This is my last post in a series on the Top Seven Ways to Sell More by Using Social Media. Remember, the person with the most popular answer to my question at the bottom of this blog post wins $1,500 in Trigger Event Selling services

The #1 way to sell more by using social media is to learn of opportunities just after a decision maker has experienced a Trigger Event, that makes them realize what they have is not longer sufficient, but before they notice, or worse yet call, your competition – This powerful selling window is called the Window of Dissatisfaction.

My experience is that the single most powerful Trigger Event is a change in a decision maker at an organization.

You know this scenario. You have an account you want to get into, but the competition is entrenched in the account and no matter how often or how hard you try, you can’t get in. Then, one day, the decision maker at the account changes. Suddenly, resistance disappears and, before you know it, you have yourself a new customer.

The opposite is also quite common. You have a relationship with a decision maker, and that relationship allows you to enjoy the benefits of having the “inside track” on a lot of new projects. Then, one day your reliable contact leaves and you lose the business to someone else!

Just like MIT’s Lead Response Study shows the odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The ideal moment to cold call a decision maker is as soon as possible after the Trigger Event has happened and the best solution I have found to learn of these events as soon as possible is TweetDeck.

Now for all you Twitter fanatics out there, yeah I get that Twitter is the power behind TweetDeck but who has the time to sit around on Twitter waiting for a decent Tweet – like this one about a new CFO being hired – to show up.

My preference is to set up a column inside TweetDeck with a search for lets’ say VP of Sales and then every now and again include a filter that allows me to make the search results relevant to my sales targets. In this case finding more customers in Boston.

So this month’s question is how else can you use TweetDeck or something similar to harness a change in decision makers to sell more. Win $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services by submitting either a great example of, or great idea on, how to use TweetDeck or a similar service to sell more. 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 – April 27^rh – so voting ends at Midnight (MST) on Monday April 26^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 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.

Good luck & have an eventful week!

Craig

One of the keys to selling is reaching decision makers when they are most likely to be influenced: Influenced on what is the best solution to their problem – not who is the best supplier.

Solutions are all the different ways of solving the same problem or obtaining the same outcome (think of these as your competition), suppliers are alternate providers who sell the same solution (think of them as competitors).

Using this framework banner ads, Google ad words, and search engine optimization would be considered my competition because they provide alternate solutions that deliver the same  outcome – increased sales. Other sales trainers would be considered my competitors because they are alternate providers that deliver the same solution – sales training.

If you want to learn more about the difference between these two, Rene Mouborgne and W. Chan Kim explain the difference in an article, on Blue Ocean Strategy.

Recent research by Don Bulmer and Vanessa DiMauro shows that more and more decision makers are utilizing social media peer groups to form and validate decisions. Social media peer groups are those you would find on social media sites like LinkedIn, eCademy, Facebook, or Ning.

So the #4 Way to sell more by using social media is to create or participate in groups to influence those decision makers who experienced a Trigger Event that put them into the Window of Dissatisfaction BUT have not started the process of searching for alternative solutions yet.

I have a group on Linkedin called SHiFT! that has almost 2,500 members and a Trigger Event Selling Group on Facebook that has 300 members. I started these groups to encourage people, who have similar interests and aspirations, to share ideas, resources, and success stories about using Trigger Events to turn prospects into customers. It turns out that in creating these groups I am influencing decision makers on an alternate solution to increase sales.

To extend my reach I now participate in other groups related to sales, marketing, entrepreneurship, and innovation, that my target market (CEOs and VPs of  sales of small and  mid-sized organizations) joins on LinkedIn, eCademy, Facebook, and Ning.

Participating in these groups allows me to share my expertise with decision makers and influence their thinking while they are still in the formative stages of making a decision about which solution (sales training, banner ads, Google ad words, search engine optimization) they could use to increase sales.

So this month’s question is how can you leverage groups on social media sites to sell more?

