The New World of Sales

With the advent of Covid, the world of sales has changed dramatically.

For the time being (we hope), traditional face to face meetings, networking and many other ways of meeting new contacts has been limited.

But there are great opportunities, and so many businesses are doing better than ever before as they have grasped the opportunity and pivoted.

Here are some of the changes that have made them successful…

Working from home is the new normal and what that means is:

H – Habits

O – Optimizing.

M – Mobility

E – Establishing Expertise.

 

Habits – it is so easy to fall into bad habits working from home. Either becoming lazy and getting a late start or working way harder than you ever would in an office. Our habits should include…

·         Physical – doing regular exercise.

·         Mental – reading, learning & self-development.

·         Emotional – Connecting on a regular basis with family and friends.

 

O – Optimizing.

Work – Creating a working environment that you enjoy.

I decided to sell up in London and moved to the Norfolk coast where I wake up each day looking at the ocean.

I also decided to make my office something that I enjoyed and have my full percussion setup, my electric drum kit, my guitars and saxophones right there for when I want to take a break. Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtaUQjPsi6M

Website – I took the opportunity to update my website using the wonderful skills of Peter Smith at Link Digital https://www.linkdigital.co.uk/ as well as investing in Yoast Professional for the SEO with the help of top experts Sue & Herb Kelly. Let me know what you think https://frankfurness.com/

 

M – Mobility – most people are now using their phones to look at website, do searches and make purchases.

 

Is your website mobile friendly, check it at https://www.semrush.com/siteaudit/ or with Google?

E – Establishing Expertise.

Using social media and especially LinkedIn, you can now post about your products or services to establish your expertise  and attract new clients.

Here are some ideas you can use in the new world of sales:

LinkedIn

·         Optimize your profile for SEO. Look at mine https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankfurness/

·         Since Microsoft bought LinkedIn a few years ago, it has become a major force for SEO. Do a search for  ‘sales technology speaker’ wherever you are in the world and you will see that I dominate the first page and the two major players are LinkedIn and YouTube.

·         Post regularly, the more you post the more the algorithms will get you seen. Always start your post with a question or statement in capitals. You have 1300 characters, use them all and finish with a question so people reading will have something to comment on

·         Have a variation of posts that include polls, videos, PDFs (LinkedIn love these)

·         Always include hashtags to attract the right audience.

·         Always have a purpose or end goal for your post (a call to action)

Take a look at my online course on LinkedIn - www.linkedinmarketingforbusiness.com

YouTube – Google owns YouTube, so by uploading videos regularly, you once again stand a chance of getting free SEO. Here are some tips:

·         Know which tags or keywords you want to optimize.

·         Include these in three places, the title, description and tags. If you want to see some examples take a look at my channel - https://www.youtube.com/salestips  and subscribe

·         Post at least 3 times a week

·         Once you post, share the video on all your social channels.

Here are some free resources:

·         Creating the Perfect YouTube Marketing Video

·         Video Mastery Resource EBook

·         And of course, my huge online course - https://www.productivitycentre.com/video

Podcasts – So many people are now listening to podcasts, so share your expertise on this platform. I have 4 podcasts for different audiences, look at https://www.spreaker.com/user/frankfurness

What changes have you made to sales and marketing since lock down and Covid changed our lives?

If you enjoyed the article, please like and comment.

Frank Furness CSP CFP TOT is a professional speaker and coach specializing in sales & marketing. He has educated, entertained, and inspired audiences in 69 countries. His publications and online courses have been sold globally. For more information or to sign up for the free ‘Sales Tips & Ideas’ newsletter, email frank@frankfurness.com

NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to frank@frankfurness.com Take a look at other articles, free software and e-Books at http://www.frankfurness.com/

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https://www.productivitycentre.com/lifeintunecourse

'Life in Tune with Social Media'

Take a look at the webinar with Frank Furness and Freddie Ravel.

Freddie Ravel was the keyboard player with Santana, Earth, Wind & Fire, Al Jarreau & Sergio Mendes. Freddie would later be dubbed the “Keynote Maestro” by the City of Los Angeles for his groundbreaking Life In Tune™ system to “renew the national and international economy.” In constant demand to bring audiences in tune around the world, his clients include IBM, Toyota, NASA, Apple, Blue Cross Health, Google and Prudential Financial Services who call his “ideal balance of Entertainment and Content” essential for businesses and entrepreneurs to transform from dissonance to harmony.

Frank Furness is an international Sales & Technology Speaker.

What You Will Learn

Discover your Melody - Your Voice, Passion, Purpose & Profits ...... exploding across social media.

Connect through Harmony - Rise above the noise to find your Billion Dollar Base - that deeper connection with everyone you touch... on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and more...

Monetize Your Rhythm - Time-Saving Techniques to Prioritize and Synchronize Your Brand to What Matters Most.

