My last post “50 Ways to get More from Linkedin” got a good response, so I decided to do one about using Twitter for business.  Twitter is perceived in some quarters as a lesser business tool and sometimes suffers from a bad press. I personally have found it to be a very effective tool – provided of course you go about using it in the right way. To date,  Twitter has generated for me – the most return vs. the time that I have put it, when compared to the other social media.

When using Twitter for business, It’s important to have a plan so that you have something to measure your results against. In my experience, the individuals and businesses that fail to leverage Twitter effectively are also those who have employed no strategy and/or have not taken the time to understand how to use it.  So what better way to help you to get off to a great start, than taking advice from some people and businesses that use it well. So from me and some of my Twitter friends here are:

# 50 Tips to Get You STARTED Using Twitter for Business

1. @CindyKing Remember that Twitter is a tool in your social media marketing/communication. It is like a hammer or a telephone… and so are all of the fun apps. If it’s a new medium for you, then don’t go blindly wielding that hammer all over the place. Spend lots of time listening to people on Twitter relevant to your business. Notice the different tactics people use. Start slowly. Give yourself 1-3 months to get a feel for the environment and to figure out the best way you can use Twitter to help your business.

2. @CindyKing If you remember that Twitter is just a tool, once you understand the environment it is easy to see how you can use it best to fit in with your business needs. And this approach also helps you to see how to integrate your Twitter activities into an overall social media marketing plan.

3. @whatswhat_sian It’s free and simple to sign up to Twitter. To make your listing look good ensure you have a catchy bio with a link to your website. This way someone can find out more info about you or your business if they need or want to.  Ensure you add an avatar (Picture), preferably of yourself, as lots of people don’t like to interact with someone hiding their identity. If you are on Twitter to market a brand name then make sure your twitter name is your brand.

4. @whatswhat_sian Don’t protect your tweets if you’re aim is to converse with people.

5. @whatswhat_sian To speak to someone directly, type their twitter name preceded by the @ sign – eg. @whatswhat_sian Anyone following both of you can see those tweets. If you wish to say something to someone without anyone else seeing then you send a Direct Message (DM).

6. @davidabrock If you want, you can lurk for a while to get a feel for Twitter and what’s going on.  Both look at interesting people, figure out the etiquette, etc.

7. @davidabrock Know who you are and how you want to be perceived in Twitter.  Stated differently, know your personal brand and be true to it.

8. @skipanderson Post several dozen tweets over a period of several days (or more) before starting to follow people. Many visitors want to know what you’re all about before they follow you, and your tweets do that better than even your profile.

9. @whatswhat_sian It’s great if you already know someone on Twitter and look at who they are following or who is following them – it’s simple to click to follow them then. And the majority of the time they will follow you back.

10. @rbconsulting Plan on how you going to use the service. For me, I don’t really use it for chat, but more for circulating interesting info / links in relation to my areas of expertise or interest.

11. @Barros_Isabel Although there are many applications to back up Tweets I think the easiest and more reliable way is to create a RSS feed of your own Twitter account to yourself (email account). This should be done as soon as possible (ideally when you create your Twitter account).

12. @calebgardner It’s OK to start small. Follow some people that interest you, some that you want to network with – and be sure to upload your email contacts and follow the people you already know. Gradually you will start to build your network.

13. @calebgardner Don’t sign on to a service that guarantees you tons of followers in a short amount of time, and don’t immediately start following tons of people. Both are frowned upon in the Twitter community and will make lessen the quality of the medium for you.

14. @emmattdigital Don’t simply just self promote, but join in on conversations. Establish yourself as an expert.

15. @fredchannel ensure not to go mad with the “integration” fever. If you integrate everything you’ll annoy your audience. I would strongly suggest that you DO NOT integrate anything until you understand what’s going on, what message is coming from “here” and going “there”…

16. @fredchannel After launching a blog post for example, make sure that you use Twitter to spread the word. First, use tools like Hootsuite.com or any Twitter client that allows you to schedule tweets. Depending on the frequency of your posts, you’ll go ahead and schedule tweets for the following days (e.g. if you posts only once a week on Mondays, then schedule tweets for the rest of the week), so you post gets exposure to your Twitter audience AM and PM. You only have 140 characters so keep it short. What I suggest is that you first announce that you have a new post, then include the title (tell people what you wrote about!), then include the LINK to your post (extremely important) Finally include an engaging question that makes people want to learn more about your post.