Win $3,000 worth of Trigger Event services by submitting either a great example of, or great idea on, how to use a group on LinkedIn, Facebook, or ANY other business oriented social media group to sell more. To win the $3,000 prize you must get the most votes for your answer. This month there is also a second prize of $1,500 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 – December 29^th – so voting ends at Midnight (MST) on Monday December 28^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 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.

Good luck & have an EVENTFUL week!

Craig

In case you missed it, McKinsey & Co.’s recent research of 20,000 people, in the three geographical regions, and five major industries, on the customer decision journey identified that Trigger Events are the first step in a making a purchase decision. To learn more take five minutes and watch David Court explain the new customer decision journey.

Congratulations to Eliot Axelrod.  Eliot receives $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services (training, coaching, advise) for getting the most votes for his answer to the question related to the #1 Mistake Sales People Make, by midnight of Monday July 29th.

Craig Rosenberg of Funnelholic fame recently asked me what marketers could be doing to harness Trigger Events. In this interview I share what I think are three of the top Web 2.0 applications marketers should consider. You can read the full interview at Funnelholic.com.

I’m off for month of summer holidays and when I return I’ll start series of posts on Seven Ways Sell More by Using Social Media. Each post will detail how you can use social media to identify, learn of, and harness the Trigger Events that TURN PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS.

The number one mistake sales people make is… they make it too hard to become a customer.

Think of all the sales opportunities that started out strong only to have the prospect decide to stay with their current supplier. The #1 reason they stayed with their current supplier is: it was not worth the effort of becoming your customer.

One of the keys to turning prospects into customers understanding the level of emotion a decision maker has and matching the effort of becoming your customer to this level of emotion.

When you get to decision makers after they experience a Trigger Event they have a certain amount of emotion related to solving the problem. As long as the level of effort required to become your customer is less than the level of emotion they have they are likely to become your customer.

BUT when decision maker’s perceive it to be too much effort to become your customer they typically stay with their current solution/supplier – aka the Status Quo.

Here is a personal example… I am a customer of ActiveConversion.com a Sales 2.0 service that lets you know who visits your site and how often they visit and I recently became aware of their autoresponder offering, for those who fill in a form on my web site. An autoresponder allows me to set up a number of emails that go out a specified number of days, weeks, or months after a form has been completed.

The reason I want an autoresponder system, beyond the traditional reason of drip/nurture marketing, is that I want to know when a prospect’s/customer’s email address starts to bounce. This signals the Trigger Event of a change in decision makers and typically means three opportunities:

1. The person who left where did they go?
2. Who took their place?
3. The person who took their place where did they come from?

After doing some initial investigation I learned that I needed an account with VerticalResponse.com in order for my autoresponder emails to go out.

Because I am currently satisfied with my current email marketing solution, if Vertical Response had only sold a monthly subscription plan, based upon how many people are on my mailing list, I would have stayed with the Status Quo – no auto responders. BUT Vertical Response has a pay as you go plan that I could take advantage of.  For as little as $15 I could buy 1,000 autoresponder emails that can be used any time and keep my current email marketing solution.

Because the level of effort of becoming a customer was less than the amount of emotion I had about solving the problem I spent $15 and bought the 1,000 autoresponder email, package.

Now Vertical Response has me as a customer and I am learning how to use their systems. When I experience a Trigger Event and become dissatisfied with my current email marketing solution who do you think I am most likely to buy from. You guessed it Vertical Response.

Too often sales people are so focused on getting the big sale that they miss the opportunity to make a smaller initial sale with those who recently experienced a Trigger Event and then harness the future Trigger Events that create larger follow-on opportunities in the same account.

My question, to be answered by commenting below, is “What can you do to match the effort it takes to become your customer to the level of emotion the prospect has?”

Win $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services by getting the most votes for your answer.

Answers are voted on by clicking on the button that appears at the end of each answer and voting ends on Monday June 29^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 me (Craig.Elias), or this contact form, if you don’t see your comment approved within a few minutes of posting it.

