5 Ways to Turn Failure into Success

As an executive, I find that I often don’t value failure in the way I ought to. How many times have I interpreted failure as a sign of inadequacy, instead of a sign of my own success? As Dale Carnegie said, “Discouragements and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” Do you think Steve Jobs, Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth or Eli Manning became great by not failing? No failing is the backbone to their success!

Here are five stepping stones to success:

1. Learn - Failure teaches you knowledge, wisdom and discernment. Think about your best “life” lessons. Often a failure or perception of a failure is at the heart of that lesson. Too often I make my own failure much worse than it really is. If you learn to press on, reach beyond your emotion and take inventory of what you have learned from your failure, you may surprise yourself. Many leaders have learned patience, kindness and mastered much needed skills to become the strong leaders they are today. 

7 Key Ways to Use LinkedIn to Drive Sales

Well, it’s almost end of year for most B2B companies, are you hitting your revenue targets?  If not, review 7 Key Ways to Use LinkedIn to learn how to quickly increase sales by end of year. 

This video covers:

7 Key Ways to Use LinkedIn to Drive Sales

1. Creating a SEO Profile
2. Getting Your Message Out Virtually
3. Advanced Searches and Saved Searches
4. Leveraging Your Connections
5. What Groups to Join & Companies to Follow
6. Messaging Effectively
7. Organizing Your Connections

I’d love to hear your success stories with LinkedIn.  Please feel free to share your success stories with me on how you are using LinkedIn to drive sales .  I can be reached by phone, 770.367.2795 or on LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/margebieler or on Twitter:  twitter.com/rareagent

Keep 4 Multi-Generational Communication Styles in Mind When Creating Buyer Content

If you want to know your buyer’s preferred communication style, observe how he communicates with his family, friends and peers.  Observe if he is comfortable or uncomfortable in using social media and advanced social applications.  RareAgent’s research on social media and the multi-generational buyer has taught us that each generation’s communication style is different.

Respect My Generation

Below are the four (4) generations to keep in mind when writing buyer specific content:

Use the Feel-Felt-Found Method When Overcoming Objections

We’ve all been there, having to make a quota and needing more live conversations to meet that quota.  And, we’ve all been shot down, stopped in our tracks.  If you are hearing objections like, too much money, don’t have time, I never heard of your company before, then try adapting the Feel-Felt-Found method.  This takes a little practice, but once you get it down it’s a piece of cake:

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

Feel-Felt-Found method:

By using verb tense and creating a story to overcome your objections, you neutralize the objection.
The steps go like this:

10 Tips on How to Create an Informative LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is a WONDERFUL place to connect, build referrals and build an interactive business card. Creating strong profiles; individual, group and company, are key differentiators in attracting the attention of important people who are searching for you, your company and your groups online.

Gather your professional experience, interests, and capabilities, and use the Top 10 Tips below to help you begin designing your profile.

1. Craft an informative profile headline

Your profile headline gives people a quick, short and memorable way to understand who you are in a professional context. Your headline becomes a slogan for your professional brand, such as “Conversations to Cash Creator” or “Automated Social Media Methods.” Check out the profiles of peers, competitors, thought leaders and recent alums you admire for ideas and inspiration.

Passion | Business | Life Outside of Work – Only Five Years to Live?

When your life is turned upside down, you really think about what’s important in life. Is that fight you had with your son about lowering the toilet seat really that important?  Knowing your life may end soon, puts life in perspective!

A very close friend of mine, Paddy Fishman, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of Breast Cancer. When Paddy called me and shared she had Stage 4 cancer and that the medical community considered her terminal,  I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

How to Become a Schmoozing Extraordinaire

Lesson One:   Look Great & Have a Witty, 10 Second Answer

"You Look Marvelous!"

First, feel great when schmoozing, this breeds confidence, joy and hope.  Second, have a witty answer to the question, what do you do for a living?

Here’s my quick and witty answers:

1. I’m the Schmoozing Queen
2. I connect conversations to revenue
3. I’m a sick human being, I like to talk to strangers

By saying something that is not expected, it brings laughter into the conversation; instantly getting you engaged in the conversation.

When you are asked a question, follow up by asking a question.  ie. Question: “what do you mean by you are the Schmoozing Queen?” Answer: “have you ever had a quota to meet and you weren’t getting enough appointments to present your solution?”  You just engaged emotionally with this sales person.  Most sales people always have this problem.

Let me share an example how this can work for an IT Professional:

IT Professional:

Q: Frank, what do you do for a living?

A:  “I’m a consultant and I help companies maximize their ROI on strategic Logistic and Transportation initiatives through analytical and logical modeling. “

Hmm, if you are like me, you are smiling, shaking your head, and with a confused look in your eye, muttering to yourself: “WTF, I have no clue what this person is talking about!” fyi, that’s frick not uck.

Now, let’s re-ask that same question, but have Frank use a witty answer:

Q: Frank, what do you do for a living?

A: “I look for clues to find where shipping and driving routes are screwed-up, so I can show companies how these screw-ups are causing them to bleed money.”

Simple, easy and a very engaging answer. Most folks will laugh at that answer and will ask a follow-up question.

That’s it, simple huh!  To learn how to become a schmoozing extraordinaire, watch our YouTube video.

Happy Schmoozing!

3 Ways to Find Hidden Data to Grow Revenues

Did you know that 80% of the business internet isn’t easily found through commercial search engines?  There are ways to find “hidden” data to help grow your business.  Here are 3 ideas to help accelerate your revenues:

1. Visit the  Warm Call Center  and download the free, Go – Know More!, toolbar

7 LinkedIn Tips to Establish Better Conversations

Using LinkedIn is an excellent way to connect with colleagues, peers, competitors and thought leaders. The key to being successful is to be sincere; bringing relevance to your connections.

5 Ways to Drive Lead Demand – Metaphorically Speaking!

1.       Don’t Jump Without a Parachute – You don’t jump out of a plane unprepared, why would you leap into a lead gen program without the proper help and instructions?  You might stumble and hurt yourself, both financially and emotionally.  Admit your clueless on where or how to start a program – go tandem with an instructor