By Sam Manfer

Prospecting rejection hurts. Some targets are gentler with their rejection than others, but the message is the same – “NO”. Once rejected, you’ll be annoying if you keep pushing which could burn a future opportunity. Oh, there are those that attest to their tenacity in turning rejection into a sale. Unfortunately those instances are rare – ½% – 1%.

Prospecting rejection occurs because there is no interest at this moment. No budget, the company is financially strapped, or that would never get approved, are excuses and will leave you in the cold.

Become a Relationship Builder: As a relationship builder, the salesperson should not focus on “closing” or using sales techniques that achieve “mini closes”. The salesperson should take an active interest in helping the client’s company improve its competitive advantage, becoming a trusted advisor and valued partner in the client’s business. In the relationship-builder role, the salesperson serves a universal need that never goes away—the client’s need to keep getting better at what they do.

How do you do that?

By Chris Carlson, ACTG Sales Development Expert

Almost every salesperson I know hates to cold call.  Instead, salespeople want to grow their business through referrals and introductions.  This certainly makes sense, but the biggest problem salespeople make is that they do not create a recipe for success for introductions.

I would like to share with you the key ingredients of the recipe for success in building your business through introductions.

Ingredient #1:   You must have a goal for the number of introductions you want to receive each week.  Without a goal, how do you know what or how much to do?  Setting a weekly goal is critical to success, yet very few actually do this.

Ingredient #2:   Know the type of client you want.  You need to be crystal clear so you can tell your Centers of Influence (COIs) what type of client you would like them to introduce you to.  If you are not clear on the type of client you want, you will receive too many introductions to suspects you really do not want to work with.

Ingredient #3:  Identify your Referral Sources.  My recommendation is this.  Take a sheet of paper and make 3 columns.  In the first column, list all of your current COIs.  These are the people that believe in you and consistently introduce you to prospects.  In the second column, list the people that you know and believe could be good source of introductions, but your relationship with them has not yet developed to the point where they are introducing you to prospects.  In the third column, write down the Big Kahunas.  These are the people that are so influential in your market or community that if they ever became your advocate, it would rock your world.  Now take that list and look at it often to remind yourself whom you need to be in contact with.  Keep it very visible, because if you put it away, it becomes out of sight, out of mind.

Ingredient #4:   As you plan your week, write down the people who you are going to ask for introductions from.  This could be somebody you have an appointment with, someone you are going to see at an event or just somebody who you are going to call or e-mail.  This prior planning is critical.

Ingredient #5:  Be committed to your goals.  Too many people are good goal setters, but not good goal getters.  Keep track of your success so you can make any necessary adjustments.

Imagine what your year would look like if you were to receive 50, 100, 150 or more introductions.  Not all that you are introduced to will want or need your services, but for most of you, all you need is a fraction of them to become your client and you will have a phenomenal year.

If you want to build your business through referrals and introductions, make sure you have the proper recipe for success.

This week’s guest blog is by Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales.

Currently, NFL Football is experiencing a lockout, but for the sake of this post, let us revisit seasons past….

Teams in camp, two a day practices happening, and coaches beginning to train and teach players how to get better. I read a piece by Peter King from SI.com about his conversation with Ellis Hobbs, former cornerback with the New England Patriots. He was talking about how much respect he had for head coach Bill Belichick.

He said, “Early in my career, Bill called me into his office, and we sat there – for a long time – studying film. He taught me to look for the simple things and not to make football so complicated. I got better. I was with one of the best coaches of all time, and he helped me become a better player.”

In sales, too, you can become a better producer if you concentrate on the simple things and doing them better. Here are two things you can do starting today to increase your closing ratio and make more money:

1. Keep a record of the reasons your prospects don’t close and then concentrate on qualifying these on issues up front with future prospects. This was one of the simplest and most effective habits I developed to get better.

