Author Archives: Rick Roberge

How can a sales guy build blog traffic?

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As most of you know, I’ve been blogging for a while, but I’ve been selling my whole life.

Let’s look at my blog. The table below lists the ten most recently published posts. If you check my blog, you’ll notice that the first 4 articles were published last week. The second 4 the week before and the last 2, the week before that. If you look closer, you’ll notice that the first two and the sixth articles were guest posts, written by somebody else. Why would they do that? Remember that there are almost 800 articles on this blog. Notice that the 10 most recent articles only accounted for 7,650 views. That means that the rest of the almost 800 articles accounted for 5,075 views. Each of the guest authors has a link to their website on my blog. My readers will have the opportunity to visit them. Why do I encourage it? My blog averages 1,000-ish views/day. Kelly’s post brought 2,644 views over a weekend and Don’s brought 1,180 during the same time. They told people about their article and new people had the opportunity to visit my site. One last thing about guest posts. The sixth one down, “Sales Experience Can Make a Difference” was published 11 days ago and has been viewed 986 times and is still ticking.
Other thoughts:
Who would expect “I’m Not a Salesperson”, “I hate sales. And I loathe salespeople.” on a sales blog mostly written by a sales guy?
When Don says “I’m an “Old School” sales guy using new technology.”, doesn’t that ring true with millions of salespeople that used to make cold calls, do trade shows or follow up on yellow pages leads?
And if you read the articles that I write, you’ll realize that they come from everyday life. Who did I talk with? What did they say? Look at “Asking “IS” Control“. 181 words. Lots of white space. Taken from real life. They don’t have to be long.
If you have other suggestions or ideas, please share them in the comments.
If you are a sales guy person or business owner that is looking to make the transition from tough, uphill outbound selling, to an integrated 21st Century Inbound Sales process,
Send me an email.

I’m Not a Salesperson

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Today’s guest blogger is Kelly Ward. Kelly is the owner of Digital K. Digital K is a professional web design company. Kelly loves web design, web development, online marketing and much more. She does not, as you will find out, love sales. You will love this post!


One more thing. Kelly has the opportunity to win a $250.000 grant to help her business. If you liked this article and want to help, please vote for her company here.

I hate sales. And I loathe salespeople. Like the lawn care technician yacking my ear off about aerating my
lawn. I despise the Best Buy HDTV salesman gauging my reaction to his prattling so he can plan his next
canned line about HDMI cables. I resent the Pottery Barn decorating consultant interrupting my 5-year-
old’s thoughts on My Little Pony hairstyles. And I detest the emails from SEO “gurus” telling me I really
need their service when clearly they have no clue that I offer that same service. 

I never wanted to be in sales. But I’m a business owner and I need clients for my business to survive.
I don’t have a dedicated salesperson; so it’s up to me. And I really don’t want to be that salesperson,
making my potential clients loathe me. If they feel like they’re on the defense fighting me off, this is
uncomfortable for them – and for me. Now what?
Much of my web business comes from referrals. The rest comes from leads my website generates.
When a potential client asks about my services, we have a conversation. I ask about their business and
their goals. I listen and determine if and how I can help them. I love those conversations because my
role is to help them. I’m not focused on persuading them to hire me. This is within my comfort zone
because I don’t have to sell anything – at least, that’s what I tell myself! But in reality, there is always a
sale involved.
Whether we sell products or services, we still need customers or clients. We still need to make the
sale. But our approach sets us apart from our competition. Are we listening to our clients and solving a
problem? Or are we simply trying to get the sale? Are we selling – or are we advising?
Some would say this is simply semantics – all sales people advise their clients. But there is a difference.
The best advice comes from those who listen. I’m an advisor – not a salesperson. And that’s how I sleep
at night.

People don’t do business with companies. People do business with people.

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Our guest author is Don Battis, a savvy entrepreneur, businessman and financier that has a great story to tell about experienced salespeople using new technologies. He is currently the CEO and founder of Pawntique, an online pawn shop and serves as a director on the board of Great Island Technologies a Value Added Reseller for Box.net, Hubspot and Shopify.

I’m an “Old School” sales guy using new technology.