Understand how Dissonance can turn Fear into Opportunity

Profit from the understanding of the Score and how it combines 'Life in Tune' with 'Social Media'

Also take a look at https://www.productivitycentre.com/lifeintunecourse

We look forward to your comments, likes, shares and subscribes

TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE NEXT LEVEL…

Learn all the latest tricks and tips in this free masterclass. Life in Tune with Social Media. Your presenters Freddie Ravel - GRAMMY-NOMINATED PERFORMER, COMMUNICATION EXPERT AND BUSINESS VISIONARY With an unparalleled career that has consistently transcended the boundaries of music, culture and thought leadership, Freddie Ravel toured with Brazilian master Sergio Mendes, directed the legendary band - Earth, Wind and Fire, performed on the silver screen with the Queen of Pop - Madonna, rocked stadiums with Afro-Latin-Blues-Rock icon Carlos Santana And Frank Furness – Master of Social Media Join our Masterclass and launch of ‘Life in Tune with Social Media’ on the 9th December, register at https://www.productivitycentre.com/li... What You Will Learn ✔ Discover your Melody - Your Voice, Passion, Purpose & Profits ...... exploding across social media. ✔Connect through Harmony - Rise above the noise to find your Billion Dollar Base - that deeper connection with everyone you touch... on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and more... ✔Monetize Your Rhythm - Time-Saving Techniques to Prioritize and Synchronize Your Brand to What Matters Most. ✔ Understand how Dissonance can turn Fear into Opportunity ✔ Profit from the understanding of the Score and how it combines 'Life in Tune' with 'Social Media' #santana #socialmedia #business #marketing #makingmoney

 

LINKEDIN LAUNCH LINKEDIN STORIES

Well at long last LinkedIn have launched LinkedIn Stories

The question is:

❌Is it a lame duck like LinkedIn Live

❌Will it detract from Business Posts

❓Will LinkedIn now be flooded with stories that will detract from business

✔Will it be amazing and secure more business

Since lock down I have generated over $20,000 in sales driven by #LinkedIn

Find out how I did this. Join our free webinar, register at https://www.productivitycentre.com/linkedinnov

 

COLD CALLING IS DEAD, OR IS IT?

 

Working in the Financial Services businesses around the world, I still find many brokerages who have dedicated BDM teams just banging away on the phones and cold calling with some level of success, but nothing like it was before. 

When I started in Financial services in the 80’s, that is what I was trained on.

I would come into the office every morning at 8am and cold call for two hours. My goal was to speak to 20 people (forget those that did not answer or were not there) and secure four appointments.

Doing this every day would guarantee me 20 appointments a week and statistics showed me that on average one of those 4 appointments would not there (big dilemma, should I confirm the appointment just before I leave and give them the opportunity to cancel), one would not know why I was there, I would present to two and sell one.

Yes, in those days it was a one appointment sell.

Dedicate 90 minutes to relax the client, do a fact find, come up with the premium from the rate book, close the sale, complete the application and get three referrals.

I was pretty good and became one of the top salespeople in my first and following years.

We were then taught more advanced strategies like swap clubs, social networking, #referrals and business #networking.

With the era of social media came #blogging, great websites, #YouTube and #Facebook Marketing  and writing articles.

Right now, the best way of reaching targeted clients is using #LinkedIn

I have 28,500 connections, post every day and get thousands of views and hundreds of comments.

There is some moderate success, but not what I really want…. To get paying clients who have a need where I can pitch my solution.

When I speak to financial advisors all over the world, they want fancy websites, LinkedIn and prospecting training and want to know how to use advanced Google searches.

What this really boils down to is ‘How can I find targeted prospects that have a need that I can solve and sell to’.

I considered this for a long time as we had the same dilemma when we had our financial services firm in London and tried buying leads that were not very good.

After some hard work, I found a company that specialized in finding targeted leads for the legal and dental industry with great success and approached them with a view to exploring the financial services market.

We started with mortgage brokers and this was hugely successful and we have now formed a company that specializes in financial services leads, please take a look at https://financialadvisorsleads.com/

How it works is that you set up a call with us so that we can discuss your requirements.

You would then purchase a minimum of 50 leads and we would start our campaign which includes Facebook and LinkedIn advertising as well as Pay per click Google adverts together with a number of other social media channels to get in front of your target audience, send them to our landing page and have them complete a form that would express their level of interest.

This takes around three weeks and you would then be given your 50 leads that would be unique and not sold to anyone else.

Our experience has been that there is a 5% success rate, but that has been in the dental and legal fields where they don’t have specialized salespeople, rather a receptionist with little in sales skills trying to make the sale.

Financial services advisors are highly trained and professional and would most certainly have a better closing ratio.

I know from my experience in the financial services market, the average sale will bring in roughly $5,000 in commission or fees.

So, if you are purchasing 50 leads at US$80, your outlay is $4,000.

If you are awful at sales and convert only three out of the fifty leads, you will still be having a return of $15,000 on your $4,000 Investment.

If you are good at sales and convert six, your return is $30,000

Think about it, no more time wasted on BDMs, cold calling, hours on social media channels, trying to convince people that don’t have a need.

Now you have targeted leads, less hassle and more profit.

Please take a look at https://financialadvisorsleads.com/ and if you want to know more, email me at frank@frankfurness.com or call +44 7711 672888

#lifeinsurance #wealthplanning #mortgages