Sales Techniques: Using a Variety Can Help Lead to Success

Posted on February 7, 2012

by Steve Gruber

As a sales professional, you need to be even more resourceful today than ever before when it comes to making contact with new leads. A recent blog done by my colleague, Steph Goodman highlighted the benefits and use of social media as a means of connecting with targets and even identifying new potential targets.

People like to receive information in a variety of ways. The goal is to understand how people want to receive information so take a look at the key contacts in the industry you are targeting and understand how they like to receive information. For example, one of our clients targets small to medium sized business that do not incorporate digital methods into their marketing strategies. In this case, the most effective way to contact them is not Social Media but rather more traditional methods such as: cold calling, direct mail, trade shows, radio. For other clients, most of the communication is digital, whether it be Social Media or emails. One common thread is the phone call.

They say that variety is the Spice of Life and it can put the Sizzle in Sales. If we can help you with your sales prospecting strategy or techniques, please contact us.

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Startup and small business events you don’t want to miss in February 2012

Posted on February 2, 2012

by Tabitha David

For our newsletter, our team compiles a list of events that we are interested in attending for the upcoming month, which we also believe to be useful to the startup and small business industry. A number of organizations listed are involved in a variety of events, but we have chosen to feature one event that we feel will be particularity useful for startups.  If you missed our newsletter, we will be posting this blog with featured events the first week of every month.

The events we focus on are primarily in Toronto, the GTA, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Niagara, St. Catharines and Hamilton. Take a look through the events we are suggesting For February. Please note that the following events may get sold out fast, so if you are interested in attending contact the organization quickly. If you’re hosting an event or have come across one you think we should mention, please feel free to contact us with your suggestions.

Innovation Guelph 

Innovation Guelph is an organization that provides programs, events, and services to help entrepreneurs, community organizations, researchers and business leaders develop their ideas.  They also have expert advisors to help in your development.

Featured Event: Pitch it Program

When: Friday, Feb 3, 2012 (workshop) , Wednesday, Feb 15, 2012 (mini-competition)

Where: Innovation Guelph, 42 Wyndham st N #402, Guelph

Startup Drinks

Startup Drinks provides an open space for entrepreneurs and small business owners to connect and share ideas. There are no presentations or pitches, just conversation and networking. To meet some of the up-and-coming people in the startup community, this is a great event to attend.  These events are held in a number of locations such as Toronto, Hamilton, and Waterloo.

Featured Event: Startup Drinks Waterloo 

When: Wednesday, Fed 7, 2012 @ 6:00pm

Where: Chainsaw, 28 King Street North, Waterloo

Featured Event: Startup Drinks Hamilton 

When: Wednesday, Feb 15, 2012 @ 6:00pm

Where: The Winking Judge, 25 Augusta Street, Hamilton

Mobile Monday 

Mobile Monday offers events for people in the mobile industry who are looking to connect and share ideas with others, develop their products, and continue to expand their business. Mobile Mondays are held at a central location in Toronto. Attendees are able to interact with local and international professionals in the industry through networking and demo events.

Featured Event: Meet the Analyst 

When: Monday, Feb 6, 2012 @ 6:00 pm- 9:00pm

Where: MaRS Discovery District, 101 College Street, Toronto

Golden Horseshoe Venture Forum: 

The main goal of the events that are hosted by Golden Horseshoe Venture Forum is to help startups connect with potential investors and service providers in the business. Breakfast events are hosted 5 times a year in Burlington and feature  presentations from three firms, followed by a guest speaker who will present on a chosen topic of interest. The GHVF is a great event to make valuable connections.

Featured Event: Breakfast Session with Derek Burleton, Where are we really with respect to economic and financial environment in Ontario?

When: Wednesday, Feb 8, 2012 @ 7:15am – 10:00am

Where: Burlington Gold and Country club, 422 North Shore Blvd E, Burlington

Cost: $40 – general public, free- annual sponsors

DemoCamp 

Democamp hosts events that cater towards designers, developers and marketers. Attending these events will allow you to interact with professionals and gain insight from speakers about your industry. These events are held every couple of months in Toronto, Hamilton, and Guelph.

Featured Event: Demo camp Hamilton

When: Thursday, Feb 9, 2012 @ 6:30pm –9:00pm

Where: The Arnie Student Pub, 135 Fennell Avenue West, Hamilton

Innovation Factory 

Innovation factory facilitates the discussion of new ideas and discovery between business, science and academia. Their events are beneficial to anyone at a startup to a multinational corporation. Innovation factory offers events for both networking and learning along with the support of their experienced advisors. These events run in the region of Hamilton.

