O MANNY's

It was a great privileged to come across fortune magazines new issue and it had some interesting bio & profile of 50 powerful women, powerful women.

Like any guy, I wondered who would I go out with in a heartbeat?  I just could not choose one so if any one of the powerful women have an opening for a God like guy with a 10 foot pole, give me a shout : ). 

Seriously checkout their stories, i always admire women, minorities, and others who face adversity and came out a better and stronger person.  

To the women entrepreneurs, women founders and powerful women around the world, I & Members of Founders Under 40 Group (www.foundersunder40.com) would like to congratulate you on your success.


You are the role models to everyone not just girls. 

Some of the powerful women to look up and link:

Julia Hartz,
Jules Pieri
Leila Janah
Maria Rios
Rose Wang

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-powerful-women/

 

 

Win me!

• Find out what excites different customer segments, and create a value proposition to satisfy them.
• Get the customer to talk about your positive attributes to the right people, especially on social media.
• Be passionate about educating customers when you sell to them, and make installation and activation as smooth as possible. 

 

 

Delight me!

• Deliver an exciting product experience that makes you different from competitors in at least one area important to your customers. 
• Nobody likes receiving bills, but at least keep customers from complaining by providing bills that are clear and accurate.
• Be a champ about resolving issues. 
• Create pleasant and effective processes for upgrading, cross-selling, renewing and relocation services. 

 

 

Keep me!

• Let your high-value customers know they are your high-value customers—and shower them with rewards. 
• Know how to proactively detect when your customers are disappointed—and know how to change their minds. 
• When customers opt to cancel, have a plan for bringing them back (at least the ones you want to keep).

 

*Originally written by a different author 

 

 

 

Here are 10 tips to help you leave the perfect voicemail and, consequently, a good impression.

• Think through what you are going to say before you place the call

. When men hear the beep, they often freeze up and forget what they wanted to say. If you want to be the go-to guy at work, then you have to exhibit competence on all levels. Don’t spoil your confident image by hemming and hawing and filling your messages with “uhhhhs,” and “ummmms.” If it’s a really important call, consider writing out what you want to say beforehand. If the person picks up, great, you now have some notes to remember what you wanted to talk about. If they don’t answer, you can leave a clear and concise message.

• State your name first.

You would think this would be so basic that it shouldn’t even be mentioned. However, I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten voicemails where people go on and on and I don’t even know who’s talking to me until the very end. Pretty annoying.

• State your number right after your name

. Many people wait until the very end of the message to state their number. This will irritate the receiver of your message because if he doesn’t get it down, he then has to sit through the whole damn message again to hear it repeated.

Repeat your phone number twice. People seem to forget that the receiver of their message has to write the number as you say it. Don’t rush through it. Even when you say it slowly, it’s hard to get down the first time. So repeat it again, so they can check to be sure they got it down right.

• State the purpose of your call.

In as few words as possible, state why you’re calling. Is it in regards to an interview appointment? Are you following up on a previous meeting?

Find some common ground. If you’re cold calling someone, your voicemail is your 30 second chance to make a connection and leave a good impression. One of the best ways to make a connection in that short amount of time is mentioning a mutual acquaintance. You could also mention a shared affiliation with an organization.

• Be brief.

Don’t make your listener resent you for leaving a 5 minute long message. People are busy. Listening to 5 minute phone messages is not on the top of their priorities and wastes their time. Many callers seem to think they are the only person in the world leaving a voicemail for a particular person. Yet a dozen other people feel the same way and a man ends up holding the phone to his ear for an hour.

• Leave a specific request.

What do you want your listener to do? Sure, you want them to call you back, but why? To answer a question? To set up an appointment? People will appreciate it if you give them specific actions for their call back. That way they’ll know they won’t be wasting a lot of time on the call back trying to figure out what you want.

• Consider leaving your e-mail in addition to your phone number.

People like choices. Some people like to have conversations on the phone, while others prefer communicating through e-mail. You don’t know what kind of person your listener will be, so leave the option on the table. For many, e-mail correspondence is less threatening and might actually encourage them to reach out to you.

Be Brief. Did I mention be brief? Yeah? Make sure to do it.

