Whether you work with a standardized proposal or each one is a custom work of art, this episode is for you. You will learn about the technique to write your proposal and how to use tech to make customizing proposals easy and you can track them to so you know when it’s being considered. 
How do you save time, use the right language, know when to send and track those proposals?

In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode.
Technique Tips from Merit:

A proposal is my best guess at what I think you want. A working agreement is let’s have a discussion about what you really need and what you want, and then I’ll give you the good business reasons why there might be some other elements that you need to get to your outcome.

When they say, “put together a proposal…” Respond, “I’d be happy to, but Are you open to co-creating a working agreement so you get exactly what you need/want and it makes good business sense.”

There won’t be any surprises in the proposal, I’m just writing up what we discussed. 

Proposals outline benefits, deliverables and costs. Make sure you’re also includes your prospect’s pain and review that before getting to the costs. 

Tracking a metric of how many proposals have you done is not as effective as tracking the metric how many qualified proposals have I done?

Recording sales conversations then use the exact language they articulated their problem in your proposal.

Technology Tips from Julie:

Use tech to track, expedite and make the proposal process more consistent.

Separate out the idea of the proposal from the contract, because those are two different stages of the sales cycle.

One of the first ways that we differentiate is by being beautiful. Don’t just word document proposals, do beautiful proposals using PowerPoint, PandaDoc or Proposify. 

Reuse components of your proposals. So rather than crafting proposals from scratch, every time, decide the 10 different things that you typically sell and have a page for each.

Proposal technology platforms allow you to go straight from a proposal to a signature.

Being able to follow up on your proposal is one of the most critical things that you can do so you can call them when they are looking at your proposal and are ready to buy. I use DocSend which lets me see that they’ve opened it and I get notified every time somebody opens my proposal. But the other thing it does is it lets me see which pages of my proposal they spend the most time on.

Smarter Sales Soundbites: 
“A lot of people rush to get to the proposal that they think is going to sell for them instead of really hang out a little bit more in that question and discovery, part of the sales process, to even discover whether or not this prospect really qualifies for the time and effort that they’re going to put into a proposal.”
“One of the challenges is making sure that we don’t use proposals as a crutch for selling. If I’m just measured on how many proposals did I get out the door, there’s no incentive for me to do the qualification step properly so that I’m maximizing the proposals that I do have out there.”
“There aren’t gonna be any surprises in what we discussed.”
“I don’t think I’m doing anybody any favors by taking my time to create a proposal that’s only based on guesswork.”

Listener Challenge: 

Make sure that you’re not creating proposals before qualifying prospects. 

Create beautiful proposals.

Use tech to track that proposal.

Referenced in this Episode:
Creating Proposals

PandaDoc

Proposify

Tracking Proposals

Docsend

eSignature Platforms

Find/Contact us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn…
Merit Kahn
Julie Holmes

Our Websites: 
https://julieholmes.com/
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SHOWNOTES: 
If you’ve ever felt like pulling your hair out because you feel like you have to do everything, but you aren’t really sure of what is and isn’t working when it comes to sales, you are going to love this episode all about ANALYZING YOUR SALES PROCESS. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode…

Technique Tips from Merit:

Ask yourself or your team, “what don’t you have time to do?” Whatever they say is code for “I’m not comfortable doing that activity”. That’s where real training is needed. 

Get clarity around the steps involved in prospecting, the things that you do to fill the funnel so that you know if you’ve got enough in your pipeline to have the business results that you want.

Track the number of leads that you’re working on. 

How many of those leads turn into conversations?

How many of those conversations turn into appointments? 

How many of those appointments turn into money, conversations, and closed deals? 

How much are those closed deals worth or how much did you lose if it didn’t close?

Then ask, “What do I need to learn to be more effective in this particular part of that process?”

Take stock and look at what are you tracking. Are you using that information? Are there other metrics that would be more useful to you in meaningful ways that would inform your behavior change so that you can get to a better result?

Technology Tips from Julie:

First, what is important in sales? What should be measured?