Featured Event: Café iF 

When: Friday, Feb 10, 2012 @ 3pm- 5pm

Where: McMaster Innovation Park, 175 Longwood Rd South, Hamilton

Silicon Halton:

Silicon Halton organizes a number of events throughout the year in the region Halton which including Burlington, Oakville, and Milton. Their monthly meetups and Peer2Peer include three main components; a key notes presentation, a get to know a member presentation, and time set out for networking. These events are catered to anyone at a startup, especially in the tech industry, that are looking to learn more about business practices.

Featured Event: Meetup #28: Top Government Tax Credits & Incentives Your Tech Business Needs to Know About 

When: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 @ 7:00 pm

Where: Ned Devines, 575 Ontario Street South Milton, Ontario

Haltech 

Events at Haltech target startup businesses in the technology industry that are looking to develop new ideas, establish their business or continue to grow it. The events by Haltech are held in the region of Halton, and provide training for entrepreneurs as well as a chance to network.

Featured Event: The Marcom Toolkit

When: Wednesday Feb 15 2012 @8:30am

Where: SPARK Centre for Research & Innovation 1430 Trafalgar Road, Oakville

Social Media Week 

Social Media week in Toronto offers a number of engaging events. This event will focus on learning how using social media such as Linkedin and Twitter effectively in order to  increase in sale opportunities and closings. This presentation will encompass both the strategic and tactical side of social media and sales.

Featured Event: Leveraging social media in the B2B Process

When: Thursday, February 16, @ 5:00pm – 7:00pm

Where: The Foundery, 376 Bathurst St., Toronto, ON

MaRS Discovery District 

The events at MaRS are ideal for start-ups, science, technology and social entrepreneurs looking to make connections and learn more about a particular aspect of business.

Featured Event: Entrepreneur 101, Marketing Communications

When: Wednesday, Feb 22, @ 6:00pm- 7:00pm

Where: MaRS Discovery District Auditorium, 101 College St, Toronto

Rails Pub Night 

This informal social event in Toronto is perfect for anyone interesting in web development. People in the industry are able to gather along with both recruits as people in the web development start up community.

When: Monday, February 20, @ 7:00pm

Where: The Rhino, 1249 Queen St. West, Toronto

Podcamp Toronto 

Podcast Toronto invites anyone who is in the media or communication sector including writers, producers, photographers, designers, podcasters, developers and bloggers. People in the new media community are will participate in this two day “unconference” which will feature events that driven by participation that is focused on a theme within the industry.

When: Wednesday & Thursday Feb 25-26, 2012

Where: Rogers Communication Center, 80 Gould St., Toronto

For further information about any of these events contact our team, and don’t forget to sign up for next month’s newsletter for more events.

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Financial Statements help with B2B Sales Strategy

Posted on January 26, 2012

By Mark Elliott

VA Partners has been in business for just over 5 years and almost since day 1 we have been a member of Communitech. It is located in the Kitchener-Waterloo region and serves as a hub for the tech community there. There are many great things about Communitech, but one of the most valuable are the Peer2Peer group sessions. I belong to the Business Development & Senior Sales group and in February the meeting was on Financial Statement review for Sales People by Don McKinnon, KPMG.

There is lots of great information in financial statements that can help a startup with its sales strategy for that account.  Some of the highlights from Don included:

Health of a business: The balance sheet an income statement can tell a great deal about the financial strength of an organization.  What does there debt to cash ratio and are they continuously making or losing money.  If the company is very tight with cash and is losing money they may not have the funds to spend on your solution.  Even worse they could become a risk for your business if you start to do business with them.

Internal rate of Return:  This is the internal rate that many businesses will have to determine if they should decide on a new project.  While it is not possible to get the exact number, you can look at the details on their debt and the interest they are paying.  If there top interest rate is 15% you can assume that their internal rate of return is likely higher than that.  If your solution has a Return on Investment that is higher it may be a good fit.

Look into the notes:  There can be nuggets on information in the notes.  This can relate to more detail on purchases, legal actions, and other information that does not make it into annual reports or onto a company’s website.

Financial information on Private companies is hard to find: Private companies are not required to report and so the information is often estimated.  You may be able to find Revenue and employee numbers on Hoovers, Jigsaw, or on their Linkedin company profile.