 

*Original written by B & K McKay

  1. Consistency Counts: Prospect Daily!

Salespeople acquire new clients, and to do so, they necessarily open relationships. Prospecting is the art of opening new relationships. The new business opportunities that later turn into sales are initially identified through prospecting, making prospecting the lifeblood of sales.

The first way to improve your prospecting results is to acknowledge its importance to your sales results and treat it accordingly.


Improving your prospecting results begins with setting aside the time and the energy to prospect each and every day. And, yes, I do mean each and every day. You would never suggest that you could only close on Thursday afternoons, and it is ridiculous to suggest that there is only a single time at which you can be effective prospecting. It is equally ridiculous to suggest that your prospects are only open to taking your calls on Mondays and Fridays. Those are generalizations and all generalizations are lies.


Write a weekly plan making time to prospect every day. It is best to set aside the time first thing in the morning to ensure it gets done before the world makes other demands of you.

2. Turn Off the Distractions

Turn off the Internet. Turn off your email. Turn off your Smart Phone. Focus.

Tell your friends you have a new found discipline and that you need their support; promise to catch up with them later.


Hang a sign on your door saying “Do Not Disturb! Prospecting!” If you don’t have a door, use string and hang the sign over your desk.

3. Use Every Method Available

Prospecting is the activity of opening new relationships, but it isn’t really what we are focused on here. We are focused on the outcome that is better described as opening new business relationships to identify potential new business opportunities. There are many ways to do this, and all of them are effective sometimes.



To prospect well, you need to focus your time and energy on what works best for you, but not exclusively. If you are great at cold calling, you should absolutely focus on cold calling. But that doesn’t mean that you should never use email marketing, inbound marketing, networking, trade shows and conferences, direct mail, social networking, or referrals. You should include all of these tools in your arsenal.



Make a list of all of the methods that you can and will use to prospect. Plan the time that you will set aside for each method and how many prospects you will gain from your effort. For example, you might commit to attending one networking event per month with the result that you acquire two new prospects from each networking event. Measure these results and focus on what generates the greatest return on your investment of time, but remember that your prospects may have their own opinion on how they best like to be approached, and you shouldn’t exclude any method.



Two things cause poor prospecting results. The first is not spending enough time prospecting. The other is ineffective prospecting. This mostly comes down to language choices. It comes down to what you are saying when you prospect.

4. Write Scripts

There is no substitute for scripts.



“But wait!” you say. “I am a professional salesperson and I can’t sound like I am using a script!” I hear you loud and clear. And you can’t sound like someone that your prospect isn’t interested in meeting either.

First you have to recognize that you are already using a script. The words that you use when prospecting (and on sales calls, by the way), are choices that are comfortable to you because you have rehearsed them. They are comfortable to you because you have them memorized, not because you are reading them. But this doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best language choices.



Your effectiveness is improved by choosing carefully the word that use, making observations about what is working and what isn’t working. This takes an awareness, focus, and discipline. It also allows you to experiment with language choices to see what is most effective.



Write scripts for each of the prospecting methods you use. Write responses to the common objections you hear. Rehearse them. If you are part of a great sales team, do this together and rehearse them together. Commit the best language to memory and replace the unwritten and ineffective scripts you are already using.

5. Focus on the Outcome

The outcome of prospecting is to open the relationship. This almost always involves obtaining the commitment for an appointment.



Effectiveness in prospecting is improved by simply focusing on the outcome. This means that you don’t allow your prospecting to turn into a needs analysis, a presentation, or a discussion about the merits of your product or service. It means you apply a laser-like focus on scheduling the appointment.



The reason some salespeople struggle focusing on the outcome of an appointment and the reason often they slip into the sales mode is because they feel that they have to prove that they can create value for the prospect during their prospecting activity. But prospecting has a very different goal, namely, the opening of the exploration of the possibility that you might be able to create value and do something together. Selling, at this point, is premature.



There is no list to make, no plan to write here. Just know that a successful outcome here is almost always an appointment. It doesn’t matter how much you liked them or how much they liked you if you didn’t schedule an appointment.

6. Get Good at Cold Calling

There is too much to write here about how to get good at cold calling. But it is important that you have it in your repertoire, and that you build your competency picking up the phone and scheduling an appointment.

