Lets get something straight right out of the gate.

I don’t want your direct messages about making money.

Nobody else does either.

Over the past few weeks I have started to track the amount of direct messages I get on Twitter every day. I average between 15 and continue reading…

Over the past 6 months I have had about 12 different Twitter apps for the Iphone and all of them have sucked. A great number of them were proficient at 1 thing,  sending and receiving tweets. That is perfectly fine if all you want to do is send and receive tweets like text messages, but I wanted to try and get more out of the platform. The problem I had was that I have fallen in love with the lists, direct messages, mentions, ect ect that twitter offers and none of the apps I came across could do all of them until I found Twitbird.

Twitbird is way down the list of top grossing or top downloaded apps in the utilities or social networking categories of the app store, but I have yet to understand why. This is literally the end-all twitter application. I now have full use of all of the tools that twitter has to offer: lists, direct messages, mentions, tracking, search, profile, ect ect.

Why do I care? It’s because I have crapped away about 20 hours of time looking for an app that does all of the things that Twitter offers and I am trying to save you the 20 hours of wasted time.

Here is a screen-shot example of the “home” section of the app:

And if you care, here is one of the general Tweet section:

Here are the specs of the app:

SPECIAL FEATURES :
● In-App-Badges to show number of unread tweets
● Landscape mode supported everywhere
● Address Book
● Official Lists supports
● Inline picture preview
● Tweet Music/Now Playing
● Tweet Your Voice
● Tweet Video(3Gs only)
● Save link to readitlater, instapaper or save in twitbird
● Dark Theme and other two themes
● Custom background image
● Geotag supports(turned on in twitter.com required)
● mutual follow status between you and a user
● Advanced nearby tweet searching with map

PUSH NOTIFICATION :
● Inter TwitBird Push comes with the app, it is instant
● Global Push is available as in app purchase, It will push any mentions and direct messages to you in minutes
● Supports Mentions and Direct Messages

OTHER FEATURES
● View your twitter timeline, replies, and direct messages
● Manage your favorite tweets
● Browse your following and followers and lists
● Compose new tweets with rich features
● Reply directly to tweets and send direct messages
● Follow and unfollow people or lists
● Twitlonger supports
● Uses secure connection (https)
● Custom searches
● Save your favorite searches
● landscape keyboard
● Conversational Threaded tweets
● Twitter API Proxy
● Rich feature settings
● Trending topics
● View and edit your profile including head image
● Find people
● Email tweets
● Delete tweets from twitter.com
● Picture preview inside message
● Shorten URL
● Upload photo to Twitpic, yFrog, MobyPciture
● Set nearby distance
● Unread/All message filter
● Block/Unblock

Here it is, my overall goal list for 2010.  It’s quick, it’s candid and it’s honest. Literally copied and pasted from the word doc file I keep them in.

1. Average closing 6-8 transactions per month:
   1. Continuously improving efficiency
   2. b. Stay genuinely connected with clients from start to finish
   3. Make no less than $100,000 in income
2. Improve my health by:
   1. Working out at least 3-4 days a week
   2. Completely break poor eating habits
3. Get closer to God by:
   1. Correcting poor habits
   2. Surrounding myself with positive people
   3. Attending Church/study sessions
   4. Taking initiative to study and pray
4. Family:
   1. Make Alison part of the family
   2. Taking the hour and a half to go see my brother in STL
   3. Take the time to actually talk to my parents
5. Become closer to Alison by:
   1. Taking our trip to Mexico
   2. Making time
   3. Finding her a new occupation
6. Properly split personal and work time:
   1. Make a daily schedule and follow it
   2. Write plans and take steps FORWARD each day
7. Buy a house
   1. Make myself a sanctuary where I can relax
   2. Rebuild my home office
8. Build my social network
   1. Introduce myself to at least 2 new people a day
   2. Add 100+ friends/followers a day to social network
9. Buy a new Motorcycle
   1. Keep my eyes open for deals
   2. Stop searching and commit

10.  Get back into Music

1.  Start taking Piano lessons again

2.  Get back into classical vocals

3.  Perform at Ryman Auditorium

Selling to clients from online sales leads can be tough. First, you are never going to see them; and even though we would like to think technology has brought us to a point of no longer needing this interaction, it’s a tough hurdle to overcome. Secondly, as much as it pains me to say it and depending on the industry, internet leads are generally lower quality than walk-ins. That said, we all have to take steps to sift through these leads and make sure we are not wasting our time on the ones that won’t convert and building solid relationships with the ones that will.

There are 5 categories of focus that I know will convert online leads:

1. Building Rapport
2. Dynamic Language
3. Listening
4. Being Assertive
5. Customer Service

All 5 categories are fundamentally similar, but their slight differences are what make them so important in their own standing.

Building Rapport

Put simply, we have to get clients to trust us through the phone in a very short window of time.

Be Honest-There is nothing that will kill a transaction faster than getting caught in a lie by a client that doesn’t have a physical connection with you.

Be Yourself-Sure you may not have that many friends, but I can guarantee your genuine personality will close more deals that the front you think you should put up.

Dynamic Language

Scripts are for people raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network. If you want to sell, know your product and go with the flow.

