North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: January 6, 2012

In this episode I’ll be interviewing Rae Majors-Wildman about her two day Skyrocket Your Sales Summit.

A survivor of domestic violence, she successfully raised her child as a single mother on welfare. When most would expect her to stay down, she shattered the stereotypes and became a successful certified coach and entrepreneur. She also experienced her fair share of tragedies, and this has allowed her to understand the struggles her clients faced.

At age 38, she graduated with Honors in Counseling Psychology. Rae has been trained by some of the best in the business from Chet Holmes, a man who ran over 7 divisions for Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munger to Anthony Robbins and John Assaraf.

Rae has the ability to read people’s passions inside and out and this insight is what makes her a unique business coach. With over 10,000 coaching hours under her belt, she has successfully coached every business from start-up at the ground-level to Fortune 100 companies earning over $10 million dollars in sales. She will not stop until you go all the way.

Rae is the author of the best-selling book The Juggling Act – A Step by Step Guide for Balancing Your Business and Your Life.

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: September 23, 2011

Truly shocking sales statistics as it relates to your follow up process:

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
12% of sales people make more than three contacts

2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

Alan Underkofler, Follow Up Success, is back on the show and he’s going to be sharing tips and strategies for following up with prospects.

The statistics above speak for themselves. We need to develop a follow up strategy and implement t as part of our weekly business tasks. Don’t miss this show.

North San Diego Business at Large
Show Notes: March 29, 2011

Just a note, there was a technical glitch so give the audio about 5 seconds to start.

Client service is about working to keep customers – and keep them coming back – because retaining customers is much less expensive, and much more profitable, than trying to find new ones.

North San Diego Business at Large
Show Notes: March 22, 2011

“What most Independent Professionals miss in the Selling Process is the process part. There are many parts to this process, and if you want to succeed at it, you need to master each of these parts.” We will review what everyone who is selling products or services needs to know.

Words of wisdom from David Ogilvy..do you agree, or not?

This is a video about selling and promotions from the famous copywriter David Ogilvy. It may be dated, but the content is still very timely.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes:  February 19, 2010

Dan Boe, Inner-Fire Presentations, shared the six deadly mistakes we make in our sales conversations. They include:

1. Not getting the commitment up front.
2. Relying on product knowledge.
3. Being a free consultant.
4. Not having a process.
5. Trying to beat the buyer at his/her own game.
6. Selling features & benefits.

Dan offers sales courses which can be found at his site, Be The Fire, and has been a previous guest of North San Diego Business At Large (episode page).

Open Ended Questions

Ask Open-Ended & Clarifying Questions

Don’t work so hard on your next presentation, client meeting, or employee conversation. Certainly come prepared. But start by asking open-ended questions to target the needs of your listener or audience. It allows for multiple responses in the listeners owns language.

Repeat back what you heard using similar words from what what expressed. Then ask “Is what I said what you meant?” and adapt your style and response to meet their expectations. It will encourage a meaningful response that targets results without judgment, instead of driving, strong-arming, or pushing your own agenda. It will also demonstrate active listening skills while avoiding projecting, fixing, or telling.

Examples of open-ended or clarifying questions:

• “What’s the most important thing you’d like to get from me, or this meeting?”
• “How would you like me to provide you with feedback or information?”
• “Describe for me how you did….”
• “Tell me a time when you demonstrated….”
• “What would it look like if… (you tried the opposite)?”
• “What if the opposite were true?”
• “How can I support you?”
• “What would success look like?”
• “What did you intend as the outcome?”
• “How much time did the project work take?”

As a Business Coach, Ken brings more than 25 years of diverse local and international experience that business, visionaries and individuals trust to help achieve amazing success. He has helped small to mid-size business, and has managed large scale organizational shifts for Fortune 500 companies.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes:  January 15, 2010

Ann Marie Houghtailing is a Sales Trainer, Motivational Speaker, and Entrepreneur who has trained sales people all around the country in a variety of industries. Known for her high energy, humor and no nonsense style, Ann Marie has developed sales systems and built sales teams to generate revenue in every climate. She has trained people to sell everything from real estate and financial products to dry wall and event services. “Selling is not a talent, it is a measurable, teachable skill; and with creative, clear strategies everyone can learn to sell. Nearly every business and every job in this country is dependent upon sales.”

Ann Marie Houghtailing is Principal of The Houghtailing Group, which examines individual businesses to identify and remove obstacles in order to create opportunities. Whether you are a financial planner, a baker or an Internet based business, you must sell your product or service in order to execute your vision and remain viable in the marketplace.

Michelle Bergquist, will be sharing an upcoming Business Women’s Mega Mixer event for the women’s business community in San Diego County. Michelle is widely known throughout San Diego as the woman with the golden rolodex.

As author of How To Build A Million Dollar Database, she knows just about everyone and will be putting that to use as she brings the women’s community together with this event. I’ve interviewed her before and she’s a great interview

Recently Barbara Eldridge, my Co-Director at MindMasters Entreprener Association, and I interviewed Vicki Garcia, Marketing Impressions.

Vicki shares tips on selling and marketing your small business. Let me know what you think by commenting. Visit MindMasters Entrepreneur Association if you are a small business owner who wants to be part of a vibrant online business community.

August 19 from 8 to 9:15 am-Join the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce for informative, relevant information at a very low cost-$5 per person includes continental breakfast.

August Topic:
Blast off! Your Life, Your Business and Sales to New Heights!

(my interview with Allison)

Seminars held at the Valley of Discovery Room at City Hall. RSVP required to tayde@sanmarcoschamber.com

I spoke with Bill Miller, Call Solutions Group about how his company makes solopreneurs or home based businesses sound bigger than they physically are through communication technologies.

I think with companies talking about laying off employees, there may be executives who are ready to take control of their future by starting their own consulting business. However, unlike me who loves being homebased and am very proud of being homebased, not everyone wants their clients to know they work from home.  Call Solutions Group provides a sophisticated telephone service that leaves the caller with the impression they are speaking to a much larger firm.

Take a listen and let me know what you think by commenting, and give Bill’s site a once over.