Cold calling is still one of the fastest ways to schedule appointments and to open relationships, and the very best salespeople are the very best at cold calling. They are also the very best at all other forms of prospecting, and the only salespeople I have found that are willing to consistently ask for referrals, something else salespeople avoid.


Start cold calling.

7. Nurture Relationships Over Time

Even when you use all of the ideas above, you are still going to hear “no.” You are going to hear it a lot. But relationships, including business relationships, are built over time. Your consistent and unrelenting pursuit of your dream clients is part of a longer-term plan for success and not a quick fix.



Consistency here means that these prospects hear from you more than sporadically. It means they hear from you frequently and with all the predictability of the Sun rising each morning.



Your calls, your thank you cards, your letters, your white papers, your surveys, your studies, your newspaper and web clippings, your constant attempts to find a way to create some value before claiming any all add up over time.



Some of the best relationships and the biggest deals will take the longest time to win, and your consistent nurturing of these relationships will open opportunities for you over time. This approach proves that you are not going to disappear like so many of your peers, that you are truly interested in working with them, that you are a professional who executes well, and that you are determined. These are some of the attributes that people look for in salespeople and partners.



Write a nurturing plan. What will you do to create value for your dream clients even before they decide to set an appointment with you? How often will you call? How often will they receive something from you? What will they receive? What will it say about you? How will it create trust?



Conclusion



Salespeople open relationships. Opening relationships is built upon the ability to prospect. Follow these steps to improve your prospecting results


*Originally written by S. Anthony

                          

Most folks who are annoying are unaware of how they come across to others.

But that lack of self-awareness could be hurting a sales career. After all, who wants to do business with someone who makes them annoyed, anxious, or even angry? Consider colleagues, too. Teamwork boosts sales, yet if you're annoying, your team may be keeping you out of the loop. What about your sales manager? You may not get that plum territory or account if you annoy your boss.

To stop being annoying, you must first recognize that there's a problem. The following are some examples of annoying behaviours. See if they're familiar:

• Being very aggressive. Some buyers respond positively to aggressive sales tactics, but many, perhaps most, do not. It's one thing to be assertive and action oriented; it's quite another to be pushy and aggressive.
• Not knowing your audience. Sales professionals must be able to adapt to any type of personality and style the buyer may have. If the prospect wants to hear numbers, be ready with numbers. If the prospect is a "big picture" thinker, forget the numbers and stick to broad themes.
• Not listening. A stereotypical no-no in sales is talking incessantly. Don't become so focused on your own needs that you don't listen to the client. Note that not listening can also exhibit itself through arrogance, being overly demanding, and consistently monopolizing conversations.
• Talking jargon. Many salespeople can become guilty of talking over prospects' heads with lots of techno babble. Don't rely too heavily on industry terms. 

How do you know when you're annoying people? One of the surest ways is to watch their body language. When turned off by annoying behavior, people look around or turn sideways as if they're ready to leave. Their smiles may turn to frowns. They may start crossing their arms, moving away from you, or having less and less eye contact. What people say and how they say it can be revealing. Do you often find that at sales meetings you're interrupted or that your audience doesn't listen? If you dominate the conversation, you may well be annoying people.


If you really want to improve, get a person you trust to go with you on a sales call or listen in on a phone call, and ask for feedback. Then brainstorm ways you can do better. The best way to break a habit is to establish another, more constructive habit.


For example, if you're a constant talker, stop talking. If you tend to be silent, make an effort to open up. Then practice, practice, practice. The more you do it, the more pleasant you'll become to work with.
– Selling Power Editors

 

1) You know something about them.

First things first: You need to make sure your emails convey that you actually know something about your recipients. Why? Well number one, people like to know they’re not just providing you with information about themselves for no reason. But more importantly, you capture people’s attention when you make things about them. Show them you’re paying attention to what they’re telling you about themselves. If your form asks where they live, or what size their business is, or their role at their company, use that information!
Segmentation is important when you nurture your leads because it allows you to target each individual lead more closely. Let's say you own a horseback riding school. Some of your leads may be potential students who have never ridden a horse in their lives before. And maybe you also have a bunch of more advanced riders in your database. You’ll probably want to send those very different leads something completely different, right? Just make sure your personalization goes beyond using the person’s first name in your email. You know more important things about them, and you should show them that.