Next, how do you know if you should measure it and what you do with that information when you have it? 

Understanding what is a good conversion ratio. That would help you know if you are underperforming on that target ratio and it would help you predict the future results.

Lagging indicators track results achieved. Leading indicators are measures, metrics, behaviors or attributes that I can change in the process that will automatically create a change farther downstream.

There are three things that have to happen before you start really owning key performance indicators and really owning measurements and analytics around a process and listening

Know what matters- what data are you looking at

Know if that data is good or bad and at what point you high five

Know what to do if data is bad- have a plan

Once you have this information, the technology that you now add to that is appropriate for the situation and will give you the data that you need. But if you just go right to the tech, without understanding this technique part of it, you’re shooting yourself in the foot or you’ll spend a lot of money on tech that isn’t going to produce.

Smarter Sales Soundbites: 
“I can imagine that every one of you can think of at least one time that a manager said, “I feel like you should be doing more of this.” And you thought, “Well, what does more look like? How will you know if more happens? How will you know?”

“You have to identify what you are trying to measure so that you can know where you want to make improvements. If you don’t understand the steps involved in getting to certain results and goals, then you can’t know whether or not you’re doing enough.”

“Track and measure the actual data and not just what you think or feel you are doing to be busy.”

“You can’t change the result. But you can change the behavior on their way to getting the result. And if you’re not tracking the right things, you can’t make those decisions.”

Referenced in this Episode:
julieholmes.vip/kpiguide

Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/

Our Websites: 
https://julieholmes.com/
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SHOWNOTES: 
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by what it takes to keep all your prospects, clients and deal flow organized, you are going to love this episode ABOUT ORGANIZATION AS A TIME-SAVING STRATEGY. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode…

Technique Tips from Merit:

Qualify or disqualify the opportunity sooner in the sales process. 

By disqualifying prospects who are not a good fit earlier, you only have to organize and follow up personally with the best prospects. Everyone else who is moderately qualified gets an automated follow-up. 

Are you open to … sharing with me who will be attending the luncheon before I move it to next month when you are at the phase when you are selecting speakers? 

Technology Tips from Julie:

Tech strategy – Automations and notifications – only deal with what you NEED to deal with WHEN you need to deal with it.

Tech caution – Beware the tech traps … getting lost in tech that takes you more time than if you’d actually done it yourself.

Tech application – 

Project and Task Management (Asana, Trello, Evernote)

The Joy of Searching (Evernote, OneNote, Rocket Book)

Email Auto Follow-Up (Boomerang, Outlook)

There’s an app for that – 

Project and Task Management (Asana, Trello, Evernote)

The Joy of Searching (Evernote, OneNote, Rocket Book)

Email Auto Follow-Up (Boomerang, Outlook)

Smarter Sales Soundbites: 

“Organization is about things, like the process, and time management is about how you plan your time.”
“Qualification is going to limit the number of things you have to organize.”
“I own a labeler and I am not afraid to use it.”
“Tech and organization to me do two primary things. It helps me to see everything that I need to do and when I need to do it. But the other thing that it does is it enables notifications.”
“If you’re going to ask for a piece of information, what is the action you are going to take on that piece of information?”
“So many sales managers that track things because they think they’re supposed to, and then they don’t do anything with that data.”
“The first step is to figure out what your sales process looks like so that at any given moment, you can see where things are in the process.”
“We waste more time looking for things than we do anything else so the second step is making sure that you have a good search.”
“The last step is making sure that you have some good notification systems in place so that things are being surfaced to you when you should take action on them.”

Referenced in this Episode:

Asana – Project management with a great FREE option

Trello – Kanban task management tool

RocketBook – Smart, reusable notebooks

Boomerang – Gmail scheduling tool

Outlook – Trusty email client from MS Office

Microsoft OneNote – Get organized with virtual notebooks

Evernote – Get organized with virtual notebooks

Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/

Our Websites: 
https://julieholmes.com/
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUMMARY:
If you are frustrated about how to stand out from the sea of sameness and differentiate yourself and what you sell, this episode is for you! Don’t be different, be impressive. With clearly communicated expectations and some cool tech that will blow your prospect’s minds, you will stand out as the most impressive sales pro around!

