What is a good bourbon for beginners

I get this question all the time and my response is typical, "What are you drinking right now?  What is your choice when you go into a bar for whiskey?"

this doesn't mean you shouldn't seek out folks who have been on the path before you; Those who have developed a palate like you're attempting to do.

It doesn't matter if the response is Jack or Jim or scotch, an Irish whiskey, or even nothing.

I ask this to get them to establish a base of their current taste profile. The question is for them, not me.

Back the Beginning -

For a lot of us, Jack and Coke was our first. 

I went with it as a kid, starting with Jack Daniels on the rocks as an 18-year-old.  On my 21st birthday, I received five, 5ths of JD - I established myself as a Jack Daniels dude early on.

I went through the usual whiskey adventures; Jack and Coke, or rocks, or Yukon Jack.  I settled on what I called a "Mountain Jack", Moutain Dew, and Jack Daniels.  It would be another 40 years or so until I discovered the real connection between Mountain Dew and whiskey.  

Irony.

Back to the Future -

The Great Divide in Copier Sales

The other day I was speaking with a few dealers and salespeople about the current state of sales and selling. We talked about regional differences, slow change, and what it takes to be successful today in copier sales. 

It was déjà vu all over again. 

I’ve been preaching about change for over a decade, telling dealers and OEMs alike how the future is not about marks on a page or even software. 

The future of selling is in the statements of the past: 

“I want to be your trusted advisor.” 

“We must sell solutions.” 

“We need to listen to the prospect.” 

 We’ve all been there.  As soon as we walk through...read the rest here.

#WFH. The Death of the "Work Spouse".

“…men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way…because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.” 

 - When Harry Met Sally

The "Work Wife", and "Work Spouse" has been around since the '30s.  The Pre-Covid office environment was a petri dish for interpersonal relationships - the label recognizes, if not legitimizes, a third-party 9-5 relationship.

The phrase, the idea, is an acceptable, even encouraged, practice of the work-in-a-cube(plantation) status quo.  When one stops to think about it, is having a work spouse and a home spouse a good thing?  I can't answer that one.

"Work From Home gives new meaning to the phrase, "Work Wife", and that's a good thing for 'committed' personal relationships, not so good for the solo runners."

Consider this, #WFH diminishes:

• 12 hours with somebody other than your wife, husband, or significant other.
• Latenight PowerPoint brainstorming meetings
• Working lunches
• Post-meeting cocktails

WFH also impacts:

• Business trips, out-of-town conferences.
• After-hour team-building events 
• Christmas parties
• Client dinners

The fear of Covid is changing everything from business to commerce, religion, politics, and personal relationships.

Could one benefit of #WFH be a decrease in the number of divorces?

Of course, this issue goes deeper than sharing space with the opposite sex.  Says one male worker regarding his work spouse, 

'I don't like showing vulnerabilities to my real wife in case it makes her respect me less.'

This base insecurity strikes at the core of most affairs; fear of being judged by the person one loves is a powerful motivator to keep "bad news" off the significant other's plate.  So the issue is shared with a non-romantic, third party, not the significant other leading to mistrust, and emotional connections outside the relationship.  

We all know this...

Regardless, we'll see how this all pans out over the next few years.

Interesting.

 

 Sources:

https://www.inverse.com/article/35392-work-spouse-wife-husband-office-psychology

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4665480/Why-work-wife-threat-marriage.html

https://www.glamour.com/story/career-advice-why-everyone-needs-a-work-wife

https://www.savvymom.ca/articleiframe/?url=http://www.jodyrobbins.com/work-wife/&id=105993

New to Sales: How to Use Your Sales Training

Everyone’s gone through sales training. As a new copier rep, you’re going to be trained in the ways of selling, according to your new employer.

To be certain, there are thousands of sales training classes, courses, programs, and coaches in the ecosystem.  Selling has been happening since the dawn of time and people have been teaching others how to sell for just as long.  There is no lack of generic and professional selling curriculum – some may argue there is too much.

Your employer’s sales training program has been either developed in-house, outsourced to a training company, or a combination of both.  It is your duty to understand their “proven” process, learn how they expect you to sell, and do so in the field.