2) You are aware of their needs and interests, or are looking to learn what they are.

The best marketing is focused around your leads and what they want and need, not what you and your company are looking to get from them. Therefore, your emails should show your readers you care about what they need and what their goals are. If you don’t already know this information, ask for it! A simple “How can I help?” email that doesn’t contain any links to download something actually makes for a great lead nurturing email, because it not only opens up a dialogue with your leads, but it also allows them to provide you with a better understanding of what it is they’re looking for and hoping to get from your company. Once you’re equipped with this information, you can begin your next email with “I understand that your biggest challenge is ______,” and that should have them hooked.

3) You have something valuable to offer them.

Okay, now your leads know you’re looking out for their needs. So what? So, you have a way to help them! Once you’ve identified these interests and needs, you can start sending them content that helps them learn more about these areas, or any other resources you think they might find useful. Make it clear in your emails that you not only understand what your leads need, but also that you have a way to help. Think back to our horseback riding school example in number 1. Those advanced horseback riders in your database probably wouldn't appreciate your introductory guide to horseback riding, but that's probably a great offer for the ones who've never ridden a horse before. See what we mean?

4) You know why this offer is valuable to them. 

Arguably more important than simply having a valuable offer for your leads is conveying to them exactly why that offer is valuable to them. Why should they download your ebook? What are they going to learn? What are they going to be able to do differently or better after reading it? Maybe you're a B2B company, and your offer is to provide a free consultation for some aspect of their business. How exactly is this going to help them? Why should they sign up? Assume that the default reaction to your offer is always “Why should I bother?” and tell them exactly why. It’s not enough to position your offer in terms of its content. You have to position it in terms of its value, too.

5) Why they should trust you.

You know how much spam is out there these days. Seriously, how many junk emails are you getting? The fact of the matter is, whether or not they think your content is going to be useful is not the only thing your leads are considering when deciding whether or not to open your emails. They’re also deciding how much they trust you.
If your company has a strong reputation in your industry, great – you probably don’t have much to worry about. If you’re still building up your authority, your emails need to make it extremely clear that you are a trustworthy source of information. How? First of all, send quality content. Don’t be pushing out unreliable or low-quality content just so you have content to use in your emails. Second, use trust seals (e.g. BBB) and privacy policies on your site, or include them in your emails. Third, make sure the language of your emails comes off as friendly, not spammy. And most importantly, keep your emails relevant. Spam emails are never relevant, and almost never personalized.

6) Why they’d be missing out if they didn’t take advantage of this offer.

Here’s where the real convincing comes in. To really seal the deal, you have to go one step further than conveying the value of your offer. You have to create a sense of urgency. Don’t just tell them why they should take advantage of your offer, tell them why they’ll be missing out if they don’t. No one wants to fall behind in their industry. No business is comfortable knowing that their competitors are outpacing them, staying more relevant, using better tools, driving more revenue. Even in a B2C context, most consumers these days are concerned with staying ahead of the curve with the latest products and technologies. Use this information to incentivize your leads to take action. Create the need, address it, and then fill it.
 

7) You're looking to help them, not you.

We glossed over this point earlier, but it's definitely worth more emphasis. This is ultimately the most crucial idea you could communicate in your marketing emails. The second your recipients think you’re just looking to get what you want, you lose them. They’re not interested in being marketed to. They’re interested in solving their problems. Your job as a marketer is to figure out how to get what you want, but by making it about them. Start your emails with “you” instead of “I”. Use the information you have about them. Target your content to their needs. Show them that you’re looking to help.
Emails can be pretty complex. You have to find the right content, the best positioning, the clearest language, the most appealing design, and then some. But really, the effectiveness of your emails at engaging and nurturing your leads essentially boils down to one thing: the way you communicate. If you pay close attention to what and how you’re communicating, you’ll be able to optimize your emails to be far more effective, and start converting those leads into customers.
How well are your lead nurturing emails hitting these 7 communication must-haves?

* Originally written by a different author

       

                          
 

They have been looking in the wrong place. The real problem typically turns out to be not closing techniques, but opening techniques. A careful examination of the evidence often shows that their sales people have been starting off on the wrong foot, and rushing the all-important early stages of the sales engagement.