I kept a notebook with all my prospects in it and every time they didn’t buy, I’d put in red ink the reason why not. I even boiled it down to three codes: NI, for No Interest; NM for No Money; and NC for Not Controllable. And then throughout the weeks and months I’d go back through my notebook and look for patterns and ask myself, “What do I need to focus on during the qualification stage?”

If too many prospects were not buying because they simply weren’t ready to buy right then “No Interest” needed to be addressed on the front call. I’d start by asking more questions like: “Prospect, if you find that this would work for you, what is your time frame for moving ahead with it?”

And so on. Bottom line – if you don’t get it right on the front end then you’ll never increase your closing ratio.

2. Ask for bigger orders on every close. Oh I know, you’ve heard this before, right? But how often do you actually do it? So many sales reps are afraid to ask for too much and are just happy to get a minimum order. I know because I used to be that way.

But my career turned around when I began asking for big orders on every single call. And what I learned is that you never know how much a person or company can handle. You can always go down (in price, quantity, etc.), but you can never go up.

The truth is, it’s all the same amount of work anyway, so why not ask for 2 times or 3 times the minimum order and see what you get! If only one in ten of your prospects buy the increased amount, how much more money would that mean to you?

The fun part about consistently asking for more is that you’ll end up getting more—and every time you do, you reinforce the habit to do it. And as soon as you get a taste of closing bigger deals, you begin looking for and expecting them. Try it and you’ll see for yourself—it’s one of the simplest things you can do to make a lot more money.

Just remember, as you’re reading this the NFL players and coaches are working on the simple things to improve. You should be doing so, too!

By Debra Donston-Miller, The Ladders
When one half of a couple is out of work, it requires extra effort from both to keep the household on the move.

The “for better or worse” vow has been put to the test during the past few years as millions of couples’ relationships have been affected by long periods of joblessness.

While the burden of unemployment is certainly stressful for the person who has lost a job, it also represents huge new responsibilities for a spouse who still has a job. One of the biggest is bringing home a paycheck while supporting your partner in the search for a new job. This role requires patience, a positive attitude and flexibility — as well as generosity with your network.

Monica Wright and her husband, Tim, have experienced this firsthand. Tim lost his job as a morning radio host in August 2010. Monica, a search marketing executive, lost her job two months later but was fortunate to land another full-time position shortly thereafter.

Tim has not been so lucky, and the couple’s lives have changed substantially as a result. While searching for a job, Tim stays home and takes care of the couple’s two children, ages 4 and 10. Monica works her full-time job and freelances to help make up for Tim’s lost salary. She estimates that she works an average of 60 hours a week.

Monica said the situation has not been easy, but she realizes that both she and Tim are doing what needs to be done to keep the family and each other afloat. “It’s been tough. … We sort of fell into assumed roles,” she said. “I’ve got to work, so I can’t necessarily spend time doing things such as calling the tax guy or following up on personal things or taking the kids to the dentist. It’s a little stressful on my end, where I don’t spend as much down time, and I’m afraid of burnout. But it is what it is right now.”

Acknowledgment and acceptance, as well as compromise and collaboration, are key to keeping a relationship healthy, said Dr. John Duffy, a clinical psychologist, certified life coach and author of “The Available Parent: Radical Optimism for Raising Tweens and Teens”. “Couples need to work together through the challenge, and often crisis, of job change, to ensure they are allied with one another,” Duffy said. “They also need to tend to their relationship by spending some time talking about something other than the job search, and enjoying one another.”

The longer a person is away from the routine of the workforce (and the more rejections one receives), the more difficult it can be to maintain motivation. This is where the employed spouse also comes in, say experts — providing advice, perspective and, when needed, cheerleading.

Keep Your Spouse Connected

“Encourage the spouse as much as possible to stay out there, keep networking and remain connected with the professional community,” said Deb Brown, a business coach and licensed psychologist. “People who are depressed are often tempted to withdraw, which is one of the worst things a job seeker can do.”

