If you believe, it will come.

An old adage in sales says, "you have to believe in what you sell." Nothing too complicated about this statement. It clearly conveys that you, the sales person, need to believe that the product you sell will do what you say it will do.

Taking it a step further, do you think will it help them? Do you think YOU can help them?

There are a lot of times where people don't question that your product does what it says on the box, although they still don't buy. Why is that?

If you are still thinking from the sales side of the world, you have at least three things running through your mind: hitting quota this month, making this sale, moving onto the next sale. The problem with this perspective is that you're still operating from the wrong view-point. You may have the best of intentions, and you also probably believe in your product, but you still haven't made the switch if they still haven't bought from you.

As the end of the month approaches, beware of falling into the trap of "must get this closed to hit my numbers." This pressure is not coming from the right place in your head or your heart. Convert this energy into a better message and sales effort which totally focuses on helping your prospect.

Try this exercise: think of as many reasons as possible that you are helping your prospect. Prioritize the most important ways you can help first. Next focus your efforts and your communication to your customer on all of the ways you can help and that you are anxious to get started. Finally, be genuine. You need to truly believe in not just the product you sell, but that you can help your client TODAY.

JB

AD for Your Phone

You can't deny that mobile isn't going away. I remember my first cell phone. It was this lovely candy bar style  Samsung R220 Tru Blu (you can find it here: http://isaiahpaviacruz.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-phones.html). I remember being able to do so much with it... make calls on my 200 minutes per month plan, play blackjack, it even had a calculator. There was this other thing called text messaging... but it was a pain to hit the 2-key three times just to spell out the letter C.

I didn't want to buy their data plan at the time, it seemed crazy to have internet on your phone when you had a computer that did the same thing. Funny how the roles have reversed.

Today it feels like my PC is the ol' ball and chain where my phone can do so much more. I sometimes question my need for a PC, but I just wouldn't feel right not having one. Ask me again in a few years.

Back to phones.

You can pretty much assume that the majority of people in your organization have a cell phone. They all don't have to own the latest and greatest, even the free phones from the carriers nowadays are pretty strong. All this said, if we are going to do more with phone development and business development, it's time we look at applications for your worker's cell.

Active directory is the backbone for many organizations. To benefit from the advantages of having AD (authentication, security, replication, etc) you need to be connected to the network. That to me is the major limitation that the developers of AD need to overcome for the next release.

I see a few ways to get around this issue until this happens. You could have a mobile application to sign in, and access a mobile-sized virtual desktop. There you could have the same resources that you would need if you were not in the office. Since it is web-based, you could display the same programs and information as if your company has put their resources on the cloud (which would probably be better for both desktop and mobile, but I digress again). Or think of it as a virtual meeting, where you have control of your own desktop.

Another way to connect phones to AD would be with some sort of Single Sign On application. You would have the phone on startup authenticate the user, and perhaps have specific applications they need installed on their phone. It avoids having to cloud anything, but this also assumes that your applications have mobile apps. It wouldn't be unrealistic to say this in about 5 years you should have apps for most of your applications.

These are a couple of ideas. I'm sure there are many more. Feel free to comment or submit how you think this could be a viable marriage of two technologies.

JB

Send your Thank You's

A customer has just bought from you. Did you send them a thank you message?

Did you do something nice for them? Did you do anything for them?

When you earn business, you already went the extra step beyond your competition. Why stop there?

This is where the real money is made. It is time to deliver superior customer service and build long term relationships. Long term relationships based on trust and value equal repeat business, word of mouth advertising, and most of all, referrals.

You can't afford to lose the business of your current customer too. I remember reading that statistically, 85% of your customers stay, and 15% go away.

It also takes 80% more effort to attract a new customer, so you don't want to have to do the work twice and earn them back. Spend more time with those who have bought from you, go beyond talking about business and develop a friendship.

Your customer will learn to trust your company and most importantly, you. Wherever you go, your customers will remember all you have done for them and become wiling to work with you again and again and again.

Best of luck on not just being the hunter, but the farmer as well.

JB

The Power of Active Directory Groups

This week a customer told me they ONLY are using AD for authentication. If you're one of them, you are missing a big opportunity to utilize your infrastructure.

There's more to life than users who belong to an OU. Sure, it is a good way to organize for domain, although you're still missing the point. You aren't utilizing groups.

Groups allow for many types of uses. Most commonly, they are for security or distribution. Microsoft defines both of the terms:

"Distribution groups can be used only with e-mail applications (such as Exchange) to send e-mail to collections of users. Distribution groups are not security-enabled, which means that they cannot be listed in discretionary access control lists (DACLs). If you need a group for controlling access to shared resources, create a security group."