My first sales job came about when my boss asked me to do a market research study. I
was working as an engineer for a big company that started as a small metal fabricator,
but had expanded into several proprietary product lines. My boss asked me to, “Find
out if there is still any market for the custom metal products.”
There’d been no new customers for years and no one cared because the company had
plenty of other growth opportunities. But the 71-year-old Division product manager
was talking retirement and my boss was trying to figure out whether to replace him or
just exit the business. The marketing plan consisted of a listing in the Thomas Register-
a 33 volume printed industrial directory that was sent annually to every purchasing
office in corporate America. It was the pre-internet version of Google Search and it was
where companies searched for new suppliers. This ancient Inbound Marketing plan
provided a steady stream of request for quotes (RFQ’s), but no new orders.
It occurred to me that the companies requesting quotes from us might be a good source
of information for my study. So instead of mailing a quote that had been requested
by the Kodak Co., I picked up the phone and made an appointment with the engineer
who sent it. I climbed on a plane and flew to Rochester, NY where I not only met him,
but also got a tour of the facility where the new parts would be used. Over lunch, the
engineer told me that the RFQ quantities were actually understated because that order
would repeat 19 times over the next several years. And by the way, “Your prices are
fine. When can I get delivery?”
I called my boss from the airport and asked, “What do I do now?”
The short answer to that question is that I got the job as the new product manager
and grew that custom metal fabricating business from $1 million in annual sales to
$75 million. I stuck with my method of face-to-face meetings and racked up plenty of
frequent flyer miles nurturing personal relationships with my customers.
Fast forward to the present day. I’m the CEO of Pawntique, an online pawn shop.
We launched this family enterprise last year after drinking the HubSpot, Inbound
Marketing “Kool-Aid.” The strategy is to bring the traditional pawn shop customers
online through Inbound Marketing. Then, we convince them to put their valuable
jewelry and Rolex watches into a FedEx package and send it to us with the promise that
we will send them money.
Since launching last September, we’ve seen steady growth in website traffic, leads, and
new loans. Our Inbound Marketing program was doing just what we expected. We
are on the first page of Google Search for several of our keywords and steadily climbing
up the rankings for several others. The information required to make offers to our
customers came almost entirely from a calls-to-action, landing page forms, and email
follow-ups.
Recently, an article was posted about Pawntique on the Yahoo Finance news blog. That
resulted in a spike in website traffic and a flood of new leads from our APPLY NOW call-
to-action and landing page. We received more leads in that 24 hours than we had in the
previous month!
Knowing that it would take several days to process all the new leads using our standard
email process, I did what I’ve always done. I picked up the phone and started calling
people. The results were amazing!
Although they had visited our website and in many cases downloaded eBooks and
information kits, the prospects seemed eager for further reassurance and clarification
about what to expect. As we chatted, they shared information about themselves, their
personal financial situations, and why our service attracted them. Some just wanted to
be “courted” a little before they went ahead. Several asked if they could add-on more
items to their request or give our phone number to relatives. 
Many of them called back a few minutes after we hung up with follow-up questions that
had occurred to them. 
The net result was that the conversion rate of leads to new customers increased
significantly and the size of the loans were often larger than originally requested
through add-ons. The phone conversations were an effective way to build trust with the
potential customer, answer questions to speed up their decision-making, and increase
the size of the sale. Although our Inbound Marketing program can generate leads,
there’s nothing better than a personal interaction to actually close a sale.

Inbound Marketing, Referral Networking, Prospecting or Inbound Networking?

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First, I apologize to subscribers that this appears to be my third post of the day. The other two posts were published when I worked at Kurlan & Associates and when I left, Dave Kurlan decided that he wanted to delete my blog. I saved the articles, and republish them when I need to link to them. I needed to link to the other two articles today.
You may remember that in 2010 and 2011, I spent a lot of time developing and delivering a sales development program for Hubspot Partners. Pete Caputa was the driver behind that program. During that time, I wrote “How to Grow Sales by 1,600%“. Pete is now famous and has recently started the Inbound Networking movement.
So, what’s the title mean? Most people don’t know that I am a card carrying lifetime member of the Sandler Sales Training President’s Club. In the mid-80’s, I signed up and paid for the training myself. My employer did not reimburse me. A few years later, I noticed that most of the people taking the training were employees of companies where the company was sending and paying for their salespeople to be trained. Why is this relevant? The Sandler franchisees recognized that most (80%?) of individuals don’t think of themselves as a business and therefore won’t invest in themselves.
I’m mentioning the President’s Club for another reason. We met weekly for two hours. 50-ish minutes of training, 10-20 minutes where we met our neighbors to determine if they were or knew a potential customer (We called it Prospecting.) and we wrapped up with 50-ish minutes of training.
20 years later I met BNI. At my first meeting, I recognized that Referral Networking was very similar to what I called Prospecting.
I published my first blog article on March 18, 2006. Pete Caputa was my blog coach and he taught me about links, html, yada, yada. I owe him big, but he used to make fun of me because I built my readership by face to face networking. I’d go to BNI and chamber of commerce meetings, business expos, anywhere there was people and ask them to read my blog. 38,362 visitors stopped by in the last month. More than some. Less than others.
Here’s the point. When I was prospecting and/or networking, I never got in front of 38,362 people in a month. One other point. I’ve never thought of myself as a marketer. I’m a salesman and always will be. I’m always nurturing (until I don’t want to know you any more). I’m always qualifying. Some feel it. Some don’t.
Sorry. I’m long. Bottom line is I think that Pete has something. It’s not fully cooked, but with the right 20%, it’ll be great.
Stay tuned. There will be a lot more on this. Feel free to subscribe, comment, link, tweet, or whatever to spread the word and/or get more points of view.
Last thing. If you’d like to see more, and have the time, read:





How to Grow Sales by 1,600%

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As you may know, we’ve developed a Special Sales Development Program for Hubspot Partners. They’re kind of a busy group. They’ve got their own LinkedIn group. They talk a lot. Recently, I sent an email to the group and talked about the 80/20 Rule. It started a conversation and I wanted to share some more info with them, but I was surprised that I’d only mentioned it in one post.

