew during the recession by incorporating fundamental sales strategies into a new social media presence. Their story is remarkable…visit next week to find out why.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments

How to Connect with a CEO: 12 Easy Social Media Steps (And why it’s faster than cold calling)

Posted in Social Media Prospecting | December 22nd, 2009 | Mike Krause |

How to Connect with a CEO: 12 Easy Social Media Steps
(And why it’s faster than cold calling)

You need sales. You need leads. But you don’t want to waste your time on social media. Guess what? Social media can get you the leads you need to make sales.

If you think 12 simple steps is too many then consider the alternative–spending another block of time cold-calling prospects whose gatekeepers give you the cold shoulder or reaching staff members with no authority to take action.

When you’re prospecting for a lead generation campaign not all contacts are created equally. A high quality lead is with someone who has decision-making capabilities within their organization. Who fits this description better than the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)?

You can count on this exclusive group to be busy. Understand your voice will be one of hundreds competing for their attention. How do you break through? You use social media.

Here’s how:

Start at the website

1. Go to your prospect’s (XYZ Company) website and register for any newsletter and/or read through their blogs. This action will give you access to XYZ Company’s current information, interests and needs.
2. While on their website search for any social media accounts such as Twitter, LinkedIn, or You Tube and start following and listening to what they are saying.

Search LinkedIn

3. Go to LinkedIn and conduct a company search (type in XYZ Company in the search box).
4. Linked In will display a list of employees and their positions. Find and search your prospect (remember, you’re looking for the chief decision-maker) to see how you are connected to him or her (“search references” gives you this capability).
5. Reach out to your direct connection or get introduced through a connection. When viewing his/her profile look for common interests; groups, schools, and books they are reading, etc.
6. Make a list of any professional organizations or groups your prospect belongs to.

Come back next week for the remaining six easy steps that will have you connecting with a CEO in a way that separates you from the crowd.

There’s a reason why I’m breaking this article into two parts. That seven day window gives you plenty of time to implement these first action items.

So if you’re ready for the next level do this: take a piece of paper and write the name of your target company across the top. Repeat until you’ve identified five (just five) companies. Follow the steps outlined above. When you read next week’s blog you will have a name, title, and list of membership groups. Armed with this information you’ll be ready to complete steps 7 through 12. After that you won’t be reading about how to reach a CEO…you’ll be connecting.

Incidentally, many sales outfits charge thousands of dollars for blueprint action-oriented modules. You just received one module for free. Happy Holidays.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Digg
  • LinkedIn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Sphinn
No Comments