The Salesby5 Blog

Last week at Salesby5 was busy! This post will be very different from the ones you have seen and probably will see.

A week ago today, Nan turned 30 and my gift to him was stock ownership in SalesBy5. The certificate hot off the law office’s printer and it was given to him at a tweet up turned birthday party at the Roaring Fork. The rest is well played out on an unplanned video shot by our friend Alan Weinkrantz. After 2 years and 9 months with Salesby5 it is my honor, privilege, and pleasure to welcome Nan Palmero as my partner!

photo by Ashley Palmero

Our purpose at Salesby5 is to inspire others. We talk of inspiration often, as it has so much to do with sales. One of the stars on our team is Kya, who is our Brand Evangelist. She has radar that picks out “REAL.”

She has a unique strength to know if someone is sincere (real) or fake in seconds, where most are about 100 times slower. Why does this matter? She can pick off someone trying to get a date, sell copier toner or attempting to get in your wallet faster than my computer can get an Internet connection. Tomorrow’s success is today’s real. This is why we fire customers who are rude, lie or don’t pay when they say they will pay. This is why we do not take a customer or vendor who we do not feel has the REAL Win-Win attitude versus just WIN. We need to feel good about making them prosper or there are plenty of others.

A few thoughts on being real regarding sales:

If you have to remember your pitch: Fail
If you can’t remember the prospects problems and your opportunities: Fail
If you remember a client’s child’s name because you care: REAL!
If you remember they love Papouli’s Greek Grill’s Mediterranean Salad for lunch on Thursdays: REAL!

The point: Get real or get a new job. Today is about transparency and about being real. Fake billboards or sales pitches that leave me wondering don’t work anymore. Do you need some REAL in your life?

photo by Korrigan

Our last 8 blog posts have featured insights from the 8 scheduled speakers/presenters for the Gazelles Sales and Marketing Summit in New Orleans April 21-22. Tomorrow we will begin live tweeting from the conference from @salesby5, so join us if you’d like to hear more from these sales and marketing experts!  We will hear advice from guerilla marketers, recession marketing experts, relationship nurturers, and more!  Tune in and learn the latest best practices for sales and marketing in today’s challenging economy!

If you have been following the SalesBy5 blog, you have heard us talk often about adapting to the “new normal” of our economic environment. A recession has the tendency to paralyze and cause fear in small businesses. Instead, we should seek ways to accept the reality and adapt quickly.  How? Victor Cheng, recession marketing expert, tells us that the key is to look at your business financials and business model in parts, and then shift your emphasis toward the segments of the business faring better. Some parts of your business may no longer be profitable, but other parts probably still are. Consumers will never stop buying products or services that add real value to their lives, so find out where your greatest value lies and grow it!  To hear more of Victor Chang’s recession marketing advice, join us at the Gazelles Sales and Marketing Conference April 21-22.

How many companies really use technology to save money or make money or build teams? Salesby5 has a very high standard for hiring, mostly based on individual strengths and capabilities. We look for people who believe in our core values and can represent our brand extremely well. After interviewing here, I (Sarah) felt honored to be chosen. I believe that every member of our team feels proud to be a part of such a special group.

About two months ago, some things in my life changed, and I decided to move away from San Antonio. Rather than fearing for my job, I went straight to Erik and told him about my situation. We chose to put our state of the art technology to the test! With the use of our BlackBerry devices, Dell laptops equipped with shared calendars and contacts by Microsoft Outlook, google talk, a Sprint Air Card during the move, and Foonz conference call service, I have managed to stay an important part of the team. What we do and how well we do it have not changed. Among other responsibilities, Erik and Nan rely on me for all of their scheduling from nearly 1,000 miles away. Great technology is one thing that our team could not afford to sacrifice. This is the future of the work environment. Are you investing in great technology? And if so, are you using it to better your team?

Yesterday: Great stories start inside the company and go out. Great stories capture the hearts of people including buyers, prospects, and even cold leads.

Today: Living It! “It,” is your product or your service.

A few years ago I walked into a nice department store, I wanted to buy nice shoes and a nice suit. The man, a “fashion adviser”, selling the suits and shoes was dressed in an  unattractive suit and bad shoes!  His credibility was lost because he wasn’t living “it,” so I didn’t buy anything from him.

Here’s a story from our friend and former intern, Carlton Douglas.  We were blessed to have him and we’re proud to know him.  Carlton “lives it” and we could feel it when we hired him. Here’s his story, in his own words. 
 

From the Desk of the FORMER Intern

I logged onto the website to get the address of Sales By 5 for a resume (I’m trying to get a Promotions Manager position at Indie 103.1 here in Los Angeles). Seeing the familiar SB5 color scheme and then Erik and Nan’s video posts, my mind jolted back in time to the months in which the company employed me.

Some people feel like crap thinking about past jobs. I, too, have a few of those jobs, but Sales By 5 wasn’t horrendous enough to make the list. In fact, it was the best job I’ve ever had. Out of everything it taught and reinforced in my working behavior, the most important was that I could do anything. ANYTHING. I don’t mean that in a sappy, Reading Rainbow way, either. If someone asks me to do something, the truth of the matter is that I can do it… if I want to do it.