Stumble!, Digg, Tweet, 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.

Have an EVENTFUL week!

Craig

Congratulations to the winner of $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services – Ken @ IProLive in Australia. Ken won when his answer to the question about the #3 Mistake Sales People Make received the most votes.

Stay tuned next week as I make available $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services to the person with the most votes for their answer a question that is related to ‘The #2 Mistake Sales People’ make.

Till then, here is the link to join the over 400 people that have already registered for the FREE Trigger Event Webinar being sponsored by Dow Jones – the the providers of SalesWorks and G2 – that had to be rescheduled to Tuesday, March 17^th due to speaker availability.

The webinar features Frank Filippo the Executive Director of Product Management at Dow Jones and Craig Elias the creator of Trigger Event Sellingâ„¢, and is being hosted by the President of Trinity Marketing, Tuck Mixon.

Registrants have the chance to win over $3,000 in prizes and are eligible for a free trial of Dow Jones’ SalesWorks.

The recording of the webinar and the handout for the webinar will also be made available to those who register for this no-charge webinar.

Contact me by phone (+1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias) or by using the contact form on this site if you have ANY questions about the upcoming webinar.

Have an EVENTFUL week!

Craig

The number three mistake sales people make is they ask for, and get, the wrong referrals – referrals to those who are still in the buying mode of Status Quo – when prospects perceive that the product or service from their current supplier meets or exceeds their needs and are unlikely to become your customer.

What you want are referrals to highly motivated decision makers who recently experienced a Trigger Event and are in the Window of Dissatisfaction.

Next time ask for a Trigger Event Referral – a referral to a highly motivated decision maker that is 10 times more likely to become your customer.

E.g. Instead of asking a current customer for a referral to someone they think might have interest in your products/services, ask those ‘in the know’ for a referral to someone they know recently experienced one of the Trigger Events that create highly motivated buyers for what you sell.

My question, to be answered by commenting below, is “What are the Trigger Events you should focus on when asking for Trigger Event Referrals AND who is most likely to be your best source of referrals because they are very often ‘in the know’ when these Trigger Events happen?

Win $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services to help you identify the best Trigger Event Referrals to ask for and who are the best people to ask, by getting the most votes for your answer.

Answers are voted on by clicking on the button that appears at the end of each answer and voting ends on Monday March 2^nd.

Answers/Comments need to be approved – to avoid spam – which typically takes just a few minutes. Call me (+1.403.874.2998) or Skype me (Craig.Elias) if you don’t see your comment approved within a few minutes of posting it.

Stumble!, Digg, Tweet, 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.

Have an EVENTFUL week!

Craig

P.S. Identify the best Trigger Events for what you sell by registering for the FREE Trigger Event Webinar being sponsored by Dow Jones the providers of SalesWorks and G2. Registrants have the chance to win $3,000 in prizes and are eligible for a free trial of Dow Jones’ SalesWorks.

P.P.S. A recording of this Trigger Event webinar will be made provided to all who register.

Congratulations to the winner of $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services – Artem Brazgovsky. Artem won when his answer to the question related to the #4 Mistake Sales People Make received the most votes. Take a look at the post as over 20 different people provided insights and ideas on how to become a decision maker’s Emotional Favourite and get called first when a Trigger Event puts them into the Window of Dissatisfaction.

Stay tuned next week as I make available $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services to the person with the most votes for their answer a question that is related to The #3 Mistake Sales People make.

Till then, here is the link to a FREE Trigger Event Webinar being sponsored by sponsored by Dow Jones the providers of SalesWorks and G2. The webinar goes from 12:00-12:45 Eastern (9:00-9:45 Pacific) on Tuesday, February 17^th.

The webinar features Frank Filippo the Executive Director of Product Management at Dow Jones, Craig Elias the creator of Trigger Event Sellingâ„¢, and is being hosted by the President of Trinity Marketing, Tuck Mixon.