17. @whatswhat_sian Follow people that are in the same location as you, or the same industry as you, and the businesses that you could benefit – there are several different apps for finding these.

18. @whatswhat_sian Put your twitter address on your website, emails, correspondence and your business card.

19. @rbconsulting I use twitter to circulate links to my blogs and articles of interest or discussions that I have started in LinkedIn etc.

20. @calebgardner Be careful just using Twitter as a way to continually blast out your own content. This is a sure-fire way to get ignored at best and unfollowed at worst. Instead start responding to people and having conversations. Share other people’s content. Then, when people come to know and trust you, you can share your own content.

21. @careerscoacheu Your tweets should be relevant and add value to your audience. Ask yourself does this tweet add value for my followers.

22. @careerscoacheu If tweeting a link – tell your followers the subject of the link so they know what they are clicking on.

23. @nialldevitt Twitter allows you to use up to 140 characters when creating a tweet. When tweeting a link, It’s a good idea to use a URL shortener to save space.  Also, if you are planning to get RTed, you will need to leave space for the person/s doing the RTing.

24. @fredchannel I use Tweetdeck as my primary way to handle Twitter. It is a fantastic tool. When you’re actively looking to network, besides the chit-chat, there’s nothing better than look for people asking questions and try to hello them! Go to the very lower left (First column showing the people you follow) and click on the option below: you’ll find a space where you can search for keywords in order to filter the information in the stream of tweets. The best way to find people asking questions is very simple: just insert into that space “?” and everybody asking a question will pop up

25. @whatswhat_sian I believe networking on Twitter is basically done by chatting to people and getting retweeted (RT’d). Using tweetdeck it is simple to see other people talking and there could be something you are interested in chatting about too or maybe someone is asking a question and you know the answer to.  If you are able to see the conversation then you are following them so it should not be a problem if you speak to that person.  Getting something you say RT’d is huge networking as someone with perhaps 1,000 followers will RT you and there’s a possibility of those 1,000 followers seeing your tweet. Even if you think 10% are online at that time you’re still reaching 100 more people that maybe hadn’t heard of you before.  This is much quicker than face to face networking.  I look at it as follows – imagine you are stood on a stage in front of your 500 followers and you say what you want to say (in 140 characters of course lol). Of that 500 only 50 people are actually listening to you and only 5 of them decide to tell other people what you have said (i.e. an RT). Those 5 have a total of maybe 2000 followers between them and working off that 10% your tweet may have reached 200 people who aren’t even in the same place as you are on a stage and have never heard of you.  Of course if your tweet is interesting enough it could be RT’d again and again – growing awareness of you. Don’t know about you but I’d never stand on a stage and talk to people so it’s a perfect way to network for people like myself.

26. @davidabrock Use Twitter as the starting point to build relationships.  Reach out and touch them, get to know them over the phone, in person, via something more than 140.  Some of my most valued relationships started in Twitter.

27. @rbconsulting Find out who tweeting on areas of interest to me and RT their tweets ts or reply with a response/question to their tweet.

28. @ganeca I’d suggest finding those local people & businesses using Twitter. Connect with them, and join in on their conversations that you can add to. You can use these sites to do that:

Twitter Advanced Search
ChirpCity
Nearby Tweets
Tweepz
Twellow Pages

29. @calebgardner Add yourself to services like Twellow and WeFollow. Start following people in your field and have conversations with them. See when others are posting their content and comment on it. Twitter is a fantastic networking tool when used that way.

30. @nialldevitt Its easy to get sucked in and waste a lot of time on twitter. At the start just spend a few hours a week seeking real results such as making X number of introductions etc.

31. @careerscoacheu Be disciplined about your time. Don’t get distracted with idol chit chat – that is if that is not your objective.

