Selling to Zebras Blog

Complex Sales and Selling Strategies, Sixth Edition – February 15, 2010

Chad Koser — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:08:44 +0000

Welcome to the February 15, 2010 edition of complex sales and selling strategies! I received the image on the left from a very enthusiastic salesman that is employed by one of our customers… I thought it very appropriate to kick off the blog carnival this month. Enjoy!

Anya Portnik presents Sales Training Tips From Readers… posted at Gavin Ingham.

Business Development

Frank Goley presents Strategic Planning for Business Success posted at Business Success Strategies, saying, “The business success strategies blog is written by small business success expert, Frank Goley, the chief business consultant for ABC Business Consulting. Frank has more than twenty years experience helping companies start, grow, turn around and succeed.” Joe Revod presents Reciprocity Marketing – How To Use Reciprocity In Your Business posted at Internet Business Make Money Online With Welly Mulia. Case Ernsting presents 3 Steps To Start Your Internet Business posted at FinditLocal411 Blog, saying, “Starting your internet business is a difficult and arduous process, but with a few simple steps, you can be ready for most of the obstacles you encounter. Selling online is a complicated process for sure, but no impossible.”

Sales Challenges

Steve C presents What To Do If A Competing Business Undercuts You In Price posted at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

Strategies/Methodologies/Philosophies

garrett schwab presents 10 Things You Should Know When Buying A Marketing List posted at Garrett’s Reasoning. Chad Levitt presents B2B Sales Reps – You Need to Become Better Marketers posted at New Sales Economy Blog. Ralph Jean-Paul presents The Persuasion Experiment: 5 Effective Persuasion Techniques Tested posted at Potential 2 Success. Ankesh presents How To Build Up A Strong Steady Online Business « SuccessNexus.com posted at SuccessNexus.com, saying, “Few examples of how to use strategies effectively” MoneyNing presents How to Succeed by Failing Fast posted at Money Ning, saying, “In order to succeed, you must fail again and again. Don’t be afraid to try new things.” That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of complex sales and selling strategies using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Complex Sales and Selling Strategies, Fifth Edition – January 21, 2010

Chad Koser — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:41:24 +0000

Welcome to the first Complex Sales and Selling Strategies blog carnival edition of 2010! We had a number of great submissions for this Fifth edition of the blog carnival, but I have to say that my personal favorite is, “How a $23M Deal Died, Was Revived, and Closed,” authored by Chad Levitt and listed under the Complex Sales category below. Chad’s post is a perfect example of a detailed what, why, and how strategy that all of us can apply to be more successful in our complex sales environments.

…And no, I’m not just playing favorites because he happens to share a great first name with yours truly! Enjoy the carnival, and I look forward to receiving submissions for the next (Sixth) edition in mid-February.

Zebra Chad

…And now the submissions for this Fifth edition:

Anya Portnik presents Failure for us is not an option posted at Gavin Ingham.

Wise_Bread presents 6 Ways to Use Technology to Upgrade Your Career posted at Wisebread.

Managed Services presents The First Step to Determining Profit: Calculating Full Burden for Billable Staff posted at Managed Services Blog.

Billeater presents Save Money on Your Home Internet Business posted at Billeater.

Business Development

Frank Goley presents Business Success Strategies by ABC Business Consulting » Blog Archive » Writing An Effective Business Plan- Part One posted at Business Success Strategies, saying, “The business success strategies blog is written by small business success expert, Frank Goley, the chief business consultant for ABC Business Consulting. Frank has more than twenty years experience helping companies start, grow, turn around and succeed.”

Susan Tatum presents Will Pay-Per Click work for you? posted at Clicks ‘n Conversions Blog.

Frank Goley presents Business Success Strategies by ABC Business Consulting » Blog Archive » Developing and Implementing A Winning Marketing Plan posted at Business Success Strategies, saying, “The business success strategies blog is written by small business success expert, Frank Goley, the chief business consultant for ABC Business Consulting. Frank has more than twenty years experience helping companies start, grow, turn around and succeed.”

Complex Sales

Chad Levitt presents How a $23M Deal Died, Was Revived, and Closed posted at New Sales Economy Blog, saying, “This post will detail how using an on-demand ROI/TCO sales 2.0 tool can help you sell more, at a higher ASP, with a shorter sales cycle and get your customers to “own the deal”.”

Sales Challenges

Kathleen Gaga presents Make Sales Stick; A Simple Strategy Guaranteed to Increase Your Success posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, “Being pushy, aggressive and not caring how many refunds you get is what has given sales a bad name. You will not find that type of advice from me. I believe in selling with influence and integrity.
So how do you make sales stick?”