The session with Don was interesting and helped the group make sense of Financial Statements.  If you need some help on your Sales Strategy check out our VP of Sales offering.

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Take advantage of your Linkedin profile to maximize your sales

Posted on January 24, 2012

by Stephanie Goodman

As mentioned in my previous blogs, partnering social media with your sales strategy is a great way to generate more leads and connect with more prospects. There are, however, parts of your personal Linkedin profile that use can utilize in order to help your company’s sales efforts. After reading the book ‘The Social Media Sales Revolution,” I’ve summarized a few points that can be valuable for sales and marketing professionals.

  • Use your promotions section if you want to sell: Although posting valuable information to your customers is important (and it may happen to lead them to your company’s website) avoid making your updates too “sales-like.” Promote yourself with direction and do not over do it. Utilize the promotions section if you want to make a blatant sales pitch
  • Join groups: By being a part of strategic Linkedin groups you will have greater chances of connecting with people you want to meet. Don’t begin joining upwards of 10-20 groups a day. Once again, have a direction and make sure you have good reason or motif for joining a group. IF you join one to sell, the owner of the group will have the right to remove you from it

From our experience at VA Partners, we find the following practices to bring us success:

  • Stay active and make it consistent. Although it may be hard to find the time during the day, log onto Linkedin for at least 15 minutes daily in order to catch up on what is happening (i.e. articles, blog, updates, discussions, etc).
  • Connect with one new person a day. This may seem like a lot, so if you get stuck, pull out your business cards and start searching for people you are not already connected to.
  • Post an update to your profile at least twice a week. You are visiting Linkedin for valuable information, so you should pay it forward and be sharing valuable information at the same time. Look for articles, blog or updates that your followers or circle of connections may find useful (i.e. topics that are most related to your industry).

For more information on how you can prospect for sales using Social Media visit our website . Contact us  with any questions or further information or follow us on Linkedin for information on Sales, Marketing and Social Media. 

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Social Media is changing the way we do sales

Posted on January 19, 2012

by Stephanie Goodman

I recently finished the book “The Social Media Sales Revolution”  written by Landy Chase and Kevin Knebl, which discussed how our sales strategies and techniques are changing with the integration of social media into business. Chase and Knebl suggest that the ways we traditionally would have prospected for our companies are becoming a thing of the past; the cold call , although effective, is being partnered with others means of reaching your customers. Although we believe that new forms of selling should be taught, learned and embraced, that is not to say that what has worked in the past is no longer relevant. Instead of dropping your current or past sales techniques, simply add to your abilities by embracing the strategies that can come from utilizing social media.

Below are guidelines from the book to help you understand the transition from traditional selling to selling using social media.

Online communication is surpassing the use of communicating over the telephone. The telephone is still a great way to create a personal connection with your prospects – having them hear your voice adds to their perception of your personality and their comfort level in doing business with you. The following, however, are advantages of online communication:

  • Ability to communicate with more people; a tweet can reach 1 person or 1 million people
  • You can communicate at anytime and anywhere
  • Send documents with your conversation. Documents can be shared over a Linkedin inbox conversation; your phone does not have this capability.

The sphere of influence is changing. You no longer come across people of interest through an occasional reference or mention from a colleague or friend. Linkedin displays your connections and allows you to connect with people through one click. If one of your 1st degree connections is connected with someone of interest to you, instead of waiting to be introduced, you can request an introduction with whom you wish at any time. Here are some suggestions for finding more connections on Linkedin:

  • Visit “Contact” and “Add Connections.” Click on “People You May Know” and look through the list to find people who may be of interest
  • Each new connection you make, look through their connections. Find someone of interest? Ask for an introduction

The Salesperson of the future is a value generator. Use social media to position yourself as a hub of valuable information for your audience. Being valued as a trusted source ads to your value as a salesperson.

  • Reviewing your Twitter followers is a great way to see who values your information a.k.a. who might classify as a lead
  • Twitter can introduce you to people and companies you may have never been aware of before. By sharing valuable information about your industry, you can attract attention from prospects or potential partners.

Social Media is a great tool to enhance your selling efforts, but it should not be used as a crutch. As a salesperson, you should continue to brush up on your selling techniques and networking capabilities. A well rounded person will make for a successful salesperson. For information or help on your sales efforts or to brush up on your selling techniques, visit our sales page  and see how our team can help.

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