32. @calebgardner I’ve found that turning off Twitter completely for a period of time is the best ways to get things done that absolutely need to be done. There are also programs like Concentrate for Mac that will actually close programs for you and not allow them to open until a certain amount of time has passed.

33. @davidabrock Find good tools and leverage them.  For example, Hootsuite is fantastic.  It allows me to have a great twitter presence without actually spending a lot of time on Twitter.

34. @davidabrock Don’t let Twitter consume you.  You can be seduced into spending all your time on Twitter.  Set specific time for tweeting, stick with it, and again use the tools to leverage your presence.  While I have a pretty good Twitter presence, I actually spent less than an hour —spread through the day—on Twitter.

35. @skipanderson Be real. Be yourself. Find your “Twitter Voice.” Authenticity will set you apart from all the Twitter noise and make you attractive to potential followers.

36. @careerscoacheu Follow mentors and competitors as well as targeted customers.

37. @whatswhat_sian Start building up your Twitter friends by following people – use friends that you already know or follow and look through their followers and followers.  It’s likely you’ll have the same interests if they are friends of your friends.

38. @calebgardner the most important thing to remember on Twitter is: be a human. No one wants to follow a robot, and more importantly, robots don’t gain loyalty or get RTs (unless you’re a Dell or NYTimes, which you’re probably not.

39. @davidabrock Follow who you want, don’t feel obligated to follow everyone who follows you.

40. @davidabrock It’s about quality, not quantity.  It’s actually very easy to get 1000’s of followers very quickly.  But who cares if they are never paying attention to what you say.  Focus on developing a strong, loyal following.  Be loyal to them.

41. @davidabrock Be generous in your RT’s and in crediting others.  Twitter is about sharing, RT’s are a great indicator about sharing.

42. @rbconsulting A great way to engage on Twitter is to place a short question at the end of your tweet – e.g. “Windows7 provides great performance – are you seeing this improvement on your pc?”

43. @calebgardner two keys to getting RTed are loyalty and quality of tweet. If people are loyal to the person behind the account, they’ll RT you just out of that loyalty. The more compelling your message, the more interested your followers will be and more likely to get RTed.

44. @skipanderson If you must directly self-promote yourself on Twitter (“Read about my new affiliate program that makes me money while I sleep!”), make sure you submit 50 non-promotional tweets for every self-promotional tweet. Blatant self-promotion makes me exercise my unfollow finger.

45. @careerscoacheu Be polite – Always acknowledge new followers and thank for RTs and Mentions.

46. @elainerogers Use the Pareto Principle – 80-20 rule – 80% of your tweets should be interactive and informative (including RTs), No more than 20% should be self promoting and declarative (without replying to anyone)

47. @davidabrock If Twitter is a part of your business strategy, then you got to be there.  You can’t come in and out. You have to build relationships and results over time.  Too many tweet for a few weeks, are disappointed in the results and give up.  It takes time and building a presence and reputation. Related to the previous point, be clear about how/if twitter fits your business strategy.  If twitter fits your strategy, there is not an excuse for not tweeting on a regular basis.

48. @nialldevitt Remember Twitter is like any other business tool, it’s possibly to use it effectively and it’s possible to use it poorly. Ultimately all social media is really about people and not technology. Always try to keep that in mind!

49. @careerscoacheu Engage, Engage, Engage – You have no visibility unless you contribute.

50. @davidabrock Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Please share your Twitter Tips in the comments section below.

Related links:

The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter

137 Small Business Twitter Tips

13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners

35 Twitter Tips from 35 Twitter Users

Twittering Tips for Beginners

Twenty-One Top Twitter Tips

The Ultimate Guide To Twitter

Linkedin is a very powerful business tool. It’s wonderful for Networking, Personal Branding, Sales & Marketing, Job Seeking, Recruiting and More! I have used LinkedIn successfully for over a year now. Just to prove the point when creating this post, I posed a question in the Q&A section on Linkedin asking for people’s tips. Thanks again to everyone that contributed! So including some of my own here are:

#50 ways to get more from Linkedin

1. Realise that Linkedin is a complex and multi-functional tool; it’s going to take some time to learn to use it wisely – Niall Devitt