Mike Consol presents Mike Consol/My Blog | The key to making yourself persuasive posted at Mike Consol’s Blog, saying, “No less an authority than Harvard Business Review said, “Persuasion is the centerpiece of business activity. Customers must be convinced to buy your company’s products or services, employees and colleagues to go along with a new strategic plan or reorganization, investors to buy (or not to sell) your stock, and partners to sign the next deal. But despite the critical importance of persuasion, most executives struggle to communicate, let alone inspire.” There’s a fundamental key to persuasion. Here it is…”

Strategies/Methodologies/Philosophies

Kathleen Gaga presents Build a Money Making Opt In Subscriber List with One Simple Idea posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, “Effectively using a Sig File is one of the most important things you can do to begin building a solid opt-in subscriber list. Lists filled with people who have expressed an interest in something you are offering at no cost are warm leads for those who may want to purchase your paid products.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of complex sales and selling strategies using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Santa has a Zebra! Make your list, and check it twice…

Chad Koser — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:30:18 +0000

Yes folks, Santa once again identified his Zebra by making a list comprised of those who were naughty and nice this past Christmas. This once again insured that he would strictly dedicate his valuable and scarce resources only toward those that were a good fit for his services, making it possible to once again make Christmas a huge success in just a single night!

In keeping with that theme, this is a friendly holiday reminder from Selling to Zebras to adopt Santa’s strategy for your sales business in the new year… Go through your list of prospects for pursuit in 2010 with a fine-tooth, zebra-striped comb, and make sure it’s only populated with Zebras.

Don’t have a Zebra yet you say?! Well, in my opinion creating one and putting it to good use in your sales business would make the perfect New Year’s Resolution!

On behalf of all of us at Selling to Zebras, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

-Zebra Chad

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Complex Sales and Selling strategies, 4th Edition – December 4, 2009

Chad Koser — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:50:51 +0000

Welcome to the fourth edition of complex sales and selling strategies. I’m very pleased to say that there is a TON of great content in this edition. Given that it’s been a while since I posted the last edition of the carnival, I decided to break my rule of only allowing one post per author in order to include all the great content our contributors have put out for us. We’ll stick with the rule in the future, but in this case I though it was in everyone’s best interest to go about it in this fashion.

Also, I’m now accepting submissions for the upcoming 5th Edition of the Complex Sales & Selling Strategies blog carnival to be published on January 5th.

Enjoy the carnival!

-Zebra Chad

Mark Terrell presents Driving Traffic To Your Blogs posted at Mark Terrell.

Praveen presents Amazon, Best Buy, and Negative Operating Cycle posted at My Simple Trading System.

Allison Johanson presents Why Everything You’ve Heard About Leveraged ETFs Is Wrong posted at ETFdb.

Alisha Harmann presents Top 50 Career Management Bloggers posted at Best Court Reporting Degree.

Erick Simpson presents 3 Quick Tips on How to Sell When No One Seems to be Buying posted at Managed Services Blog.

Anya Portnik presents Sales training tips – it’s not all about you, you know! posted at Gavin Ingham.

Erick Simpson presents Why Is it So Hard to Sell on Value? posted at Managed Services Blog.

Anya Portnik presents Sales Training Tips from Better Business Focus Magazine posted at Gavin Ingham.

Erick Simpson presents Social Networking – Does it Replace Real Networking? posted at Managed Services Blog.

Ankesh presents Maslow and his Hierarchy of…Marketing? posted at Strategy Daddy.

Acheiving Global Domination

Arthur Pledger presents Selling Yourself posted at World Domination with Arthur Pledger.

Business Development

Sam Carrara presents The Birth of a Product posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

Sam Carrara presents Sale Growth on the Rise posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

Peter cantelo presents 4 Steps To Building a Referral Based Business posted at vivavi.co.uk, saying, “none”

Sam Carrara presents The Seed Becomes a Big Tree posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

Jeremy Ulmer presents 30 Tips To Be Successful In Business posted at Sales Coaching | Business Coaching | Life Coaching, saying, “What Does It Take To Be Successful In Business and Sales? This list is an attempt to shine a spotlight on what it takes to achieve great success in business and sales.”

Sam Carrara presents Recalibrate Your Business posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

Susan Tatum presents Is Search Marketing Always the Best Lead Generation Tactic? posted at Technology Marketing by Tatum Marketing.