SHOWNOTES: 
In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode on differentiation…

Technique Tips from Merit:

The key to avoiding a price negotiation is making sure that you show up as different than all your competition and all the other salespeople out there.

It’s not just about the product or service being different. It’s about the sales process, the mood, the tone that you set, the questions that you asked.

Process differentiation is probably one of the most important things that sales professionals can do to really stand out and be above and beyond their competition

To differentiate yourself and your sales process follow these steps:

Tell the truth about how much time you have to talk

Clearly articulate the purpose of the communication

Discuss the agenda for the conversation

Agree on an outcome and next steps

Technology Tips from Julie:

Differentiation isn’t necessarily about being just different. Because different isn’t good or bad. It’s just different. I would encourage people to think about impressive. 

If you have a good strong technique, then technology can be that wow factor. The way that you leverage technology can be that impressive differentiator.

Try video voicemail instead of traditional email follow up as a differentiator.

Adam.ai can record your meeting, it can also pull out automatically all of the action items that get stated during your meeting. So you can record your meeting, you can get all of your action items, and it’s shareable. 

With Microsoft OneNote, I can have these templates pre-built. So I know as soon as I get on a call that those are the boxes I should be filling in. From a consistency perspective to make yourself a better salesperson

Smarter Sales Soundbites: 
“If nobody sees you as different in the sales process, then it’s always going to come down to price.”
“I’ve narrowed it down based on features and functionality. And to be completely honest, I went with the one that sold better.”
“Just ask for what you really need.”
“What are you, as a sales professional, doing at any given point during the sales cycle, that you legitimately think your prospect would think, wow… that’s impressive.”
“There is a big difference between just being different and being impressive.”

Referenced in this Episode:

Dubb – Video Email/Video Voicemail

Adam.ai – Artificial intelligence meeting management suite

Microsoft OneNote – Get organized with virtual notebooks

Evernote – Get organized with virtual notebooks

Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SHOWNOTES: 
In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode on using LinkedIn to grow sales: 

Duh… connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/

Technique Tips from Merit:

Have a really clear title

You can change your title as much as you want

Use emotional words and describe who is the best ideal client for you in your description section

Include a meeting link in your description section so they can go straight to your calendar and book time to talk with you

Add social proof to your description. “Jason hired me because…”

When you look up prospects, find commonalities. Join groups they are part of already

“I noticed that you were on my profile and we both happened to be part of the ABC company group or the ABC interest group. So I’m curious, is there a reason that you were on my profile? Are you looking for someone specific? Here’s a link to my calendar if you are open to talking…”

Reach out to our current connections to say, “Hey, it’s been a while since we talked. There are people that you know, that would be helpful for me to meet and vice versa. Can we have a LinkedIn connection meeting and see who we might introduce each other to?”

Technology Tips from Julie:

LinkedIn is supposed to be a jumping off point for conversations, not the destination of conversations, so for cover art, like you can go and use a really cool free tool like Canva

Add media to your profile. Video is one of the most powerful mediums that we have to communicate

Put a PDF out there, an image, a couple of photographs, a video message to help people know who you are and what you do 

Make sure that you are connecting up your social media profiles

Customize your LinkedIn profile address to make it easier for people to connect with you

LinkedIn offers the opportunity to see who is visiting your profile. Use that free option

Write articles and posts. When people like or comment, reach out to them to connect

Tag contacts and add notes using a plugin that sits in your browser on top of LinkedIn to keep track of where I met

Smarter Sales Soundbites: 
“Anytime I’m in LinkedIn, I’m there for business reason. I’ve got my business mindset on.” 

“There’s a big blank billboard on your LinkedIn profile that you are not potentially using as effectively as you should still have that like blue with the connecting lines and dots like please get rid of that.”

“Have your potential prospect or the person you would like to connect with and do business with to identify themselves in your description.”

“From a technique perspective, you want to realize it’s who you help and why it’s not just a laundry list of your resume.”