2. Contact/connect with experienced users and ask them for their advice as to how best to use it – Niall Devitt

3. Know why you are using Linkedin – what is your primary goal? This will determine your strategy – Lisa Murray

4. Decide whether you are going to post a resume/CV-oriented profile or a customer-oriented one. If you’re looking for a job, the first is appropriate – Dave Stein

5. If you’re happy where you are but would like to further highlight your personal capital to your customers, use the latter. It should include accomplishments you’ve made from the customer’s perspective, not from your next employer’s. They’re usually quite different – Dave Stein

6. Just be real and authentic, don’t hype yourself or your product if it isn’t the truth.  I always make it a point to get to “personally” know people and what they do…after all; this is ’social media’! – Jody Maley

7. List all your experience and education- Sahar Andrade

8. List all your achievements and honours- Sahar Andrade

9. Ensure your profile is set to full view – Lisa Murray

10. Personalise your Linkedin profile URL - Sahar Andrade

11. Create a proper profile with keywords, no typos and proper grammar – Sahar Andrade

12. Make sure you use a professional photo – no blanks or logos – people like dealing with other people! -Lisa Murray

13. Choose a good picture: ensure to have a clear, professional picture in your profile instead than a holiday pic – Fred Caballero

14. Update your status regularly to share your expertise in useful ways – Lisa Murray

15. Use your three links! You have the option to create three outgoing links to promote your company, blog, twitter account, etc. Use these to generate traffic wherever you want and edit the text so it becomes more attractive to click on. e.g.: don’t leave “My Company” when you can write “Social media blog” for example – Fred Caballero

16. Use box.net to add samples of your work – Sahar Andrade

17. Make sure to set up and add your company page to Linkedin – Niall Devitt

18. Give recommendations, endorse the people that you know are good at what they do – Niall Devitt

19. Get recommendations: one of the tops 5 things that most of the people pay attention to are your recommendations. These say a lot about you. Make sure you request an endorsement to everyone that knows how you work to share that experience with others – Fred Caballero

20. Always write a personal message when connecting with someone – Ian Cleary

21. Double check that you have spelled the person’s name correctly when sending invitations to connect -Ian Cleary

22. When someone connects with you, thank them for doing so Niall Devitt

23. Don’t reject invitations by hitting the IDK (I Don’t Know) button. Archive them instead – Judy B. Margolis, MA

24. Don’t upload your address book as a short cut to building your network. Instead, invite contacts one by one with a personalized invitation – Judy B. Margolis, MA

25. If you make a list of people you want to connect to and they are not in your network, join a group that they are a member of that you have a similar interest, start contributing to the group and then make a connection – Ian Cleary

26. Leverage your connections to get introduced to people you would like to form a relationship with, after all that’s what it all about, making connections – Niall Devitt

27. Join and participate actively in Linkedin groups. You’ll get known to the participants and be top of mind not only for their needs but also when other people ask “do you know someone?” Shel Horowitz

28. Choose relevant groups and be active: offer value and connect with other people in the group. -Fred Caballero

29. Make sure to read and observe group guidelines – play by the rules! -Niall Devitt

30. Stay away from self-promotion in Groups; instead demonstrate your expertise by contributing, asking questions, starting discussions and adding value -Niall Devitt

31. Start your very own group and invite people to join, this is a super way to get noticed and build your contacts – Niall Devitt

32.  Demonstrate your competence and expertise by using the Groups and Answers features to help people, not sell your wares! – Lisa Murray

33. If you correspond with someone as part of a discussion, follow it up with an invite to connect – Niall Devitt

34. Upload valuable articles and posts to the news section – Niall Devitt

35. Don’t just connect on Linkedin, pick up the phone or meet for a coffee, you will really start to see the full value of Linkedin when you take your on-line relationships off-line – Niall Devitt

36. Ask and answer questions in the Q&A section: show your expertise – Fred Caballero

37. Don’t forget to close any questions you ask in the Q&A forum and rate them – Judy B. Margolis, MA

38. Set up an RSS feed for the category of questions/answers you are interested in so you can monitor them – Ian Cleary

39. Don’t flag/report questions and answers willy-nilly because you don’t agree with the politics or don’t like the individual or it looks like spam to you – Judy B. Margolis, MA