Brian Terry presents Top 10 Business Automation Tools posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Nikit Irmal presents Top New Year’s Resolution for 2010 posted at Sales Leads, Business Leads, B2B Leads and More | The Small Business Owners Guide, saying, “Once the confetti’s cleaned up and you’re back to business. Will this be the year that your business grows? Or will you be content to grind out another year waiting for the phone to ring? The first quarter of a new year offers tremendous potential for small business owners and entrepreneurs willing to make changes.”

Sales Challenges

Sam Carrara presents How Much Is It? posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

Sam Carrara presents Where Can I Buy It? posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

Louise Moule presents The X Factor of a Consultant « Mentoring New and Tips posted at Mentoring New and Tips.

Selling during a Recession & Tough Econo

Jay Bodas presents Metuchen Cares Economic Forum: Strategies for Downtown Survival posted at The Central NJ Guide, saying, “I wrote this after attending a recent seminar in Metuchen, New Jersey sponsored by Metuchen Savings Bank on how the downtown business community can pull together to weather the economic downturn. This article is full of excellent tips for any town center/Main Street that is lined with shops and stores on how they can continue to generate strong sales over the upcoming difficult year.”

Peter cantelo presents 10 Sales Boosters posted at vivavi.co.uk.

David Kam presents Powerful Interactions: Let Consumers Sample Your Products posted at MarketingDeviant.com, saying, “Free sample is a great and powerful technique in attracting consumers to your products/services.”

Strategies/Methodologies/Philosophies

Jimmy Adames presents List Building Tips ? 3 Effortless Ways to Grow a List of Active Subscribers posted at Internet Business Building, saying, “Earning an income using the Internet is much simpler if you have a list of active subscribers. The key to making sure you succeed is to have reliable marketing tools and quality content to provide your customers and prospects. What is holding you back from building a list of active subscribers?”

Sam Carrara presents The Death of a Product posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

Deb Bixler presents 3 Direct Sales Meeting Team Building Training Themes | Create A Cash Flow Show posted at Direct Sales / MLM Cash Flow, saying, “Home business owners need to have a balanced business. These direct sales theme training tips and cool graphic training tool will improve bookings and fill the home business calendar.”

Mark Terrell presents Still Cant Build Your Email List? posted at Mark Terrell.

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Postponing the Sales & Selling 4th Edition for a couple days…

Chad Koser — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:41:31 +0000

I’m going to postpone the 4th Edition of the Sales & Selling Blog Carnival for a couple days, and I’m pleased to report that it’s not because I didn’t get enough submissions to create a great Edition… To the contrary, I’ve got so many submissions to go through that I can’t possibly get it all done in the time I figured it would take me! SO, please be patient, and I promise a new edition of Sales & Selling will appear here within a day or two.

-ZC

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Help revive the “Complex Sales & Selling Strategies” blog carnival!

Chad Koser — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:22:19 +0000

I will be gathering submissions during the next week to revive the “Complex Sales & Selling Strategies” blog carnival, as I think it held good value for our readers, and for all who participated. Submission deadline for this next edition will be Monday, November 30 at Midnight. I will post this Fourth Edition of our blog carnival by end of business the following day, December 1, and I will also put out the details and submission request for the Fifth Edition of our blog carnival at that time.

As usual, please keep submissions to one per person, and in the best interests of all readers and participants, only submissions directly related to the criteria I set forth for the “Complex Sales & Selling” blog carnival will be accepted.

By the way, to stay updated on all the details about the Complex Sales and Selling blog carnival, past and present, you can simply reference the sidebar that is permanently located on the right hand margin of our blog page (directly underneath “Blog Archives”). Here you will also find a quick and easy link to ’submit an article’ of your own to the carnival. I look forward to a great Fourth Edition, and thank you in advance for your submissions!

Zebra Chad

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Gone hunting… will return in time for blogging season!

Chad Koser — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:21:07 +0000

Well, it’s been a while since I made an entry here, so I figured I should do a quick update on what’s been keeping me from posting… In short:

1. Working feverishly to meet a deadline for out latest customer (mission accomplished!).

2. Being a Dad and Husband (mission coming along nicely, step-by-step each day).

3. Whitetail Deer bow hunting season here in Wisconsin (mission in progressing).

So, things have been busy, but this is important so I wanted to return to it for any of you have been faithfully following and checking for updates (which up until today had been on hiatus for a while).