"Used with care, security groups provide an efficient way to assign access to resources on your network. Using security groups, you can: Assign user rights to security groups in Active Directory... and Assign permissions to security groups on resources"


In my experience, leveraging this native ability in AD is a tool that all IT departments should use. Customers who don't use groups (or AD for more than authentication for that matter) typically have another type of system, database, ERP, script, etc. that does a similar job. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, although the more you clutter your network with a user name here, a permission there, an information database in this corner, etc, the uglier things get.


More ugly equals more work for you, your team, and added confusion to your the most important person in the equation: the end-user who you are busy supporting.

Simplify your world, learn about groups and leverage them to set your permissions, rights, and improve communication. You can also leverage 3rd party applications or scripts do do even more.

JB

Does Time Equal Money? Not So Fast.

You know the saying, "time equals money?" If you're a math person, you can easily break this formula. Try to increase both sides of the equation: More time = more money. Makes sense, right?

Here's the problem: 1 day = 24 hours. You can't create more than 24 hours in a day. Therefore how is anyone supposed to make more money with a finite amount of time?

The answer has to with how efficient with you are with your time.

Are you making the most out of your day? If everyone is limited by the same 24 hours in a day, why are you not hitting your goals while those around you hit their numbers? The successful are doing a better job with their time and have a better plan.

You may be even working harder than those who are making more. Should that be the case the problem lies within your ability to plan, practice or execute. In an earlier post I talked about the importance of doing these three things on a regular basis.

Another idea to consider is to weigh how much time you dedicate each week to role playing with a co-worker or your manager. This exercise allows you to not only get practice time in, but you also gain outside feedback on ways to improve your communication to a customer.

I would suggest learning more about time management by going through business books, personal development books, combing through the Internet. Although, these are the safe options.

The best option you should do is to ask those who are the most successful at what you want to do and find out how they spend their day. Buy them lunch in exchange for suggestions for how to spend your time and see how you measure up. After all, if you want to make the best use out of your 24 hours, you need to replicate or improve upon already proven time management strategies.

JB

The pitfalls of licensing

I work in IT sales. A very common question that customers ask during a discovery presentation is "how much does it cost?" A fair question. If it isn't on the website, there is probably a reason. A sales person might say "it depends."

And from my chair, it really does. It is sometimes hard to pinpoint exact functionality that will be required to complete the job. The last thing we want is for a customer to be upset that their new software didn't do everything they thought it would. Assuming you can get the right functionality, there is still a question of licensing of the program.

There are a number of options out there. The trick for someone in IT to do is to make sure the quote you're getting from vendors is to make sure that the quote you get is the most "apples to apples" as possible. How do you do this?

Here are a number of questions that you should ask that will help you with getting pricing information:

• Is this a permanent license or is this a subscription?
• Does this include maintenance?
• What does your maintenance agreement include? 
• How long is it good for?
• Does this include any services?
• Will I have to pay for additional professionals services for installation, configuration, training, etc?
• Is there enough documentation to do-it-yourself or will I need extra support?
• Do you charge sales tax?
• Do you charge based on users or by servers (or what else)?
• How many users does this include?
• Does this factor in disabled or service accounts?
• Are you offering any discounts or incentives this month? (a sales person will usually jump at this one, haha
• Do you have a monthly payment option / lease to own?
• What are your Net Terms?
• Do you have a guarantee or return policy?
• If not, can I do a free evaluation?

All companies will boast they are the best. After you do your due diligence and select the company that delivers the best solution, be sure to then get the best deal and understand what you're committing to when you sign on the dotted line.

JB

Sales and Basketball

With the NCAA tournament coming to their Final Four weekend it amazes me to watch the teams who win. Sometimes they get the luck of the bounce or perhaps a call from the ref that goes their way. What I'm talking about is how they got to go to the Final Four in the first place. I think I can summarize it to three concepts which also apply to sales:

Plan, Practice, and Execute.

You can also add the value of hard work and discipline. And talent never hurts. In the context that assumes that the teams all work hard, discipline them selves, and leverage their natural talents, they still need to have a plan. They need to practice their plan and finally execute their plan.

Here are some details that are important to each concept:

- Plan: What is your goal? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the contingencies if things don't go perfectly? Will this be enough to win?

- Practice: Set time everyday for practicing your plan. Make it your own and not scripted. Although a script is a good place to start. Can you practice your plan so that it is automatic? Practice with others to make sure your plan makes sense and your practice also has another pair of eyes/ears for feedback.

- Execute: Adjust your plan for the future if it doesn't go like clockwork. Take notes of situations that arise that you had not planned on encountering. If possible, record  your performance and rate how you did.

The more time you spend on developing your own sales skills, the better and more confident you'll be during the real thing.