So, first, let’s set the stage. One of the partners just closed a $2,500/month retainer. Great. He’s using what he’s learned. He still has 14 customers that pay him $100-200/month. He could get rid of all of them and make the same money as he did before he closed his new deal and save himself a lot of time every month. Or, he could find himself another good customer. If you really want to grow your business, you always need to be replacing your worst with your best yet.

Let’s go back to the 80/20 Rule again and look at some examples of the rule in action.

I remember Bob Jiguere telling me that his employer fired the bottom 20% of division managers every year. Didn’t matter if you grew. Bottom 20%…Gone.

Have you ever noticed that most of your customers just go along. No problems. Pay their invoices. 20% of your customers will give you 80% of your problems. Have problems with your billing. Make up their own payments terms. etc.

How many customers do you have? Look at the biggest customers. Are the top 20% biggest customers responsible for 80% of your revenue? Even if you sell a set price unit, you’ll find that your most important customers give you referrals, buy again, etc and are responsible for more than their share of your business.

So, let me show you how to grow your sales by 1,600% (That’s 20 times today’s sales.) using Dave Kurlan’s 100/0 rule. First, figure out which of your customers make up the top 20% and what they look like. Then replace the bottom 80% with more customers like the top 20%. When you finish that process, your business will be 4 times the size that it was when you started.

Unfortunately, the 80/20 Rule will kick in and you’ll have a new top 20% that will represent 80% of your business. As a matter fact, your top 20% will actually be 4 times the size of your original top 20% and when you replace the bottom 80%, your business will be 16 times where you started. If you want help with the math or the doing, let me know.

How to Lose 80% of Your Business

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Originally, I was thinking about this title. 

How to Lose Your Stake Holders, Best Customers and Evangelists

but I realized that some business owners don’t know that they have Stake Holders, Best Customers and Evangelists and they don’t know how important they can be.

So, what’s a Stake Holder? Look at this diagram. That’s a lot of people that depend on you doing a good job. Let’s focus on Customers. Your customers depend on you delivering, staying in business. You may be part of their offering. Your service may keep them up and running. Some of your customers invest their faith in you.

Who are your Best Customers? Are they the ones that buy the most from you? Are they the ones that pay you on time? Are they the ones that don’t complain? That appreciate your efforts? That thank you for being you? Have you thought about who your Best Customers are and what makes them best?

Evangelists: Compare this definition to some of these. Notice the similarities in the biblical and the business definitions. Religion, speading the word, way of life, love the cause, good news. Evangelists use, love and tell the world about what you do for them.

Have you heard of the 80/20 Rule? So, my simple explanation is that if you look at any business, club, association, or any other organization, 80% of the good will come from 20% of the members. 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. By the same token, 80% of your problems will come from 20% of your customers. (I try not to sell that 20%. and focus on the good 20%.) In any referral group, 80% of the referrals will be passed by 20% of the members. They get it. They believe. They make it happen. I know who my evangelists are. They believe in me. They do anything that I ask. They work on my behalf without me asking. All associations, whether they’re a chamber of commerce, charitable non-profit, or industry or trade group has members and donors that pay dues and make donations. Some pay big dues or make big donations. They’re important. Some members donate their time. They evangelize. They spread the word. They believe in the cause. They find new members and new donors.

So, you want a great business? Focus on the 20% that bring you the 80%.

You want to go out of business? Focus on the 80% that bring you the 20% and watch the Stake Holders, Best Customers and Evangelists go to your competition.

Solopreneurs and Startups

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Question: Is a team of founders more likely to succeed than a solopreneur?

Although we all know Mark Zuckerberg as the founder of Facebook, Wikipedia also lists Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and  Chris Hughes as founders.

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne of Apple.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates of Microsoft.
What if we changed the word “succeed” to “survive”?

Sales Experience Can Make a Difference

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This is a guest post by Nancy Middleton. Nancy Middleton works as an online instructor with The College City. While she has not had a sales job since the first one, she appreciates everything she learned while working for the company.
In her own, unedited words…
I was 17 and working in a department store for a special office that sent me to different areas depending on who had not shown up to work. One day, I was sent to the men’s department. I was used to the braggadocio of the all-male sales staff. Usually, I spread my sales around the department regulars because they worked on commission which I could not receive.