40. Use the events application to promote your events – Sahar Andrade

41. Attend events that your contacts are attended and arrange to meet up face to face – Niall Devitt

42. Connect before you arrive: do your homework and check out on Linkedin each on of the people’s profile before going to a networking event – Fred Caballero

43. Connect proactively: When you meet with someone face-to-face ask them if they’re on Linkedin. If they are not, INVITE THEM, and keep in touch. They’ll always remember you for that – Fred Caballero

44. Use the network updates for fresh content (SEO and networking) Sahar Andrade

45. Make relevant comments about your connections’ status updates: that shows that you care about them. Also try to offer help or assistance if there’s anything you can do to get them closer to what they’re looking for -Fred Caballero

46. Don’t hide your contacts. Share! Leave them open so your contacts can see who you are connected with and request for introductions. At the end of the day Linkedin is about getting connected. Facilitate that job. Be a good sport! -Fred Caballero

47. Do an advanced search based on whatever you want to keep top on and save this as an RSS feed e.g. recruiter might set up a search for “looking for a job” – Ian Cleary

48. Embed a video in your Slideshare application – Ian Cleary

49.Leverage your profile with applications: Embed your blog, show people what you’ve been up to and share your expertise. Include presentations with Slideshare and add the Amazon app to share with other what you’re reading and learn from others – Fred Caballero

50. Attend some Linkedin training or get some Linkedin coaching- Niall Devitt

Please share YOUR LinkedIn tips in the comments section below.

This is a meet event organised by the Sales Leadership Ireland LinkedIn Group. This is a not-for-profit initiative.

When: Wed, 03 Jun, 2009, Start time: 07:00 - End time: 09:00      Cost: 15 Euro

Where: Burlington Hotel, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4 ireland. View on Map.

Des: A practical look at how companies and sales people might respond to the current challenges and opportunities in the market.

SECTION 1: Interactive sessions with Speakers (45 minutes)

1) Introduction to Sales Leadership Ireland
- Niall Devitt, Beyond the Boardroom Training

2) “Removing the New Bottlenecks in today’s Sales Processes” – 10 minutes
Niall Devitt will lead a discussion on how sales challenges are always changing with changing markets, how to identify these changes and how to respond.

3) “Partnering into New Markets” – 10 minutes
Donagh Kiernan of Maidsfield Associates will present a case study of how corporate partnering is an effective method of entering new sectoral or regional markets.

4) “Engaging with Customers through New Media” – 20 minutes
Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications will discuss how new media can be used to communicate with your market and gain new business.

SECTION 2: Key Challenges Roundtables (1 hour)

Maximum attendees 30 – 3 round tables of 10

A number of identified Key Challenges in the industry today will be discussed and debated to share insights on how challenges can and are be met by members. The key challenges will be collected from the Sales Leadership Ireland - Linked-In Discussion Group.

Structure:
a) Introduce identified “Key Challenges” – (5 Minutes)

b) One “Key Challenge” will be assigned to each roundtable. Each table will select a spokesperson to chair a discussion and collect suggested actions to meet these challenges, taking notes on a flipchart page (30 Minutes)

c) Each table’s spokesperson will present their findings to the whole group (30 Minutes)

d) Session Summary and Close

COFFEE & NETWORKING

A session report will be submitted to the Sales Leadership Ireland LinkedIn Group Discussion

SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT HERE

Carlsberg run a TV advertising campaign, based on always having more than 2 choices. The punch line, “there is always choice c”. Choice c, in this instance refers to some on the spot clever thinking - leaving the person in the ad with an out - from some kind of sticky situation.

When faced with the competitor question, a business or salesperson may believe they have 3 choices.

They can:

Join the Competition

Beat the Competition

Ignore the Competition

Why is it, that many continue to choose c?

Markets are smaller, competition is greater than ever, yet many companies and salespeople persist in choosing to operate “a head in the sand” approach - when dealing with competitors.

A Wake UP Call!!!. Competition is fierce and it’s not going to go away. There are only two real choices, because c is not a choice - It’s in-action and a non-decision.