It is your personal responsibility to improve yourself with this training.  My recommendation is to think of the corporate program as a base, or platform for growth – not the end-all of your experiential sales journey.

The point of sales training is to help you sell.  This is partially correct.  Closer to the truth, sales training, in the dealer channel, is designed to help you sell your dealer’s stuff – it is what you signed up to do.

Regardless, all training is good training and... read the rest here.

Business Acumen and Professional Selling

Here it is. 

After years of talking about it, we now have the opportunity to do what we said we would be never did...

"Business Acumen and Professional Selling", I believe is the next stage in sales - inside and outside of the imaging niche. 

Customers and prospects demand and deserve more. They want more than data, knowledge, experience, and wisdom. Join us for a riveting conversation around this subject and start your journey.

New to Copier Sales: How to Use Your Sales Training

Everyone’s gone through sales training.

As a new copier rep, you’re going to be trained in the ways of selling, according to your new employer. 

To be certain, there are thousands of sales training classes, courses, programs, and coaches in the ecosystem. Selling has been happening since the dawn of time and people have been teaching others how to sell for just as long. There is no lack of generic and professional selling curriculum – some may argue there is too much. 

Your employer’s sales training program has been either developed in-house, outsourced to a training company, or a combination of both. 

It is your duty to understand their “proven” process, learn how they expect you to sell, and do so in the field. It is your personal responsibility to improve yourself with this training. 

My recommendation is to think of the corporate program as a base, or platform for growth – not the end-all of your experiential sales journey. The point of sales training is to help you sell. 

Conversations with Your Prospects: Is Your Sales Approach Missing the Mark?

Article first published February 2019, here.

My name is Greg Walters and I’ve worked in the technology sector since 1988. 

I've sold and configured and installed networks, accounting software, servers, PCs, laptops, manufacturing systems, corporate identity programs, copiers, EDM, BPO, Scan/Fax/Print, managed print, and IT services. 

Since 2007, I’ve helped providers build managed print practices, more importantly, I’ve assisted corporations (your prospects) design, building, and implementing self-managed MPS programs. I’ve been a shoulder to shoulder with my clients (your prospects), in Canon, Ricoh, Lexmark, HP, Staples, Xerox, and dealer MPS presentations. I’ve seen the best manufacturers have to offer and helped my clients choose the right partner. I’ve also been privy to the conversations and critiques from clients after each vendor presentation – I’ve heard some pretty enlightening things.

Whatever category the dealership falls into – copier, MPS, Managed IT—and whether the job title reads account representative or Vice President of Sales, these mistakes were made by the most seasoned MPS representatives. And prospects of all sizes from all corners of the globe have expressed these same feelings over and over again.

New to Copier Sales: Experiential Selling

The plan was that, once COVID-19 receded, employees would return to the office, their printers, copiers, coffee machines, and cubicles.

But will they print? Will they copy? Will they return to habits of the past? It really doesn’t matter.  Print will happen and your clients are exploring cost-reducing processes and offerings – managed print services can be your vehicle for higher revenues.

Selling MPS and copiers is nothing new.  There are thousands of articles and dozens of tools in the market designed to help you find prospects, build a total cost of operation, generate proposals, and close deals.

I’m not going to regurgitate facts and processes a decade old.  However, in the new way of selling that is post-COVID-19, I point out one important view: now is the time to expand from transactional selling to experiential selling.

This is a big shift, and it starts between your ears.

Cuomo Begs for Return to the Cube-Farms

#BackToTheCube movement has nothing to do with culture, productivity, or promotions - those excuses are red herrings. 

Supporting what I've been saying for weeks, the Governor himself proves my point, 

"Remember, we have to get people back and we have to get people back in volume. If you were to see a 15% decline of people coming back to New York City, that would have a devastating impact on the commercial market,” Cuomo said. “We need people coming back,” he reiterated later on. “Say to your workforce, ‘By Labor Day, everyone is back in the office.’” “We need that volume to support the restaurants and the shops, the services,” Cuomo continued. “It’s not just about your business. It’s about all the spinoff effect *affect* (my correction) economic activity that your workers bring to the surrounding community.” 

"Workers" = field hands 

"Volume" = taxes 

It's even worse. 