 

An opportunity to explore

If a sales opportunity isn’t set up in the right way from the start, it becomes progressively harder to bring it to a successful conclusion. And brute-force attempts to get the situation back on track (whether though clumsy closing strategies or any other desperate measure) more often than not result in the whole deal getting derailed.

You see, the early stages of any sales engagement inevitably have a profound impact on the future evolution of the deal. This is no time to rush, to prematurely pitch your product or promote your company, or to gloss over critical qualification questions. Instead, you need to take your time and explore the situation thoughtfully.

What’s the cost of doing nothing?

Most top-performing sales people do this instinctively, and with good reason. They have far too much respect for their own time (let alone anyone else’s) to squander it pursuing poorly qualified opportunities that are unlikely to buy, or that they are unlikely to win, or that would consume far too much of their resources to ever be profitable. Better to find that out sooner rather than later.

That’s why the early discovery phase is so important. You first want to satisfy yourself that a real issue exists. Having the prospect acknowledge a need is just a small part of this. If the prospect cannot identify the potential costs, risks and consequences to their company of not dealing with the issue, it’s unlikely that they will ever be persuaded to spend money on solving it.

Why now?

But even if the prospect acknowledges a clear issue, and can associate significant costs and risks with sticking with the status quo, that’s still not enough to justify investing sales resources on the opportunity. You also need to understand who else is affected, and how, and whether they are also likely to see the problem as worth solving.

Is the issue a new one? If so, what has triggered the change? If the issue is a long-standing one, what is causing the prospect to think that this is the right time to address it? How have they tried to deal with the issue before? What were the results? Why has it become so important that something is done now, rather than at some indeterminate stage in the future?

Resisting the itch to pitch

It’s not enough to establish that your prospect has a clear motivation to change. You also need to determine whether the criteria they are likely to use to evaluate potential solutions play to your strengths, and if and how you might be able to reshape the prospect’s vision of a solution in your favour.

By resisting the “itch to pitch” and investing instead in creating the conditions for a successful sale, you’ll avoid wasting far more time and resources later on in the sales cycle – not just your own time, but that of your colleagues and – ultimately – your prospect as well. And you’ll have a much basis for qualifying unwinnable deals out early.

More haste, less speed

Rushing through the early stages of a deal in an attempt to close it faster almost always has the opposite effect. So how can you get your sales people to slow down and build the proper foundations? One of the best ways to ensure this is by implementing a documented sales process and formalised qualification criteria.

Define what you expect the sales person to know before they can promote a deal to the next stage in the sales process. Pay particular emphasis to getting solid answers to “why would the prospect buy anything?”, “why would they take action now?” and “why would they choose us?” Never mind how your sales person feels about the deal. Insist that they show you the evidence.

They might not thank you for being a hard task master now, but they will later. Start by insisting that the requalify all the existing deals in the pipeline. Don’t be surprised if the result trashes the value of their pipelines. But at least you’ll know the true state of affairs, and you’ll be able to do something about it

*Originally written by other author

5 simple questions first.

Whether it’s your next big business or a unique marketing campaign, when that next ambitious idea hits, ask yourself these five questions—and if the answer is yes to all five, well, roll up your sleeves and make it happen!

1. Does my idea solve a problem? What’s that saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention?” Ideas that are born out of needs come complete with a built-in demand. It’s harder to sell someone something they don’t need.
2. Is this an idea I can execute? The worst thing you can do is get your heart—and any investment money— set on an idea that you simply can’t pull off in the end. Give yourself the time to really think through how this idea is going to work. Do you have the resources? Do you have the time or the budget to make it successful? Challenge yourself to ask the hard questions, and get specific.
3. Is this idea something people will talk about or share? The best ideas are ones that market themselves. You want to pour your effort into something that’s going to make people talk or something that’s going to “turn heads” virtually. If your idea has that surprising element or share factor built in, it is much more likely to be successful. Word of mouth is king!
4. Does this idea have a shelf life? Maybe it seems like a good idea today, but is it something that will be a good idea in six months or five years? Think hard about where your market is now and where you think it’s headed. Does your idea still solve a problem down the road or will it still be shareable? For example, you know that technology will probably only get more and more advanced as time progresses. Knowing this, does this make your idea more valuable in the future, or less valuable? Put your idea in the context of some of those future external market conditions or internal business conditions and then evaluate it.
5. Is the value of this idea worth the investment? Crazy ideas can be crazy smart—or a crazy waste of everyone’s time, depending on the idea. If you’ve already answered yes to the previous questions, sit down and ask yourself if the outcome is going to be worth the input. Will your idea bring enough value to the end user that you have to make it happen?