That connection to a professional community should apply not only to the job seeker’s network but to the employed spouse’s network, as well, said career experts who spoke with TheLadders. Even if you are not in the same industry as your partner, you never know which one of your contacts knows someone who knows someone who is. The trick, experts add, is to be able to clearly articulate your partner’s skills and experience in a professional manner — something that can be difficult to do, to be sure, when there is so much emotional baggage attached to the situation.

“Serve as an advocate for your spouse by actively networking among friends and family,” said Roy Cohen, career coach and author of “The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide”. “But don’t do so out of fear or desperation. Be clear on what your spouse does professionally and how to best explain it. Your messaging will make a difference if it’s clear, concise, and not fear-based.”

Monica Wright opened up her professional network to her husband and said it resulted in a few follow-ups. She admits, though, that the opportunities seem to be scarce given the nature of her husband’s work.

Indeed, in the radio industry, a new job often means a new market — a move the Wrights are not sure they want to make at this time. Tim has been exploring new professional options for the “next phase” of his professional life, a process Monica is supporting.

“It’s been about giving him space and being supportive in terms of providing ideas and access to a network,” she said. “I don’t get resentful. I like what I do for work. It’s not like I’m digging trenches. He just needs to figure out what he wants to do for the next phase, and I just give him the tools. … We’re just trying to make it all work out.”

Debra Donston-Miller covers work-life issues and difficult job-search situations for TheLadders.

By Skip Anderson

Almost anybody can sell almost anything, If they lie.

Lying is not a sales technique. it is not a skill. It isn’t clever or cool. It doesn’t require intelligence or sales ability.

Lying doesn’t (or shouldn’t) count in selling. It’s too easy. Anyone can do it. All you have to do is pick something about your product or service, it’s warranty, your company, or yourself and either exaggerate something about it or make something up about it or say the opposite of what’s real and true. Who can’t do that?

I can’t. And hopefully you can’t either.

It’s not surprising that the general public looks down (either some or a lot) on those of us in the sales profession. The reason they do is because some of us in our profession are not professional. They’re liars. They’re in it to win it, at virtually any cost. Those without a strong set of personal values or without a conscience are perfect for candidates for this behavior.

I’ve had the good fortune to work with many professionals in our field. I take pride in the people who have influenced me positively, and I’m thankful I’ve had an opportunity to influence others. There are many truly good people who earn their living selling.

I’ve also had the disappointment and even disgust of working with people who lie and feel good about it. One of them, I remember, called selling “a hustle.” Some have become very wealthy via their dishonesty.

It’s easy to lie about…

… Your product’s capabilities;

… Services or items included that really aren’t included in the purchase.

… Delivery or installation time frames.

… The future by promising things that cannot be promised or aren’t real.

Some salespeople lie all the time. Some lie some of the time. Some lie big lies. Some tell white lies.

Enough is enough. Some salespeople never lie. There’s no place for lying in our profession. Those who do it don’t deserve to wear the badge of honor that hard working, ethical salespeople deserve to wear. I believe selling is honorable, but only if it’s done in an honorable fashion.

Otherwise, you’re just a hustler.

The Brooks Group

Here’s a magic formula:

> as trust in you and

> confidence in the value of what you’re offering rises,

> fear of buying disappears.

I’d like to say a few things about building confidence in the value of what you’re offering…

Price objections occur when you haven’t built enough value for what you’re offering in the minds of your prospects. However, that shouldn’t be a problem because YOU can always make your product or service more valuable. Here are 9 ways to differentiate your offering in order to defeat price objections…

