In my last entry, I explained how to bypass the receptionist. Now I’m going to explain how to get around that other gatekeeper, the admin.

If you’re transferred to the admin, the last thing you want to do is jump into your sales pitch and hope the admin is impressed enough to put you through. That's dumb because you're not only identifying yourself as a sales rep, you’re signaling that you’re a social peer (in the corporate sense) of the admin – not the admin’s boss. Back to voice mail you go.

A little corporate psychology here. Admins separate people into two categories – those who ask questions (the riff-raff) and people who give orders (the big wigs.) If you want to be put through to the boss pronto, you want the admin to think you’re in the second category. So for cryin’ out loud, don’t say something like: “Can I please talk to Ms. Shot?” No. Make it like this: “Put me through to Big.” (Polite but firm; and use the first name.)

Half the time, you’ll be put right through. The other half, you’ll be asked who you are and the purpose of the call. According to cold-calling expert Andrea Sittig-Rolf, the best response here is to identify yourself, your firm, and then say the call is regarding their most important competitor.

For example, suppose you're trying to sell USB-compliant cattle prods to Oracle, and your company has sold similar devices to Microsoft. You say, “I’m Jane Doe from CattleProdsRUs; I need to talk to Big about Microsoft.” Sound really serious - like you have earth-shaking competitive information. Chances are you'll be put right through.

What if your target is out of the office? Don't let the admin stick you in voice mail. Ask the best time to call back. Then do it. The admin will remember you (trust me on this) and you'll be put through.

Of course, now that you’ve successfully navigated the gatekeepers, you better know exactly what you’re going to say. I’ll get to that next.

Let’s start with the basics.

The absolute suckiest task that sales folk must do is cold calling – trying to get a telephone meeting with somebody who doesn’t know you from Adam. There are a lot of “tricks of the trade” when it comes to cold calling, but the best comes from Andrea Sittig-Rolf, who conducts seminars on the subject.

The big challenge, of course, is avoiding voice mail. You want to talk to the actual person – not leave some message that’s a button-tap from oblivion.

If you prospect works for any firm larger than a mom-and-pop, they’ll probably have an automated company directory. But – guess what? – if you “enter the first three letters of the name,” yeah, your prospect’s phone will ring, but the system is going to warn the prospect that this is an outside call, from somebody unfamiliar. Unless your prospect is very bored that day, the phone will remain unanswered, and you’ll be back in the voice mail system, toot sweet.

Here’s a better way. Hit “O” and get the receptionist. Don’t say you’re in sales. That’s a one-way ticket to the "general message" voice mailbox, which nobody in the company has examined since before Y2K. Instead, ask for “accounts receivable.” You'll always get put through — no questions asked — and (because every company wants to get paid) you will almost always get to a live human.

Of course, that human will be an accounting creature, but that's OK. Apologize nicely and ask for the direct dial extension for the executive you want to reach. The accounting person, unlike the receptionist, hasn't been trained to screen out callers and will likely give you the number. Write it down (it may come in useful later) and then ask: “Could you transfer me?” Chances they'll comply, in which case your prospect’s phone will ring, displaying the drone’s internal extension. Your prospect is going to wonder: “Why is somebody in ‘accounts receivable’ calling me?” and pick up the phone. Voila!

When I’ve shared this technique in the past, the question inevitably comes up: “what if the admin is screening the calls?” There a basic technique for dealing with that, too, so stay tuned.

Everybody sells. I don’t care what business you’re in; you’re selling something. Have an idea? You’ve got to sell it to your boss. Are you a big shot CEO? You’re selling your credibility to investors. You work in rocket science? You’re selling your expertise. Are you a great artiste, beret and all? You’re selling the value of your art – even if money never changes hands.

It’s ironic, though. Despite the fact your success in any field is entirely dependent on your ability to sell, Western culture considers selling tawdry. “Selling out” is what phonies do. “Selling yourself” is a whore’s strategy. The very word “selling,” in most people’s minds implies “tricking somebody into buying something they don’t really want.” Say the term “salesman” to somebody outside of sales and chances are they’ll be picturing some cigar-chomping blowhard wearing a checked jacket on a used car lot.

That’s such total BS.

Which leads me to what this blog is all about. For the past four years, I’ve lived and breathed sales. I’ve picked the brains of hundreds of the most successful sales professionals on the planet — finding out what works, and what doesn’t. And I’ve tried a lot of their techniques in my own business.

I’m going to share their secrets in this blog. If you’ve never (consciously) sold before, prepare to be amazed, because you’ll pick up tips that can supercharge your career. And if you’re already in sales, I’ll be giving you the kind of practical tips that can turn “making your numbers” into a cakewalk.

