“Stanzr puts the ‘engagement’ in Social Media”
~Jeannette Marshall
What is in a name preceded by the #? It is called a “Hashtag” developed to allow Twitter users to join in conversation on a similar topic or interest. About 5 months ago, Taariq Lewis, CEO of Stanzr.com was launching a BETA to take the Twitter conversation a step further by providing an environment to do so. Now, it has evolved from a weekly #saleschat on Sunday afternoons to a mid-monthly Wednesday forum.
The topics surround sales techniques, tools and processes. Moderated by Jeannette Marshall, Taariq Lewis and Austin Miles, with guests experts ranging from top selling author Kevin Davies, Slow Down Sell Faster (www.toplineleadership.com) to Cesar Rodriguez, CEO, www.activitytracker.com. Participants actively jump in or others sit back and read the content as it is unfolding. It is free, there is no commitment other than having a Twitter ID (www.twitter.com). You don’t have to be a social media guru, it could be an incentive to use Twitter as a learning tool.
To give you an idea, the following is the October 12th transcripts and attendees while we covered that month’s topic: Activity Metrics ... How do you measure what you are doing in sales to maximize your time and focus on the RIGHT results! Everyone logs on by the 9 p.m. EST time slot and off we go! http://stanzr.com/7ps9pui6
PARTICIPANTS:
- · Taariq Lewis, CEO, Stanzr.com ~Moderator @taariqlewis
- · Jeannette Marshall, BlogHER ~Moderator @optioneerJM
- · Cesar Rodriguez, CEO, www.salestracker.com ~Special Guest @activitytracker
§ Maureen Blandford, Lead Strategist, Mind Time Group @maureenB2B
§ Justin Pirie, Cloud Strategist, Mimecast, @justinpirie
§ Nick Bianchi, Account Manager, Dealermine, @nickbianchi
§ Sherree Worrell, Project Administrator, Management Consulting @sherree_W
§ Joseph Gier, CEO, Learn To Grow @josephgier
§ Deborah Thomas-Nininger, Founder/CEO, DTN Productions @DTNetiquette
§ Bill Gardiner, Channel Management Director, Cirrusabs, @b_gardiner
§ Andy Houston, Director of Member Services, North American Inter-Fraternity Conference @hust0058
§ Perry Pucetti, CEO, The Triple-I Corporation @DelphiUSA
TRANSCRIPTS (Curated by Taariq Lewis):
What Metrics are you using right now?
OptioneerJM Everyone, Cesar Rodriguez is our special guest, he's the CEO, founder and sales guru for Activity Tracker,
ActivityTracker I define tracking your activity as everything you do that goes into your sales process
ActivityTracker for example how many calls u make a day, appointments, presentations, sales, etc
ActivityTracker for example how many calls u make a day, appointments, presentations, sales, etc
SalesDuJour Quantity of calls, meetings (virtual, F2F, V2V) length, preparation and research, related admin
ActivityTracker the pieces that eventually lead up to a sale. I'm not talking about organizing your desk and the non essentials
SalesDuJour Proposals and correspondence, prospecting and networking.
DTNEtiquette Yes, I track calls, e-mails, connectivity updates - it is my own system
OptioneerJM As Cesar and I spoke about, most people, me included have used Activity Tracking within CRM dynamics
ActivityTracker We all know that every step in your sales process leads to that end sale, but seldom do we take time to track the core metrics that generate that end result.
ActivityTracker Some people do some people don't. Most sales people like me hate that stuff, and just want to get busy and not be slowed down by loggin in information, but we all know it's important
SalesDuJour Return on Time and Effort has always been critical to me.
ActivityTracker but it can also be very motivating to know what your own personal law of averages numbers are and your personal ratios
NickBianchi I have tracked call #'s etc. in the past. But not as much as much anymore. Not because it's not effective but my environment has changed in such a way that the path to the sale (the BIG win) is less clear now
DTNEtiquette Based upon current and/or prospective client I determine what type of follow-up is best first - all are made aware of my podcasts
ActivityTracker when u find your ratios show that you close 1 out of 10 then you don't focus on the yes's nad hte no's but rather the 9 you have to burn thru to get to that tenth
justinpirie This might be too detailed- but how do you integrate into existing CRM and ERP systems?
SalesDuJour @ActivityTracker Avoiding the 9 losers is critical to real success
NickBianchi @ActivityTracker Just don't be in too much of a hurry to burn thru the 9 that you burn right thru the 10th!
DTNEtiquette Yes, it is homegrown - 20+ years in business!