1. Providing expert advice and a high level of professionalism. Lots of consulting organizations, accounting firms, and medical professionals are paid a tidy sum for the level of advice that they provide. However, for you as a sales professional, to provide value, you need to understand that you have to provide a level of advice that is significantly higher, more sophisticated and more valuable than that of your competition. That means you’ve got to develop a higher level of sophistication, wisdom, and understanding about what you do.
2. Bundling and packaging.  This extends beyond the way your product or service looks. It’s also about building desirable packages or purchasing levels. You might even offer a series of added benefits that are significant in value. In fact these “added benefits” might be a whole lot more valuable than the product by itself.
3. Service levels. Is it possible for you to differentiate yourself by adding different levels of service based on someone’s size, frequency, or amount of purchase? For example, you may want to have gold, platinum, or silver levels of service that people qualify for (or are willing to pay for).
4. Transition and education. As new customers come on stream with your organization, you may want to provide action or transition teams to help them to be better able to use the products or services you’ve sold them. By the same token, the more education they have related to those products or services the more capable they’ll be at using them. What does that mean? Happy, satisfied customers who eagerly buy more.
5. Recognition and reward levels. This is different than “frequent buyer programs” in that, with this concept, you actually recognize clients or customers for their ability to use your product or service. I’m sure you’ve got some customers who are maximizing the potential of your offering. Why not recognize them for being outstanding customers? Several years ago, we incorporated a “Hall of Fame” into our newsletter. We used it to recognize some of our best clients. We literally had people calling to find out how they could be recognized! It’s a fantastic way to utilize good relationships and good will.
6. Qualitative preference. Based upon someone’s level of purchase, involvement or interaction, you provide higher quality of product, perhaps a more sophisticated level of service, dedicated personnel, dedicated phone lines, fax lines, or the like, that gives them a greater opportunity to be treated better than a run-of-the-mill customer.
7. Dedicated personnel. This works particularly well if you have a technical product or service or one that requires extensive support. It is not difficult to understand that the more someone is familiar with another customer’s account, products, machinery, equipment or way of doing business, the easier it is to do business with them. In this scenario, you can simply assign dedicated account people to handle your customer’s accounts personally.
8. Speed of service or delivery. One of the ways to differentiate yourself is to guarantee some sort of on time or faster delivery. It is very well known that on time delivery is a key component for charging full or maximum pricing. It is also a component as it relates to providing value-added services and products.
9. Insider information. This is very common when people are selling information related to technical products, new and innovative products, or anything related to information or time specific data. Utilizing this process you may want to consider a regular newsletter (electronic or printed) that updates customers on a regular basis as it relates to very key and important information that they need to have.

Add value to your day-to-day sales activity with these nine ideas. They require creativity, innovation and a willingness to out-work your competition. But they’ll pay off!

We have been training salespeople on dealing with objections for more than thirty years. We continue that tradition in all of our sales training programs.

By Chris Lytle, Monster Contributing Writer

A CEO told me a story about a salesperson who asked for a raise. She asked the salesperson, “Why do you deserve a raise?” “Because I made less this year than I did last year,” explained the salesperson. “That’s because you sold less this year than you did last year,” said the CEO. “I know. And I want you to make it up to me,” said the salesperson.

This salesperson is no longer working for this organization.

So how and when should a salesperson ask for a raise? Understanding your boss’s point of view will help you position your raise as a good thing for the company, instead of a good thing for you. Here are seven points to consider before negotiating a better deal:

1. Make Sure You Have Clout

The salesperson in the example above didn’t have leverage. Coming off a bad year or quarter is the wrong time to test your value. With clout, you could find yourself with a better offer from the company or on the free agent market.

A better offer from another firm validates your claim that you’re worth more to the company you’re working for. If your boss wants to keep you, you have the clout to establish the parameters of your raise. However, if you use the “here’s what I’m worth to another company” ploy, you have to be willing to leave.

2. Watch Your Timing

Don’t even think about asking for a raise until you’ve been there a year or more. Your value to the company increases when you have some customer relationships you can leverage for increased sales and referrals.

3. Ask for Small Increases in Your Base Salary Based on Inflation

If it’s been a while since your base pay was adjusted, this ploy might work. However, the trend today is for lower bases and increased incentives. This lets companies reduce fixed expenses while rewarding you for meeting company expectations.

