This blog post is about three things:

1. The #3 Sales 2.0 tool – Survey Analytics
2. Next Two Webinars – Social media data & deal closing relationships
3. Trigger Buzz #8 – Tonight: Cold Calling

This blog post contains three items:

1. The #5 Sales 2.0 tool (EchoQuote) & $1,500 giveaway
2. Rethinking Sales Radio Show – Thursday night @ 7:00PM Pacific
3. Trigger Buzz #5 – Tonight @ 6:00PM Pacific

The #5 Sales 2.0 tool & $1,500 giveaway

This is the third month of my countdown towards the #1 Sales 2.0 tool. Each month I feature a tool  and invite the over 6,500 subscribers of this blog to provide ideas on how to use the tool and get votes for their ideas.

The person with the most votes by 12:01AM on the last Tuesday of the month wins $1,500 worth of Trigger Event Selling services. Details of the $1,500 giveaway can be found at http://www.shiftselling.com/free-sales-training/

This month’s Sales 2.0 tool is EchoQuote. One of the biggest complaints prospects have when they visit a web site is the lack of pricing information.

According to Dr. Jakob Nielson a Web Usability Expert, “Price is the most specific piece of information customers use to understand the nature of an offering, and not providing it makes people feel lost and reduces their understanding of a product line. We have miles of videotape of users asking ‘Where’s the price?’ while tearing their hair out.”

I am amazed that in today’s 7 day a week, 24 hour a day, Sales 2.0 world that some companies still force customers to fill in a pricing request form and then wait for someone manually get back to them.

I am an EchoQuote customer and I love the fact that it’s a self-service pricing tool empowers my prospects and customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

When a buyer has some time to move a purchase forward and they can’t find pricing information on your web site you force them to check out your competition and you lose any chance of getting a decent price for your products or services.

Win $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services by suggesting follow up strategies that companies can implement to understand the level of interest someone has in actually purchasing a product or what qualification questions can be asked to understand if the pricing request is someone who is genuinely interested in purchasing your product or just comparison shopping to get a better price from the current supplier. To win the $1,500 prize you must get the most votes for your answer.

Answers are submitted by commenting on this blog post. Answers are voted on by clicking on the button that appears at the end of each answer/comment.

Winners are announced the last Tuesday of the month – December 28^th – so voting ends at Midnight (MST) on Monday December 27^th.

Answers/comments need to be approved – to avoid spam – which typically takes just a few minutes. Contact me by phone (+1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias), or this contact form, if you don’t see your comment approved within a few minutes of posting it.

Use the “Share” button below to Tweet , Stumble!, Digg, and email your friends so you get the most votes, because the voting system I use does not allow you to vote for your own answers.

Rethinking Sales Radio Show

This Thursday I will be on the Rethinking Sales Radio Show with host Marco Giunto. We’ll tackle the topics of lead generation and opportunity qualification.

The call in number is 646-478-0368.

You will find more about the show at http://www.rethinkingsales.com/radio

TriggerBuzz #5

Today – Tuesday December 14th – from 9:00PM-9:30PM Eastern (6:00PM-6:30PM Pacific) is the fifth edition of TriggerBuzz.

Get your prospecting questions answered by following @TriggerBuzz on Twitter. To submit your questions, once I follow you back, you need to send a direct message to @TriggerBuzz.

Details and instructions can be found at ShiftSelling.com/TriggerBuzz

Have an eventful week!

Craig

This blog post contains two items:

1. The #6 Sales 2.0 tool – Feedblitz
2. TriggerBuzz #3 – How to get your prospecting questions answered
3. $1,500 give away – Free advice, speaking, training or coaching

The #6 Sales 2.0 tool

This is the second month of my countdown towards the #1 Sales 2.0 tool. Each month I feature a tool I think makes it easier for sales people and organizations to harness the Trigger Events that TURN PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS and invite the over 4,200 subscribers of this blog to provide ideas on ways to use each months tool and get votes for their ideas.

The person with the most votes by 12:10AM on the last Tuesday of the month wins $1,500 worth of Trigger Event Selling services (advice, training, speaking, or coaching). Details of the $1,500 giveaway can be found at http://www.shiftselling.com/free-sales-training/

This month’s tool – #6 in my countdown – is FeedBlitz. Feedblitz allows you to monitor any web page (aka URL) and to be notified a number of different ways when the content of that web page changes.

