Professional Development & Social Selling | Sales Aerobics for Engineers ® Blog

Soft-Skills are not Wimpy

May 21, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

Whoever sold you on the idea that developing soft skills was for not-so-smart folks – is not-so-smart themselves. That person probably has never sat across the table from the CEO of a prospective company to whom you were presenting your products, services and platforms. That person may have been your professor or academic advisor. They may have been your mentor. They may have been a family member, even your grandmother. That person simply was not being realistic.

Whoever sold you on the idea that all you needed to do was develop highly-honed soft skills to be successful selling and closing deals for your products, services and platforms also fell short of the mark. In essence, they told you that you wouldn’t need to rely on the left side, that analytical side, of your overly-developed right-sided sales brain.

Selling is not prescriptive. Entrepreneurship is not an academic exercise. Engineering and IT solutions become valuable only if the person making the investment fully realizes the translational value of your offering.

Soft skills are powerful. They are to be applied continuously. They become translational as well as transactional when you are willing to listen with both sides of your brain to create ROI and value.

What’s in Your Network?

May 16, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

For those of you who still refuse to view your LinkedIn network as a dynamic source of business information, read on. Why send your resume to job boards when you can utilize the folks in your network as your personal advocates and champions?

Did you ever consider that your collection of social connections might be valuable, and not only to you?

Recruiters and employers certainly have picked up on the power of the personally cultivated network. Why do you think so many of them want you to become part of their Connections on LinkedIn? They want to deep dive into your network, especially if you are in a specific field of expertise.

The network you create is of tremendous value. Even if you don’t see your network in the same way that other folks view it.

The May 2013 edition of Inc. magazine cited that:

“50% of companies with high [employee] retention rates decreased their investment in job boards last year.” (Aberdeen Group)
“47% of hires who were referred by other employees are more likely to stick around than job-board candidates (14%). (Jobvite)
“While 98% of recruiters are using LinkedIn [among other social media sites mentioned] to recruit, only 38% of job seekers are using LinkedIn to find work.” (Bullhorn, Jobvite)
48% of social-savvy employees are being motivated by cash bonuses to refer job candidates. (CareerBuilder)

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Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling Tagged With: Ardath Albee, Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code, Jill Konrath, LinkedIn Connections, LinkedIn network, personal network, professional assets, social network

Do You Play Well with the Kids in your Business Sandbox?

May 10, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

You know as well as I do that there are people in your organization you enjoy working with, and those whom you don’t. If you work for a large corporation, your feelings may become lost in the crowd. If you are in a startup or small company with less than 20 employees, it’s hard to hide your feelings. If you are working closely with technical, engineering and sales professionals, the situation can seem like mixing oil with water.

One of the first signs that the wheels are coming off a startup is when everyone is at odds with one another. If you are in a small, family-owned business, however, this type of dysfunction may be the status quo and, unfortunately sanctioned, norm. Along the sales-engineering interface®, tension between disciplines can become so palpable that you can cut it with a knife.

You are all playing in the same sandbox, every day. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales & Engineering Collaboration Tagged With: engineering professionals, sales professionals, sales-engineering interface, samll company, startup, technical professionals

4 Tips 4 Sales Newbies working Garbage Renewal Accounts

May 7, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

If you are new to the sales process, or are selling for a new company, you know the drill. You may be offered a draw to cover your initial income and expenses. You should be given a base of existing customers to provide you with renewal income.

You can opt-out of the draw, depending on your experience and level of confidence. Let’s consider that customer base you’ve been assigned. Where did they come from? Who worked these accounts previously?

All that glitters in the renewal pan may not be gold. Your renewal base may turn out to be rubbish.

It’s Your Recipe, Not Theirs

May 3, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

It’s college graduation time once again. I’ve been speaking with many undergraduate, as well as graduate, students about “what they want to be when they grow up.” Few of them have a definite answer. Their LinkedIn profiles are a testimonial to their indecision and lack of strategic focus in even one or two areas of core competency.

They are not alone. There are a lot of mature business and technical professionals out there with nondescript LinkedIn profiles as well.

It seems that everyone is waiting for Someone to hand them a Recipe for Their Success. Don’t hold your breath.

Getting Back to the Heart of the Matter

April 30, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

OK, this is not going to be a mushy post about emotions, feelings, selling and commercialization. It’s straight talk about who you are as a Person of Worth. Each one of us has a structural underpinning grounded on our core personal values.

When’s the last time you were in touch with your core personal values?

The answer to my question should be: Daily. Consistently. How did you answer my question?

Core personal values involve our ethics and the value system which reinforce our ability to scrutinize situations and guide ourselves through our business and personal lives. Core personal values are not like a set of clothing that you chose to wear sometimes, and leave in your closet for other situations.

Core personal values are your second skin. Your personal mantra. What are yours?

Do You Apply Your Network As-Needed?

April 26, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

I recently received an email from one of my LinkedIn Connections, asking me to refer work his way. He was very specific about the types of work he was interested in acquiring. At the end of his email to me, he noted that referrals work both ways, so he, of course, would be happy to return the favor.

I hadn’t heard from him in 10 months. Not a peep. Not since the last time he needed me to step up on his behalf since he was contemplating moving out of state and wanted me to hook him up with individuals who might help him find a senior position.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t act on his request. I didn’t feel obligated to come to his rescue. Again.

Customer Conversations or Sales Chit Chat?

April 18, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

When’s the last time you had a conversation with your customer? A two-way dialogue, rather than asking a bunch of questions sales training convinced you would inevitably lead into selling and buying mode?

Once you transition into those now rather well-known, sales-spiel idiomatic questions (you know what they are, I won’t repeat them in this post), you run the risk of turning off your customer. You are engaged in stereotypic sales chit chat. The exact type of chit chat they are anticipating. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: business development, customer conversations, customers, referral selling, sales training, selling, selling and buying mode, selling conversations

Business-Building Ain’t Easy Street. It’s Social.

April 11, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

If you are building your sales pipeline for your business or venture, you know by now that it is hardly a piece of cake (I wonder how that phrase is going to optimize on the search engines.) It takes constant work to identify and develop potential customers, while establishing your subject-matter expertise in specific areas of industry.

Even mature businesses can never sit back and relax and ease off on their sales, marketing, and engineering efforts. Once you are “there”, you need to stay “there”. Even when your company has moved beyond the early-adopters and tryers, and has gained mass market attraction. It’s still a matter of leveraging all the tools in your toolbox to maintain your toehold if not stronghold. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: develop potential customers, early-adopters, engineering, marketing, mass market attraction, sales, sales pipeline, social selling strategy, subject-matter expertise

Got Network?

April 4, 2013 By Babette Ten Haken 2 Comments

Many of us build a professional network on LinkedIn because we’ve been told it’s a good thing to do. We dabble at it, like a hobby. We don’t take this social platform seriously. Our list of LinkedIn Connections is static: nothing more than an internet form of Rolodex files which sit out there on the Cloud. The more Connections we have, the bigger the network we think we have.

Let’s drill down on your perspective. [Read more...]