4. Be Willing to Take an Expanded Role in the Company

You have both a job and a role as a salesperson. Your job is to sell and make your quota. Your role is to mentor that new salesperson and be part of the team.

Your role means supporting your boss in sales meetings, not rolling your eyes and sighing when the new demands come down from corporate and not promising clients things your production people can’t deliver. Bosses bend over backwards to keep salespeople with with good attitudes and look for excuses to fire the malcontents.

5. Negotiate for Perks That Don’t Cost the Company More Taxes and Benefits

Companies don’t have to pay workers’ compensation and FICA on an extra week of vacation, a trip, or increased car or cellphone allowances. It’s income to you, but not as costly in cash outlay as a raise.

6. Ask for Extra Incentives After You’ve Made Your Quota

That’s the easiest thing for your boss to give you. Imagine getting an additional 10 percent, or even 20 percent, on everything you sell once you’ve made your commission. This works because your boss has to deliver a number to his boss. Once you help deliver that number, you’ve got more clout, and people will want you to stay.

7. Make It a Win-Win Situation for You and Your Boss

In the scenario I outlined at the beginning of this article, the only winner would have been the salesperson. The boss didn’t get increased performance for increased pay. Show that you’re willing to take on more responsibility. Be willing to do some of the work before you get paid to demonstrate that you deserve the increase.

Asking for a raise is just like asking for an order. Practice your presentation. Be as prepared for this meeting as you would be for a presentation to a major customer. Arm yourself with facts and figures on your performance. Position the raise as a benefit to the company. And finally, make sure your boss sees you as a winner and not a whiner.

This story originally appeared on Monster.com.

Rick Roberge agrees that we have to know how to do what we get paid for. He understands that we need to keep informed to be leading edge, but at some point you have to (don’t be frightened) stop talking to the competition and (brace yourself) HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH A PROSPECT!

Here are five ideas that might help…

Jeff Bussgang, Seeing Both Sides

The unemployment rate in America is hovering around 9%. But if you are a competent engineer, sales executive, online marketer or general manager in Silicon Valley, NYC, Boston, or other startup hotspots, the unemployment rate is 0%.

The talent market has gotten as competitive and aggressive as I have ever seen in the last 20 years. CNN recently reported that 40% of the 130,000 job openings in Silicon Valley are for software engineers. Senior executives have never been harder to secure. That’s why, even though it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, I’m advocating that all my portfolio companies hire recruiters when they are trying to fill senior or key positions. Immediately.

Typically, when a young company gets financing and begins to hire, they seek to leverage the network of the founding team and their investors. This network provides some valuable leads and perhaps a few hires. Leveraging existing networks has greater benefits than simply cost savings and convenience. Teams that have worked together in the past simpy are well-positioned to out-execute those that haven’t due to their common history, language and relationships.

I have read studies that show that one of the factors that correlates highly for success in a startup is if the team has worked together and made money together in a previous startup. But tapping those informal networks alone doesn’t scale. And reacting to inbound people flow generates an adverse selection bias – the best people are not looking, so they will never contact you and respond to your job posting.

As an entrepreneur, I was initially very skeptical of fast-talking, expensive recruiters. I thought hiring them represented a personal failure on my part as an entrepreneur. After all, it was my job to secure the best and brightest talent through my own efforts and my own network. But my years of recruiting have taught me that startup CEOs are at a distinct competitive disadvantage if they don’t get outside help for recruiting.

Here are the top five reasons why:

1) You Never Have Enough Proactive Time. As an entrepreneur, you are always battling dividing your efforts into proactive time (where you direct the activities through your own energy) versus reactive time (where you are reacting to people and forces around you). With the inflow of real-time information and people coming at you from all sides and demanding your attention (employees, investors, customers, etc), it’s hard to find enough proactive time in the day. Recruiting is a proactive exercise. It requires effort and energy from the entrepreneur to generate candidate flow, meet candidates, vet them, check references.  It is therefore important to have an outside force push you to react to candidates and help you prioritize the recruiting effort, just as your VP Sales is pushing you to prioritize sales and your VP Marketing is pushing you to prioritize marketing.