Creativity is Powerful. You need to be unique when you are making your connection over the interwebs or else you are going to look like every other Acai berry selling sqeezepage out there.

Listening

Most salespeople should take a step back and shut the F up every now and then. I can’t even count how many times I have gotten done with a sales call and realized that the person on the other line hadn’t said more than 3 words. We are usually so concerned about saying what we think we need to say, we miss the point of the sales call, vomit info on the client and lose the deal.

“Talk less and Say More”

Being Assertive

Depending on your industry, if you are not assertive on the phone, people will walk all over you.

Call to action. Whether it’s via phone, email, website, fax……whatever, you need to have a call to action with every interaction. Even if there is nothing to do and you are simply updating everyone, give them a task. Clients that interact with you will stick with you.

Customer Service

The Golden rule of the Bible is the Golden Rule of Sales.

If you go above and beyond for each and every one of your customers, you will not have to worry about conversion. Clients work hard and are committed to people that care about them, so if you want to close on every deal, work hard and commit to every client.

Merry Christmas

We have all seen quick excerpts, tips and techniques that are supposed to INCREASE YOUR SALES. That may or not be true, but what is true is that this list of sales techniques seems to be scattered across the vast plains of the interwebs and I want to consolidate them.

Keep in mind that when creating a list this long about a narrow topic, some of the items may appear to be redundant, but they are all published for a reason.

The other thing to keep in mind is the fact that most of the list below is coming straight out of my mind, so if some of it doesn’t make sense to you, I apologize. Most everyone that knows me knows that I speak in idioms. Growing up in the Ozarks is like growing up in a different world with a different language, so if something seems off-base, picture it being said in a upbeat southern accent and I promise it will someone make more sense.

Drum-roll Please………………..

50 Sales Tips and Quotes to Keep you in the Black

1. Stay Positive
2. Keep on the task at hand
3. Be Dynamic in every conversation because there is no such thing as a standard sales call
4. Be assertive: Nobody respects a pushover
5. Talk less, Say more
6. Return every call every time within an hour
7. Ask for feedback
8. Follow the 80/20 principle
9. FOLLOW A SCHEDULE
10. Ask for referrals
11. Make yourself available; phone, text, twitter, email, fax, ect. ect.
12. Reflect on every sale and improve
13. Motivate your clients
14. Be an information leader IE Know what your talking about
15. Stay assertive, but have an accessible personality
16. Have a personalized voice-mail
17. Picture yourself in your clients shoes
18. Practice your sales calls
19. Confidence is worth it’s weight in gold
20. Customer service is next to Godliness
21. Follow-through with every transaction
22. Nothing counts unless it closes
23. Follow-up; At least weekly
24. Sell what you love, the money will follow
25. Time-Value-Of-Money is the most important calculation a salesman should worry about
26. You never learn a lesson from a Yes
27. Salesman or saleswomen should never come in front of sales-team
28. Fear controls the lowest earning 90% of salespeople
29. Remember that diamonds are found in the mud and mire
30. Less talk more walk
31. Creativity is one of the strongest sales tools available
32. Walk behind the champions only until you build the strength to jump over them.
33. Always Be Closing
34. Walk your own path to success; old minds think alike
35. Never cross the fine line between persuasion and pressure
36. An upright person will always win; not because they have largest sale today, but because the sales they have today will generate 3 sales tomorrow.
37. It’s better to know the author than to read his text.
38. The sale is only as big as you are.
39. Common sense is worth 10 times more than memorized technique
40. The best sales pitch is worthless without a call-to-action
41. Determination cannot be outsources or delegated
42. Under Promise and Over Deliver
43. Solve Problems don’t Sell Solutions
44. Take care of your customers or your competitors will
45. Opening a relationship is more important than closing a sale
46. Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust
47. Samson killed a thousand men with the jaw bone of an ass. That many sales are killed every day with the same weapon
48. Your greatest sales tools are your ears. Shut up and listen to your clients
49. The Golden Rule of Sales is the Golden Rule
50. A salesman, like the storage battery in your car, is constantly discharging energy. Unless he is recharged at frequent intervals he soon runs dry. This is one of the greatest responsibilities of sales leadership

There probably thousands more and if you have any to share, feel free to shoot them to me and I will add them.

Also, feel free to quote me in any of your acceptance speeches, inaugurations, board of directors meetings, ect. 

Good luck out there. Keep fighting the good fight.

About a week and half ago I thought I might have stumbled upon a brilliant idea; I was going to monetize a Twitter Trend. continue reading…

We all know that I hoover somewhere between general consumer and computer savvy individual. I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous. That said, I was watching Google’s highlight video today about their amazing new “real-time search results” when it occurred to me that even I can see this is the best thing to happen to spammers since the invention of pop-up ads. continue reading…

Getting to see the credit files of hundreds of people has taught me a great deal. The biggest one is more of an affirmation and less of a lesson and it is that People Suck. continue reading…

Motivating employees  is like building fireworks; if you do it right, everyone will be happy, properly entertained, and you will make a profit; if you do it wrong, it can very easily kill you. continue reading…

So I have to start by confessing the truth about my feelings for Twitter. I hate(d) Twitter for the longest time. I remember distinctly a conversation between my roommate and I about the type of person that actively participated on Twitter continue reading…