Wait a minute, I hear you say “what about cutting prices”. Surely; this is an effective way to deal with competitors.

“NO, NO, NO, it’s not”. It’s taking choice C again. Here’s why, cutting prices may have a short-term impact. It will initially win you business. However, sooner rather than later, the competition will work out how to effectively deal with your price-cutting - or they will match it.

So around and around you will go, until you are right back where you started, only this time - you have created a whole new set of problems for yourself.

So here are the 2 real choices.

a. Join the competition through forming strategic alliances and partnerships.

or

b. Beat the competition through competitive positioning, developing a strategy for dealing with the competition question and using competitive selling skills effectively when selling.

When dealing with the competition.  Remember, there is only a and b…………there is no choice c.

In the News

Check out these four posts:

Dave Stein asks “How Do You Fix Sales Ineffectiveness?”in a brilliant post that’s generated lots and lots of debate. Dave says “There is a proven path.  The answers are there for everyone to see.   There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence. So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?”

Dave Brock investigates  and attempts to provide answers in his three posts ” Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture on the Future of the Profession Parts One Two & Three“

Over at TSE

On Tuesday, we will witness the launch of the new Top Sales Expert’s site - probably the most significant sales related site on the internet. To coincide with the re-launch, a new Executive Board has been formed to oversee the team, and a “working commitee” will also be appointed in the coming weeks.

Here is the new board.

Top row, left to right: Paul McCord, Jill Konrath, Jonathan Farrington, Colleen Francis, Keith Rosen and Joanne Black.

Bottom row: Wendy Weiss, Dr. Greg Stebbins, Nancy D. Solomon, Kevin Eikenberry, Linda Richardson and Kendra Lee.

Over at SLI (Sales Leadership Ireland)

Now 145 members and counting, To join click here.

Follow us on

Btb Guest Author

Christian Maurer

Yes, but not in the form we know and practice selling today. This is one of my takeaways from the round table discussion between Nigel Edelshain, Jonathan Farrington, Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson and Dave Stein over at the Top Sales Experts. Especially “order takers” and ‘glib talkers” will have a bleak future according to Jonathan Farrington. Intelligent strategic orchestrators and business advisors looking to develop long term allies however will have a bright future according to him. Jill Konrath seconded that she hopes that sales is really changing that much.

So we should expect a lot of organizational transformation within sales forces. However, and this is my second take away, the salespeople are not the primary target for this transformation. The sales profession -if we want to use this term despite the fact that from a scientific standpoint ’sales’ is not yet a profession- faces not only a leadership crisis but a disaster as Dave Stein put it.

The transformation has to start at the very top with company leaders. They should get rid of the myths that super salespersons make good sales managers and that the necessary competences come with the title. Sales Management is an occupation in itself requiring different specific skills than those of a sales superstar.

Relying just on tribal wisdom, where newly appointed sales managers draw on what they have observed their own managers doing, will not bring the desired result as it is very likely that these managers were not properly prepared for the job either. In addition their understanding of selling and of their job role might be outdated and not fit in today’s unforgiving economic context.

In my own opinion there will be no room left for purely action and result oriented managers trying to manage outcomes. It makes little difference if they rely on data from their own home grown spreadsheets or on sophisticated analytical CRM tools in their attempt to manage these outcomes. Outcomes are lagging indicators even if they come in the disguised form of forecasts. Management actions based on these metrics will always be too little too late. The future belongs to sales managers being able to interpret leading indicators helping them to derive coaching needs of their sales people.

The panelist were all in agreement that being able to coach people is a very essential skill for successful sales managers going forward.. There is however a huge skill gap with current sales managers. Linda Richardson’s re-edited book on this subject will help fill this gap. As a questions from a listener indicated, a significant number of sales managers has though not only a skill gap but an outright attitude problem towards coaching. Let’s hope for them that they can be convinced by appropriate business cases to avoid being phased out.

The dilemma for preparing sales managers for their job is though deeper. While a lot has been written with the salesperson in mind, there is a lack of a body of knowledge from which sale managers can be taught how to do their job. This is the reason why already three years ago, I started my blog with the sales executives and managers in mind.