Not only do city officials worry, but middle and upper management are either oblivious to or terrified by the possibility of pure #WFH strategies. Consider this: when folks were sent home and told to work from home, we did this with little or no direction from HQ. 

Granted, this had never been done before so there were no chapters on "Work from home" in the corporate handbook, so we had to make it up on our own as individual 'workers'.   Productivity skyrocketed. The businesses that remained open, thrived. Office work, from H/R, Marketing, and accounting continued. All this WITHOUT BEING MANAGED. 

Turn Knowledge into Wisdom, Close More Deals

Register here.

Business Acumen for Sales - The Course Work

For decades, at least since the 70's, sales reps have been posing their products as "solutions to problems".  From Wiki:

"Frank Watts developed the sales process dubbed "solution selling" in 1975. Watts perfected his method at Wang Laboratories. He began teaching solution selling as an independent consultant in 1982."

This was big through the '80s, 90's and still stands today.  Yet, "Solution sales" has become little more than a slogan.  Closer to the truth, "Solution Sales: As long as the solution is my product or services." 

Don't get me wrong, solution selling was a great advancement in the field of B2B sales.  Solution selling is foundational in professional selling.  Billions of dollars have traded hands based on this approach.  Anything I promote rests on the shoulders of people greater than I.

Evolution happens.  I believe an enhancement to solution selling is Business Acumen Selling. (BAS)

BAS is not about working leads through the selling cycle, understanding your leasing strategies, building good cases and presentations.  It does not refer to a salesperson's ability to demonstrate a device or piece of software nor does BAS have anything to do with how well you update the CRM or forecast the next 90 days.

Business Acumen for Selling is: 

1. Understanding - Recognizing the business model your prospects work within, understanding if you have and exactly where your place in their model resides, and the impact of your presence.  
2. Comparative Analysis - Consistently acquiring knowledge, building acumen across commercial industries, vertical markets, and niches, and utilizing that knowledge.
3. Deep Conversations - Conveying your understanding of the existing environment and articulating your value within their ecosystem.

Most seasoned professionals have a sense of BAS honed through years of fieldwork and thousands of appointments.   My goal is to formalize and shorten the timeline required to learn and apply BAS; especially for the new sales representative.

Our courses are designed to give selling professionals the tools necessary to gain knowledge, distill knowledge into acumen and articulate both an understanding of prospects' environment and the impact of adding the sales reps offering into the client's business model.

#WorkFromAnywhere is a Culture

One of the arguments for a "back-to-the-cube" is corporate culture will be negatively affected when employees are not in close physical proximity.

This is false and manipulative.  

Corporate Culture supports company ideals, values, and mission.  I have yet to see a mission statement that includes "a place where all employees can work together under one roof, for 12 hours a day"

Instead of vilifying the work from anyway movement, better organizations will renegotiate property leases, redesign the promotion process, 

Organizations with a #WFH culture will CERTAINLY create ways to 'promote' and build careers within the organization.

But wait...perhaps we're thinking of this completely wrong. 

#WFH changes everything. 

Perhaps the 'new' career path is yet to be created yet. Maybe, we don't know how the new culture will evolve.

"hybrid" and corporate culture claims are lies and trojan horses. The establishment, the old skool, the status quo, will cease to exist when #WFH becomes the norm.

If you don't want to work in a cube, report to an office at 7:30 AM after a 45-minute commute, sit in on empty meetings, listen to know-nothing middle managers pontificate company dogma, engage in another commute home at 6:00 PM to cold dinners, and missed Little League games, seek out organizations who feel the same way.  Find companies that understand office space leases are not as important as employee wellbeing.  

Be patient, don't let your current bosses know you're looking, tow the corporate line, feign loyalty (like they have for decades) and keep your eyes open.  

The New Way of Work is still evolving. Look for them better organizations to rise, slowly, above the fray.

#WorkFromHome or #WorkInACube: The Choice is Yours

Do you know how much the corporate BBQ, Christmas parties, and other events cost your company?  

Sure, it's nice to go see a baseball game or get to sit in the corporate suite for a basketball game...yet...consider this: 

Would you rather get dressed up, hear a band, eat good food and listen to an executive pontificate with a bunch of co-workers or receive a check for the amount your company paid for the event? (divided among employees) Maybe use that money to take your significant other out on a date.