One Sunday, we were talking and, before I knew it, the “bet” was on. Being 17 and not particularly bright, I had told them I could sell more than any of them that day. The race was on.

It was busy. I did not stop moving for about five hours. After the store closed, we ran the numbers on the cash register. I, the 17 year old, female, sales inexperienced, naïve, temp won by a respectable margin. I learned a lot that day about sales, myself, customers, and sales people.

Lessons Learned

As the song from the musical Gypsy says, “You gotta have a gimmick.” I was an adorable, slender, energetic, good-natured, smiling girl. The most important adjective is “girl.” That was my gimmick, and they had figured I was too inept to use that to my advantage. I was not flirtatious or suggestive in any way. For heaven’s sake, I was 17 and, for the most part, in the company of much older men. I did not have to be those things. I just had to be a “she.”

The second reason I was successful was far more important. I did not need the money. I was not depending on a paycheck that would reflect my sales success. It was just a game for me. The others in the department ate what they sold. They paid their mortgages, fed their families, and kept their households afloat. It mattered to them, and they were competitive. They needed to make those sales numbers, and they knew it.

That fact was critical. I did not need the money, and they did. That was the all-important, vital, important, essential reason I had succeeded. Being a girl was a gimmick, but not needing the money is what made the difference.

What that experience taught me was that if you want to succeed, you have to convince yourself it will not kill you if you do not. It needs to be a bit of a game. There are many important skills possessed by the successful sales person but that is, perhaps, the most important.

I think it is most closely related to a trait that makes for the most successful golfers. Every stroke has to exist alone. If it stinks, forget it. It is over and done. Do not let it haunt the next shot. If it is great, forget it. You do not want to be over confident. Each shot should stand on its own.

That is how each sale should be. You do not require it. It would be nice, but it is not going to change your life. When you are not desperate, you have a better chance of success.

This was just one of the lessons I learned from that job. If you are looking for real-life experiences that will help you do better at whatever you do, make sure you include a sales job. It will become an important part of who you are, and what could be a better recommendation than that?

The First Four Questions That Need Answers

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  1. What is your average sale? If the size of your sales is all over the place, you need to put some thought into this. Be careful of ‘happy ears’ and wishful thinking. Any lie to any of these questions dooms the process to failure. If you lie to yourself all the time, contact me. I’ll help you find the truth.

  2. How much time do you have to put into a customer after they buy from you? Be sure to include everything, delivery, project management, account management, problem solving, etc.

  3. How much time do you have to put into getting a new customer to buy from you? This is difficult to determine. Sometimes the phone rings and they give you a credit card at the end of the call. Sometimes it take 12 phone calls, 3 meetings, a proposal, a revision, 6 weeks of hiding, etc. You also need to account for time writing emails, internal conversations with partners and staff, time put into marketing, including advertising, social media, networking, attending trade shows, etc. You also need to be sure to include all of the time that you put into prospects that don’t buy and, again, you need to be real. What you may find is that occasionally, your phone rings and 10 minutes later you’re writing a sale for a new customer, but on further inspection, you may find that that phone call was the result of a prospect reading a blog post that was retweeted by someone that you met at a networking event or a trade show.

  4. Next, how will you define success? How much do you need to sell to reach your goal? What is your goal? Respectfully, I wouldn’t accept your first answer until you also answer, Why is that your goal? Who else cares about this goal other than you? How will your/their life be different when you attain your goal? How will it be different if you don’t?
Once you’ve answered those four questions, you’re ready to use these formulae.
Total Hours Required = New Customers Required x (Pre Sale Hours/sale + Post Sale Hours/sale)
ow you know how many clients you need to be successful and how many hours you’ll need to work. Next, you’ll need to do a personal and professional SWOT analysis and a strategic analysis to determine whether you can with what you’ve got or you need something else to execute your strategy, but that is another post….
I’ve got three openings for entrepreneurs that want help doing this in June. If you’d like to be one, send me an email.

Truthful vs. Believable

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Remember the Seinfeld episode about the “bad breaker upper“? Elaine is out with a date and a former girl friend throws coffee in her date’s face and says that he’s a bad breaker upper. Later in the episode, Elaine breaks up with her new beau and he calls her “big head”. Thus proving he’s a bad breaker upper.

So, recently, a friend told me about a really bad experience that he had with someone. I sympathized with him because it wasn’t the first time that I had gotten a bad report about that particular someone. Here’s the issue. After a little digging, we learned that my friend’s experience wasn’t as he had perceived and that it was a miss-communication. The thing is that because I knew that it had happened before, I was totally ready to believe my friend.
So, here’s the question….
Is anyone spreading any bad reports about you?
Are the reports true?
Are they believable?