Christian Maurer, The Sales Executive Resource, is an independent sales effectiveness consultant, trainer and coach. He has a proven track record of helping to increase the productivity of large, global B2B sales organizations. For the last ten years Christian has consulted and coached hundreds of sales executives and managers on how to plan and execute their sales strategies by focusing on process management rather than trying to manage results. Visit Christian ’s website: http://ultimatesalesexecresource

In the news

Dave Stein asks “How Do You Fix Sales Ineffectiveness?” This is a BIG BIG question and has already resulting in much debate. As Dave points out “There is a proven path.  The answers are there for everyone to see.  There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence. So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?” - I strongly suggest you check it out.

Clayton Shold is in conversation with fellow Top Sales Expert, Jonathan London over at Salesopedia, about the “Upside To Recession Selling”

Top 10 Sales Articles has just announced the “Top Sales Article Of The Month” for April. This a truly great sales resource with articles on every conceivable sales topic.

Over at TSE

The new Top Sales Experts (Public Group) over at LinkedIn is developing into a very lively community, with lots of really interesting discussions - to join us, simply click below.

I have being tuning in and out to a lively and very interesting discussion about sales incentives on TSE’s new LinkedIn group.

Tibor Shanto who started the dialogue, points out that “In sales it is a given that revenue is the ultimate measure of success. In general no one takes issue to paying commissions for realised revenues.

At the same time most people we talk to agree that revenue is achieved as a result of specific actions and behaviours executed by the sales professional; making revenue a ‘result’ of these actions and therefore making revenue a lagging indicator.

Add to this the fact that most people adhere to the view that incentives and incentive programs should drive behaviour. Putting aside MBO rewords, and PM based on scorecards and KPI’s, does it make sense to only pay commissions on revenue or is it time to examine paying a portuin of incentive on specific behaviour?”

The resulting dialogue, raised a number of very interesting questions; not least of which is a more general question. How effective is plain old money in motivating salespeople?

I for one, have always questioned its effectiveness and have thought that more has to do with what money provides rather than the money itself.

Several psychological studies would seem to back this up, with a very interesting body of evidence now claiming that traditional rewards (and punishment) - are actually counter productive in promoting behaviours.

Jim Micklos weights in with “top performers do not reach and remain at that level solely for the money itself. They’re in it for what the money gives them – security, luxury, status – all of which are psychological and emotional rewards (applause), not monetary.”

He goes on to say “When exceptional performance is required, it is most effectively driven by exceptional reward. Several studies have shown conclusively that, dollar for dollar, non-cash incentive programs (praise, recognition, merchandise and travel awards) are far more effective than cash”

I know that something that employers often fail to grasp is that a badly designed compensation plan can as easily act to de-motivate salespeople. From my own interviews with salespeople, this is much more common than companies would like to think.

One area that unfortunately gets overlooked by employers when designing incentive schemes, is personal and career development programmes and training. Rewarding salespeople in this way, demonstrates that the company truly values the salesperson on a personal level. In my own experience, providing salespeople with additional skills and expertise is one of the very best and most effective ways of motivating them.

Putting together a successful incentive structure is a big challenge for businesses because of the complexities involved. Getting it right can drive sales and revenues where as getting it wrong can cause big problems.

The nature of the economic situation that we now find ourselves in makes getting it right even more important. What do you think? I would love to hear from others about sales incentives. In your experience, what works and what doesn’t?

Well, I think sales people don’t have a bad reputation. They are simply no more RELEVANT. Why? Read “death of a sales man”. No no no - I mean read it NOW - read it again - NOW. It will tell you WHY. If you don’t believe me - you don’t believe me like the main character in the plot didn’t listen to the youngsters who took over. Dave (Stein), you want to give them a “entirely different orientation” - wooo how cool is that. Terry, are you still hanging on to the old “solution selling stuff” from 30 years ago? Next comment may be about the “reference selling” method, or all the other good old ways of selling. Anybody up for the “killer instinct” Rarrrrrrr. How about the good schools from Miller Heiman…

Come on people what are you dreaming about at night? You are over fertilized and squeezed out people that try harder and harder to meet the commission, the forecast to walk through your “funnel” that is more like a “tunnel” with no light at the end. You get asked to work harder - you pull in more cold calls, you “align” you call centers… How about finding yet another more fine tuned sales methodology based on Yogi what’s his name. Don’t you realize that YOUR way of selling is DEAD

This is a comment by Axel Schultze from Dave Brock’s post “Why do Sales People have such a Bad Reputation?” on  The Customer Collective. This new type of pitch from a new type of salesperson refers to the role of social media tools in the B2B selling environment. Axel followed this up with his own post on this topic Death of a Salesman - Version 2009.

