"Great moments are born from great opportunities," said the late Herb Brooks, one of the world's most famous hockey coaches. According to blogger Jeff Beals, Brooks certainly seized opportunity during his career. He agreed to coach the 1980 US Olympic team that beat the "unbeatable" Soviet Union in Lake Placid, New York during the famous "Miracle on Ice" game on the way to winning the gold medal. It was a modern-day "David vs Goliath" matchup. Many coaches would refuse such an overwhelmingly difficult job. In fact, several did.

Read the full article on the Eyes on Sales website.

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While the current economic gloom may have seen unemployment rise in the UK, research from Simplysalesjobs.co.uk has provided some good news for those looking for a new sales position.

» Read more: Sales vacancies strong despite economic downturn

According to The Sales Pro, the wealth of information online about companies and the people that work there – on websites, blogs and social networking sites – is making a marked impact on the sales process. In the last study into global sales effectiveness by CSO Insights*, nearly two thirds of sales professionals said that the Internet has had a significant impact on account research and a quarter said it has had a noticeable impact. For more on this story go to thesalespro.co.uk.

According to Zoom Info, prospecting for new business is not an easy task. Many get weighed down by the thought of having to call someone they do not know, who is not expecting their call. Ugh! However, for those of you who are new to the game or looking to re-evaluate your approach, here are four tips to make your lead-generation process more effective. To read the rest of this story go to zoominfo.com. Picture: Elisabeth

Social media has seeped into many facets of modern life. It is used to break the news and make the news, form brand identities and build fan bases, communicate and entertain. A study commissioned by DLA Piper discovered that a majority of businesses see harnessing social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as essential for continued success in the modern market.

Social media in recruitment is all about facilitating interaction between a company and an individual in ways that were previously impossible. While traditional recruitment via your website or a job board is still the most common way to pick up new employees who are actively seeking positions, social media tools can be harnessed to interact with the 80% of the UK population that spend an average of 4.6 hours on networking sites and services each month.

Recruiters who are keen to get in touch with talented individuals who might be content in their current position but willing to make a change if confronted with an excellent offer, social media gives you a much greater reach.

Recruiting via social media is beneficial because you can get a lot of interest in a position based on third party referrals. Sharing links is second nature to network users and so if a friend or a follower sees a posting they think is interesting, it can be passed on to someone who may consider applying.

While Facebook is still useful for this kind of referral, Twitter is increasingly becoming the platform to watch because it can target a highly specific audience interested in one particular industry with a single tweet. Good old fashioned job posting is still possible via social media sites, with LinkedIn joining Facebook and Twitter in enabling recruiters to easily promote any new positions as soon as they are made available. This kind of posting will help your message to filter through to those passive users who might not otherwise hear about an opening.

The final way in which social media sites can aid you during the recruitment process is through direct sourcing of talent. In other words you can search the popular networks and actively find potential applicants, whether you are looking for software engineers or marketing experts. Most talented people know all about promoting themselves via social media, so the companies that shun developing networks could lose out to competitors who are 'savvier' in the ways of the web.

One thing that is worth remembering about social media recruitment is that you need to retain a degree of specificity in your online campaigns, just as you would when choosing a job board on which to post advertisements for positions.

A blanket approach can be effective but actually taking the time to research which network is most suitable for your particular campaign or even discovering the niche sites which are far more likely to be populated by relevant candidates than more general mainstream services will be a sensible strategy in the long run.

Social media is clearly an important tool in modern recruitment, although experts are keen to emphasise the point that traditional means of engaging with applications are still as valid and powerful as they ever were. The key factor that makes social media recruitment worthy of your time is the ability to reach out to a passive audience rather than rely on the initiative of an active job seeker.

According to eyesonsales.com, social media is having a significant impact on every facet of today’s business. Social media tools now contribute to part of the sales process for many organisations.

Over the past few months, the developers at Landslide CRM have been analysing how salespeople and customers use social media and how it can help the effectiveness of the overall sales process.

They have recently added some new social CRM features to reflect these emerging patterns, connecting Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter directly into Landslide CRM's Contact Management.

For more information visit the  eyesonsales.com website.

Photo by The Next Web.

Among salespeople who make prospecting calls, there’s a hot debate about whether or not you should leave a voicemail message, according to www.eyesonsales.com. Some experts say you should leave a message, but only once every three days. For a voicemail to have any impact, however, you have to avoid the common blunders... and many of them are easy to make. According to the website,  the top 20 mistakes made by sales people include: - failing to stick to one topic per voicemail message - not verifying that you have the right contact before leaving multiple messages - forgetting to mention a common colleague or someone who has referred you The full list can be found on the www.eyesonsales.com website. Photo by herlitz_pbs.