Josephgier well sales is a bit like commodity trading in that way... 8 losses in row but the two that you get more than make up for them
SalesDuJour Activity tracking of ROE & ROT helps prioritize and become selective
OptioneerJM CRMs is a lot of data .... lots of which create dashboards for mgt ... what we're speaking about is instead of a homegrown
ActivityTracker Yes, here's an example of why tracking is important and a great motivational tool....
Justinpirie @josephgier I was thinking- we use Netsuite for ERP which drives everything- how would we use it?
Josephgier Well, I have a sales question for the sharks..are there generally accepted metric to guage a sales success or failure
SalesDuJour @josephgier That needs to be tailored to each sales environment. In other words, there is not a "standard"
ActivityTracker we all know that every thing u do in ur sales earns you money, for example if you have to ten people to get that one yes and that one yes earned you $100 then you know that every No or rejection earned u $10
ActivityTracker people forget that sometimes or to figure it out it takes a long time and is time consuming or cumbersome
NickBianchi @SalesDuJour Yes! Attempts to set goals/quotas using a system from a different space can be REALLY bad!
ActivityTracker Also within the Yes's and No's are further ratios
MaureenB2B I have so many clients and they all have different systems and I have 1 F1000 that has 6 regions and 6 different sales processes. Oy vey
ActivityTracker for example if you had to make 50 calls to the 10 prospects then that $100 commission divided by 50 calls = $2 per call right?
OptioneerJM Yes, how does it work basically @ActivityTracker ? lOTS of sales would be worried about just more data entry
ActivityTracker I've been in sales since i was a kid selling baseball cards and magic cards and hustling anything i could because i loved the trill of the sale
ActivityTracker to make a friend to have some fun and to make them happy and me money
MaureenB2B @NickBianchi old bricks and mortar. they really need to do an actual reorg, lots of old, engrained relationships with clients - some RMs threaten to walk with their businesses if anyone forces them to change.
OptioneerJM ok, let's move to the next question in a couple min as it leads into to the WHY you should be tracking your activity
ActivityTracker In sales there are only 2 reasons why ur not successful...
ActivityTracker you're either not doing something right or your not doing something enough
ActivityTracker how many calls, appointments, presentations, new people prospected etc
ActivityTracker One person might be a killer closer on the presentation table but they might be horrible at setting appointments that stick
ActivityTracker one person might be a killer appt setter but have a weak closing percentage
ActivityTracker over the phone they don't know why they're missing it. they just know they're not getting sales
ActivityTracker I developed an fun free and easy sales activity tracking tool that allowed people on my team to go online...
ActivityTracker and click buttons to increment their activity
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think
~Socrates
Products. Benefits. Cost. ROI.
hust0058 @ActivityTracker I could see this being helpful in the #nonprofit #fundraising space for tracking donor outreach.
ActivityTracker @taariqlewis Pricing is the best part...it's currently free
ActivityTracker It was going to be a freemium model
OptioneerJM BINGO when u click the buttons to increment the activities you do it crunches ur numbers and shows u ur ratios for every area of ur sales process
hust0058 @ActivityTracker thanks for that info on (the lack of) pricing! :)
OptioneerJM so the main benefit from what I can see, its for you, the sales pro or entrepreneur or NFP
OptioneerJM if you can examine your activity and decide where you're getting traction, there is your ROI ...
ActivityTracker Freemium meaning our biz model was going to be where had 80% of the features free and if u wanted advanced tracking features it wud cost something like $15 a month, but we decided to open it up in a beta test
ActivityTracker and not charge anyone anything just yet and give it all away for free in exchange for avluable information on future features and whatnot
OptioneerJM the fact that it's free, not a CRM and personalizable ... looks like a no brainer doesn't it?
ActivityTracker the site is ActivityTracker.com but the free account invitation code will set u up with a few free templates
ActivityTracker Penn Life insurance, Robbins Research International aka the Tony Robbins company
hust0058 @ActivityTracker just signed up.
ActivityTracker I love tony robbins so the fact that his people use it to track their sales is pretty cool
Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
~Winston Churchill
After this discussion will you start using Activity Trackers?
Josephgier Yes Ill give it a shot
OptioneerJM agree Cesar ... but some would say time is money :o)
NickBianchi I will commit to creating an account. Too early to say if I will use it.
hust0058 @ActivityTracker your sales activity from #salechat should be 100% :)
Josephgier whats the downside
ActivityTracker Chatting doesnt do the tool all that much justice, there is 3minute a video on the homepage with a very handsome young man overviewing the site and how it works, i recommend watching that
OptioneerJM +RT @hust0058 @ActivityTracker your sales activity from #salechat should be 100% :)
ActivityTracker if you watch the quick start video within the site it'll overview all the cool things you can do like how u can friend up other people, share it with ur friends, and view other peoples activity
DTNEtiquette yes I will give it a try as well - & love sharing new tools w/my clients!