So REALLY, how effective are these new technologies in producing additional sales? and are they now, as has been claimed in some quarters already replacing established sales methodology and processes?

Well according to a new study by ES Research Group, Inc. (ESR), one of the leading research and advisory firms on sales effectiveness, social media tools such as Jigsaw, LinkedIn,Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook, Hoovers and OneSource may be useful for other purposes, but most of them aren’t helping sales teams close many B2B deals today. The survey was developed in cooperation with The TAS Group.

Based on a survey of nearly 400 sales professionals in the U.S., the report found that only LinkedIn (86%) and Hoovers/OneSource combined (61%) were used by more than half of respondents in their selling efforts. Facebook (50%), Plaxo (48%), Twitter (31%), and Jigsaw (26%) trailed in use.

Note: Hoovers and OneSource are separate companies but were combined for survey purposes because of their similar services.

Of respondents actually using the tools for sales, Hoovers and OneSource were the only tools helping more than half (54%) of them win B2B sales sometimes or often. LinkedIn was next at 42% and Jigsaw followed at 35%. Worst were Facebook (15%), Plaxo (13%) and Twitter (13%).

“The results demonstrate that with all the hype and buzz, most social network tools aren’t helping sales teams sell more yet,” Said Dave Stein, CEO and founder, ES Research Group. “For example, Twitter has not come into its own as a salesperson’s tool. It is presently a marketing tool that can potentially benefit the sales organization by contributing to the generation and nurturing of new sales leads. For now, the use of sales methodologies integrated with CRM systems and other sales enablement tools are proving far more successful in driving sales.”

Other key findings include the following:

• LinkedIn is clearly the favorite among B2B salespeople surveyed.
• The established for-pay information services (Hoover’s and OneSource) came in second.
• Free/low-cost information sharing services such as Jigsaw will rise in popularity over time.
• Twitter is an anomaly. It will have a high degree of uptake, but in a very narrow market. Marketing will find the tool much more valuable than sales for the foreseeable future. Presently it is not a valuable mainstream medium for B2B salespeople.
• For the time being, Facebook is best reserved for the personal and family sides of one’s life.

The ESR survey of sales representatives in a broad set of industries examined the prospecting process, the selling process, and the storage and retrieval of customer and prospect information.

No one doubts, the evolving role that social media technologies will play in the B2B selling environment, however the evidence clearly demonstrates that their present significance is no where near what some would have us believe. This is a topic of conversation that we will no doubt re-visit as the months and years go by. For now though, I applaud Dave and the ES research group for seeking out the facts of the matter, and for giving me the reassurance to continue to deliver the best advice for my customers and their sales people.

Buy the 10-page ESR/Insight™ Brief , The New Social Media: Do They Enable B2B Selling?

Over at Top Sales Experts,

Our Timetable for April includes:

First up in April is the inaugral TSE Roundtable- “The Future Of Professional Selling” featuring five of the world’s leading sales experts: Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein, Nigel Edelshain, and Jonathan Farrington.

This an event you really should not miss out on - simply click on the banner below for full details and to book your place.

On April 16th, we launch the TSE Webinar Series, and I know that you are going to be very impressed with the line-up of almost FIFTY top sales gurus, who will be delivering top class presentations - simply click on the banner below to see the full schedule.

On April 21st, we launch “Sales Hardtalk” a daily dose of hard hitting advice, commentary and sales tips - easily downloadable and in bite size chunks, not to be missed.

Finally, at the end of April, the Top Sales Experts team will be launching their latest Ebook, packed with contributions from all of us - more details soon.