Have you ever had a hot prospect - or customer, for that matter - suddenly go cold?

You know what mean: they were all hot to trot about a product or service. You could taste the sale on your lips. You sent them information. They agreed to a proposal or you sent them a quote. Their manner and tone were sincere and enthusiastic. In the bag!

And then... and then... you don't hear from them. You dutifully follow up. You leave a message... or two... or three. You send an e-mail... or two...or three. But the silence is deafening.

For more information visit the salesopedia.com website.

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Cold calling is, it seems, universally accepted as invasive, unwanted and irritating. With such a poor image, how can you master the art to generate sales and ultimately, keep your manager happy?

As with most types of sales pitch, you are unlikely to succeed unless you have taken the time to plan carefully. A seasoned salesperson may be tempted to rely on their instincts but this would be unwise. After all, your potential customer only needs to tolerate a sales pitch only for as long as it takes to disconnect your call. You are afforded only the briefest of opportunities to capture a potential customer's attention, so it is crucial that you make the most of it.

You must ensure that you have all of the relevant facts and figures a potential customer may query. Time is of the essence so if they ask a question, you should know the answer. Indeed, many successful salespeople rehearse their pitch to iron out any errors, reducing the time it takes to deliver an introduction. Be careful though; over-rehearsed speeches carry the potential to sound monotone and tedious. You need to motivate your customer into action; stimulate them and spark their curiosity. With good preparation, perhaps you should think about tailoring your script to the interests of the recipient?

A critical component of your pitch preparation is the introduction. Be sure to inform the potential customer of who you are and the reason for your call. It would be true to say that the majority of potential customers lose interest at the introduction stage, so you should consider experimenting with several types of script to determine which is more successful.

Once you have successfully handled the intro, you must carefully gauge the feelings of your customer. Odd though it may seem, cold calling is all about empathy and listening, adapting to the interests and wishes of the person you have called. You must remember that essentially, you have interrupted their home-life so you should work hard to contradict the “nuisance” stereotype that cold callers carry.  It is critical that you avoid adopting a hard-sell mentality.  As the saying goes, “you will catch more flies with honey”. Exhibiting patience and empathy is generally considered the more desirable and successful approach to laying the foundations of a sale.

Lastly, you should take notes of every call, even those that have lasted just a few seconds. Some customers may be keen to place an order at a later date, whilst others may experience a change in circumstances over time. Keep track of all your sales leads and stay in touch with potential customers because in the long term, building lasting relations with customers can generate sales and keep your pipeline healthy.

Improving your selling techniques is easy once you understand that selling is often just persuasion. Essentially, you are simply persuading your customers that your products or services are the best and they should buy from you. With this always in the forefront of your mind, here are three simple persuasion techniques that can help you motivate and excite your customers into taking action.

Firstly, it helps to make your product appear totally in demand or extremely hard to get because people want what they can't have. By promoting your product as limited or scarce, customers are more likely to show interest in it and be motivated into buying because they are likely to miss out if they don't.

Techniques to use are saying things like “it's the last model available”, “supplies are limited” or “it's a special edition item”. You will often see in adverts or direct marketing that “the sale ends soon” or there isn't much stock left available.

Research shows that people find more value in something that they have had a hard time acquiring, so by making your product hard to get will in turn, make your customers want it more.

Another tip is to turn traditional selling on its head and avoid pushing the idea of what you will gain from the product. A better technique is to talk only about what your customer is going to lose by not buying your product or service.

By pushing them to think about what they'll lose, you will motivate them into action and motivation can be a powerful tool when selling. Essentially, you are giving your customers a very definite call to action, without them even realising.

When it comes to selling a product or service, customer recommendations and positive word of mouth has always been a great marketing tool. Taking this one step further is the next persuasion technique that will help you up your sales. What you need to do is present yourself or your product as someone or something valued by the experts.

Research has shown that when some consumers are unsure about which product or service to buy, a positive recommendation from an expert can influence them into making a decision. So make this work for you. Try to find experts in your area or industry who carry a high opinion of your product or services and ask them to give a recommendation that you can use within your sales pitch.

Make use of testimonials from satisfied customers, show successful case studies and share positive comments with any potential customers to show that the experts value what you're selling.

Photo by C Jill Reed