Does your company sponsor a minor league baseball team? Why?  

Do you see your company's logo all over your "free" swag? How many copiers do you need to sell, in order to buy 14,000 logo'd coffee mugs?  Sure, vendors kick down funds in support - what's in it for them?

We've been trained to believe these events are acts of kindness or perks from our benevolent employers, and for the most part, we're all appreciative.  

But that was the old model, the pre-Fear of Covid way. Today is different.  Today, you are different.

I dare you to ask for the company's internal "entertainment" budget.

The point is this: you are a 'Resource'(go ask Human Resources) and resources are meant to be used to the maximum for minimum cost.  

There is nothing wrong with this model, it is revenue-cost=profit and what we sign up for when we work to support somebody else's dream. (No shame)

It's just that now we can recognize the manipulation - this is a "Red Pill, Blue Pill" situation. 

Blue Pill: Buying into the dogma and believing the narrative you’ve been lead to believe is the truth.

The Red Pill: The Truth

The choice is yours.

#WorkingFromHome Is A Battlefield

I received this message in my LinkedIn box, a few weeks ago:

"Thank you for pressing the #WorkFromHome influencing messaging. Many of us out here can't say it and don't react to your posts because we're afraid our companies will see us advocating for something that can be construed as self-interest rather than company interest. Makes us targets if we do. You're blazing the trail for all of us.  KEEP IT UP PLEASE”

Pretty cool, eh?  I've been remote for just over a decade, outside sales is conducive to working at Starbucks, and parking lots - it was the beginning of work from anywhere.  Indeed,  I was cold calling businesses, on my Nextel, from the beach in SoCali back in 2003.

Consider this rudimentary timeline:

• Data(files) were always at the office; everyone had to be under one roof just to be 'on the same page'
• Fax machines allowed us to send copies around the world
• Email helped us share bigger documents with prospects and clients 
• Laptops made us more mobile; I could now bring my files home to work on over the weekend
• Pink phone message notes were the standard until numeric and alpha-numeric pagers became the rage
• Cell phones replaced pagers
• Smartphones let us connect to email from the palm of our hand
• Ubiquitous WiFi gave us the ability to conduct online meetings from hotel lobbies and poolsides
• Today, with data in the cloud and apps on phones, the CEO can track revenue, sales reps can monitor delivery schedules from the 9th tee or pontoon.

Who wouldn't want to be free to work from anywhere?

Here's why the establishment doesn't want you working from home:

The Gift of Covid19 - Unshackled Employees

So you worked from home. 

You figured it out, and built office space in your kitchen, second room, or closet, with no guidance from HQ.

• You learned Zoom. 
• You became more 'self-managed. 
• You weren't considered 'essential'.  That high standing was reserved for the antiquated accounting department and even more old-fashioned mailroom. 

And now, today, the taskmaster wants to look out upon a sea of workers toiling away in the cotton fields of the 21st century - the cube farm. 

Managers hope we don't figure out how obsolete they've become - they fear for their jobs. 

The most fearful are in the C-Suite. Those "Killers of Passion" who command their complacent, easily replaceable, and 'loyal' chattel back to the stalls. 

It's worse.  Upon return to the office, everything you learned and did 'for the company' during Covid is to be forgotten or suppressed - the hierarchical, top-down rules of management must be enforced to maintain order.

They entice and seduce:

• Friday is blue jean day.
• Group outings to the baseball game.
• Free cappuccinos in the luxury kitchen; beer.
• Catered breakfasts, corporate BBQs, and Christmas Parties.
• 401k's, healthcare, and 2.5% yearly pay increases.

Ignore the 45-minute commutes, and missed recitals.

Enjoy the useless, mundane, and mindless 4PM meetings that inevitably and predictably run over by 60 minutes - "this could have been an email."

Don't forget co-worker personalities and hostile environments - HR is not your friend.

"Some simply refuse to schlep back and forth to an office, taking two-plus hours a day commuting into a crowded, dirty and crime-ridden city. Insurance and financial services giant Prudential conducted a study that found “one in three American workers would not want to work for an employer that required them to be onsite full time.” - Forbes

People are quitting jobs more than ever.  

