Voicemail Strategies for Busy People
Written by Jan Visser on January 31, 2008
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the use of voicemail in our busy sales and business lives. And the verdict wasn’t all that positive.
In short, I made the point that voicemail as we know it is more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to staying in touch and being responsive to important messages.
We waste time on messages that are not urgent, miss the ones that require an immediate response and everything in between. It’s gotten so bad that we often feel compelled to follow-up on a left voicemail with a call - “Did you get my message?”
Part of the problem is certainly related to the way voicemail works. It’s technology that was developed in the late 80’s when the volume of messages was much lower than today and before every minor customer issue turned into a company-wide fire-drill.
But an even more significant part of the issue is related to the way we use, or rather abuse, voicemail. It has become a catch-all for everything people want to shoot your way.
And while I understand why it happens, it doesn’t make it right. There are plenty of alternative ways to communicate - often much more suited for the kind of attention (urgent, FYI or call-when-you-can) it needs.
Here’s how you can make some sense of it all.
5 Things You Should Stop Doing Tomorrow
Written by Jan Visser on January 30, 2008
An hour on completing an expense report, while you could have been following up on a proposal.
Two hours of entering data in your CRM system, during which you could have visited a client and 20 minutes of fiddling with PowerPoint, trying to get these darn bullets to look right.
15 minutes here. An hour there. It turns 8 hour workdays into 12 hour drains, it takes away from the time you can spend with your family and it doesn’t put a single dime back in your pocket.
We wrote about this topic extensively when we introduced David Seah’s approach to good activities, those who directly contribute to your sales results.
But how about those activities that aren’t necessarily good, but that are still expected to get done?
Do You Say This Before Your Sales Presentation?
Written by Kevin Sasser on January 29, 2008
Some time ago, I posted a question on LinkedIn asking for the worst cliches that are frequently used by salespeople. We received a fairly decent number of responses and one of them inspired this post.
From Tim, a good friend:
“…so I’m going to just blow through a few of these and then we’ll get right to the demo.”
Are you guys trained to say that? Because everyone says it - right before they dive into 30-45 minutes of slides!
Tim, Tim, Tim, don’t you understand that those slides are pure gold! Our marketing departments, executives, and product managers, maybe even our SVP of Sales, have spent hour upon hour, crafting those mini-dissertations to provide you, our customers, with a comprehensive, 360-view of our company, our vision, maybe a picture of the boss’s new Porsche, and the overwhelming value that we deliver. You just need to be more committed.
Jeez.
I’ll admit, I have given presentations where mentally I’m was asking myself “Where is the point in this?”
Guy Kawasaki, (if you don’t know who he is, you should), has an excellent guideline for high-level, executive presentations called the 10/20/30 rule.
It breaks down like this:
- 10 Slides
- 20 Minutes
- 30 Point Font
The reason people use a small font is two-fold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity.
Note: there are more reasons why your presentations don’t impress - here are a few others.
Office Supplies for On The Road
Written by Jan Visser on January 28, 2008
Here’s a tool that should be in your business bag at all times.
The business version of the Swiss Army Knife drops the razor sharp and dangerous stuff and replaces it with a flat-clinch stapler, hole punch, staple remover, high performance scissors, and a few other things to make it all work.
I suspect it will make all alarm bells go off at the airport - so leave it in your car when you’re a frequent flyer.
Retail is $100 - you can pick yours up here.
Another Way to Make Sure You Don’t Forget Your Action Items
Written by Jan Visser on January 28, 2008
We wrote a post last week about various tools that can help you keep track of items that need a reminder.
Think of an action item at the end of a meeting or something else that needs follow-up.
Ideally, you’d write these down right away - but sometimes you can’t. So we wrote about voice-enabled services like Jott and Remember the Milk to help you stay on track. You call the service with your cellphone or Blackberry, record a message and you’re reminded later.
But little did we know that drop.io, an online collaboration and storage service we reviewed before, also added the ability to record voice notes. Now, this is getting to be pretty cool.
20 Great Sales Resources
Written by Jan Visser on January 25, 2008
Paul McCord sums up 20 great sales resources - I wanted to point you to the list as some of these may be helpful for you as well.
We’re proud to have made the list with SalesTeamTools and SalesMarks.com. SalesMarks lets you bookmark your favorite sales links, browse the ones that others have added, vote on them and leave comments.
If you haven’t explored SalesMarks yet, we encourage you to register for a free account and start adding your own sales links. It’s rapidly becoming a great resources for salespeople and small business owners and it would be great to see you there.
The list of 20 great resources is here. Don’t forget to check out the rest of Paul’s blog - lots of good stuff related to referral selling, prospecting and personal marketing there.
How to Be Faster on Your Laptop
Written by Brandon Hull on January 25, 2008
Are you serious about freeing up time for more real selling? This post is for you.
I’m amazed at the number of salespeople who don’t realize how much faster they could get things done on their laptops.
Oh, they get frustrated, alright. Or they joke about how slow they are. But they never do anything about it. They let tasks become projects and minutes become hours as they click or mouse around, ever ignorant of the variety of faster ways to get things done.
Don’t let this be you. Here are a few quick-hitting tips for getting things done faster on your laptop. You’ll find more tips in related future posts.
Do You Twitter? Let Us Know!
Written by Jan Visser on January 24, 2008
I’m not insulting you here. I am referring to Twitter.com, a free online service that gained tremendous popularity in 2007.
Twitter is best compared to Instant Messaging or SMS, except you’re not messaging one specific person but you’re broadcasting your status, your mood, something you’re working on or a question you have to a number of people that “follow” you on the web, via SMS or via IM. And it’s not passive either, people can read the “tweets” but also comment and respond. It’s pretty cool.
We’ve been playing around a bit with Twitter and we see a couple of great ways of using it for SalesTeamTools. But before we do, we’d like to get a better feel for the number of SalesTeamTools readers that use Twitter.
Feel free to leave a comment and let us know if you use Twitter.
If you do, here’s our Twitter account - if you don’t, you can sign up here and start following us.
How Skype To-Go Saves Me Money On My Calls
Written by Jan Visser on January 24, 2008
If your job or business requires frequent international or long distance domestic calling, you’re probably well aware of the phone bills that typically come with it.
Skype, as I am sure you know, offers a service that lets you call internationally at much reduced rates, but previously you either had to mess with using a headset and call through your computer or you needed a special phone.
Hardly practical when you’re at your office, driving in your car or camped out at a busy airport. That’s when I want to use my Blackberry, without being charged an arm and a leg for an international call.
That’s why we were thrilled when Skype introduced Skype To Go service this summer. Now you can finally benefit from low Skype rates for domestic and international calling while using your own cellphone.
Thank You Notes for Lazy Salespeople
Written by Jan Visser on January 23, 2008
This one falls smack in the middle of our “sales tools you really don’t need” category. Still, it’s an interesting concept.
Thank you notes work. A nice and friendly personal message thanking a prospect or customer for his repeat business, a referral or perhaps a visit to your corporate office.
But what if you’re too busy (or lazy) to write these notes yourself? Man, we have solutions for everything - don’t we!
Fontifier converts your handwriting into a font you can use on your computer, in Microsoft Word or Powerpoint - just like regular fonts as Helvetica or Arial.
It’s simple and cheap - you preview, buy and download immediately, all for just $9. Go ahead, have some fun with it!