“If you’re looking to just put another notch in your bedpost over how many connections you have, knock it off.” 

“People are here one day and somewhere else the next day. But if they’re in your LinkedIn profile, wherever they’re at, you still have that touch point.”

“If you’re hot, then I remember you. If you’re a hot guy, I remember hot guys.” – Merit 🙂

Referenced in this Episode:

Canva – Online Graphic Design for Free

RelayThat – Create and Repurpose Social Media Images Quickly and Easily

Book Like a Boss – Online Calendar Booking Application (it’s what Merit and Julie use!)

LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Work Your LinkedIn Like It’s Your Job!

Switchy – Brand, Shorten, and Track Links

Jennifer Darling: connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/Jennifer darling speaks (she offers a free Rockstar Assessment… take advantage of it!)

Dux-soup – a LinkedIn management and analytics solution 

Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 
On this episode of The Smarter Sales Show, Merit and Julie share their best techniques and tech for SALES FOLLOW-UP.
In response to a listener question about following-up with sales prospects, the hosts discuss four strategies for when a client says the timing isn’t right. Merit and Julie provide techniques—including asking questions and securing a date—as well as specific tech that is helpful.
Asking the client about their interest directly can help you move forward. And even if they do say they’re not interested, you can still test that to see if you can turn it around by asking what they would have liked to hear. They explain that 80% of prospects can be crowding your sales pipeline because they’re apprehensive, and you can capitalize on that. This will allow sales managers to make better sales forecasts with more reliable, realistic pipelines. After gaining a confident yes, scheduling can confirm. But don’t make the mistake of waiting or sending a scheduling link, despite how helpful that tech is. You want to schedule it immediately.
Julie talks about some tech that can move the sale forward, too. SyncGene is an app that will synchronize your work and personal calendars to consolidate into a single to-do list. This can solve the problem of missing dates across multiple calendars. Another tool called Zapier allows you to create “if/then” logical rules that automates some of your tasks, allowing you to chain tasks together and streamline your workflow.
Another technique Merit mentions is called the Qualifier’s Mindset, which helps you to sell your solution, even when your confidence is low and your empathy is high. Even if they’re not interested in hearing about it, it helps to believe in the value of your solution and how it brings value to your clients.
Big Brother tech, or sales document tracking tech, is the final piece of tech Julie discusses. This allows you to get notifications and updates on changes to the status of documents you send out. DocSend, for example, can inform you when a document has been opened, as well as how much time a client has spent on individual pages, giving you evidence that they’re actually interested.
Send in your questions to be answered on the air at hello@thesmartersalesshow.com and sign up for our email list at www.thesmartersalesshow.com.
 
Hot Spots:
01:45 — Keys to the sales follow-up
04:30 — The Qualifying Question
06:20 — The 80/20 rule for confirming prospects
08:00 — If you get a yes, get out your calendar
10:30 — Everything plus a sync (sync’ing apps, that is)
14:40 — The Qualifier’s Mindset
17:00 — How Value Changes Your Mindset.
19:00 — Big Brother Tech for Sales.
22:45 — Next week: How to Get More Referrals!
 
Key Quotes:
 — “Set the stage for the great qualifying question.”
 — “They are hoping you are so unorganized that you won’t call them back.”
 — “Every CEO of every company wants a realistic pipeline.”
 — “If you’ve got someone in a conversation, schedule it live.”
 — “If it doesn’t get you to the next step, you’re probably not using the right tech.”
— “You may not follow up with a prospect if you think it’s a waste of time.”
— “Just like that, a document I thought was dead had resurfaced alive!”
— “Data and analytics can be our most powerful tool.”
— “Correctly using tech can shift your mindset.”

Referenced in this Episode:
www.docsend.com – Sales Document Tracking
www.syncgene.com – Gmail and Outlook Synchronization
www.zapier.com – Integrations and Automation Tool
www.booklikeaboss.com – Online Calendar Booking Application (it’s what Merit and Julie use!) 

Find Us:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact Us:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices