I started writing this post 4 days ago, but found myself distracted by the killings at Sandy Hook. As a father, grandfather and former coach of youth sports, I felt that the world, as I know it, was violated. Is the world getting weirder?
Then I read Stephanie McLaughlin’s rant, “Hold The Media Accountable“. She’s upset (rightfully) with the reporting of misinformation by the mainstream media this weekend. Read the article.
Then I read Pete Caputa’s post “5 Big Things I’ll Be Writing About (And Implementing) in the New Year“. Now, you should know that I really like and respect Pete, but that doesn’t mean that we have to see eye to eye on everything.
Finally, as I look back at 2012 and how I’ve spent my time post-Kurlan, Smarketing, Sales & Marketing Alignment, Analogies with Dating, Social Media’s Disconnect with Sales, Inbound12, Inbound Networking, My “I Have A Dream…” post. Speaking of my blog, I’ve had more guest authors this year than the previous five years combined and I think that you’ve liked it because traffic has tripled.
But when I wrote, “RainMakers and Rock Stars“, I realized how much I disliked people that tolerated mediocrity. Now, let me tie this together.
The mainstream media lies, but any Tom, Dick or Harry with a smart phone can post or tweet a lie. We the people can’t trust politicians, but we also can’t trust bankers, lawyers or salespeople. What’s that saying? “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.” Respectfully, do past performance statistics have anything to do with future performance with a particular client. Figures don’t lie, but they may not be relevant. The bottom line is that your prospects probably don’t trust you. They will check you out on line first. They will need your on-line presence to be consistent with their experience when they start talking to you and working with you and in order to be a sales rock star in 2013, you, personally have to have a strong, professional and inbound oriented presence on line and it must be consistent with the way you are in reality.
Stay tuned. My next post will lay out How to be a Sales Rock Star in 2013.
RainMakers & Sales Rock Stars 
To be trusted, you have to first prove yourself to be trust worthy.
Exactly, but in a world where
somebody can walk into a school and kill 20 children
two radio personalities can imitate the Queen and drive Kate’s nurse to suicide
political campaigns are full of mis-representations and attacks
Why should anyone trust anyone and how do we know when we should?
Been reading you blogs for a long time. I’d like to catch up with you. Bt the way I worked with some real Rock Stars in the music world and there is not much differece with those who sell, train, consult and help others perform to the max.
If you don’t do it right they clients/patrons don’t buy your music, don’t hire for gigs/buy yor product and sure don’t give you referrals or tell their fiends to buy the latest CD or hire you, he did a great job for us etc.
Get in touch, regards, ED