2) Hiring Inexperience. Most entrepreneurs are first time CEOs or even second time CEOs who simply do not have a lot of experience hiring, particularly hiring the particular executives they’re hiring for (Try this exercise – ask your favorite CEO/entrepreneur how many times they’ve hired a CFO. Most never have but even if they’ve done it once or twice in the past, are they really now an expert at it?). Like anything else, hiring is a science. A recruiting friend of mine likes to say, “interviews are inquisitions, not discussions”.  Too many entrepreneurs don’t actually know how to interview well.  Further, they’re not experienced at assessing their current human capital needs, analyzing the gaps of management team members, and then understanding the market and how to fill the gaps.  Good recruiters are invaluable in this regard.

3) Shallow reference checking. Busy entrepreneurs and busy VCs typically do cursory reference checking when making even senior hires. They allow themselves to be swayed by their own conviction, let the candidates spoon feed them their top fans from past jobs and ignore the opportunity to push for a deep understanding of candidates’ histories and claims. When I make an investment in a company, I typically do 8-10 reference checks and get a wide variety of perspectives from people who have worked with the entrepreneur in the past and seen them in a range of different situations.  It’s hard to have the discipline to replicate this thoroughness when making a senior hire, particularly when trying to move quickly in a competitive hiring market (see “You Never Have Enough Proactive Time” above).

4) Quarterbacking the Selling Process. Many hiring managers don’t realize that the due diligence process for a candidate is as thorough, if not more so, than your due diligence on them. The best candidates have choices and are sought after. Even though you are deciding whether to “buy” over the course of a series of interviews, you need to be in a position to sell every step of the way. “Everyone’s trying to be the coolest place to work,” observed one Stanford junior who is being barraged with job opportunities.  Recruiters can be very helpful in quarterbacking the selling process – proactively surfacing objections and handling them with data and follow-up conversations, linking candidates to the right people at the right time in the process.

5) Focus on closing. Closing candidates in this competitive a market is very hard.  ounter-offers, compressed timeframes and personal considerations all get in the way of smooth closes.  Again, if you don’t have alot of proactive time available to you (and who does?!), there’s great benefit to having a focused closer.

Further, I have found having an intermediary helps tremendously with the negotiations.  A candidate will be unafraid to tell a recruiter what it takes to get the deal done, and a tough back and forth with the help of an intermediary can avoid bad feelings aftewards between two principals that will need to work together as a team when the dust settles.Too often I hear entrepreneurs say, “I’ll work my network for a few weeks and then we’ll hire a recruiter.”

Many VCs are over-confident about their own recruiting prowress and will tell entrepreneurs to wait until they talk to their partners and surface a few great candidates from their network. The problem, of course, is that everyone gets busy and distracted. A few weeks turns into a few months, a few candidates get turned up and interviewed but then discarded, and finally when the network comes up dry, the group reconvenes and decides to hire a recruiter. Now the recruiters need to be selected, interviewed, reference checked, negotitated with and ramped up – causing more delay.  By the time you get around to getting the recruiter ramped up, the board and CEO feel frustrated that they are already behind.

To be clear, not all recruiters are created equal and some are a waste of time and money. But if you can find a good one, don’t let them go. Paul English, cofounder of Kayak, is a truly gifted recruiter and there has been alot written about his approach to hiring. If you can be that exceptional, perhaps you don’t need a recruiter.  And, believe me, the price you pay for these folks feels exorbitant, particularly if you are in the scrappy, lean start-up phase of development.

My bottom line advice is to just bite the bullet and hire a recruiter now. The difference will cost you an incremental $50-100k, but everyone knows hiring an “A” has a massive positive impact as compared to a “B” – and that impact is compounded if it can be achieved 3-6 months sooner.