The list of ways you can be notified by includes email, Skype, Twitter (Direct message and post for your followers to see), Facebook Wall Post and LinkedIn Status Update.

All you have to do is:

• Provide the URL you want watched
• Enter your email address (so they can create an account for you if it’s your first time or add the URL to your subscription list if you are a repeat users)
• Select the notification method
• Enter the characters of the spam preventer image
• Click on the subscribe button

See below for this months questions and details on how you can win the $1,500 giveaway.

TriggerBuzz #3

Today – Tuesday November 2nd – from 9:00PM-9:30PM Eastern (6:00PM-6:30PM Pacific) is the third edition of TriggerBuzz.

Get your prospecting questions answered by following @TriggerBuzz on Twitter. To submit your questions, once I follow you back, you need to send a direct message to @TriggerBuzz.

Details and instructions can be found at ShiftSelling.com/TriggerBuzz

This blog post has three items:

1. The #7 Sales 2.0 tool: IntroMojo
2. Another $1,500 give away
3. The inaugural TriggerBuzz event

The #7 Sales 2.0 tool

In my last blog post I asked for tools that should be considered for list of top seven Sales 2.0  tools. One of the tools suggested was IntroMojo. The value of IntroMojo can be summed up in one word ‘Rapport’: The ability to have something in common with a decision maker you have never spoken to before, so you can start the relationship building process.

The  Trigger Event book SHiFT! has an entire chapter on how get called first when a decision maker experiences a Trigger Event and starts the process of Searching for Alternatives. In that chapter we talk about the need for a “Psychographic Fit”: Having the similar interests, values, or aspirations as a decision maker. The challenge is how do you know the interests, values, and aspirations of a decision maker y0u have never talked to?

That’s were IntroMojo comes to the rescue. The brainchild of Daniel Waldschmidt and Colin A Martin, it allows you to:

1. Identify the right people with the names you are looking for. IntroMojo asks you a few simple questions to help you zoom in from a name to the person you need to engage with.  Things like location, company, job title, industry are all clues that IntroMojo presents in helping you find the person that you want to reach.
2. Learn all about them. Learn a decision makers background, education, and work experience.  More importantly you can learn what your prospect is talking about, what books, videos, and music they enjoy, and what they like.  You find out who they’re friends with, what videos and blogs they are writing, and where they engage on the web.
3. Stay informed about what they are doing. Each time you need to engage a decision maker, check IntroMojo and it will serve up the most recent  information on them.  It’s new each day you check so your sales pitch can stay relevant.

$1,500 Give Away

This blog post has three items:

1. The coolest use of social media I have ever experienced
2. The recording of the webinar 5 Ways to Close Deals Faster
3. My countdown of the top seven Sales 2.0 tools

Buzz: The Coolest use of Social Media

Back in July I had the chance to participate in the coolest use of social media I have ever experienced: Small Business Buzz.

Months ago I subscribed to their tweets SBBUZZ and I have watched their weekly events via my iPhone but I never participated in a conversation until July – when the topic was sales. Then I found myself contributing to the conversation and that got me thinking…

How can I do something similar so that so practitioners of Trigger Event Selling^â„¢ can have their questions answered by anyone who wants to participate and provide answers. It’s called TriggerBuzz. It will be held the first and last Tuesday of every month so you can learn new things to get a healthy start and have a strong close your month. So starting next Tuesday October 5th – from  9:00-9:30 Eastern – each month you have two opportunities to have your questions about Trigger Event Sellingâ„¢ answered.

If you have questions you would like to have answered you simply need to  follow TriggerBuzz and send a direct message to TriggerBuzz. I have SocialOoomph – the #5 way to sell more by using social media – set up to auto-follow those who follow TriggerBuzz so you should be able to send me a direct message as soon as you follow TriggerBuzz.

If you have any questions or suggestions for TriggerBuzz you can contact me by phone (North America: 866.744.7904 | International: +1.403.313.0412) text (+1403.874.2998) Skype (Craig.Elias), email (Craig.Elias@ShiftSelling.com) or this contact form.