Here's the nasty and silver lining:  Covid19 and remote working opened our eyes to bigger possibilities.  We can pursue our passions and our passion is not a 9 to 5 prison.  Sure, there are great advantages to working for somebody else from anywhere.  The big, huge transformation will not be technology-driven, it will be powered by passion your passion, unleashed.

This is a great fear the establishment denies - workers, once unshackled, will move away from the establishment and towards their personal, unique dreams.  Maybe that dream is to be the best Events Manager in the industry - why would the best work for one company?  Better yet, why wouldn't she work for herself instead of Big Brother?

Fascinating...the possibilities are endless.

Gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bill

It’s still fat and easy up on banker’s hill

Up on banker’s hill, the party’s going strong...

Down here below we’re shackled and drawn

New to Copier Sales: Sales Lessons Learned in the Last Year

I’ve been saying for almost 12 months that virtual selling and remote work is the wave of the future. I’ve also predicted that few people will go back to the office to work — which as you know will greatly affect your ability to sell copiers.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m prepared to say that I was wrong with my prediction on how few people will come back to the office because some major corporations have announced a back-to–the-office policy. Companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and T. Rowe Price are announcing policies, and predictably, so are large commercial property firms. Any company with an interest in commercial real estate, office space and financing encourages everyone to come back to the cubicle.

This is counter to what happened over the last 12 months. Revenues for companies that operated during the pandemic went through the roof.  Productivity for work-from-home employees increased by double digits. Employees were happier, reconnected with their family, ate fewer cold dinners, and never missed a soccer game.

However, this didn’t bode well for people who make a living renting office space, running parking lots, or selling copiers.

People will be coming back to the office, but does this mean they will be buying more copiers?

Probably not. But the gift ...read the rest here.

"Nobody Wants To Work."

Maybe, if you treated employees better when they were working for you, they'd come back to you today.

"We can't find any good employees and we're just starting to come back."

"People do not want to work and who blames them? They can stay at home and make just as much as I would pay them!"

Well then, maybe you should pay them more.  Maybe you should have valued them more when they did work for you.  Maybe, you shouldn't have demanded they stay late, and miss their kid's soccer game.  

"Our employees don't want to come back to the office.  They are the least engaged."

Could it be that after nearly 100 years of office work, everyone is recognizing that engagement with a corporation is a one-way escapade?  

That corner office, 401k, and 12 days of vacation are all part of the trap.

Companies have convinced employees that long commutes, cube farms, terrible co-workers, hostile working environments, company policies that defy logic, 2.5% pay raises, overtime, water coolers, ping-pong tables, and company half-barrels are worth the cold dinners, missed little league games,  red-eye flights, brainless managers, and corporate disloyalty.

They've convinced you that your worth is determined by who you work for, how many hours you put in, and how loudly you tow the company line.  They had you believing that if you worked anywhere but under the florescent sting of an open floor plan, you wouldn't get anything done.

Remember the companies who just 12 months ago were saying, "We're all in this together.  We want what's best for all our employees." and are now treating the same employees like nothing happened you are shameful.  They worked in a completely unfamiliar environment and learned more about technology, human-to-human communications, and getting things done than a dozen of your "corporate training sessions" could ever muster.

Your revenues went through the roof.  Company travel costs approached zero - no client visits, no hotel, dinner, or drinks on the expense reports - FOR A YEAR.  Sure, bigger companies still paid rent - but utility costs tumbled, and what about all those government loans?

Every one of your employees who worked at home deserves a HUGE increase in salary, a bonus, or both and you know it. 

Additionally, the mantra, "Everything has changed because of the fear of COVID-19." is true - so why are you going to manage your workforce the same way you did in 2019?

But if we let our employees work from anywhere, we'll lose that personal touch and will kill our corporate culture."

Personal connection in the business world is a fallacy - it does not and can not exist.  Any bond established under the influence of business transactions is by definition, impersonal.  All the relationship-building, all the dinners, lunches, and drinks spent with a client or prospect are designed with one goal in mind, get their money into your pocket. 

Don't play the "personal touch" card in an effort to force employees back to the cages. 

By the way, working from anywhere doesn't kill the corporate culture, it IS corporate culture.