A few times a year I like to tie in my business pursuit with that of my hobbies, so making a parallel with bow hunting deer seemed like a very natural parallel to make. With all the time I’ve been spending in a tree this bow hunting season when I’m not busy meeting deadlines and spending time with the family, I’ve actually had a lot of time to think about how the way I bow hunt is quite similar to the way we teach clients to pursue sales. What follows is a summary of those thoughts.

In pursuing whitetails with a bow, most hunters that have been at it for a good number of seasons reach a certain maturity in setting objectives for their season, rather than approaching each hunt on a whim hoping for the best. Appropriate pre-season scouting must be done starting with looking for shed antlers at the end of the previous season. For those who aren’t familiar, whitetail bucks (males) drop their antlers late winter just prior to spring and begin to grew new ones. Trails and deer bedding areas are also observed at this time, in the interest of getting to know what you should be after in the coming season, and where to look when the time comes. From there, the due diligence of planting food plots to help nurture the potential prospects (deer) local to your area, hanging stands, and brushing out clear shooting lanes are all part of the preparations that take place. Come August, when I’m not walleye fishing with my free time, I can usually be found with a pair of binoculars close by while cruising past the usual hot spots such as woods lines and field edges either by evening light or even after dark hoping to get a glimpse of any bucks that have taken residence near the ares where I hunt.

So as is easy to tell, so far the way I hunt is very similar to how most sales people approach seeking new business, and putting forth the effort in doing research and making preparations to put their best foot forward when they get an opportunity to get in front of a prospect… and this is a very common sense methodology that some if not all hunters and sales people alike achieve with a certain level of experience and seasoning. Up until this point however, all the work has been done simply allows you to play the game and hope the odds tip in your favor in some fashion. An even greater level of maturity is required to get to the next step: SUCCESS. Let’s face, all the effort you’ve put in up until this point is pretty much wasted time and resources if you can’t accomplish a win at the end of the game.

Much like our Zebra sales philosophy dictates, hunters that reach the next level of maturity use their past success to put together a game plan for winning in the future; even taking it to the point of identifying a specific buck or several bucks that we decide we are going to pursue that season, and not spreading ourselves to thin by deciding to settle for chasing whatever may happen to walk past. When you’re hunting and you’ve got deer running all over the place, it’s easy to forget the goals you have set for yourself and chase everything that’s moving in front of you. However, when the decision to take a deer is made, what follows can be a major disruption to the area where we are hunting due to all the activity and chaos that follows in the deer woods when a kill is made. This is not at all dissimilar to what follows when a deal is pursued to close, and all resources are focused and tied up on that prospect/new customer. If a decision is made to take the wrong deer or close the wrong deal, it may still seem like meat in the freezer, but you have greatly decreased your chances of having everything in place when the truly right opportunity comes along.

Alternatively, if you’ve identified the buck or bucks, and similarly the clients that are right for you to pursue at in this particular season (or quarter/fiscal year in business terms), draw upon where you’ve won or achieve success in the past, put together a plan based upon why your past successes occurred, and stir that in with a healthy serving of the pre-hunt/sale preparations discussed previously, only THEN have you really put yourself in the best possible position for success in the present future.

The best whitetail bow hunters seem to find success in taking a mature buck about 90% of the seasons they hunt… Huh, that sounds familiar… The best sales people close approximately 90% of all the prospects they pursue — I’m starting to see a trend here! It may seem to the casual observer that some are just luckier than others, but really it all comes down to utilizing the concrete, repeatable process for achieving success that I have just detailed above, and in the end luck has very little to do with it. In my opinion luck is just a convenient excuse to not take a closer look at ways that you can find self-improvement, better results, and greater success in the future. We all make the choice to either flounder in mediocrity, or to turn ourselves into winners and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

So when you’re walking into the jungle, woods, field, or swamp that is your sales world this season, don’t just cross your fingers and hope for a little venison in your freezer… put together a plan that will earn you more venison than you know what to do with, and a big trophy to go along with it!

As an interesting closing remark, the picture at the opening of this post is a picture of my quiver of arrows on my bow… Yes indeed, I even hunt in true Zebra style! Well time to put the “Closed” sign in the window again today here at the office… mine actually reads, “Gone hunting… will return in time for fishing season.” My wife loves that.

My 2006 trophy, and a large contributor to my venison supply that year!

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Complex Sales and Selling Strategies – July 24, 2009 (Third Edition)

Chad Koser — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:56:47 +0000

Well, I’m a few days late in getting this posted, but welcome to the July 24, 2009 (third) edition of Complex Sales and Selling Strategies!