Registrants have the chance to win over $3,000 in prizes and are eligible for a free trial of Dow Jones’ G2.

The recording of the webinar will also be made available to those who register for this no-charge webinar.

Contact me by phone (+1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias) or by using the contact form on this site if you have ANY questions.

Have an EVENTFUL week!

Craig

The number four mistake sales people make is believing that sales are won based upon on logic – like return on investment (ROI) calculations – not emotion.

The first seller a decision maker contacts, after they experience a Trigger Event that makes them a highly motivated buyer, is five times more likely to win the business than ANY of the follow-on people who get contacted AND this decision of who they call first is based upon emotion.

One way to get called first when a buyer experiences a Trigger Event and increase your close ratio as much as 5X is to become the buyer’s Emotional Favourite aka ‘go to’ person.

My question, to be answered by commenting below, is “What can you do to become a decision maker’s Emotional Favourite aka ‘go to’ person so you get called first, when they experience a Trigger Event?”

Win $1,500 worth of my time to help you become the Emotional Favourite in your target accounts by getting the most votes for your answer. Answers are voted on by clicking on the button that appears at the end of each answer and voting ends on Monday February 2^nd.

Comments/Answers need to be approved – to avoid spam – which typically takes just a few minutes. Call me (+1.403.874.2998) or Skype me (Craig.Elias) if you don’t see your comment approved within a few minutes of posting it.

Stumble!, Digg, Tweet, 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.

Have an EVENTFUL week!

Craig

P.S. Stay informed of updates by subscribing to this blog, subscribing just to comments for each individual question when you submit your own comment. or if you are only voting you can use the subscribe feature at the bottom of this post to be notified when another great answer has been added.

Congratulations to Bill Morgan of Segula Technologies. He won $1,500 worth of free Trigger Event sales training by having the most votes for his answer to my question related to the #6 mistake sales people make.

Next week I will post the #5 mistake sales people make and award another $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services to the person who gets the most votes for their answer to my question related to the #5 mistake sales people make. If you want an early look at the #5 mistake sales people make, take a look at my notes on conducting a Won Sales Analysis.

In the mean time take a look at what Dean Rieck wrote about words that sell. His understanding that people buy based upon emotion and justify with logic is BANG ON!. Take what he says and brainstorm with a friend or a co-worker ways you can do a better job of using emotion in your selling efforts. You’ll learn more about selling with a emotion a few weeks from now when I post the #4 mistake sales people make. If you want a hint at the#4 mistake sales people make, take a look at the section of this web site about being a buyer’s Emotional Favourite

Have a EVENTFUL week!

Jed (a hypothetical salesperson) keeps getting what sound like positive buying signals with his prospecting calls. Somehow, though, he’s not getting very far.

“People tell me to call back in two months, four months, six months, when they will be looking at this problem” he says, perplexed. “When I call back, I get people telling me how glad they are that I called … but my close ratio is low, and my sales cycles are way too long. What’s going on?”

In response, I would give Jed the following advice.

“Jed, when you cold call someone in an attempt to sell them something, you’re interrupting that person’s day. The dominant instinct is always going to be for that person to find any reason to get off the phone and get back to what they were doing before you interrupted them.

“Your goal has to be to maintain your poise and get past that first fifteen to thirty seconds of the initial call … which is always going to be a little bumpy.

“BUT — the reason you’re riding out those first fifteen to thirty seconds is not so you can try to turn the person into a short term prospect on the spot!

“Actually, you’re trying to discover if this person has experienced a Trigger Event. If there has been such an event you want to find out what it was and when it happened. The Trigger Event could have taken place quite a while ago, it could have happened only recently, or it could still be on the horizon.