The argument for returning office workers back to the office revolves around:

1. A need for centralized management is built on mistrust and insecurities.
2. The Luddite view of "getting back to normal".
3. An effort to bolster commercial office space return on investments.

We are witnessing the struggle between indenture and freedom; between value and being unvalued.

The good news is that your skills are transferrable to organizations that want to be part of the future and understand monolithic structures of management are part of a bygone era.  Find those companies and go work for them - from anywhere on the planet.

Cheers!

The Age of the Introvert Salesperson

Sales has changed. You remember how it used to be, right? Waiting in the lobby for that big appointment. Impersonal boardroom meetings.  You sat across the table from each other; you didn’t tell him too much and he didn’t give you any clues as to what he was thinking.

You bantered and built trust through non-verbal communication techniques — the ones you read about in the sales book du jour.  Or maybe during a sales meeting, one of the more seasoned professionals imparted you with knowledge. “Pace your prospect,” he told you. “When he leans in, you lean in. When he crosses his arms, so do you.”

Your presentation skills involve walking the room, waving your hands, smiling, nodding, looking people straight in the eye. All this comes easy for you, doesn’t it? You are an extrovert.

Back in school, you were the center of attention.  You have no fear of attending parties by yourself. Peers, prospects, and colleagues consider you outgoing and engaging. You’re boisterous, lively, energetic, entertaining, maybe charming.

Friends and family have been telling you for years, “You’re such a people person, you should go into sales.” So one day, you took their advice and jumped into the sales profession.

Read the rest, here.

If Your Company Wants You to Work in The Office - Quit.

Updated June 21, 2021

"Getting back to normal" is the new mantra.  

True, people are sick of fearing Covid19 and want to get back to business. Also true is the undebatable fact that Covid forced you to work for home and you loved it.  While at home, your productivity went through the roof as middle management lost the traditional facilities of control.

You've proven yourself more productive. You are a Zoom Room king.  Heck, over the last 12 months, you've learned more things than in the past three years.

You're happier now, aren't you? No 10 hours a week commute.  You've reconnected with your kids and missed fewer dinners.

Above all, you helped the company get through the largest global catastrophe ever.   That's right.  You weren't "lucky" to have a job.  Your company was most fortunate to have YOU there.  Through all the challenges, changes, insecurities, and unknowns, you were loyal to the company.

And how does your company reward your loyalty?  

They tell you to "Come back in, but stay six feet apart, get tested, and get the jab...", drive back and forth, miss your kids' games, let your dog whine, remain in a frazzled state of mind, and go further into debt.  

Can We Get Rid of Quotas?

The selling profession after Covid19: 

"We have to start doing what was said we were doing but never did."

We're all talking about the "new" ways to sell.  

Covid19 is forcing galactic shifts in the way we do business; from the back-office to the sales trenches. What I find striking is the more we talk about what needs to be done in a post Covid19 sales engagement, the more we find the basic selling skills apply more than ever.

Here are a few of the concepts and skills presented over the decades regarding sales and selling:

• Build Trust
• Attract Like-Minded Prospects
• Consult
• Be the Trusted advisor
• Increase Your Business Acumen

The books, lectures, and classes of the past decades all told us to be more a consultant and experts in our industry. Lately, in the last decade, salespeople have been told to become thought leaders, create content, find a 'good match', and help the prospect in their purchasing journey.

We've been saying it for decades.  These are basic skills. Now is the time to ACTUALLY do what we have been saying we do.  Engage the basics, and get to the root of the art of selling.  Once we do this, virtual selling will return to 'Selling'.

It's Time to Refresh Your Website, isn't it?

Q1, 2021.  Covid19 is magically fading and people are starting to break out of their homes and hunker-down mentality.

We don't know how the next 18 months will pan out.  Certainly, 2021 will be nothing like 2019.

The business to business realm is pivoting and re-aligning everything from employee work environments to remote customer engagement protocols.  Everyone, providers, and customers are considering the following aspects for the 'new way':

• Remote work
• Remote customer engagement
• Social selling
• Video
• Omnichannel approach
• Introvert vs. extravort

All dynamic issues.  The question arises, with everything that's changed in the last 18 months and all that will in the next, why is your website stuck in the year 2019?