-ENJOY!
Zebra Chad

Sales Challenges

Christian Russell presents How to Use Social Networking Sites for Business posted at Next Level Blogger, saying, “I like to keep it simple. Simple is good. Know why? Because it works. Social networking for business is not rocket science, but for some strange reason, many of us WANT it to be! Perhaps it’s human nature. Perhaps if we think it’s complicated, then we will be able to figure it out…and after we figure it out, it will be easy. And our lives will then be easy. And money will fall into our laps without us ever having to lift a finger, because we’ve figured it out. We know the secret!”

Strategies/Methodologies/Philosophies

Christian Russell presents Why Automated Businesses are B.S. posted at Next Level Blogger, saying, “This is something I’ve been seeing so much lately, I just wanted to comment on it. Automated businesses. Are you buying into this? I hope you’re not. I’ve been on Twitter a lot, and that’s where I’m seeing it mostly. It seems that Twitter has a growing number of spammers, and I fear it’s only going to get worse.

It’s human nature I suppose. We always want to find the path of least resistance. I believe in using tools to help you streamline your work and save you time, but if you believe any of these are a good idea, you’ve got your head in the wrong place: “Make $250k a Year Working 2 Hours a Day”, “Get 10,000 Twitter Followers in the Next 30 Days…Automatically!”, “100,000 Visitors to Your Website for $39?. Just a few examples.”

Business Development

Susan White presents 100 Non-Business Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read posted at Online Universities.com.

Sales Challenges

Robert Alan presents Tips for Effective Cross-Selling and Up-Selling posted at Sell It on the Web, saying, “Some great tips and advice on how to increase sales on your blog or website in this tough economy by cross-selling and upselling your products and services more effectively.”

ARTHUR PLEDGER presents Selling Yourself posted at World Domination with Arthur Pledger, saying, “World Domination is for success and goal oriented individuals. Here you will get the tools you will need to step your game up, grow beyond your current circumstances and conditions, overcome challenges, and gain a financial upper hand”

Interviewing

nissim ziv presents Sales Manager Interview Questions| Sales job Interviw Questions posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “Sales are an integral part of any organization. Logically speaking, without sales no company can exist. Therefore, it goes without saying that the person handling the sales of a company (i.e. sales manager) will go through a lot of tests and scrutiny before he or she actually land the job. This article provides sales manger’s job profile description, tips and questions for the sales manger post.”

Strategies/Methodologies/Philosophies

Christian Russell presents 20 Ways to Instill Trust and Make More Money posted at Next Level Blogger.

Complex Sales

Mike Turco presents Handling Common Customer Sales Objections posted at MS Access Database Solutions, saying, “The most critical sales skill a person must have is the ability to overcome a customers objections in regards to purchasing your product.”

Strategies/Methodologies/Philosophies

Anup Samanta presents Case Study #5: National Basketball Association – Why Amazing Happened in the 2008-2009 Season posted at The Convergence of Strategy and Analysis.

Adrian Ma presents Utilize psychology insight halo effect to win over clients posted at The Corpus Callosum.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
complex sales and selling strategies
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

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complex sales and selling strategies, blog carnival.

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I want to share a recent review of our book, Selling to Zebras

Chad Koser — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:17:51 +0000

I just got a nice ego boost from reading a recent review of our book, Selling to Zebras, on Amazon.com. The review was written by Gary F. Billington, and am proud of what he had to say so I figured I’d share it with my blog followers. You can read the review by following the link HERE. I want to extend a very sincere “thank you” to Gary for his kind words and the time he took to write the review, and also to my blog followers for taking a few minutes to check it out.

I also want to announce that we are going to be changing our official business name to ZEBRAselling, and I recently created a new logo that I want to share with everyone here for the first time. Hope you like it!

Our new business logo.

-ZC

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Happy (belated) 4th of July!

Chad Koser — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:00:28 +0000

My son Tucker getting into the Patriotic spirit!

I just wanted to take a minute to share a photo from our family’s 4th of July celebration, and most importantly to salute the men and women that have served or are currently serving in our armed forces. If not for our freedom, and the protection of that freedom, business and sales in our great country would certainly not exist as we know it. Let’s all set aside a few minutes out of our busy schedules this week to reflect on and appreciate the amazing freedom that we all share in the USA.

Also, if you’re looking for some great sales-related content, look no further than the latest edition of our Complex Sales and Selling Strategies blog carnival hot off the press last week in the entry directly following this one.

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