ActivityTracker the beautty of the AT is that I know exactly how much i make per phone call $17, and i know everytime i shake a hand I average earning $42
hust0058 @ActivityTracker thanks. My org doesn't have a flashy crm, so this can help give me some data!
ActivityTracker i also know that i close 45% of evreyone i send to a website video for my other company
ActivityTracker and 64% of every appointment sticks
ActivityTracker @josephgier Exactly! It's a HUGE motivation tool!
OptioneerJM Personally, professionally I knew that you have to be able to understand your own success ratio and this is the ticket
ActivityTracker when i don't feel like prospecting someone i ask myself. If that person had $42 in their hand and was wanting to give it to me in a handshake sould i walk over there and take it
OptioneerJM You can't just tell people they have to do more calls ... you need to show them what calls are successful and go from there
ActivityTracker often i don't want to prospect people but when i think about how much i make per my average closing percentages and dollar per prospect my lazy butt gets in gear!
hust0058 @OptioneerJM getting to the success (sale) takes failure along the way. Some can't see past those in the sales process.
ActivityTracker my fav part is the split testing to
ActivityTracker once u see the ratios between ur activities u can coach urself
ActivityTracker i coach people and charge $400 an hour
OptioneerJM Well part of sales is networking right? So hopefully, you all enlightened at the same time
ActivityTracker but realistically if u use this tool it can break down ur ratios and u can see where ur weakest
ActivityTracker that's why i created this tool
OptioneerJM great idea ... assumptive close (that they will watch); alternative time: I am available at this time, what works best for you?
ActivityTracker Yup, u have to inspect what u expect. Before AT we both woulda been clueless as to what he was doing wrong
OptioneerJM BUT the Activity tracking enhanced his efforts to focus on where he'd be more successful
ActivityTracker in one glance i saw it plain as day
ActivityTracker all i did was see he had a weak appt setting ratio and percentage
OptioneerJM Problem with many CRMs activity measurement tools are for management not for the sales pro
SalesDuJour @ActivityTracker Thanks Cesar. We have similar philosophies.
ActivityTracker and reply back to the intial welcome email to message me once u setup an account and let me know u found the site thru this sales chat and I'll be sure to give u personal help
ActivityTracker there's a video called "Why u suck at setting appointments"
ActivityTracker and another that says "bootcamp appointment setting"
OptioneerJM OK, maybe we'll use that as a basis of our next topic .. an assignment, then a discussion ... for Nov 16th - agreement?
ActivityTracker also my video blog http://cesarlrodriguez.com has tons of videos and even some fun and crazy ones.
OptioneerJM That would make a great #saleschat theme Tariq: "Why you suck at making appointments"
ActivityTracker probably stuff i shouldn't post seeing as i run a company now, and shud prob act a lil more serious and businessey. LoL!
OptioneerJM Well I'd like to thank Cesar as our guest, and as the topic was so interesting we didn't have any missiles flying tonight
ActivityTracker @OptioneerJM Thanx Jeannette, i think this is a cool idea, i love networking with people into sales, I LOVE sales people! We're just so dang fun and outgoing & lovable aren't we! =)
hust0058 @ActivityTracker @OptioneerJM Yes, thanks for the chat! H/T to @Taariqlewis for it showing up in my tweets
OptioneerJM Stanzr puts the "engagement" in social media doesn't it @ActivityTracker ? You're interacting with your audience live
ActivityTracker def. Btw, we're developing a killer sales blog so if we have some people that'd be interested in contributing blog posts please contact me
ActivityTracker always looking for killer content to share
Give interactive learning a try! The next event will be Wednesday, November 16th at 9 p.m. EST under the topic “Why you suck at getting appointments”. http://stanzr.com/7ps9pui6
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
~Albert Einstein
Appointment setting is necessary in order to get more business. There are many companies to convince clients and customers, and set appointments for your sales staff is very difficult task.
ReplyDeleteAppointment Setting
Appreciate your comment Rogger, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that scheduling appointments aka getting in front of prospects is one of the greatest challenges, especially today when you consider that many more walls put up with anti-spam on e-mail, caller ID on telephones, etc. That is why, you need to build a sales team who is up for the challenge, can make their own calls based on their research, calendar call backs and follow ups.