Before I get started, though, here's the most important thing I’ve learned: selling is all about helping people achieve their dreams, including yourself. That’s why everybody sells, and why you should too.

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You may have noticed that SEO Scoop has a new sponsor (over in the sidebar). As a thank you, I’m giving WSI a one-time blog post to present their business concepts. So here it is.
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No one would ever expect a new product rollout to succeed without a well thought out, savvy marketing campaign to engage the prospective customer base. And the same thing is true – or at least it should be – when a sales organization rolls out a new incentive program to the sales team. …Read More

I’ll tell you. I’ve heard every excuse, misconception and myth about why people can’t profit from article marketing. And to tell you the honest-to-God truth. They’re all myths! Lies even!

The bottom line is article marketing has never been more effective. A lot of the people who are promoting these myths just don’t want to put in the small amount of work (yes there is a bit of work involved) necessary to excel in and get all of the benefits of article marketing. And believe me, the benefits are many. They include - but are not limited to:

● increased traffic ● more subscribers, and ● higher sales of your products and services.

That being said, let’s lay everything out on the table and debunk the myths that others are saying to prevent you from getting all of these benefits.

Myth #1: It doesn’t work anymore.

The Truth: Article marketing does work. But you have to work a bit, too. Learn about your audience and give them quality articles. That’s really all there is to it. The people who say it doesn’t work are the ones who’ve spewed out endless amounts of poorly written articles with little or no value in them for their audience. If you do the exact opposite, your articles will be popular, they will be published and people will visit your Web site for more information.

Myth #2: No one’s publishing articles anymore.

The Truth: Some ezine publishers have shied away from publishing other people’s work - with “some” being the operable word here. Fact is, there are still ezine publishers who both want and need good content. You do have to work to develop good relationships, though. I suggest that in addition to distributing your articles to article directories that you also send them to a core group of the most influential ezine publishers in your industry.

Don’t send them an article at first. Just soften the ground by introducing yourself and inviting them to see the articles on your Web site. Or suggest they Google the title of one of your previously published articles. That way, they’ll see the quality in your articles without feeling like you’re just another one of the page rank fanatics who only want to shovel out keyword-rich articles instead of content-rich articles. Yes, there is a huge difference, see Myth #5 for more information on that one.

Myth #3: The page ranking fanatics have ruined everything.

The Truth: Granted page rank fanatics - the people who pay $10 per article for a ghostwriter to churn out keyword-rich articles - have made it a bit more challenging for us content-rich article creators. Not to worry, there is a solution to all of this. Write creative articles. The bottom line is these types of marketers have actually raised the bar of those of us who are focused on quality. We just have to be even better at giving our audience the content they’re hungry for - without giving away our most valuable information. After all, we have to save something for our fee-based information products.

Myth #4: It’s too hard to write a good article myself.

The Truth: No, it’s not too hard. In fact, it’s rather easy when you have a system. I know, you’re thinking that since I’m a professional writer that of course it’s easy for me. Actually, I still have to follow article templates sometimes when I write. And the way I became such a pro was simply by following a system. Another thing, although I am paid considerable sums to write articles - they’re travel articles. That’s a far cry from the content-rich article industry. Bottom line: Professional writer or not, anyone with a decent command of the English language can write clever content-rich articles. The key is to stay firmly focused on the needs of your target audience. Bottom line: If you can give a colleague advice on a problem he’s having in your profession, then you can write a content-rich article.

Myth #5: It’s impossible to write a quality article that’s also rich in keywords.

The Truth: It’s important to have a certain amount of keywords in your articles. After all, that’s also a very important of getting your article published on the Internet. I usually just write my articles without a care in the world about keywords. I focus on my target audience and nothing else when I’m writing. And my articles do very well in terms of page views on article directories such as http://www.ezinearticles.com. I also get several incoming links to my site from the articles being published throughout the Internet.

Final thought: There’s no need to shy away from using article marketing to get more traffic to your Web site. In fact, it’s one of the least expensive, but most effective ways to create a flurry of activity and traffic for your site.

Boost traffic, get more leads and increase sales by learning the secrets to writing well and writing fast. Get Lisa Sparks’ no-cost special report on the secrets to making article marketing work for you by visiting: http://www.ArticleSecretsRevealed.com

When was the last time you ran Xenu link checker (or any similar tool) on your site? Every so often I like to remind everyone to check for links leading to 404s. No matter how diligent I am about keeping my sites up to date, I never fail to find some bad links […]