Consider this:  prospects are going to the web daily, you understand this fact - most prospects know more about you BEFORE reaching out to you directly.

The bedrock of your web presence is your dot Com, you're website, and here's why you should consider and re-build your website:

1. Business has changed
2. Common and shared struggle 
3. Changes in Facebook and Google

Changing times -

Before Covid19, your web presence supported the face-to-face customer experience, now it is reversed.  What you say and do online, drives how customers feel about you.  A screen does not convey the same emotion as "belly to belly", but emotion does get through and it is easier if your prospect feels confident BEFORE the Zoom session.

Common disaster - 

Covid19 was and still is a struggle.  The impact will be felt for the next couple of decades.  Unlike a hurricane, earthquake, or tsunami, EVERYONE experienced the Chinese flu.  We all went through the same struggle.  Your prospect might around the corner or on the other side of the globe, they went through this just like you have. 

This is a bonding experience like never before.  Tap into this energy with an authentic approach.

Facebook and Google Are Not Your Friends -

You are not their customer.  You are the product. One of the millions.  In 2021 both FB and Google are changing their algorithms and hiding end-users from potential sellers.  This is a move towards privacy much like Apple just implemented.  Apple is blocking user data from data collectors and marketers - it is going to be more difficult to reach prospects directly - you're going to need to ATTRACT new relationships.  Enter your circa 2018 website.  Ug.

Here's the deal.  Websites are considered primarily static; once created, they never really change that much.  Environments like Facebook, allow for up to the minute updates and announcements, but your audience is controlled.  Search results on Facebook may include your competition.  Also, customer relationships on Facebook are a bit shallow, which is fine for selling crafts and old sneakers.

I've always felt we never maximized the website experience.  I believe that a company website should be an immersive environment, not a billboard sign.  Of course, over the decades, this is exactly what has happened.  Most corporate websites are single dimension advertisements that brag and beg attention. 

The post-Covid19 era is the perfect time to reconsider your website and your overall web presence.  Reach out to me today and let's get started. Greg@grwalters.com 

 

InfoGraphs

New to Sales: The Pandemic Paradox

 

Here’s the big paradox of the COVID-19 pandemic — the lockdowns and remote get-togethers have made us more connected. Online sessions reveal more humanity than big, important meetings around the oak table in the executive conference room. Even with all the challenges, bad audio, odd camera angles, and clumsy mute buttons, we’ve seen more of our prospects and customers than ever before. 

Think about it. 

How many kitchens, dens, and home offices have you seen since March of 2020? Have you met clients’ and coworkers’ pets and children? Of course. Have you seen paintings, books, sports memorabilia, and messy desks? 

Yes, you have. We all have. Web meetings, with cameras on, give us the chance to be vulnerable and connect with prospects and customers on a deeper level than before COVID-19. 

Vulnerability is foundational to building a bond, establishing rapport, and creating a solid relationship. And what can be more vulnerable than inviting the CEO of your biggest prospect into your home? One of the many “silver linings” of the pandemic is the ability to see more of our customers’ lives. Who would have thought that physical separation could bring us closer? 

It is counterintuitive, ... read the rest here.

Five Points to Remember When Working with Virtual Buyers

For all the content generated about virtual sales over the last year, it seems few are teaching companies how to make a purchasing decision in this new realm. 

 For decades, the “art” of selling has been taught to thousands of salespeople. Every company, from real estate, computer hardware, and software to luxury submersibles and automobiles incorporates some level of sales training. But other than learning spreadsheets and comparing pricing, few have put together a standard approach to purchasing in the virtual reality. 

Five Approaches for Virtual Selling

Virtual Selling is The Queen’s Gambit

...For everything that is common between then and now, here are a few of the most profound differences between 2007 and today: 

Life is more online – The online life is ubiquitous. There is no longer “virtual selling”; it is simply selling. 

Physical cues are no longer viable – It is difficult to get a “read” from your prospect, and projecting confidence and professionalism require more than a suit and tie. 

Less formal – Work from home means kids and pets can interrupt your meeting and that is OK. In a strange way, virtual selling allows us to be more human. 

Ad hoc – You can move from the phone to a video demo or needs assessment in minutes. “Do you have...

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