Raintoday's Sales Tips & Techniques Podcast

Many people get excited about the latest and greatest social media platforms, thinking they have to use whatever new pops up. The truth is you must assess each one to determine if it's right for you. And you have to do it regularly, as the networks are continually changing as are buyer preferences. Listen as Michelle Golden, author of Social Media Strategies for Professionals and their Firms, discusses strategy for deciding which social networks to use and how firms use them to nurture client relationships and grow business.

The key to maintaining a continual flow of clients is focus, says Mike Weinberg, author of New Sales. Simplified. Focus on new business development. More than that, however, you need a strategy to make it happen. That's where Weinberg's simple sales framework comes in. Listen as he explains the three steps to drive new sales, as well as your most effective sales weapon.

A value proposition is crucial to conveying to potential clients what you do and why they should do business with you. Yet many people have problems communicating that value. Their statements don’t resonate with buyers, and they don’t differentiate them from competitors. Listen as RAIN Group Co-President discusses how to best explain the value you offer so that people want to work with you.

Everyone wants more clients, and higher-paying clients. But only those who claim a niche and know how to tell their story will succeed. That's because people want specialists to help them, not generalists. Listen as Nancy Juetten, contributor to the recently release book Speak More: Marketing Strategies to Get More Speaking Business, discusses the importance of specializing in an area and how to craft messages, including your profile, that attract your ideal client.

If you have a B2B service firm or are a service professional, LinkedIn is the place to be. It allows you tremendous opportunities to connect with prospective clients and generate new business. But you have to have to have a strategy for using it, says social media strategist Neal Schaffer, and it all starts with your LinkedIn profile. Listen as Schaffer discusses how to use your profile as a sales and marketing tool, as well as how to use groups to develop new business.

If you're at a networking event and you see the perfect prospect across the room, do you know what you would say? You need to be prepared to not just introduce yourself but get the person interested in a meeting with you. Listen as Terri Sjodin, author of Small Message, Big Impact, explains how to craft a powerful elevator speech, the three components of an effective elevator speech, and The Elevator Speech Effect.

If you're like most service professionals, you have a hard time asking for referrals. There are ways, however, to get referrals without asking for them outright, says Emile Paradis, a franchise owner of The Referral Institute. Listen as he discusses how to prepare clients so that they naturally refer you to your ideal prospects.

It's a given that you have to ask prospects questions so you can uncover their needs and develop a solution to help them. How you ask those questions, however, determines if they open up to you or if they shut down and dismiss everything you say. Listen as RAIN Group President John Doerr discusses when to ask questions, questions that build trust, and how to develop rapport with a prospect over the phone.

When done right, branding helps get everybody in your firm—from receptionist to the business development team to technical staff—on the same page and everybody speaking the same language. If that isn't the case in your firm, if people have differing views about what your firm does, then you need to consider rebranding. Listen as Josh Miles, author of Bold Brand, discusses clues that rebranding is needed, misperceptions of branding, and how to get started rebranding your firm.

Want to advance your business? Take your competitors to lunch. That right, take them to lunch, says Michael Dalton Johnson, author Rules of the Hunt. If you do, you will view each other as human beings and disarm the situation. And that can lead to collegial relationships where you help each other.

Search engines, once the number one tool buyers used to help find service providers, have lost their appeal. Buyers have changed their behavior and now turn to friends and social network communities to help them decide who to hire. Sellers and marketers need to acknowledge this or risk losing their business, says Kristin Zhivago, author of Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy.

Content marketing can help you grow your business, but only if you produce remarkable, high-quality content. Anything less, and you're wasting your time. So, before you put pen to paper—or hands on keyboard—make sure you know what your customers want and have the resources and structure to produce amazing content, says content marketing evangelist Joe Pulizzi. Doing so will increase your online footprint and pull more buyers to you.

You won't make a direct sale from a tweet or Facebook post, but you absolutely can use social media networks to develop relationships that lead to new business. Social media is, says marketing expert Todd Schnick, the "new networking." Listen as Schnick discusses why B2B firms should use social media, how they should use social media, and mistakes to avoid.

The most powerful form of advertising isn't pay-per-click campaigns or ads on popular social networks. It is word of mouth. It's having clients and employees—all employees—acting as ambassadors who communicate wherever possible the benefits of your service. It means having a "conversation company," says Steven Van Belleghem, author of The Conversation Company. Listen as Van Belleghem discusses how being conversation company improves word of mouth and how to transform your firm into a conversation company.

When you were in third grade, you probably didn't say you wanted to be a salesperson. In fact 95% of people in sales say they never planned on being involved in sales. Yet so many, especially service professionals, are charged with bringing in new business. The good news is you can learn how to sell.  To be a great salesperson, however, you must have a certain quality, says Chris Lytle, author of The Accidental Salesperson. Listen as Lytle explains what that quality is, as well as his roadmap to sales success.

Ask any email marketer when is the best time to send marketing email, and chances are they will say it depends. It depends on your business, and it depends on your ideal customers. However, company email tests have shown that certain buyers are more likely to read and respond to your email on particular days. Listen as marketing expert Matt Heinz discusses what day usually works best for contacting C-level executives, how to prevent email from being labeled as spam, and how to grow your email list.

Companies are sitting on a tremendous source of untapped growth—their customers. Most focus only on getting customers to buy—and keep buying, but that's only a fraction of the value firms can harvest from them, says Bill Lee, author of The Hidden Wealth of Customers. They can grow significantly more if they can turn customers into advocates—or rock stars—who will market and sell for you.

Traditional sales techniques no longer work. You also can't create one script and expect it to have the same effect on everyone. If you want to influence the buyer, you must approach him the way he prefers to be approached. Listen as Dan Seidman, author of The Secret Language of Influence, explains how to determine what type of buyer you're dealing with and how to customize the conversation based on that.

Most people struggle with cold calls because they just can't get prospects to give them their time. People are pounded by so much information that they block things out. They've become particularly adept at tuning out salespeople. In this podcast, Jim Keenan, author of the ebook All You Need for a Successful Cold Call, explains how to get around that coping mechanism, capture prospects' attention, and get them to talk with you.

Think you can't compete with the larger firms in your industry? Think again. Content marketing is the great leveling field that allows you to not just compete but win that battle. Listen as content marketing evangelist Joe Pulizzi discusses a simple content marketing strategy that can put small B2B service firms ahead of large competitors.