“These Trigger Events typically fall into one of three categories:

1. Bad Experience: The buyer has a bad experience with a product/service, with people, or with a provider. For instance, there may have been a product/service change that creates dissatisfaction.
2. Change / Transition: The buyer has a change or transition in people, places, or priorities. For instance, there may have been a change in the buyer at an account.
3. Awareness: The buyer becomes aware of the need to change for legal, risk-avoidance, or economic reasons. For instance: The person may have a new understanding that buying from someone like you is less risky than continuing to buy the existing solution.

“During the first minute of your call, use the opportunity to understand which of the following three buying modes the buyer is in:

“Status Quo: The buyer is completely happy with what he or she currently has. There has not been a Trigger Event in the recent past, but there may be one on the horizon. You may think this person is a waste of time and may want to move on to the next person on your list. Actually, if this person has money, authority, and influence, this is a great long-term opportunity. A strategy for this type of call is to start the relationship building process. I would also suggest that you check back in on a monthly basis to see if a Trigger Event has recently happened.

“Searching For Alternatives: This person is unhappy with what he or she has, has spoken to several suppliers, and probably already has a favorite. A Trigger Event took place a while ago, and they’ve already taken action on it. You may think that this is a short-term opportunity … because the buyer is actively talking to a number of potential suppliers. This is in fact probably a medium term opportunity … because it is highly likely this buyer already has a first choice! Selling to buyers under these conditions typically results in a lower close ratio and a longer sales cycle – exactly the problem that you are experiencing. A strategy for this type of call is to position yourself as the buyer’s number-two choice — so you get called first if the buyer’s current favorite falters. You should check back every other week to see where you stand.

“Window of Dissatisfaction: A Trigger Event has recently taken place and this buyer knows that what they are currently using is no longer sufficient, but has not done anything about it yet. Because they tell you to call back in two months, four months, or six months you make a note to do that and move on to the next person on your list. Wrong answer! This is actually a short term opportunity, because the buyer is not talking to your competition — yet. When you call back a few months later, even if you call a few weeks early thinking it will give you and edge, it’s very likely they will already be talking to your competition. The strategy for this type of call is to identify the business opportunity and pursue it immediately — with as much happening on this initial call as possible and future contact taking place in the very near future. You must find a way to push a little bit and learn more about the Trigger Event, then try to set a near-term course of action.

“As it stands, Jed, you are focusing on those people who are already talking to your competition … and missing the biggest opportunities: those buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction, who recently experienced a Trigger Event and have not started talking to your competition. That’s why your numbers are as bad as they are; that’s also why your sales cycles are so long.

“Jed, you need to do a better job of ‘staying on your feet’ for the first thirty seconds or so of the call — long enough to ask a couple of questions that will help you learn whether the person has:

• Not experienced a Trigger Event in a long time
• Experienced a Trigger Event a while ago and already doing something about it
• Recently experienced a Trigger Event and has done nothing about it –– yet

“Once you learn if, and when, a buyer has experienced a Trigger Event you can apply the appropriate strategy. When you do that, and focus FIRST on those people in the Window of Dissatisfaction, who recently experienced a Trigger Event and have done nothing about it yet, you will have a much higher close ratio … and you’ll have much shorter sales cycles!”

Other Trigger Event Resources to Consider

I scour the Internet searching for ideas, resources, articles, and success stories about leveraging Trigger Events to outsell the competition. This time I want to share with a resource over at Customer Think titled Seeing Through the ‘Window of Discontent’.

I encourage you to get together with others and brainstorm on ways to capitalize on Trigger Events to outsell your competition. Contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging Trigger Events that you want to share with the over 2,700 entrepreneurs, business leaders, and sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to this blog.

This week’s winner of a no-charge webinar for 20 people is Steve Duncan. Since I don’t contact the winners, if you know Steve Duncan let him know he has won a custom webinar on Trigger Events for 20 people and that you would like to be one of the twenty participants. He has until 5:00PM Mountain time on Friday July 11th to collect his prize.

If you want to chance to win in the future you need to subscribe to the Trigger Event blog via email.

Have an eventful week!

Craig