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

This post has two items:

1. The continuation of our countdown of The Top Seven Ways to Sell More by Using Social Media, with a $2,000 prize.
2. A link to the article that resulted in Harvey Schachter writing about Trigger Event Selling in this Monday’s Globe and Mail.

#5 Way to Sell More by Using Social Media

A wise female entrepreneur I know once commented on sales people, who were always in a hurry to get down to business, by saying “Hold my hand and take me to a dance before you take me to the altar”.

She is not alone in her thinking. A large majority of decision makers choose who to buy from based upon an analysis of risk vs. credibility and the depth of your relationship with a decision maker is often the deciding factor on how much credibility you have.

The challenge most sales people have is how to start the relationship building process when decision makers are too busy to take, or return, their sales calls? Jerry Vass’ ‘Flanking Strategy’ – start by adding value, in a non-selling way, and build a relationship from there – is one way to make this happen.

The #5 Way to Sell More by Using Social Media is to use it to start the relationship building process.

From a Trigger Event Selling perspective the best way, I have found, to do this is to use…

AND

One of the reasons I joined Twitter was to start the relationship building process with decision makers who are looking for insights on how to enhance their organizations selling efforts.

The idea is to add value and build a relationship before a Trigger Event happens and they have a need for services like mine.

I typically Tweet, once or twice a week, about ideas, resources, or success stories on how to turn prospects into customers by harnessing Trigger Events.

I decided to combine Twitter with Social Oomph after I read the Lead Follow Up Research by MIT. The research shows the importance of following up with those who complete a web form, within five minutes!

The intent is to enhance the relationship building process, that begins when someone follows you on Twitter, do it in a value adding/non-selling manner AND do it as soon as you can after they following you.

It turns out that Social Oomph makes it incredibly simple to do that. One of the great features of Social Oomph is that you can automatically send a direct message to every new follower. The free version checks your new followers every eight hours and the professional version checks every eight hours. One small word of warning. If you use Social ‘ vetting process – or anyone else’s. E.g. TrueTwit – the auto responder does not go out until you approve the follower. I had Social Oomph’s vetting turned on this morning which explains why I have 43 autorepsonder messages waiting to go out.

If you follow me on Twitter I have Social Oomph configured to automatically send you a direct message, that includes a link to access my best ideas on how to replicate your biggest sales wins.

This content is ONLY AVAILABLE TO MY TWITTER FOLLOWERS. I suggest you follow me so you can see the practice in action AND get access to a no-charge resource that can have a significant impact on your selling efforts.

Win $2,000 worth of Trigger Event services by submitting either a great example of, or great idea on, how to use Twitter, Social Oomph, or ANY other Twitter Application to sell more. To win the $2,000 prize you must get the most votes for your answer. This month there is also a second prize of $1,000 to the person who gets the second most votes for their 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 – November 24th – so voting ends at Midnight (MST) on Monday November 23^rd.

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.

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.

The Article That Harvey Schachter Liked

In the May of 2008 I submitted an article to Rain Today in the hopes it would be published on their site. In July of 2009 – over a year later – the Trigger Event of a change in people (the editor) resulted in a phone call and a request for permission to use my article the week of October 26th – this past week.

The article caught Harvey’s attention and last week he called to verify some information so he could write about the article in the Globe and Mail’s Monday Morning Manager. An online version of Harvey’s writing is available here.

The original article titled Shorten Sales Cycles by Harnessing Trigger Events is about a hypothetical sales person (Jed) who learns to vastly improve his prospecting activity by looking for and taking advantage of Trigger Events.