How are you going to sell your product? Learn the principles of “selling value” to your customers, with a special emphasis on the challenges of sales for technology start-ups. Get tips for dealing with stakeholders and distributors and learn how to manage risks and problems. Get practical tips for making sales calls, including how to successfully close a sale and follow-up with potential customers. This lecture will cover: - Choosing the right sales tactics - CRM - Networking best practices - Cold calling strategy - Social media for sales - Sending emails that get responses - Planning for great meetings

1. Entrepreneurship 101: B2B Sales
February 5, 2014
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

2. @markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

3. Agenda
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
Introductions
Value Proposition
Targets
Types of Sales
Inbound Leads
Process Tools
CRM
@markeelliott
8) Cold Call vs. Warm Call
9) Leveraging Social Media
10) Other Sales Tactics
11) Meeting Plans
12) Great Resources
13) Questions
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

4. Agenda
• Mark Elliott, Co-Founder
• VA Partners provides Part-time Sales and
Marketing
• Almost 20 Years of Sales and Marketing
• Created $2M annual annuity for a finance
company
• Booked 100 meetings using Social Media
• New clients for web based company increased
revenue by 50%
• Worked with 70+ clients over 7 years
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

5. Value Proposition
• What benefits are you
selling?
•
•
•
•
Revenue increase
Cost reduction
Productivity improvement
Avoid something bad
• Quantify the benefit
• Multiple value propositions
• How are you different vs.
your competitors
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

6. Targets
• Where do your benefits best
match-up?
• Vertical focus
• Horizontal focus
• Leverage knowledge and
success to own a market
segment
• Best contacts within a
company
• Could be multiple
• All organizations don’t work
the same way
• Call high in the organization
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

7. What Type of Sales is Best?
• Types
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•
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•
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Direct
Channel
Outbound
Inside
Marketing
• Decision
• Cost of Sale
• How do target customers buy?
• May do unnatural things at the
start
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

8. Inbound Lead Generation
• Bring in qualified leads
• Components
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•
•
•
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Blogs
Whitepapers
Email marketing
Social Media
SEO
• Website
• Easy to update
• Capabilities to add the
components needed
• Customer testimonials
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

9. Sales Process Tools
Prospecting
Qualifying
Proposing
Closing
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•
•
•
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Path to Sales Success
Activity targets
Handling objections
Email templates
Telephone scripts
Roll-out
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

10. Sales CRMs
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•
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•
@markeelliott
Accounts
Contacts
Activities
Opportunities
Notes
Leads
Share information
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

11. Cold Calls vs. Warm Calls
• Book time in your schedule
• What is your goal?
• Research
• Company
• Person you are contacting
• Call the right person
• Have the right message
• Prepare for objections you
may face
• Call at start and at the end
of the day
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

12. Leveraging Social Media
• LinkedIn –
•
•
•
•
•
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Complete Profile
Make it easy to connect
Connect after….
Ask for introductions
Send InMail
Research
• Twitter –
•
•
•
•
@markeelliott
#Ent101
Use tools, like Hootsuite
Schedule Tweets
Create lists
Engage
@MaRSDD

13. Other Sales Tactics
• Research
• Social Media
• Web
• Data.com
• Targeted Email
• Networking
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

14. Meeting Plans
• Ask questions
• Sample Agenda
• Introduction
• Overview prospect
• Overview your
organization
• Next steps
• Who are you meeting?
• What are they hoping to
get out of the meeting?
• What are your goals?
• What are your next
steps?
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD

15. Great Sales Resources
Sales Peer2Peer
Sales Peer to Peer
Linkedin Group
http://yoursalesplaybook.com
@markeelliott
#Ent101
@MaRSDD