Do you have a fourth quarter game plan?

Guest Contributor: David Colomb
David's Posts - David's Blog

O.K., the fourth quarter is about to begin, another salesperson's nightmare. You have three months coming up with two major Holidays, three three day weekends, enough challenges for you? Of course, nobody buys anything in the fourth quarter, right? The budgets are all spent down, and no one wants to make a decision until the New Year. Let's see have I missed anything?

Now that we've got that out of our system, let's figure out how we are going to build a fourth quarter game plan. First thing is how we motivate ourselves to find the positives and get things in line. Why are you in sales? Most everyone is in the field because we are money motivated, we have Christmas and a New Year coming, and I know I want to be a great Santa for my family, and in today's economy I don't want to hit the credit cards, so I need to make some commission. I'm new to my company, and I want to be a leader when the yearend sales numbers come in. These are several of the motivations I have, list some of the things that will motivate you, put them on a piece of paper, put it where you see it every day, and use it.

Our clients are sitting out there waiting for us, and waiting to put us off till the New Year, so to get in front of them we have to find the "hot button" that'll open the door, what is it? Do we have a price that'll help them, or do we have terms that'll make the difference? At the very least, they'll have to put together a budget, and part of any budget is purchases, so they need to talk to you to get the numbers to plug in to the budget. You know your product, you know your industries, and you need to listen to your customers to find out why they need to see you. Prep becomes more important because the appointments are harder to get, so you need to be ready when you hit the door asking for the appointment, or making the presentation. Find the need, ask the right questions, and fill the need. Sounds easy, but it'll be a challenge, get ready.

You have an advantage over a lot of your competition; you have the motivation, and the plan to make it work. Many of the people you sell against have listened to all the objections and they've been sold on the fact that they need to just write off the fourth quarter, and start planning for next year. I watch a lot of football, and I've never see a team that writes off the fourth quarter and wins, but I have seen a number of miracle finishes because the team didn't give up. They watched what the other team was doing that worked, and they made adjustments that gave them the path to success, the same thing goes for me, I need to keep my head in the game and adjust to win. Keep positive.

Where do you find ideal clients?

Guest Contributor: Albert Luk

Albert's Posts - Albert's Site

As we get back from summer, the question always arises where do you find new ideal clients this autumn once you have tapped your hot list?

The traditional line of sight is networking functions. For readers who are veterans of these events, you know the issues with networking functions are primarily three-fold:

1. The same people attend all the events;
2. There are more sellers and buyers (and the sellers are not listening to your pitch); and
3. Your ideal client is too busy building a business to attend a networking event.

This is not to suggest that networking functions do not have intrinsic value. They do. It is that they are subject to these the above limitations.

The same issues also arise at association or industry events but add to it trying to process the sheer magnitude of business cards you receive and the time it takes to determine whether the lead is hot, warm or not a lead at all. In many respects, association/industry events are better for educational/competitive intelligence than pure lead building.

Instead, I would suggest that one adhere to the saying "like attract like." Most entrepreneurs spend time with other entrepreneurs. We like to unwind in each another's company and reinforce the fact that other people are facing the same challenges as us.

Rather than starting cold, ask your clients to introduce you to leads. The key is to narrow in on what you are looking for in a lead. It is not good enough to say "I need business, do you know anyone?"

Instead, be specific as to a "want" and a "need" client. The question to be asked then moves from the general to the specific: "ideally, I am looking for a business grossing between $2-$10 million a year who needs to rebuild their network but I am just as happy being introduced to a client that needs to purchase some redundancies on their existing network."

Implicit in this approach is that you are showing some sense of vulnerability in asking others for help. The salesperson is not the all-knowing expert but an actual human who requires assistance from others.

For some, it can be a tough pill to shallow. But remember people buy from people and showing that you are human is not necessarily a bad thing. Many entrepreneurs are more than happy to assist others and a side benefit of this approach may be that your clients see you as more of a person than a talking head.

Best of luck.

How to Create a 7 Figure Business

Guest Contributor: Shannon McCaffery
Shannon's Posts - Shannon's Site

It was supposed to be a quick hour and fifteen minute plane ride to Cleveland from Newark. Then out of nowhere right before we're supposed to push back from the gate, this huge thunderstorm hit and we were grounded for over 4 hours, stuck on the plane. I used to travel a lot in my corporate days so I was ready with lots to keep me busy for the much longer plane ride to Cleveland. I was extremely excited to be going there because I was attending Dan Kennedy's 7 Figure Academy: 7 Steps to 7 Figures. I've seen Dan speak many times at conferences. Yet, this was the first time I was going to hear him speak for 3 days straight and it was all content, all Dan. So while waiting on the plane for the airport to reopen, I had ample time to catch up on my past issues of Dan Kennedy's Marketing newsletter.

I was able to read the 3 that I brought from cover to cover and the information he shares still amazes me. I've been getting his newsletters for 3 years, and I can always pick one up and find the exact nugget that's been able to transform my own business and also my clients. Well, I did eventually get to Cleveland, 3 hours late, but just in time for dinner with my friends that were attending.

I knew this meeting was going to help me transform my business and the businesses of my clients. In fact, I got so much awesome information on the first day, I could have gone home! Dan totally over delivered at this workshop. The investment in this workshop was well worth it for the 200 of us who attended. So I can't reveal all of Dan's secrets here, however I can share with you a couple things that I think you can certainly take to the bank in your business. I really want to help your business be incredibly successful. That's one of the many reasons why I love going to conferences and workshops: I always learn something new that I can share with you and my clients, so we can all have more successful businesses. Remember "a rising tide floats all boats."

Ok, back to how you can take your business from 6 figures to 7 figures... There are 7 Things you need to have and to do in order to make 7 figures. I'll share with you the top 4 that I think will be the most affective for you:

Tremendous Status - Think of this as being like Donald Trump, or Houdini. You need to have status, personality and high end connections and associations. What's the "you" you are selling to your prospects/clients? What makes you unique in your niche?

Incredible Value - Every business has tangible and intangible value. What's the intangible value that only you can bring to your business? How can you over deliver to your customers? Prospects?

Extreme Productivity - Most businesses have unused and unexplored capacity. Do you have a new element you can add to your business? A new niche? A new "done for you" product/service?

Maximum Leverage - What's your biggest multiplier that you can use to leverage your business? What are your income producing assets and how can you leverage them more? How can you leverage your customers? Intellectual property? Process? Procedure? Brand? Connections?

Overall, the best thing I discovered at this workshop is if making 7 figures were that easy, than everyone would be doing it. It takes courage, stamina, resilience, fortitude, brains, and really being able to leverage your business, your connections and think really big, way out of the box big. An example would be, instead of trying to figure out how to build your list, why not ask this question - "How do I get 100 other people to feed me their best customers?" The name of the game to move forward to 7 figures is to be able to leverage yourself, your products, your business, giving incredible value and figuring out how you can be extremely productive. So I give you permission today, to start thinking much bigger for yourself, and your business. Don't wait, take one action now towards a 7 figure income - you deserve it!