Present Day: I’m in Hollywood. That’s pretty cool. I met a guy on Sunset Blvd. and La Brea, Antonio, whose brother writes music for Lil Bow Wow. He hooked me up with these guys who do just about everything in music business – booking, management, PR, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I snag a short gig doing miscellaneous work for them.

I get a call the night I might them telling me to get them a list of all of Whitesnake’s managers and label affiliations since the mid-70s. I tell them that it’ll be done by morning – without a doubt. Then, I realize that its one in the morning, and I’m still too poor to have Internet access at my apartment. I don’t want to disappoint these guys, so I proceed dialing every number in my phone to get some help, but everyone is asleep. Just great! Thirty minutes later, I remember that I have web access on my phone, and I’m off searching through Google to find almost 40 years of management and label information about a band I’m too young to care about. By four in the morning, my task was complete, and I had impressed guys who would end up giving me a few more gigs.

Hopefully that sounds impressive to you. If not, you should give it a try. On top of doing the research, try it ON A CELL PHONE! It was the Sales By 5 attitude I had embraced that got me through this trying task.

My first day on the job, Erik had me figuring out where to get beer bottles with custom labels, filled with beer of course. Oh, and it wasn’t just your average Sunday afternoon football 24 case of Budweiser. I needed to find 1,000 bottles! Google was always my friend, but I wasn’t that great at it. Erik tosses a few pointers my way, and I’ve got at least 10 options in front of my face in 5 seconds. I never knew that being a Google Master could be so beneficial to your career!

Six months after last stepping into the office, I still use my Sales By 5 learned abilities. It wasn’t that one instance in which what I learned while working with the company helped me out. Most recently, I wrote up a bio for a country singer at the request of Shakira’s former publicist – using a similar format to press releases done for SB5. She wants to give me more work! I “marketed” myself to a wealthy jazz enthusiast, who heard me playing sax on Hollywood Boulevard, about financing the recording of a jazz album. He’s digging the idea.

Sales By 5 didn’t change my life. My life had yet to begin before working with them! Things are beginning to take off, and I can credit so much of that to this company.

Erik & Nan -keep your eyes on the mail. Your million-dollar check will be there soon enough.

Carlton D.

——

Do you see the difference between living it and just going through the motions?

 Yesterday was all about your “Touch.” What do you leave people with regarding your pitch, your benefit and the reason to believe in you?  Today we will teach you the “See,” as in, what do your potential customers see in you, your company, and your brand?

I will illustrate with two stories, both real.

1.  Two partners of a creative firm walk into a client’s office. One wearing an expensive suit with a tie, the other wearing a t-shirt (with a stain) and a colored jacket with jeans. The client remarks how well the t-shirt and stain guy looks. Why?  One is living what he thinks is what the customer expects or respects, the other, natural. I was the guy in the suit, but that was 1993 and it stopped quickly. I realized people respect real. If I was a banker, I would dress the part.

2.  A client walks into your office door and is greeted by well dressed (no t-shirts with stains, but no suits either) people, all of which may have been caught in a laugh or joke while entering. It is real, no “act this way when he arrives” is announced by the management. The guest is greeted and asked for their beverage of choice, a special one is noted such as Diet Dr. Pepper or tea. It is then known to order their special drink without them knowing in the future.

Either way, what does the client see? Both situations are real and they are 15 years apart. Story 1 is a suit that is not the right brand for the product or service. Story 2 is SalesBy5 today.

Summary: Today, real matters more than ever before. People have no tolerance for fake. Make sure you are selling real. Real value, real benefit, real reason to believe and most of all, you really believe in what you are doing. Passion makes selling fun!

We are getting ready for something big! Huge, in fact!

It will be a blog that will last at least 10 days, that is 100% about those of you who need/want to dramatically increase sales!  Maybe you’ve needed to ask about culture, strategic planning, strengths, sales or marketing.

Many of you give us great feedback about the blog. So for all of you too shy to share, here is your invitation.  Email us (blogATsalesby5.com – replace the AT with @) your biggest hurdle, problem, or goal, where you need help. Tell us if it is public or private.  We will answer your questions either on the blog or privately.  Drop us a line, we are ready for a challenge!

Photo courtesy of Wok – Flickr

What a great time to be in business!  Here’s a way to get sales by 5 with a “new to you” tool at a great price.

Pick up a mobile broadband card from your favorite carrier – Sprint, Verizon or AT&T.  With one of these cards, you can get on the internet anywhere you can get cell phone service.  Recently, our router went down at the office.  Erik was able to continue working thanks to his Sprint Mobile Broadband card. Just like your BlackBerry or your laptop, you don’t know you need a mobile broadband card until you own one.

If you would like a Sprint Mobile Broadband card at a $10/mo discount, drop us a line and we’ll give you the login for www.sprint.com/sero

WES is the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, the largest BlackBerry conference of the year.  Why am I here?  We average 150 hours a year of continuing education at SalesBy5 per person.  We are looking for the next best thing to give our clients a competitive advantage so they can focus on their business.  That includes great communication – with and without technology.  The one who learns fastest wins.

I had a little fun too, though. (John Mayer)