Biz: Recording of 5 Ways to Close Deals Faster

The recording of the recent webinar “5 Ways To Close Deals Faster by Using Industry and Market Triggers” is now available. In this webinar Tibor Shanto and I share information on the industry and market triggers that shorten sales cycles and five ways you can harness them to close deals faster.

Best: Countdown of the top 7 Sales 2.0 tools

Next Tuesday I will continue my series of Top 7 countdowns – Top 7 Sales Mistakes & Top 7 Social Media Tools – and list what I think are the top 7 Sales 2.0 tools. This is done David Letterman style – starting with number seven and working my way up to number 1.

The first Tuesday of every month I will share the next tool in the list and offer a $1,500 prize to the person who submits a creative way to use the tool and gets the most votes for their answer.

Contact me if you know of a tool you think should be considered.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

Congratulations to Richard Goddey. He won $1,500 worth of Trigger Event Selling™, services by getting the most votes for his answer to April’s question about how you can use TweetDeck to sell more.

My apologies for taking not announcing April’s winner sooner. I took a 6 week hiatus from blogging to complete the manuscript for my upcoming book with Tibor Shanto “SHiFT! Harness The Trigger Events That TURN PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS.”

Now the book has been completed and I have reached #1 of the top seven ways to sell more by using social media, next week I will begin counting down the top seven Sales 2.0 tools – from a Trigger Event Selling perspective.

In the fast few weeks I have fielded a number of questions about Trigger Event Marketing^™ – how to market using knowledge of Trigger Events.

Here are three resources that I recommend:

1. The Trigger Event Marketingâ„¢ page on Facebook that has some excellent examples and resources
2. Pulling the Trigger on Trigger Marketing: Best Buy and Discover Show How it’s Done – by Jeff Zabin
3. Keys to Trigger Based Email Marketing™ by Michael Thompson

Speaking of marketing, I am giving way eight tickets to The Art of Marketing in Calgary on June 14th.  Complete the form found at http://www.shiftselling.com/events/art-of-marketing/ for your chance to win one of two pairs of tickets or one of the four individual tickets.

Next Tuesday I’ll start my list of the top Sales 2.0 tools and give away $1,500 to the person who gets the most votes for their answer to the question “How can you use the #7 Sales 2.0 sales tool to sell more?”

Until then   …   good luck have an eventful week!

Craig

Congratulations to Richard Goddey. He won $1,500 worth of Trigger Event Selling^™ services by getting the most votes for his answer to April’s question about how you can use TweetDeck to sell more.

My apologies for taking not announcing April’s winner sooner. I took a 6 week hiatus from blogging to complete the manuscript for my upcoming book with Tibor Shanto – SHiFT! Harness The Trigger Events That TURN PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS.

Now the book has been completed and I have reached #1 of the top seven ways to sell more by using social media, next week I will begin counting down the top seven Sales 2.0 tools – from a Trigger Event Selling perspective.

In the fast few weeks I have fielded a number of questions about Trigger Event Marketing^™ – how to market using knowledge of Trigger Events.

Here are three resources that I recommend:

1. The Trigger Event Marketing™ page on Facebook that has some excellent examples and resources
2. Pulling the Trigger on Trigger Marketing: Best Buy and Discover Show How it’s Done – by Jeff Zabin
3. Keys to Trigger Based Email Marketing – by Michael Thompson

Speaking of marketing, I am giving way eight tickets to The Art of Marketing in Calgary on June 14th.  Complete the form found at http://www.shiftselling.com/events/art-of-marketing/ for your chance to win one of two pairs of tickets or one of the four individual tickets.

Next Tuesday I’ll start my list of the top Sales 2.0 tools and give away $1,500 to the person who gets the most votes for their answer to the question “How can you use the #7 Sales 2.0 sales tool to sell more?”

Until then   …   good luck have an eventful week!

Craig

One of the Sales 2.0 services I am a real believer in is JigSaw. “Trigger Events tell you when to talk to buyers, Jigsaw will tell you which buyers to talk to.”

With their new open data initiative you can download complete and accurate company records in seconds, at no charge.

Below are some popular searches to get you started:

• Fortune 1000
• US Public Companies
• Software & Internet
• Healthcare & Pharmaceutical

See the complete list of currently saved searches.

If you are not already a member of JigSaw, get 20 bonus contacts by using this link when you join.