 

*Original author unknown

You’ve secured a meeting with a potential investor.

You must first understand the makeup of the audience and the objective of the meeting.

Being completely prepared involves fully understanding the situation before making the presentation.

1. How much time do I have? Typically, the first meeting with an investor will last 45 minutes to one hour. Arrive 15 minutes early. Prepare a pitch deck that you can present in 20 minutes, leaving time for late starts and questions. Be respectful of the time they’ve allotted. If you are interrupted or time is cut short, try not to let it throw you off. If an investor is not paying attention, continue to be respectful and professional.
2. What is the venue like? You’ll generally present in a boardroom at their location. A site visit to your company is usually the next step in the investment evaluation process.
3. What time of day will you be meeting? Take the meeting whenever the investors want to see you.
4. Who is the audience? Try to find out which members of the investment team will be attending the session. You’ll also want to determine if anyone else will be in the room (e.g., outside consultants).
5. What is their background? This is very important to help tailor your talk. Will you be talking with technically-savvy investors with deep experience in the targeted space or general investors? Do they have connections to help you get financed or to help you build your company further? Ask around and get as much information as possible about them in advance. Do your homework.
6. What do they expect of us? Investors expect a professional, strategic presentation, a demonstration of your innovation (if appropriate) and a leave-behind document.
7. Why was I asked to speak? As discussed above, this is a critical step to assess whether or not the investor will continue to investigate your opportunity. They are assessing you, your team and your business opportunity, as well as how you handle questions and objections. The investors want to confirm that you are someone they can back, who can build a company and raise financing from other sources.
8. What do I want them to do? You’ll want to think about what you want to achieve from your meeting. Do you want to move to the next step in due diligence? Do you want them to provide business or financing leads? Investors have very specific investment mandates. Even though your opportunity may not be a fit for them, most investors will provide advice and contacts if you’ve convinced them that you have a strong business proposition.
9. What visual medium is most appropriate for this particular situation or audience? Typically, a PowerPoint pitch deck is presented using an overhead projector. Call ahead to make sure that one is available.
10.   What is the fundamental purpose of my talk? Investors can help you to build your company by providing access to funding or opening their networks. You want to sell them on your concept/company to move to the next step with them. It is unlikely that they will open their cheque book until they complete further due diligence.
11.   What’s the story? What is my absolutely most central point? Or, what do you want them to remember after you’ve left?  Clearly communicate your fundamental business proposition. What is the pain in the market? How does your solution solve the problem? What is the need you’re trying to meet? What sustainable competitive advantage do you provide? You must demonstrate throughout your presentation why you are the right company/person/management team to execute your plan.
    

Your presentation is the first real step in selling your venture and the investors’ due diligence. They are assessing how you present, your level of professionalism and how you respond to questions or challenges. Fundamentally, they are making a decision as to whether or not the chemistry is there for them to work with you over the long term. Ensure that you are comfortable and confident with your material and its presentation.
 
Decide in advance who else will present—include the presenters in your dress rehearsal. Since the presentation will last about 20 minutes and involve about 10 slides, there should be no more than two people presenting. The CEO, along with either the technical or financial lead if necessary, should make the presentation.
 

*Originally Written by another author Garr R

*BJ Mannyst (www.bjmannyst.com) is a marketing service provider to SMB service companies.

 

This past few months Founders Under 40™ group reached 13000+ members, FU40 Group, www.foundersunder40.com and it's growing every second. 

We want to thank the members that support and contribute everyday, our partners like BJ Mannyst for their endless marketing and business support.

 

As always we are always open to more support and assistance to take this to the next level.

 ***if interested to partner, promote, work, support, or other, please contact jenn[at]bjmannyst.com